I'm Alive

I have been a very bad blogger the last week or so. So I'll catch you up on recent events.

Last Thursday night I had a gig in Tiburon at a restaurant/bar. My parents were in attendance, along with a certain young lady friend of mine. The audience was tough - very quiet crowd. There was this one white guy with dreadlocks who didn't crack a smile. Are those things correlated? White-guy-dreadlocks and no sense of humor? Maybe it was just this one guy. Anyway.

I didn't have a great set, but it wasn't terrible either. I didn't find too much fault with myself, so I felt pretty good afterwards. Put it this way: I don't think my parents were cringing much. They've seen me a half dozen times or so, and they've yet to see me have a truly *good* set. It would be nice if that would happen.

Friday night I had a show for a church group in Santa Cruz. Yes, a church group. It was a young adults group, so ages ranged from 18-35. Politics ranged from right to slightly more right, which in Santa Cruz, puts you on the fringes of society. The minister told me that not only did I have to be "clean," I had to be extra "clean," because the head minister was there. I was a little worried about this because, while I don't do a lot of dirty material, I have some bits that at least involve some racy subject matter. And I didn't want to repeat an experience I'd had before, which was launching a bit, giving the setup, and midway through it, realizing I couldn't tell the punch to this crowd. Not good times.

Anyway.

I figured out my "clean" set, and it went very well. They were a very responsive audience, and appreciative. I had a great time. I was a little nervous, though, because ahem, I tend to pepper my daily speech with terms that would offend this crowd. You know, words like, "damn," "ass," or "Democrat." So I was looking out at the crowd thinking to myself, "did I just say shit? Did I? Is he looking at me funny? What did I say? Did I just curse?" Well, I managed to avoid offending, and they were very receptive. And... I got paid. Woot-woot! Okay, so it was only $50 bucks, but that's better than nothing.

On the way back to SF from the gig, my friend Tom and I were talking about the greatness of Richard Pryor. I even said, "I think a lot of people think he's already dead."

Next morning, I find out Richard Pryor has passed away. So Tom and I aren't going to talk about our comedy idols anymore. The next drive we take together, we will talk at length about the greatness that is Pauly Shore.