New Hampshire Day 1- Portsmouth
Little Intro Video:
Not long after that video ends I stopped at a juice place that I thought looked cute (see below). I then promptly locked my keys in the car. The juice was good, but the experience was hardly an auspicious start.
The Juice Box, North Hampton, NH. Voted 5th tiniest restaurant in the world!
After that, I visited a friend who offered to put me up for the night in Portsmouth, NH. He then showed me around Portsmouth. We had lunch at Portsmouth's Flatbread Company, which, while a chain, was really really good. The vegetarian special used a chili instead instead of sauce which was delicious (to use the technical term). We walked around Prescott Park, which was preparing to put on an outdoor performance of Mary Poppins giving the whole place a bit of a whimsical vibe. My favorite part was a series of different display gardens, one of which was designed to look like there were a bunch of dinosaurs gathered around going about dinosaur business. I'm not sure if my favorite part of places is ever the part that's most interesting to other people. The thing I loved most when I was in London was a sign at a bus station men's room that just said "Please Flush the Toilets - The Mayor of London".
After walking around Portsmouth, I went to the first open mic of the journey at The Stone Church in Newmarket, NH. I really liked this venue. It used to be a church, but now it's a hip little bar and concert venue. The beer selection was pretty varied, for such a relatively small place. The Open Mic was not specifically comedy, though they do do (ha) a comedy night once or twice a month. I was the only standup so it's not necessarily the best reflection of what comedy is like in NH, but they gave me the same amount of time as the musicians which was really nice and the crowd was pretty receptive. They seemed to particularly like jokes making fun of white supremacists and mayonnaise (not at the same time, though I'm sure there's something there). I'd definitely recommend to comics, musicians, and people looking for a good bar to hang out in. I was actually pretty impressed with the musicians as well. Lots of folk, country, and classic rock. My dad likes performing at folk open mics around MA, so I've seen a lot and I've seen a lot of bad performers, but none tonight which was a pleasant surprise. One of my dad's classic catchphrases about music open mics was "If I hear one more teenage girl sing Hallelujah by Leonard Cohen, I'll blow my brains out".
One thing I've been doing and intend to keep doing while I travel is ask people wherever I go what there favorite jokes are. Here are the ones from today, they won't always reflect my own sense of humor but it'll be interesting to see how the joke preferences change from place to place:
quoting Mitch Hedberg: "my friend said the weather is trippy so I said maybe it is just our perception of the weather that is in fact trippy but I realized man I should have just said yeah"
What do you call two Mexicans playing basketball? Jaun on Juan
What's the best time to go jousting? Mid-knight
Three astronauts go into outer space and they're trying to plan their route. One of the astronauts says he'd like to go to the sun. The others say it's impossible. "Don't worry," the one says, "we'll go at night"
A penguin takes his car to be fixed and the mechanic says, "I think you blew a seal." The penguin says, "Oh really, he said he was a polar bear"
A magician from Mexico says he will make himself disappear on the count of three. He says, "Uno, dos..." and then he disappeared without a tres.
A horse walks into a bar and orders a drink and the bartender says "Why the long face?"
My personal favorite of the day:
The AAA Operator I called about unlocking my car: I'd love to tell you some good ones but they record the calls
On that note, a solid first day
