CT Day 5 - Hill Steads, Hand Outs, and Headlining
I started the day by trying to see a sculpture garden at Hogpen Hills Farm in Woodbury, but it turns out it's only open once a year so instead I went to an organic marketplace to get some coffee. It was a cool local market, which seemed to do a good job supporting local farms. I saw vegan mayonnaise and I'm still trying to process it.
After that I went to a museum that my parents were raving about called the Hill Stead Museum in Farmington. The museum is the house of a wealthy 19th century architect named Theodate Pope Riddle. As Mandated in Ms. Pope Riddle's will, the house is preserved almost exactly as it would have been while they lived there. Not only does the house make for a lovely historical artifact, but because the family was hip and wealthy, it's just filled with great impressionist art. There are works by Monet, Manet, Degas, Whistler, and Cassatt to just name a few. The grounds of the expansive estate also make for great hiking. I guess I showed up at a fairly random time, because I was the only one on my tour. It was nice though and I got to chat with my tour guide, who was a classmate of Hillary Clinton's at Wellesley! I was impressed that she was just as enthusiastic at giving a tour for one person as I imagine she would have been for 100 people. The most interesting fact to me about Theodate was that she also just happened to be on the Lusitania and survived.
After absorbing all that culture, I decided to check out a restaurant that both the Atlas Obscura and my friend Hank recommended called the Travelers Restaurant in Union. The restaurant's thing is that every customer gets a free book with their meal. I ordered a sandwich called the Great Sandwich mostly because of the name. It was a turkey sandwich with melted brie, local apples, and mixed greens and it completely lived up to the name. I also think my choice of book was pretty fitting:
After my great sandwich, I was very excited for the opportunity to headline a professional gig with my college standup club at the Orpheum Theater of Foxboro, MA. In a bit of serendipity, my camp counselor from the summer camp I went to 8 years ago is on the board of the theater, heard about my project from Facebook, and offered us an opportunity for an hour and a half show.
This was easily the best venue I've gotten to perform at and I think also possibly the best show I've performed in. This was an opportunity for everyone in the club to do longer sets than they're used to and they all brought their A games. I will forever be grateful that I got to learn how to do comedy with such a talented, supportive group of young comedians.
Because I'm friends with all the comics, I'm not gonna single any one out as my favorite and instead highlight my favorite joke from everyone, and suggest that if you ever see any of these names performing in your area you check 'em out!
Solange Azor (host): I read online that Foxboro is 90% white. So this town is quantitatively white, but I think Harvard is more qualitatively white.
Anthony Zonfrelli (another recent grad who performs a lot in the Boston area!): If the rappers Li'l John and Li'l Wayne had a baby, would it be called Li'l Li'l or John Wayne.
Sabrina Wu- I had my first date at a whole foods, because I was hoping romance would grow organically.
Ezra Zigmond - At some point in the future scientists are going to have to solve the problem of having sex in space, of finding the zero g spot.
Julian Rauter- Alaska is simultaneously the most liberal and the most conservative place I've been. Even the weather is 6 months of darkness or 6 months of sunlight. Pick one motherfucker.
Harry Newman-Plotnick - Someone walked into a cafe and yelled "Hey Goldberg!" and I turned around. But the problem is I'm not Goldberg. I just figure that if someone is angrily looking for one Jew, they're usually looking for all of us.
Joel Kwartler- The funny thing about the YMCA is that I've heard it at every Bar Mitzvah I've ever been to.
John Ball- I was never invited to play cool strip games so I had to play strip solitaire. I always just ended up in my room half-naked and upset.
The audience was really into it, and even though they skewed a bit older they didn't seem to mind the raunchier stuff. The only thing they tensed up a bit about, which in hindsight isn't too surprising but was a bit unexpected for me, was a few jokes about religion. But for the most part, I felt like everyone's sets landed pretty hard.
I was proud to get to close out such a consistently strong show. I definitely think getting so much practice at all these open mics gave me a much better ear for delivery and for structuring my set to maximize flow and joke impact and I felt like everything went about as well as I could have hoped.
After the show since I was in MA anyway, I ended up going back to school and catching up with a lot of old friends. It was really weird being back on campus after graduation, the first of many signs that life goes on without you. It brought back a lot of memories (mostly good) and it was really great to get to cram in visits with big chunk of the people I care about.
Favorite random sightings: David S. Miles (I don't think he even realized his company name accidentally spelled smiles); Rad Art; First World Mortgage; Gepetto's Toys (who knew that Pinocchio was from Connecticut?); Theodate Pope Riddle's Husband would call her "Dearest of Geniuses"
Regional Observations: Nobody in any of the states I've visited so far jay walks half much as people in Boston.
Albums Listened To: By the Way by the Red Hot Chili Peppers (i like them musically but man they have some of the dumbest lyrics in the game); By You, With You, For You by The Slackers; Cabbage Alley by the Meters (great way to welcome me into the Cs); Cahoots by the Band; California by Dave Hillyard; California by Mr. Bungle (it's shocking that an album that has songs that combine Middle eastern folk, doo wop, and heavy metal could be called the most accessible of a band's discography); Californication by the Red Hot Chili Peppers
People's Favorite Jokes:
What do you get when you cross a lion and a duck? A lion
How would you like your coffee? Black like my soul
