VA Day 2 - Blown Glass, Big Fish, and Bar-Hopping Comedy
I started today in Norfolk, but I didn't get to see much of my friend in the morning because he had to get up at 5 am for Navy work, which only further strengthened my conviction that I just don't have what takes to serve in the military. I am very weak and perpetually sleepy. To combat at the least the second part of that, I got some coffee at CURE Coffeehouse and Brasserie. Thankfully, they did not play any music by the band they share a name with while I was there. I also ordered a grilled cheese for brunch, because they had a special that day for a grilled cheese with apple and ham. I must have mumbled my order though because I just got a regular grilled cheese. It was cheaper that way though and still pretty dang tasty so I wasn't too bummed about it. The coffee was quite good as well.
After Brunch, I went to the Chrysler Museum of Art. The museum also has an affiliated glass blowing studio that was doing a free demonstration when I arrived so I just went right for that. Watching glass blowing always amazes and terrifies me. I always get scared that something surprising will happen and the artist will gasp and breath in molten glass. I guess that says more about how my brain works than glass blowing though, doesn't it? The demonstration was very cool, and in the end the artists made a turkey for Thanksgiving. It was so fascinating seeing an artist so knowledgable about his medium that he could just tell eyeball how and where to shape the globs of glass to end up turkey-ish on the first try. I also like to think that whenever they put the glass in the furnace, they say to themselves, "Go back to Hell from whence you came!". It makes the pictures below way more fun.
After the demonstration, I got to see the museum proper. One of their big claims to fame is that they have the third largest glass art collection in country (second is toledo!). I'm sure having an a source of continual glass art production next door doesn't hurt, but the collection really is impressive and well-curated to explain and show the evolution of new glass making techniques and artistic trends throughout history.
Purely coincidentally, the special exhibit was also related to Glass art. The exhibit focused on the works of master jeweler Rene Lalique. He rose to fame producing perfume bottles, but soon expanded to jewelry, pipes, furniture, tableware, and statues. french glass worker and jeweler. Because the exhibit was arranged chronologically through his career, it was quite cool seeing his rise from well done but fairly simple perfume bottles to more complex and extravagant works that moved past functionality to being real works of art.
The rest of the non-glass exhibits in the museum were quite good as well. The bottom floor was works from antiquity, while the top floor had paintings and sculptures from the Renaissance up to now. Unfortunately most of the modern and contemporary art was closed off because of a new installation being put in place. What was available of the modern collection was still pretty impressive, including works by some of my favorite artists Picasso, Gauguin, Hopper, and Ernst.
My favorite piece in the entire museum though was this artist's rendering of my favorite story in the Bible, the time Jesus flew in on a magic crucifix and shot lasers at people.
After the museum, I drove back down to Virginia Beach to get the blessing of Poseidon for my Odyssey, because Odysseus didn't and I'm not trying to be on the road for 20 years. I think i nailed it.
Properly blessed, I got dinner at the Beach Bully BBQ, because I was told the flounder sandwich was a must try. I was expecting a typical white fish fillet sandwich, but it was so much more. I legitimately think it was the entire flounder, and it was fried just right to be crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside. For just over $10, this massive sandwich came with two sides, so I got the fries and a big scoop of macaroni and cheese. Comfort food at its finest. To wash it all down, I got a local beer called Majestic Mullet, mostly because of the name. It was a kolsch and very solid light, easily drinkable beer.
I refueled after dinner by getting coffee at Three Ships Coffee Roasters. They put bourbon vanilla in the coffee which I'd never had before. Normally I don't like super sweet coffee, but the bourbon flavor balanced the sweet vanilla really well.
With some added pep in my step, I made my way to the Virgina Museum of Contemporary Art to scratch the one art itch the Chrysler couldn't reach. It was much smaller than the Chrysler, but the exhibits were really fascinating. My favorite was an installation called Monitorium. It was a full two rooms of giant cardboard sculptures designed to evoke a sort of carnival vibe, while also entirely focusing on the famous Battle of Hampton Roads, where the Union's warship the monitor proved victorious over the Confederate Merrimack in the first ever naval battle between ironclad warships. The best part of all of it (for me at least) is that the artist, Wayne White, used to be a designer for Pee Wee's Playhouse!
The other exhibit I really liked was all focused on local artists working with miniature sculptures. Everyone very much brought their own unique flair but it was incredible how much detail and originality could shine through in such a small amount of space.
After the museum, I went to Richmond for my first open mic of the night. The first mic was relatively early for a comedy show, and hosted in a cool little coffee shop called Plant Zero. It was , fairly small, intimate venue, but there was a decent turn out and the audience was very receptive. The coffee was really good too, and based on what I saw around the place I kind of regretted not ordering any of their food because it looked mighty tasty.
It was a really solid show, with a very strong batch of comics from all over Virginia. I felt bad for one guy who was clearly pretty new, because he invited his mom to come but then forgot most of his jokes except for the ones about doing cocaine. She was a good sport about it though, and supportive of both her son and all the other comics so hopefully he wasn't too disheartened by one tough set and keeps with it.
My favorite comic of the night was a guy named Winston Hodges, who besides being a very good comic was almost perfectly suited to make me laugh because most of his set was about working with children with autism. I've always been too nervous to do any material about that part of my life in fear that it might come off as mocking, but he showed that it can be done and done well. He smartly prefaced the whole set by acknowledging that it could be a touchy subject but then turned it into a very good joke about how all kids are funny, but typically developing kids are like Dane Cook and kids with autism are like Richard Pryor, they're just on another level. His whole set was consistently strong, but most of it was longer stories and crowd-work which probably wouldn't translate as well in writing.
Other highlights for me were a line from a guy named Alex Castagne about how people drinking craft beer successfully managed to trick people into thinking they're not alcoholics because "they don't have a drinking problem, they have a drinking hobby" and a comedian named Laure Tutson talking about being biracial but having parents that don't conform to stereotypes: "My mom's white, but, like, I've never seen her kiss a dog on the mouth"
My own set went well. It was a fun small crowd with good energy to play off. I kept things pretty light and silly, and I must have done alright because the host, Liz, invited me to perform at a house show later in the week. That really made my night!
After the coffee shop show, I went to a bar show at a place called Mojo's. The comics were still pretty consistently good, but the crowd was much tougher. It was definitely the kind of bar show where people are there to drink and comedy happens to be happening, rather than them being there to watch a show. I will say this in the crowd's favor though, and that's that they were at least indifferent indiscriminately, as this was the first mic where I had seen openly transgender comedians, and the crowd didn't treat them any differently than any other comics. Unfortunately that equal treatment involved not listening to their jokes, but that's certainly a lot better than insults or jeers, which I was honestly a little fearful of because so far across multiple mics across multiple states, I'd have to say trans people are probably the marginalized group that comics seem to think it's the most acceptable to mock, and even when it's not intended as mean spirited it still seems like there's a general knowledge gap about proper terminology and that can definitely come across pretty poorly. Thankfully though it was a welcoming crowd if not a supportive one.
It's so strange what a difference a crowd can make, because if I do poorly I always assume it's my own fault, but I got to see some of the same comics who crushed it an hour earlier barely get anything at this mic. I know their jokes didn't get any less funny, so it was easier to ascribe to the energy of the room.
Because I knew it would be a tough room, when it was my turn to go I just had fun with it. I just tailored all of my jokes to the two attentive audience members in the front, dropping jokes halfway if they weren't into them and playing off what they had to say. I even got to shut down my first heckler which was kind of fun, even though the heckle was super mild so it wasn't particularly impressive. I enjoyed it, even if it wasn't my best showcasing of my material. It's good to just practice the fundamenetals of crowd work every now and again, because when you're trying so hard to get the material right it's easy to forget that you also have to be a showman as well. If I was just starting out though, I doubt I would've had the confidence or the knowledge to navigate a tough crowd like that, and I have a lot of pride for comics who start out in rooms like that and stick it out, because it is not easy.
Besides the comics, I'd already seen and continued to enjoy, my favorite comic of the night was a guy named Frank Nevlin. He did a really smart, funny bit about being religious which I was very impressed by, because that's a real sensitive subject for a lot of people. The line that killed me was: "I'm religious, but I don't ever try to push my beliefs on anyone else. I believe everyone should get to believe whatever they want *beat* mostly because Heaven is only but so big and I don't need them taking up my spot"
Lastly, so it doesn't seem like I'm dumping on the bar too badly, I will say it was a much better bar than a comedy club. The drink selection was vast and very high quality. I got a Terrapin Beer Co. Moo-Hoo Chocolate Milk Stout, which tasted like the best chocolate milk I ever had regardless of the alcohol. Terrapin's from Georgia though, so unfortunately I won't be able to count it as my favorite beer of VA, but if it were able to compete it would be a frontrunner.
Favorite Random Sightings: Dappa Don; Witchduck Road (just makes me think of Monty Python); DVD King (not a particularly impressive kingdom in this day and age); Jungle Golf; A license plate that said, "O HAI XD"
Regional Observation: Virginia has the most vanity plates, I've ever seen. I wonder if they're cheaper here.
Albums Listened To: The Impossible Kid by Aesop Rock; In A Silent Way by Miles Davis; In My Life by Judy Collins (what an odd, eclectic, incredible album. I was worried that a folksy album might be hard to stay awake for right after a smooth jazz album, but this one really blew me away); In My Mind by BJ the Chicago Kid (pretty uneven but he does have a hell of a voice); In Tennessee by Alvin Lee
People's Favorite Jokes: Why does an elephant have four feet? Because eight inches isn't enough
Song of the Day:
What a wild ride of a song. I could listen to this song a thousand times, and it would never not be shocking to hear Judy Collins say the phrase "sons of the ass-licking dying regime"
