FRIDAY

      Tonight I got to perform at Fly Ass Jokes, Portland’s longest-running comedy show. I’m not sure how long that means (I feel like at one point my old pals at Chicago City Limits touted themselves as “New York’s Longest–running Show!” and of course The SWARM takes pride in the fact that many years ago someone thought it would make good copy to refer to us as “The UCB’s oldest and most dangerous improve cadre”- a quote we’ve slapped on everything since. Not funny, hilarious, amusing- not brilliant, inspirational, otherworldly-  just "oldest and most dangerous").

            The show was in a space called the Brody Theater, a small theatrical room with a stage and bar (and a bunch of chairs). It was a great space, and the show was really fun. But the best part was that my old nursery school buddy showed up and watched the show.  Gregg and I used to carpool to nursery school together every day when I was 3 years old. We both look different. Though the show was really fun, it was definitely what used to be called an “alternative” comedy show- in other words, not at a comedy club. And there was a crowd, and they were into the show, but it wasn’t a huge crowd. Like, last weekend both shows I did at the Tempe Improv had hundreds of people in the audience. But I was glad Gregg got to see a show that was more in line with my career- weirder, more experimental, and less focused on the business in show business. Then we went looking for a place to grab a drink. In Portland. Harder to find than you would think! The first place we went into had a cover charge, and as we waited on line, I realized that a) it was a drag bar, and b) perhaps because of that, or maybe it was unrelated, the terrible dance music was unbelievable loud, which would have had an effect on our conversation. Finally we found a shitty sports bar and caught up on the haps since the last time I saw him, 37 years ago.