Quite possibly the best reason to turn on the radio, Ira Glass’ “This American Life,” smacks the listener directly in the head, heart or funny bone, depending on the theme, day or purpose of the story. In a way, Glass’ radio show replicates the best of what I imagine Dorothy Parker’s Algonquin Round Table to be: fierce and acerbic storytellers getting drunk and telling their best tales, bursting with wit and insight and satire.

As most of us are not lucky enough to have participated in such a salon as Parker’s or to have amassed a group of friends with such intellect, we are privileged to be able to eavesdrop on Glass and his merry troupe, which includes the likes of David Sedaris, Sarah Vowell and Jon Ronson. Recently, I was lucky enough to see Glass in person at UCLA’s Royce Hall in A Night with Ira Glass: Radio Stories and Other Stories, presented by the incomparable KCRW.

Bespectacled with salt-and-pepper hair, Glass turns out to be one of those men who get increasingly handsome the more you listen to him; the improbable George Clooney/Cary Grant of public radio. It didn’t hurt that the audience gave Glass the same adoration you would expect for a bona fide rock star, laughing at anything remotely funny.

Self-deprecating and introspective, Glass talked fluidly about what goes into an episode of “This American Life” and the importance of a good anecdote. Proving his point, Glass peppered the evening with anecdotes of his own and emphasized the importance of humor and unpretentiousness in journalism.

“Radio works best when it mimics human conversation,” he says.

A show for the previously converted, A Night With Ira Glass provided just enough behind-the-scenes tidbits to make everyone in the audience feel like an insider and laugh along knowingly, as if we too, are an integral part of “This American Life.”