Stories about a racoon and rat trainer, and a photographer who raises creatures for the sole purpose of documenting the food chain are boring. The David Sedaris scripted Pine Tree Players skit about Animal Court is very amusing, but the only real treat in this episode is a piece discussing the anthropological reasons for man walking upright, and a pair of distance runners who decide to prove the reason for bipedal evolution is to be able to outrun antelope.

Rating: 2 out of 5

The bulk of this story — broken into four acts — is about a pair of friends whose relationship turns in on itself in high school. Ira speaks with both adult men, and their divergent memories of the unfolding events bears similarities to Episode 21: Factions. Hearing how the current state of their lives compare to their youth is a compelling draw. The show is capped with a short reading of one of TAL regular David Sedaris’s stories.

Rating: 4 out of 5

This is another important episode of TAL broken into three parts from the same performer, SNL’s Julia Sweeney. At a alternative-comedy show called Un-Cabaret during the mid-90’s Sweeney performs some very personal and grimly funny true stories about her and her brothers run-in with cancer.

Rating: 5 out of 5