Good day, Folks-
I will now stop pestering you about Australia because I’m back. It’s done. It was great. I want to thank everyone who came out to the shows for coming out. They were amazing shows. I think the shows there were some of the best I’ve ever done in my life.
I had absolutely no time to do anything while I was there. I left on Monday night from Los Angeles and arrived in Melbourne on Wednesday morning. I slept on-and-off on the plane, watched The Departed, Wolf of Wall Street and a third of the Godfather. Got off the the plane about 5am. Then the dream started. The strange thing about jet lag is you waver between two feelings. Sometimes you feel hungover but with nothing to regret. I guess if the trip doesn’t go well you can regret that, but mine went fine so I just felt queasy and lost. The other feeling is like waking consciousness. That is how I felt most of the time. Like it wasn’t quite a dream but I wasn’t awake either.
I got to the hotel and napped and wandered around a bit. I had TV to do and I didn’t quite have a sense of where I was. I’ve been to Melbourne a couple of times before but I could remember almost nothing. I must’ve felt the same way on those trips because it’s like a dream to me now-- fragments, bits and pieces of imagery, a meal or two. I was there for two weeks and I barely remember the shows. I remember they went well which is why I wanted to go back.
I had to do some TV the first night of this trip. I drank a bunch of coffee, ate a bunch of chocolate and got my brain humming hard and went to do The Live Project show. It’s a panel show. It went well. Talked about the Obama episode, got some laughs and got out. Crushed and crashed. Got up did a morning TV show then got a plane to Sydney. Got to the hotel, crashed, got up, ate shitload of chocolate, drank coffee and a couple Pepsi Max’s and did the show at The State Theatre. There were about 1200 people there. It’s a stunning old theater. I was nervous how it would go but it was an amazing show. I wandered through two hours of standup and it felt perfect.
The next morning I flew back to Melbourne, crashed, got up, coffee, chocolate, hit the stage at the Palais. Had about 1200 again. The Stones had played there in ’65. I wasn’t sure how it would feel. It was kind of a haunted old place in St. Kilda. Great crew there. Listened to loud AC/DC through the huge sound system before the doors opened. Got me in the right frame of mind. I did another two hour show, but tight. It was one of the best shows I have ever done. After, I had some amazing ramen and crashed.
Next day, flew to Brisbane. I had almost cancelled that show before I left because of low ticket sales but we were able to move it to a smaller venue and packed 375 people into it. It was at City Hall. Felt like a conference room. Thought it would be weird. It wasn’t. It was more intimate and emotionally raw but I did almost two hours again. It was sweet, connected.
All the people that came out to the shows were great. My openers Michael Hing, Anne Edmonds and Mel Buttle were all great.
Thanks, Australia. Now, I’m on a plane heading back and it all feels like a dream. Too short a trip, I’m leaving right as my body adjusted and now I’ll deal with lag on this side. Amazing trip.
A music week! Monday I talk to Mikal Cronin. I’ve loved his music for while now. He’s a pal of Ty Segall’s, they came up together. We had good talk. I also talk to Patrick Stickles from Titus Andronicus. I ran into him down at Permanent Records and told him to come by. Love their new record. On Thursday, the legendary James Taylor and I talk about all of it. I had no idea it would be such an amazing conversation.
Enjoy!
Boomer lives!
Love,
Maron
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