One More Day

So we were heading up the I 75 and Sylvana wasn't sure where her purse was, turns out it's back in Atlanta at Griff & Toni's house. I can't imagine how disappointed her parents will be.
So we get to stay in Toledo (which will take another 9 hours starting now) I'm glad we are delayed by one day. This trip has been so long and varied I'm going to need one day before crossing over the border just to process half of what we have seen. From Chicago to Salt Lake City in 26 hours, then San-Francisco, San Jose, LA, Las Vegas, The Grand Canyon, getting stuck and fixing the brakes in Flagstaff Arizona, where we watched a disappointing Nightmare on Elm street remake and then got kicked out of the Cinema parking lot for sleeping in the car.
A dust storm on I-40 West through Flagstaff, which made us take the long road and see some Elk! The Coolant leaking every 40 miles by the time we drove halfway through Texas, and we had to relfill it constantly all the way to New Orleans. New Orleans Crawfish! Getting the coolant hoses and water pump fixed. Up to Bethany and David's wedding outside of Washington D.C. Two weeks in Florida, doing stand-up, eating seafood and lying on the Beach, up to Atlanta to spend some great days with Griff (one the most hilarious and spiritual people I have ever come across), Toni, and their wonderful family.
Now we're in a Starbucks off the highway near Lexington, Kentucky. There are lot of of fascinating people and places in the United States of America, and I can't wait to get into some of the stories with all of you in person and in future entries.
And if you haven't yet, listen to Jethro Tull's "Aqualung" album. It fucking rocks.

On our way back up

Finished my two weeks in Florida. Had a blast playing eight shows at the Coconuts Comedy clubs. I always like to end on a high note, and Saturday was back to back good shows. First at a Nudist resort called Caliente, which was my first time performing in front of some naked people. Only about a quarter of the audience had no clothes on, but the guy whose cell phone rang was completely naked of course, who knows where he keeps the thing.
For my birthday on Sunday we went to the Lowry Park Zoo in Tampa, I got to see some Orang-utans, feed a Giraffe and pet some Stingrays. I also got in for free because it was my berfday! On the way into the zoo I found an 16GB iPod touch in the parking lot. I checked the address book for contacts...empty, address book for phone numbers...empty I was pretty excited, thinking the universe gave me an iPod, when I found an e-mail that they sent to themselves. Dammit! So I`ve sent an e-mail to Teri Blevins, and I`m waiting to hear back. It`s been two days and nothing yet thought so maybe she doesn`t care about her iPod as much as I do.
For dinner we went to Skipper`s Smokehouse in Tampa. Best oysters I`ve had in the U.S. and some great other seafood. There`s an outdoor stage and live bands playing every night. We had only sat down for a couple minutes when suddenly we hear a flute rocking out while the band plays a Jethro Tull track. This may not mean much to anyone reading, but we only have a cassette player in the Saturn and we`ve been listening to Aqualung album non-stop.
Now in Atlanta, just staying at my friend Griff`s house. I`ve only met this guy three times, but we`re like old friends. We`re going to make a short cartoon about a Wolf and a Manatee have our voices and talk about our lives.
Spending one more in Atlanta. One night in Nashville tomorrow, then back up north to London, Ont for Pearl`s (Sylvana`s niece) birthday by the 18th.

Last show in St. Pete's

We're in Miami. My first headlining week at Coconuts is over. After three nights with crowds of 8 people, Friday night being a particularly special night, there was Saturday. Saturday the room was sold out, the crowd seem really responsive to the other four acts, but by the time I got on they were pretty drunk. It was much less of comedy act and more of me just trying to ring-lead a bunch of drunks the whole night. I don't mind some heckling, in fact I welcome a little back and forth throughout the show, but this was just a few people so wasted they wouldn't keep their mouth shut. One woman who actually talked to me before the show, mentioning that she didn't want to be made fun of, and was worried because they were in the front row, ended up interrupting my set at least five times yelling "What's your guitar there for?" Literally pounding her elbow on the table yelling "Play your guitar". How a woman could go from not wanting attention to screaming out orders in the front row? Alcohol. And that was one thing I was happy about. Even though I never really got the chance to tell many jokes that night, at least Bob (one of the nicest guys I've ever met) made some money. The show was divided up by three really drunk people who wouldn't stay quiet, and then about eighty in the back who wanted a show, but never really got one. The show basically ended with me telling drunk people to 'shut the fuck up' and everyone cheering. Not exactly the message I'm trying to get across, but some nights are just like that.
We are lucky enough to be staying at my grandmother's place in Miami for the next few days. There's a full kitchen to cook in. After over a month on the road, you can't understand how good that feels.

Gigging in Florida

Alright a whole bunch has happened since the last write up, but I'm going to mainly focus on what's up now, aside from a quick catch up. So we got a call the next day in New Orleans that the Saturn needed a new lower and upper coolant hose, new water pump, thermometer, and power steering belt. I don't know if that makes sense to anyone else, but they could have said the car needed some new di-lithium crystals to drive the flux capacitor and my answer would have been the same..."okay." But with a tab of $970, I checked with another shop that said they'd do it for $760. Initially the shop said they wouldn't do it, but when I went to pick up the car, and extremely energetic woman named Terri told me to wait and they ended up matching it. That was a major relief because I didn't have to drive to the other shop and the one with Terri was a short walk from the Hotel. The next day, when Sylvana and I went to pick up the car, we told Terri about our trip and she started to open up about one she would be going on soon. This trip Terri was taking would be different. She told us that her 15 year old son had passed away two years ago, and his heart and lungs had been donated. So she was heading on a trip to visit the people that were saved by her son. It was absolutely beautiful. She even said the woman who had her son's heart was talking about how they'll go out drinking and Terri said "My son's too young to drink." What an amazing outlook.
So the car was fixed, New Orleans is like a Disneyland for drunks, and I made it to Frankie & Johnny's, and ate 2lbs of boiled crawfish, as delicious as I could have ever imagined.
A wedding in Maine, and then back down to St. Pete's Beach in Florida. I've been headlining Coconuts comedy club here at the Tradewinds. So far it been crowds of eight people every night, but surprisingly the shows have been consistently great. Last night I got my first shot (Petrone) sent up to me on stage, and really had all eight of them the whole time. It's actually been a great challenge to headline with such small crowds, and keep them the whole time. Bob, who owns coconuts, came out last night and talked about me coming back for their 25th Anniversary, and also doing some gigs for troops in Honduras or Guantanamo Bay. I didn't think Guantanamo was still open, but I might as well cheer up those poor torturing bastards.
Gotta go do the last show.