Successfully Avoiding Anything Planned

Recording the HaHa

 

For the past month my behavior has been odd.  I’ve been mumbling words to myself.  Missing exits while driving.  Spacing out while spacing out.  Pacing like an Umpa Lumpa in skinny jeans.  Visualizing each beat of a story about being at a party where a tiny bread crumb projected from my mouth and landed directly into the tear duct of the woman I was talking too.  A tragic tale of dating dreams crushed by rogue bruschetta.

 

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Why relive such a mortifying moment (over and over and over)?  This is a question everyone who performs comedy must answer and it’s not an easy one.  While I’m still seeking why I’m compelled to stand in front of friends and strangers and share these bits and pieces of my life for their entertainment, one thing was certain: I was recording a comedy album on October 23rd and I needed to mumble my way into cohesiveness.

Candy Crush-MafiaBrows-Giovanni-Dents-Elvis-Friends-Romantic-Containers-Weird-Valentine-WholeFoods may sound like a shopping list gone wrong, but for me it was part of the 40 random-word set list that needed to organize it’s way into album tracks and remain in my brain until 11pm on Friday night.

You can do this.

You’re fooling yourself.

You’ve got this, shut-ap.

You’ve got nothing.

Just have fun.

Just have a terrible time.

No one will be there.

All your friends will be there.

I wonder if the lights will make my head look shiny?

Whatever happens you’ve got mint chocolate chip ice cream in the freezer.

Ice cream never saved a shiny headed man.

Would you sink faster to the bottom of the ocean with a belly full of ice cream?

It may make you more buoyant.

Like a Baskin-Robbins buoy. Mmmmmmmm. Sugar cone please.

You can do this (repeat cycle).

My confidence never wavered for a second (lies).  After a month of reordering, trimming, trashing, and adding/subtracting; it was suddenly the night of the recording.  Back in June, when Patrick Tyrrell and I first started talking about recording our first comedy albums on the same night, October was distant future.  The 23rd would never arrive.  It would linger in space time continuum like a Dolorean out of plutonium mid-voyage.

 

The Mr. Potato Head Routine of 1981

The Mr. Potato Head Routine of 1981

 

October 23rd, 4:44pm: Arrive at Otoole’s.  The sound engineers are setting up crowd-mics and doing sound checks.  Patrick and Jose Dynamite  (no time to explain the name, promoter and comedian extraordinaire)  are sliding chairs around.  We found out that at the last minute a few more groups made reservations and the 7pm show is full.  A wonderful problem.

The Celtic Room at Otoole’s in Honolulu is a great room for comedy.  A small room with brick walls,  it has served its fair share of island hoppers and sea-legged ocean dwellers over the years on the hunt for an Irish pub pint after docking on Aloha Tower’s neighboring pier.  We work to configure the room, make reservation cards,  and set up a table by the door.

 

The Crowd Mic 3000 (Probably not actual name of mic)

The Crowd Mic 3000 (May not be actual name of mic)

 

6pm: After we move tables around a few different times and borrow stools from the bar, the room is good to go.  Almost.  People are coming who don’t have reservations.  More stools.  The more people who come the older and older the stools we find are.  If the last people to enter are pirates they’d fit in well with the look of their seats.  No such luck.

6:30pm: I should probably change clothes.

6:38pm: Change clothes.

6:49: Mumble to myself some more.

7:15: We get everyone in.  The party get’s started.  Jose warms up the crowd and checks mic levels by having the audience do a round of applause,  moans,  and belly laughs.  Comedian Peter Austin takes the stage to open the show and does an awesome job doing so.

Patrick and I decided early on that he would go first the first show and I would go first the second show. We all had great time performing to a packed room ready to laugh and have a good time.

All the mumbling and spacing out pays off.

9pm: We didn’t have to go all pirate seat for the second show,  but still a pretty full room with an extremely fun engaged crowd.  Because the first show went well we felt less pressure the second time around and were able to relax a bit more and enjoy the ride.

 

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Friends from church,  work,  and comedy came out to support and we were excited with how the evening turned out.  We’re so grateful to everyone who took time to come out and for those supporting us from afar.  After it was over I felt a mix of joy,  accomplishment,  and of course like a huge weight was lifted.  Like I had given birth.  Not like that,  but kind of like that for someone who has no idea or never will have any idea what that’s like.

 

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The Albums will be ready by mid-December and can be ordered on CD through me directly or CD/digital download from Passout Records who I can’t thank enough for supporting this project,  working their recording engineer magic, and releasing it on their label.  It will also be available on iTunes and Spotify.

Here’s to chasing dreams,  walking funny,  and finally taking the right exit home,

A

About the author

I work as a chaplain and play as a comedian and singer-songwriter. My wife and I met in Chicago and have lived in Honolulu and Portland, OR. We now chase our two daughters, Naomi and Leona, around Santa Rosa, California.

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