NH Day 3- Sculptures, Beaches, and Standup Oh My!
Little Video:
The Sculpture Trail really was incredible, and the fact that it's free makes it a must-see as far as I'm concerned. My favorite sculpture was called "Debate".
I love the idea of future civilizations stumbling upon this and thinking, "What kind of strange gods did New Hampshire have?"
And this was the view from the summit, which was pretty easy to get to even for me:
After the sculptures, I drove basically the width of New Hampshire to Hampton Beach. The beach is really lovely, and the weather was perfect for it. The town itself is kind of hilarious. The best way I can describe the boardwalk is by telling you to imagine your favorite dive bar and then picture it being 1 mile long. It's a little bit trashy, but it knows it and that's part of the charm. If you ever thought, I need to buy a hermit crab and a toe ring within 10 feet of each other, Hampton Beach has you covered. My favorite odd juxtaposition of stores was this place that had futuristic pods where you could play virtual reality games right next to a novelty t-shirt stand selling (ironic?) "Manson For President" shirts. A little high-tech and a little low-tech fantasy side by side.
I was able to get some New England staples though and found a $10 lobster and some Moose Tracks ice cream. Is Moose Tracks a national term for ice cream with peanut butter cups, choc. chips, and fudge swirl or is that regional?
The comedy show I saw was technically in Salisbury, MA, but it's right on the border. It wasn't an open mic, so I couldn't perform, but the show was free which was nice. The bar that hosted the show, The Winner's Circle, is a cozy sports bar that seems to have been a staple of the New England scene for a number of years.
The show is really built around being an opportunity for new comics and old to try out new material. This is a really great opportunity for performers and there's tons of slots (10-20 a week), you get a good amount of time, and the host and booker are very approachable. That being said, since a lot of the material is being worked on it's a much more variable experience for the audience, but the show's free and the drinks are cheap so there are worse ways to spend a Tuesday night.
Performers were from all over New England, with Massachusetts still getting the most representation followed by New Hampshire and Maine. There was also a much bigger age range in performers than I've seen at most open mics with a number of performers who were over 50. I might be biased because of my own age, but I tended to prefer the younger comedians. I feel like my dad would have enjoyed some of the older guys, but some of their material felt more like jokes that have been around forever.
The crowd had some interesting reactions, and one in particular that I felt very well summarized a big social aspect of the New England area. People kinda tensed up around one comedian's political stuff, but gave resounding applause to a really sweet story about how one comedian met her wife. It seems like no matter where people in New England fall on the political spectrum for the most part wherever you go homosexuality is pretty well accepted, which I think is really cool and probably not going to be true all around the country. That being said there were a few jokes about Native Americans and one about trans people that were more questionable, so it's not like people can't keep making progress everywhere.
There was also a surprising amount of prop comedy which I've never really seen at any shows before. My car feels cramped just carrying around clothes and toiletries, I can't even imagine having to drag props around to every show. It sure is a lot of work to not be all that funny. No wonder Carrot Top is weirdly ripped.
My favorite joke of the night was from a New Hampshire comedian named Josh Day: "I just think it's insensitive to wear leather muumuus".
I also heard one comedian say, "It's getting so you can't say anything in this country". I think it'll be fun to tally how many variations of that I hear around the states.
Something I noticed both today and yesterday, is that Massachusetts comedians tend to make a lot of jokes about history that are surprisingly well received. Like one comedian was making reference to William Seward buying Alaska and the joke landed, which I wouldn't have expected. I wonder if because our public schools really stress the whole revolutionary war involvement, the history jokes will be more prevalent here or if that's something that people are thinking about everywhere.
Favorite random sightings: Lady with a Hammer Home Improvement; Wicked Good Butchas; Duddy Law Offices; The Cow's Ass Leather
Regional Observation: People in MA like to say that NH is like a Southern state moved up North, and I don't know how true that is but I saw Chick-fil-A in the same strip mall as a Hobby Lobby with a drive through line around the corner
Album's Listened To: Aggrolites IV by the Aggrolites; Ahead Rings Out by Blodwyn Pig
People's Favorite Jokes:
Two guys are digging a ditch. One guy says, "How come we're down here digging, and that guy's up there watching us?" "I don't know," the other says, "why don't you go ask him?" So the first guy gets out of the ditch and asks the overseer, "How come we're down there and you're up here?" The overseer says, "It's because I have intelligence." "What's that?" asks the ditch digger. "I'll show you", the overseer says. He puts his hand in front of a tree, and says, "I want you to swing at my hand with your shovel as hard as you can." The ditch digger does it, but the overseer moves his hand out of the way at the last second and the shovel sticks into the tree. "That's intelligence," he say. The guy goes back into the ditch and his buddy asks, "So what'd he say? Why's he up there?" "He says it's because he's got intelligence," the first guys says. "What's that?" the friend asks. The first guy says, "I'll show you," and puts his hand in front of his face.
Why did the time traveler go back to 1995 and arrest Filene? He found everyone trapped in her basement.
Socialism
A kid's jumping up and down on a manhole cover saying, "21, 21, 21, 21" over and over. Someone comes up to him and asks what's he doing. He says, "It's fun, give it a try." So the other guy starts jumping on the manhole cover. While he's in the air, the kid takes away the manhole cover and the guy falls through. He puts it back on and starts jumping up and down again saying, "22, 22, 22, 22"