The Dionysium

I’ve been attending the Dionysium since shortly after I moved to Austin in 2005, and I’ve only missed a few. I have introduced about a dozen of my friends to it, and they have all had a really great time.
For the most part, it’s an absolutely incredible institution. I never come out of a show without having laughed hard enough to have to set my beer down at least once, and have had some of the most thought-​provoking conversations I can imagine based on discussion topics there. I’ve gotten a lot more informed about local Austin artists and events. I’ve found out about shows, readings, and general culture, which has been a blessing to me because when I moved here the only thing I knew was that I loved Austin and I wanted to see as much of it and learn as much about it as I could. And I’ve had a hell of a lot of fun in the process.
The show’s format is both structured and free-​form, because while I can expect that I will go and see a debate, and some form of reading/​art/​lecture, and probably some form of film or musical interlude, I can’t even begin to predict where things will go. I have been threatened with nanobots, asked impertinent questions, and had a great number of things I knew challenged. Sometimes I change my mind, sometimes I don’t, but I come away from it with some belief I’ve examined more thoroughly than I might have otherwise.
The *best* part of the Dionysium is that I can guarantee that every single month I will have the chance to listen to someone talk about something that inspires his or her passion, to have someone show me the thing he or she loves best in all the world, the thing that inspires life-​driving dedication and permeates every conscious thought. Experiences like that are rare in this world, and to have them predictably on a monthly basis is pretty sweet.
The reason this is four stars instead of five, though, is that the shows can be a little uneven. Sometimes I’ll go, and I’ll think, «Hmmm, that guy knows a lot about the topic, but he may not have been the best choice to *talk* about it, because he wasn’t very cohesive in his arguments,» or «OK, that just really wasn’t my cup of tea, musically speaking.» It’s effectively a lightly-​scripted improvisational performance involving a group of people who may not all actually have met before that night, much less worked together, and as such when it comes off it’s brilliant but it doesn’t always come off. The hosts tend to do a pretty good job of pulling the show back in if something kind of spins off, but there have been a couple of things that were just unrecoverable and left me going, «Wait, what, when the hell did we start talking about this?»
But they’ve kept me coming back for four-​plus years now, so clearly they’re doing something very, very right. I urge you to go. Participate, ask questions, go up to the artists/​lecturers/​debaters after the show and talk to them about their work. And if you come out of a show thinking, «Huh. I’m not quite sure I got that,» it won’t hurt to head over to the Highball (where a bunch of folks tend to gather after) and chat about it, or take in a second show and see if the variety is more your cup of tea.