Hey, Ya’ll
I’m in Tennessee right now but I will be at the Just for Laughs Fest in Chicago with Sarah Silverman this Saturday, June 16th. Come by if you can.
Spent the weekend at Bonnaroo! The Roo as it’s called down here, I think. Did some fun comedy shows in the Comedy Tent, saw Radiohead up close, caught the tail end of the Punch Brothers, saw The Roots from far away, and returned and conquered Prince’s Hot Chicken in Nashville. Oh, and I went over to Third Man Records and hung out and talked to Jack White for an hour. You will hear that talk soon.
As fun as Bonnaroo was, I had three goals when I was in Tennessee: eat Prince's Chicken, don't die, interview Jack White. I got into town on Thursday. Friday, I did a couple of shows at Bonnaroo and at the end of the night, after seeing Radiohead, which kicked ass, tried to get someone to go eat Prince's. No takers. I guess selling it as the place that has chicken that's so hot I almost had to go to the hospital the last time I ate it was not as appealing as I thought it would be. Apparently most people don’t see almost burning your lips off as an exciting culinary possibility. Most people are pussies. They didn’t understand that I had to return to the lair of a dragon, harness it and ride it into the ground. I knew I was going to interview Jack on Sunday and, come Saturday, I had one more chance to beat the chicken. Again, no takers. I actually got pissed off at Joe DeRosa for saying he was going to go and then bailing. You need to go to a place like Prince's with the right people. I couldn’t be responsible for someone’s pain if they didn’t know what they were getting into. I almost bailed on the whole idea because I didn’t really want to go it alone. Sweating and crying while eating is something you want to share. Enter Kyle Kinane, food warrior.
I was about to go up to my room and Kinane walked into the lobby. I said, “You want to go eat some really fucking hot chicken.” He said, “Is it really hot?” I said, “Yeah, I almost died the last time I ate it.” He said, “I’d like to try that.” We headed to Prince's. I told him he’d better get the medium if he wanted to taste something besides pain. He thought, if we were going he’d better get the hot or what’s the point. He then explained his theory about the medicinal effect of really hot food. I held frim to my opinion on the medium. He was skeptical. When we got there I ordered. I got mild like a pussy. I got him the medium. He was pissed but once we got the chicken and started eating it I noticed he was doing the specific sucking-air-breathing of a mouth on fire. He realized it was hot enough. I swore to him that if it wasn’t hot enough I would buy him a hot piece. After we finished I felt bad about getting the mild and he still wanted to take on the hot. So, we got one hot piece and split it. We made it through. It was awesome. We found the trick was eating it with your fingers and not putting your mouth on it so the fire can spread throughout your face. We were victors. Until…
This morning. When I got to Third Man Records to interview Jack White all I was hoping was the chicken, now attacking me from the inside, would not disrupt the talk. It didn’t, not too badly. I rode out a bit of pain but kept it to myself. It was great.
On the show this week, we have a partial Mr. Show reunion on Monday with Dave Cross, Bob Odenkirk and John Ennis live from The Vancouver Comedy Festival. This show also features a peace talk between me and Neal Brennan, and British comic Josie Long. On Thursday, Ashy Larry himself, Donnell Rawlings. Fun week.
Talk later. I have to go to the bathroom.
Love,
Maron
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