Twelve years ago, Davy Rothbart found a handwritten note plastered to his windshield. “Mario, I f--king hate you” began the message from Amber, clearly placed on the wrong car. What began as a misplaced memo passed among Rothbart’s friends turned into a collection of found notes taped into a Kinko’s-copied magazine one year later and now has transformed into Rothbart and his brother traveling the country on the Found Magazine 10th Anniversary Tour.
Coming from the St. Louis leg of the tour, Davy Rothbart and his brother Peter will arrive in Muncie, Ind., to share the different means of storytelling through an event hosted by Indiana Public Radio and the Ball State English Department.
The writer and musician, respectively, will begin with an IPR interview with Marcus Jackman and Jill Christman at 3:40 p.m. Wednesday.
The main topic of the conversation will be what makes a story and how to identify a story when it’s found, according to Jackman.
“There’s a person behind each of those notes in the magazine,” Jackman said. “There’s a life being lived. It’s that excitement to connect person to person, life to life.”
Rothbart estimated that Found Magazine receives about 100 notes per month, roughly 10 to 20 each day. They even pick some up along the tour. As their website says, the magazine collects everything from love letters to to-do lists, from poetry on napkins to doodles. Each day, the website posts a daily favorite. Others are saved for the annual magazine.
Whether all the notes are true finds or not, Rothbart will never know, but he lives by the philosophy that truth is stranger than fiction.
“The real stuff is more beautiful, more cryptic than anything that can possibly be made up,” he said.
At 7:30 p.m., the Rothbarts will continue to tell their story and those of others at Pruis Hall. Throughout the evening, Rothbart will read recent finds sent to the magazine headquarters, attempting to recreate the original emotion and energy with which they were written. His brother, promoting his new album, will play songs based off of some of the notes, as well.
“Everyone I’ve talked to and everything I’ve heard about them said they’re amazing performers,” said Mark Neely, who helped organize the event from the English Department’s side.
Rothbart has the ability to turn anything into a story, including his failed attempts at love. During the Pruis event, he will read portions of his recently released book, “My Heart is an Idiot.” The book is a collection of 16 personal essays based mostly on his experiences with love and women he’s met on the road.
Though they may have been painful experience at the time, Rothbart said that now they just seem funny, referencing the saying that “tragedy plus time equals comedy.”
Looking back to twelve years ago, Rothbart said he never imagined that one humorous note could have lead to annual magazines, several books and tours to accompany them.
“I would never have guessed the trajectory of things,” he said.
After the original find, it took him and his friends a year to collect enough to create a magazine. He took the pages, filled with notes taped on them, to Kinko’s with the intention of printing 50 copies. But the person working suggested they make more, leaving them with 800 magazines.
They sold nearly 100 at the initial release party. Soon after, Rothbart left town on a short trip, leaving his apart full of boxes with the 700 leftover magazines and his roommate asking what he was supposed to do with them. By the time Rothbart returned, they were gone. During his trip, people who had heard of the magazine kept stopping by to purchase issues.
Rothbart said the popularity of the magazine stems from it’s relatability of the found messages inside it.
“I know I’ve written that same pitiful love note at some point in my life,” Rothbart said.
After leaving Muncie, the Rothbarts will continue on to Ann Arbor, Mich., as they continue sharing stories on their 75-city tour.
