Fanny Pack and Bowtie

At the comedy club tonight, one comic was memorable for their outfit. He had a crewcut, black framed 'nerd glasses', braces, a bowtie, and fanny pack. I went there after a dinner date, but not with my date.
   Today is my birthday, and I was in many ways humbled by the greetings on Facebook. There were 93 messages waiting in my Hotmail account, more than twice the normal volume. I did take the time to respond to all of the postings. Some were classmates, plenty of them were comedian friends, a few were famous people like a movie reviewer in the paper or a journalist that now lives in Texas. Some I have seen more often than others of course, like the comedian friends. Some I may not have met yet, like the movie reviewer. Though I like reading his reviews. With classmates,  I said how I look forward to seeing them at the reunion in June. Ah yes, it does leave another one, a fellow writer that I met at the convention in Detroit. I quoted 'Throw Momma From the Train' as there is a line in it that resonated with me- 'A writer writes, always!' It was in reference to the question I received about how it was going for me.
   There was more than one no-show at the club tonight, which is odd to me. My guess was if I still wanted stagetime, I could have had it. But I made it right before showtime, and I figured it likely was not available.
    I made it to an Erbert Gerbert sandwich shop in St. Paul today, first time there as this downtown location had just opened about a month earlier. Usually I eat out for lunch only on Fridays, but didn't feel like heating up the soup and needed to step outside the office for a few minutes since it was so busy. The memorable thing was somebody asking me what 'supersede' meant, I said it's something that takes the place of what came before it. He said it then meant 'override', and I said close enough.
   Some might call it 'News of the Weird' but one feature on 'Nightline' tonight was about military-trained personnel shooting wild pigs in Texas.

Two For The Show

I was onstage at the comedy club tonight, two guests came to see me. I did fine except I stayed on the first joke too long. It was the same one as the night before, but extended, about Johnny Cash. So this may have been why it was less effective, since openers should be quick and to the point. So it was 'two for the show', much like the Elvis Presley song 'Blue Suede Shoes'. Don't have any, but I have some suede shirts, I like the way they feel to the touch. Also did a birthday card joke, since my birthday is soon. Already have one greeting on Facebook.
   As usual, I think about music often. As I was leaving the club tonight, I heard the Eminem song 'My Name is Slim Shady' and I still recall the first time I heard it, back in suburban Chicago. The DJ said he would play it even though he would likely be fired. When I was driving home tonight I heard on my car radio 'Rich Girl' by Hall and Oates. It was a reminder of my weeklong vacation in Seattle in 2007, as I recall hearing it there.
    Don't know yet what I'm doing on Thursday and Friday, but there are some options. Sometimes these days are spoken for well in advance, but I don't plan on going to a comedy show. The state tournament for hockey is this week, though it doesn't work in my schedule to attend the small school final on Saturday afternoon like before. 
    After work, I liked seeing the people watching available on the bus. It was a couple and their young son. When we passed the 'X' he asked his parents if he could go see the hockey players play, the mom said no as it was too expensive. It of course depends on the event, but they have more than just NHL hockey there. I said nothing, it was none of my business. Seemed more polite to just listen.

Weight Lifting Trials

After being at the comedy club tonight I went to print something at a Fedex Office near me and saw a familiar face, one of the employees. He spoke of being in Columbus, Ohio, for the Olympic trials for weight lifting. He said he also got to meet Arnold Schwarzenegger, who had plenty of bodyguards with him. I thought about leaving right after I was done but I'm not in there much, and see him even less often. So I went back in after a man who was swearing a lot went outside. I will admit that I wasn't expecting him to say this was one of his interests, based on us speaking before. He is a med student, but we all can surprise others on our interests.
    I was thrilled to get picked to go onstage at the comedy club, I was third. I don't think there was any newcomers this time. Started off with a joke I wanted to try for a while, 'who did you expect, Johnny Cash?' and it flowed real well. Write what you know is the common thing one hears, and it works best. The next comic made some reference to a character named Tobias, a friend of one of my comic friends was sitting next to me and said it was on the TV show 'Arrested Development'. We had to pause however, as on the first attempt to tell me we ended up doing an inadvertent head-butt. Had to look up this character, had seen the show before but I was familiar with other characters, played by Jason Bateman and Jeffrey Tambor. Don't know if it was meant to be flattering, but I've heard worse before.

Union President Messages

Today I watched Inning 4 of the Ken Burns baseball documentary with my date. Pleased to get 2 innings done this weekend. Also went to a pancake breakfast at Henry Sibley High School. We had to wait to eat until the band was done playing, as it was a benefit for the school's band. We had just arrived as the band was about to play, and I do recall the showbill from a comedy club saying there would be no food served for 30 minutes. The band started late, so I had to ask when they would be done. The school song was the last one played. There was mention of places they would be traveling to in the summer. I bought some peanut butter cookies to eat while we were waiting. There was plenty of silent auction items, a few appealed to me but I didn't want to wait around another 3 hours to see if I was the winning bidder on anything. It was typical for silent auctions, as there were so many items that some hadn't been bid on yet.
   There was 2 messages waiting from the writer union president, one was about the suspension of the treasurer,with pay. One of the charges was 'conduct unbecoming', as she recently had copied all of the convention delegates on an email where she blasted the union president. The other message was about the passing of a member, a jazzman from New York City. There was a Youtube video attached to one of the messages. Not sure if I met him in Detroit, as there were so many people I met there. It led to more emails than typical for the weekend.

Fries Come With That Shake

I needed to get motivated to get up this morning. Even though I wanted to go out for breakfast it took a while to get there. I like laying around for a while on the weekend if I can. I had an Egg Mcmuffin at Mcdonald's and liked seeing a shirt on one of the employees. It said 'do fries come with that shake?' and it had animated characters on it. This may go back to the days when there were numerous Mcdonaldland characters, now it's just Ronald doing most ad campaigns and for the Ronald Mcdonald house, their official charity. There was ads up for the shamrock shakes, I like those as well. I had one this week already, and it was at a downtown location I hadn't seen before. Pleased it had a Ronald statue on a bench near the entrance for photo ops.
     For my date tonight we watched another inning of the Ken Burns baseball documentary, inning 3. It covered 1910-1920, and there was plenty about the 1919 Black Sox Scandal which happened during the World Series. I've said it before how seeing 2 movies in particular helped with the understanding of it: 'Eight Men Out', and 'Field of Dreams'. It also covered the opening of Fenway Park in Boston, and the rival league known as the Federal League. Wrigley Field in Chicago was built for Chicago's team in that league, which lasted just 2 seasons. Also liked mention of the 1914 World Series, won by the 'Miracle Braves' who went from worst to first, and beat the A's who had the 'Hundred Thousand Dollar Infield'. I had read about it in a book in elementary school, I liked how they covered subjects I was familiar with and went in depth on telling the story. Like how former star pitcher Christy Mathewson had a hunch about the World Series being fixed.
    After the 10pm news we watched 'Life to the Max' on WCCO as we wanted to see the feature about the Kodak Museum in Rochester, New York. It's a nice treasure trove of the history of photography, and not just Kodak. In the early evening I liked watching a paid TV program which was a 30-minute ad for Time/Life music, I don't buy anything but it does sharpen my knowledge of music. I was more familiar with the more recent musicians profiled like Kenny Rogers, the timeframe went back to the 1950s through the 1970s.   

Girl Scout Cookies

I bought 2 boxes of Girl Scout cookies today at lunchtime. It was at 2 different tables, one of them had just sold out of Dosidos, so I just got the Tagalongs. I like the peanut butter kinds, those 2 have it. I had some of them this evening already. But I like to have them last as long as possible, when they're just a once a year thing. So I see myself waiting a few days before having any more of them.
  I went to a friend's comedy show tonight at Mall of America, the later show. I know it's easier to get into the later show, I've done it a few times before. Since most prefer the earlier show, since the later one often finishes around midnight. The friend was an opener, the headliner was a New Yorker. I liked the headliner's jokes about food, being married, and 'be a man'. The last one was in reference to how men are taught, to be strong, to grin and bear it. I liked how my friend did some of my favorite jokes, one of them I ask for each time I take the stage as I shout it. I had hoped to get a picture with my friend so it can go into the 'ring of honor' I have but he was not available after the show. Since it was late I guess I don't blame him at all. So far I have a picture of just one comedian friend. There is one with him from the Faribault show last year, tagged on Facebook, but I prefer a more flattering picture than that one. As a matter of fact, I saw somebody at this show who said he was at the Faribault show, still surprised he remembered me. He even said he took the picture for us. Something about me must be memorable, don't know what, hopefully a positive thing.
   This was a rare day in terms of the mail, as all that was received was relevant- 2 bills, a driver license, and a birthday card. I am used to some of it being junk, like nonprofits wanting money, and then shredding it.

'Small World' on Violin

I was onstage at the Corner Bar in Minneapolis tonight, and the act before me was a male dancer in a camisole. He did his act while a girl was nearby, playing 'It's a Small World After All' on violin. His routine was the storyline of the movie 'Footloose', something I guessed rather quickly. Also notable was blowing out a candle after the show ended and some of the wax ended up on my glasses. I think I can somehow find a way to get it into my act, not quite the same as 'egg on the face' or 'pie in the face' though. I decided to park in a different lot this time, as I found one slightly farther away that was cheaper than the customary one. There was snow on the walk over to the club, and it continued after the show. I liked getting stagetime here as it allows me more minutes than other clubs, and they want comics to try new material there so it is definitely an 'experimental' club. I would have preferred a larger crowd of course, it was sold out last week when I was there to see a friend perform. Though I don't think sellout crowds at this club are typical.
    I didn't realize it at first, but I was so moved by hearing this song being played. Though at first it just sounds repetitive and annoying. This is why it can be the butt of jokes since it is the song on a ride at Disneyland. But the lyrics do resonate: a world of laughter, a world of tears, a world of hope, a world of fears. It does seem somewhow appropriate to what I've learned about my life, since I've seen both sides of it that are mentioned in the song. So it seemed to fit a comedy show, especially when laughter is mentioned. I would have liked seeing a new episode of 'Big Bang Theory' tonight but I've given up watching the show for other events before. Thankfully there is now syndicated reruns 5 days a week, I did watch one before having to leave.