NJ Day 4 - Beaches, Beers, and Beats
Before I talk about today I would just like to highlight that I forgot to mention the funniest thing about Northlandz yesterday, and it is that the ghost town section of the model train featured a model run down strip club (which I so hope they had to make themselves) for that real Atlantic City vibe:
I started today in the town of Elizabeth. I had booked my Air BnB there, partly because it was near the open mic last night and tonight, but also because I recognized the name from my from of my favorite poems by a guy named Joe Weil who lives there. It's a little long to reprint but there's a link to it here
I got my coffee at the Coffee House, and it was pretty good but the thing that made me most excited was that I heard a customer actually say "fugeddaboutit". I could barely contain my glee.
From there I set out for Cape May for a day at the beach. There can't be too many of those left for the season here in the Northeast, but for now the weather hasn't realized it's fall yet. It might also be a sign that the world is slowly heating to an unlivable temperature, but who's gonna let that stop their fun in the sun!
Cape May is just about as far South as you can go Jersey, so it was a bit of a hike getting there, but the Garden State Parkway is pretty for how crazy it can get. The town of Cape May is a really lovely beach town, with old fashioned houses, an outdoor mall, and a lighthouse to boot.
I drove up to the see the light house first and take a walk on the beach. There were just tons of people there bird watching. I wouldn't have expected the magnitude or the fervor of bird watchers there, but they were possibly more entertaining to watch then the birds. Lots of fancy equipment on display. I would have thought it'd be a quiet relaxing hobby, and I'm sure it is for some people, but these folks were really into it. Still it's kinda nice seeing people doing what they love, even when it's wonderfully baffling to you.
The beach was nice but despite the unseasonable warmness, it still wasn't quite swimming weather so I just sort of walked around for a bit. There was an old abandoned army bunker on the beach from WWII which gave everything a nice spooky flavor.
From their I went to check out the outdoor mall, which is more of a like a commercial version of a seaside village. Lots of local wares, generally kinda overpriced, but cute. I went first to Luisa's Chocolate Bar, where I sampled a lot of different local chocolates, the strangest of which was strawberry basil. Wouldn't have thought that would go well with chocolate, but I dug it. Then I tried some homemade saltwater taffy from Fralinger's, a local institution, and they were nice enough to let me try two pieces for free. I can't say I'm the biggest taffy fan in the world, but I thought these were pretty good.
Having satisfied my sweet tooth, I decided to fill my belly. I went to the MadBatter which, is a combo bakery, bar, and restaurant and got the chowdah. It was New England Style, with a creamy broth, but the restaurant's specialty was adding big ol' chunks of bacon to the mix which was just incredible. The bar also had a pretty early hapy hour so I decided to try a local beer while I was there. I had a brown ale from Ludland Island Brewery called the Bay Muck. It was very tasty despite the kind of charmingly revolting name.
After lunch, I went to Cape May Brewery to sample a few more local brews. For a microbrewery, they had a pretty wide selection and reasonably priced flights. I tried a Honey Porter, a spiced ale, a cranberry shandy, and a wine-finished saison. I'd say I liked them most to least in that order but everything was very good. I was probably most surprised by the shandy even if it wasn't my favorite, only because in general fruity beers get to be too sweet for me, but I guess the tartness of the cranberries offset the sugariness in a cool way.
I ended up making friends at the bar with a guy from Philly who was on vacation. We talked about beer and comedy, and he recommended checking out a morning radio show in Philly and possibly getting in contact with the DJs because they like weird stories like mine. He also bought me a full pint of the porter because that was both of our favorites.
The camaraderie was nice but that extra beer (coupled with not eating much and travel fatigue) got me a little too drunk so I took a nap in my car for a bit. This made me a little late to the open mic I wanted to be, but for some crazy reason I'm okay with putting the general safety of my self and others above getting a good spot at a mic. Maybe this will keep me from true success one day but for now i'm cool with it.
The mic ended up being really cool though and while I ended up being one of the last performers I still made it within enough time to see almost every act. It was in a room above a natural food store called the George Street Co-Op and featured a pretty even mix of musicians and comedians. I never saw a mic that was as balanced between music and comedy, but it was super cool. The lineup was pretty consistently high quality, and it was an interesting mix of performers. I feel like the young hippy-ish crowd was more into out there stuff musically and comedically. One guy did acoustic metal, a woman sang a song about the plot of Grosse Point Blank, and another guy brought a boombox and did a mix of r and b, and partially free styled hip hop which was super cool.
Comedically things were pretty strong. My favorite was probably a guy named Tiz who did a surreal mix of one liners, social commentary, and historical jokes. I think I liked him most because he had such a unique delivery that's hard to articulate in writing. Maybe Mitch Hedberg comes to mind because I was listening to him in the car today, but something I noticed about both Mitch and Tiz was the very sort of off the cuff delivery and unpredictable cadence that makes you feel like the performer isn't even sure what they're about to say next even when you know most of it has to be pretty rehearsed.
Two other highlights were a guy named Mark Henley who did a good bit about a dumb coworker breaking the news to him about the lead singer of Linkin Park dying by going up and saying "Linkin Park died" and Brian St. John who did a funny bit about how people are more likely to yell at you for smoking on the subway than for masturbating on the subway.
In general I'd say the audience preferred silly, more story based comedy, but they were willing to go with dark stuff and political stuff too, just in smaller doses.
My own set did all right, but by the time I got up most of the (very supportive up to that point) audience was getting tired and starting to file out. It was a little draining having to be the only source of energy in the room performing for so few people, and I felt like I had to win them over anew with each joke, because they all wanted to go home/ celebrate their friend who was co-hosting the event's birthday. Still despite not being my best set of the week, it was easily one of the most fun mics I've watched thus far, and one I'd highly recommend.
Favorite Joke of the Night: Tiz: "Paul Revere made his famous speech, 'the British are boming!' Of course he was a blood so he couldn't say the c"
Favorite Random Sightings: "For Women, Men, and Childrens"; Class Cutters Barbershop; a big billboard for a mountain saying "I'm more than just a big mountain"; Everyday is a Gouda Day
Regional Observation: I feel like I have paid more tolls on the highways in NJ than all the other states thus far combined
Albums Listened to: Dirty Rice by Mad Caddies; Disco Volante by Mr. Bungle (possibly the strangest album I own which is really saying something); The Discography by Sgt. Scanetti (just Necromance); Do or Die by the Dropkick Murphys; Do You Believe in Gosh? by Mitch Hedberg (I've probably heard this album at least a hundred times and it still makes me laugh out loud); Do You Believe in Magic? by the Lovin' Spoonful; Do you want more?!!!??! by the Roots (just Proceed and Essaywhuman?!!!??!); Don Quixote by Gordon Lightfoot; Don't Know How To Party by the Mighty Mighty Bosstones; Don't Let the Bastards Grind You Down by the Toasters
People's Favorite Jokes:
Where does Napoleon keep his armies? In his sleevies (that's two for that one)
Why did the frenchman have only one egg? Because he had had an oeuf.
Song of the Day:
