This evening I went to the Bob Newhart comedy show at the State Theater in Minneapolis. One thing I did in preparation for this event was go into a sandwich bag full of event tickets and find the stub from the previous Newhart show I had attended. It was at the Coronado Theater in Rockford, IL, in October 2002. It was between stubs from two events at Allstate Arena in Rosemont: the No Doubt concert, and the Barnum and Bailey circus. Notable was that this was the first time I had attended the circus. My parents wouldn't take me when I was young.
It is relevant to mention the earlier show I attended, as some of the jokes sounded familiar. But I didn't mind hearing them again. This included ones about Vietnamese gangs, a one-eyed bullfighter, and Delta pilots are paid well. Same is true for the Catholic priest swearing during confession as he was watching Notre Dame football, and clips from his two sitcoms.
I liked how he railed against political correctness in it, saying people are funny. This reminded me of another early joke in the show: it's all about people. Why not just pay each other $10 or so and ask them to do what jokes you really like? It was brilliant when he made fun of TV evangelists, saying when one wrote about meeting Christ it would have been mentioned in the first and not the third book. It was helpful to finish his memoir book just days ago, as some of the bits were covered there. Like how the woman driver bit is funnier than if it was changed to a Chinese driver.
I am thankful I attended this show. He is still a really good comedian at age 84. Intelligent humor and excellent timing. It was fine when he tooted his own horn a little before doing the woman driver bit, saying one of his comedy albums is a preserved recording by the government. This is elite company, with the likes of Martin Luther King's 'Dream' speech and President Kennedy's 'Ask what you can do for your country' speech.
After the show I did spot somebody I knew from comedy, sort of. I recognized his jacket from Stand-up Records. We do know some of the same people. There was an opening act, Patty Peterson and her Big Band, pretty good music, as I don't hear big band music too often. I recognized the final song as being in a movie that Newhart was in, 'On a clear day you can see forever', from the 1960s. There was no intermission, as the curtain came down and the crowd no longer saw the band, and Newhart arrived. He did do an 'Encore' bit, about being in Dubuque, Iowa. I cheered this one as it is my native state, and I did visit there with a companion last year. It was a throw-in with seeing the Field of Dreams. I didn't get dinner before the show, but I did get some trail mix and a juice at the venue. After the show I went to Bobby and Steve's and got a little Godfather's pizza and apple juice. When I was in line to get the trail mix there was a confused man asking us where to find someone in particular. Me and another patron directed him to the nearby ticket office.
Notable at work was having to call the help desk twice. I had password issues and was completely locked out of the system at midday, right before I wanted to go to lunch. So lunchtime was entered manually onto my timecard. Not sure why it happened, may have been a user error as some computers lock up after too many failed attempts. But I don't like how our systems are auto-fill, so when I have to enter passwords less often I have a hard time remembering them when they expire and I have to enter another one. So the comedy show arrived at a good time, as I like being able to laugh off things about my life that annoy me. The syndicated rerun of Big Bang Theory was on before I headed to the show. It was the one about the girls going to Disneyland, and the guys speak to students. It was one that I had seen before, but I really liked it.
It is relevant to mention the earlier show I attended, as some of the jokes sounded familiar. But I didn't mind hearing them again. This included ones about Vietnamese gangs, a one-eyed bullfighter, and Delta pilots are paid well. Same is true for the Catholic priest swearing during confession as he was watching Notre Dame football, and clips from his two sitcoms.
I liked how he railed against political correctness in it, saying people are funny. This reminded me of another early joke in the show: it's all about people. Why not just pay each other $10 or so and ask them to do what jokes you really like? It was brilliant when he made fun of TV evangelists, saying when one wrote about meeting Christ it would have been mentioned in the first and not the third book. It was helpful to finish his memoir book just days ago, as some of the bits were covered there. Like how the woman driver bit is funnier than if it was changed to a Chinese driver.
I am thankful I attended this show. He is still a really good comedian at age 84. Intelligent humor and excellent timing. It was fine when he tooted his own horn a little before doing the woman driver bit, saying one of his comedy albums is a preserved recording by the government. This is elite company, with the likes of Martin Luther King's 'Dream' speech and President Kennedy's 'Ask what you can do for your country' speech.
After the show I did spot somebody I knew from comedy, sort of. I recognized his jacket from Stand-up Records. We do know some of the same people. There was an opening act, Patty Peterson and her Big Band, pretty good music, as I don't hear big band music too often. I recognized the final song as being in a movie that Newhart was in, 'On a clear day you can see forever', from the 1960s. There was no intermission, as the curtain came down and the crowd no longer saw the band, and Newhart arrived. He did do an 'Encore' bit, about being in Dubuque, Iowa. I cheered this one as it is my native state, and I did visit there with a companion last year. It was a throw-in with seeing the Field of Dreams. I didn't get dinner before the show, but I did get some trail mix and a juice at the venue. After the show I went to Bobby and Steve's and got a little Godfather's pizza and apple juice. When I was in line to get the trail mix there was a confused man asking us where to find someone in particular. Me and another patron directed him to the nearby ticket office.
Notable at work was having to call the help desk twice. I had password issues and was completely locked out of the system at midday, right before I wanted to go to lunch. So lunchtime was entered manually onto my timecard. Not sure why it happened, may have been a user error as some computers lock up after too many failed attempts. But I don't like how our systems are auto-fill, so when I have to enter passwords less often I have a hard time remembering them when they expire and I have to enter another one. So the comedy show arrived at a good time, as I like being able to laugh off things about my life that annoy me. The syndicated rerun of Big Bang Theory was on before I headed to the show. It was the one about the girls going to Disneyland, and the guys speak to students. It was one that I had seen before, but I really liked it.
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