Crazy Friends

Checkin’ in, on the Third TUESDAY of the month, yep a bit late on the first and third MONDAY Blog. Woke up in Ireland on Sunday Morning and flew through London to make it home tired. Yep that’s just an excuse… but the best one I have! Yet another reason to have these blog thingys done ahead of time. Oh well, procrastination is one of the "skills" I list on my resume…

What a couple of weeks! I hung out with a buncha “Brits” (as they call themselves…) and found out it’s fun being the one in the group with the accent. Although, I tried to assimilate into the conversation with some words I didn’t understand… saying things like “Brilliant” (even if it technically wasn’t genius, it still fits…)

Sometimes when you’re so far distant from family (look up the Azores if you want distant from family) that you bond instantly from both literally and figuratively being in the “same boat…” The beautiful refit of the ship we were on, had some hiccups and so we were “held” off the ship for longer than usual… on a rainy Florida day, where leaving was misery (which we only did for food) and staying in the same seat was tiring (up at 6 AM to wait until 5 PM to board…) Boring might be the call of a day like that, but entertainers more than every job I know (well it’s the ONLY job I know personally…) have the ability to bond and entertain each other… and we all chose to bond.

I got all the sympathy since I was performing first night, after the long tiring day, and no hot water, and angry passengers, and I get it: the comic becomes the sacrificial lamb. The good part is that taking a bullet seemed to solidify my position as the guy who would happily "take one for the team" (like I had a choice…) Still, I survived that (and 6 other shows I was in…) but going first was a bonus on the solidarity front...

To explain, bonding between performers sometimes might be like a crazy disease…, it certainly was this trip. 6 sided ping pong (not to be confused with 6 to a side) which means 6 people running AROUND the table seeing how long they can keep the ball going… oh… and there were only 4 paddles… We were going strong until someone said “Hey, we’re going to break something…” and then we only continued only a 1/2 hour more… Also, to get anywhere near food, (not counting “Tea times" which Brits do often…) we could only walk on the “different” characters we chose, which lead to some interesting movement, as in jumping from character to character to get anywhere… No wonder the drug dogs made thorough searches of our bags as we departed.

Show biz certainly has some downside, being away from family, occasional ugly travel, crowds that may rather be fishing than be laughing… but this week was one of those lucky ones, where on stage, off stage, at meals, (they call Lunch "Dinner") with drinks, (Heimlich chaser anyone?) and during travel, it was plain and simply fun… It’s one of the first weeks that laughter from, for, and to everyone, became an abdominal exercise…

I think the only NOT fun part was saying so-long…