Trav S.D. (Travis Stewart) is an alum of the NYU Tisch School of Film and Television and the author of the books No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous and Chain of Fools: Silent Comedy and Its Legacies from Nickelodeon to YouTube, as well as the blog Travalanche (travsd.wordpress.com). He has written for The New York Times, The Village Voice, Time Out New York, American Theatre, and many other publications and is a frequent public speaker at such institutions as the Museum of Modern Art, the main branch of the New York Public Library, Columbia University, NYU, and the Cinema Arts Centre.