Heading home, Folks.
Being on the road for for days sometimes seems like a month. Not in a bad way. It's just a few different time zones, mentally and literally. Now I have to get home and get it together to shoot the show I’m going to be on in Vancouver.
The shows were great in Pittsburgh, Cleveland and Detroit.
We went to the Mattress Factory in PA. It’s one of the great art spaces. Installations, evolving pieces, classics. The spaces are all part of an old factory. It’s hard to tell what is a piece of art and what is the old building. I always love Pittsburgh. It’s a truly charming city.
I can never really get a sense of Cleveland as a city. I have a fan at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame who’s one of the head archivists. When we pulled into town that was the first stop. He took us into the vault. We were shown Buddy Holly’s high school diploma, some Jimi Hendrix outfits, Gary Rossington’s Les Paul, Allen Collins's Explorer and Bon Scott’s original draft of the lyrics of Highway to Hell, among other things. Big day. Skynyrd.
Detroit got weird. It was a great show, but it got weird. I’ve played the Royal Oak Music Hall many times. This was actually the best show I’ve had there but it wasn’t without a bit of chaos. I was doing my new Jew stuff. I always have the Jew stuff. Right when I started it, right when I said I was a Jew, within seconds, someone shouted something loud from the back of the room. I couldn’t quite make out what it was but an audience member said it was, ‘Shut the fuck up, motherfucker!!’ I stopped the show, quieted it down, and asked him to say it again. Nothing. I waited. I said you have a problem. He said, ‘Fuck you!’ I said, ‘Okay, this is what is going to happen. I’ll give you your money back and you will be escorted out.’ That was that. Then I addressed it, big laughs. Heavy scene. Fuck you, Jew.
I’m always waiting for it. It happened. In the best way possible, I guess. Could’ve been worse. The audience loved the show. They left feeling like they got their laughs. It was exciting and real. A fun night. I left looking over my shoulder.
The stage manager said the guy had paid for tickets, good ones. I don’t know what he thought he was going to see or who. Maybe he just snapped. That seems to be a thing now. Almost involuntary. Like a convulsion. An explosion of anger that had been waiting for a target. He didn’t say anything other than ‘fuck you.’ Maybe the Jew thing triggered it. Maybe everything did. Or he would’ve said more. Maybe. I’m being forgiving. Kind of. People are at a breaking point. Scary times.
I don't know if you folks know or remember A. Whitney Brown but he's a great comic mind. He wrote on SNL for years, had a segment on Weekend Update called The Big Picture, he was one of the original writers on The Daily Show, worked briefly at Air America and he was a thoughtful, brilliant standup. He has one of the most interesting origin stories as a comic that I have heard.
I often hear people say, ‘What happened to that guy?’ Or ‘Is he still around?’ I knew he was in Austin so I tracked him down when I was at the Moontower Festival and went to his house and talked to him. It’s a doozy.
I’m rarely totally blown away by too much but Billy Strings blows me away. He is one of the greatest guitar players of all time. He came over, we talked. I had to ask him to play. I don’t do that much anymore. He did. It’s amazing. You can listen to that on Thursday.
Enjoy!
Boomer, Monkey and LaFonda live!
Love,
Maron
