VT Day 3 - Cafes, Conversations, and Competitions
I'd like to start off by highly recommending the Burlington hostel to any itinerant wanderers of the Northeast. Hostels definitely aren't as big a thing in the US as they are in Europe, but this one really captures the safe and friendly vibes of the ones I saw across the pond. Plus there's free waffles so, as long as you don't mind a bunk bed, it's a great deal in a great location.
The majority of the day was then spent hopping from cafe to cafe around Burlington, and having unexpectedly deep and meaningful conversations with people. The Maine Beer Cafe had been one of the friendliest environments I'd ever been to, and right now Burlington feels like a city-wide version of that.
My first stop was the Cosmic Grind Cafe. It's small and their wifi is a little spotty, but the coffee is good and the staff is really nice. While I was working on some writing, a customer and the barista were talking about the music that was playing in the store. I made some kinda awkward comment about how it sounded a bit like this band Hop Along. Turns out Hop Along is from Philly, and the customer was for years a touring musician based out of Philly so he knew them personally. We then talked about the Dead Milkmen, probably my favorite band from out of Philly, and it turns out he knows and worked with some of the guys from that band. Now that we're chatting, we cover a huge array of topics. The guy had some muscular problems so we started talking about medical marijuana, which then segued into the opiate crisis which had particularly affected both of our home towns, and then from there somehow into how education has changed for the better and how spoiled we are to have generally good public education in the Northeast. He talked about having a son on the autism spectrum, and how lucky he felt being in Burlington and getting an early diagnosis and having tons of opportunities for his son to thrive that he did not experience having a much more mild learning disability in the 80's. It was such a cool moment of unexpected bonding and commonality that sprung from a chance observation. He said that in his years of touring with bands and as a solo artist that as nice as is it to see "the sights" wherever you go the things that stay with you the most are people you meet. In my short time already on the road, I suspect these words will only continue to ring more true. He also gave me some nice recommendations for when I eventually make it down to Philidelphia.
Because we were talking about autism towards the end, I decided to check out the place where Rich, the guy I met at the story telling, worked. It's a place that uses puppets to reach kids with various psychological, developmental, and emotional challenges, and it seems like an absolutely incredible program. I'm a total sucker for that kind of thing though, because I was raised on Muppets and I think Sesame Street is one of the smartest and most important things television has ever produced. There's a book about the development and early years of Sesame Street called Street Smarts, that I highly recommend because the amount of creativity and educational research that went into that show is astounding. Unfortunately, they were closed when I got there so I didn't get to see any puppet action.
Walking back, I just happen to bump into one of the comics I met at the past two open mics, Carl, sitting at a cafe called Bario, so I made my second cafe stop of the day. The sandwich I got at Bario was a real trojan horse of flavor. Very unassuming to look at, but absolutely incredible focaccia bread and local sun-dried tomatoes with goat cheese and chicken. Color me impressed.
Carl and I then sat there for a while and chatted about comedy. We talked about the different vibes between Burlington and Boston, and shared our "first time" stories (stand up, not sex if that isn't clear. Vermont's friendly but some things still don't come up after only meeting someone three times). Carl's from Indiana originally, so I really enjoyed just listening to him talk about his trajectory toward ending up in Burlington and some of the differences between the midwest and the northeast. Something that we ended up talking about that I found really interesting was the idea of there being just totally different realms of intelligence. The examples he used were athletics versus academics, and how some people might not be book smart but the minute calculations and forward planning and mental gymnastics involved in quality athletic performance is really astounding and frequently not given the recognition that it deserves. He had played football in Indiana, and hearing his articulation of something I had never really considered before was really insightful.
One odd thing that happened in Bario is that an older gentleman asked if he could buy me a cookie because I looked like his brother. It was really weird, but ultimately harmless and nice. The cookie was excellent as well.
From Bario, Carl invited me to continue this cafe crawl at the New Moon Cafe to meet Nicole, another comic I've gotten to meet a couple times here. In terms of space, I think this was my favorite of the three. It's a deceptively small storefront because the inside is really spacious, comfortable, and lovely. We talked about how homogenized a lot of college culture is, regardless if the school is more liberal leaning or conservative, and how refreshing stand-up had been for them comparative to their college experiences, because so many people from totally different walks of life with different viewpoints are drawn to this common thing. I'd only met these guys two days before but getting to hang out and chat, really felt like I was with old college friends again.
By now most of the day had passed, so I decided I had to do at least one thing not in Burlington. I ended up, at the advice of a friend who had gone to college in VT, checking out a 50's style diner in Stowe called the Depot Street Malt Shop. I had a maple bbq pulled pork sandwich (unsurprisingly maple is big in Vermont) and a moose tracks milkshake. The sandwich was great, but the shake was definitely the star of the show. At the bottom of the glass was just whole peanut butter cups which is the perfect way really to end any meal.
After dinner was the first day of the first round of the 6th Annual Vermont's Funniest Competition. There were 21 comics on the roster, so it was a long night of comedy but for the most part the quality maintained a pretty high bar. It was a pretty diverse group, some of whom were very new and some who were more seasoned, and I think those differences tended to show for the most part (though there were a couple young people who gave the pros a run for their money).
The Burlington Comedy Club is a pretty great mid-sized theater and it was a sold out house tonight. I loved the venue, and I thought it was a great receptive audience. For the most part I think everything that got big laughs deserved it, and the things that didn't get huge laughs deserved that too. There were a few sets of all regional humor so I don't know that I can fairly assess them but they did seem to go over well.
My personal favorite all around for this batch of comics was probably a guy named Sky Sandoval (though this was a tough call amongst a lot of talented performers). He did a mix of stuff about his family, and more silly extended bits which I thought were all really strong, and he had a very relaxed but confident delivery that I felt made the most of his material. I personally really enjoyed a bit about how silly it would be if medical marijuana advertised like other pharmaceuticals: "Do you suffer from back pain, low appetite, or mild seizures? You should consider asking your doctor about Mountain Thunderfuck today!"
I think other top contenders from this lineup were Mike Thomas, who did a good fake out where he sounded like he was going to talk about politics and then did his whole set about ghosts only to bring it back around for a clever little comment on race relations at the end. And two comedians who were still in their first years of doing comedy that really stood out to me were Taylor Radke and Jared Hall. Very different sets (I've actually seen Taylor at both open mics this week, and her act's only gotten better each time) but if this is how good they are now after less than a year of practice, I really think they'll be names to watch out for.
One thing I hadn't seen much of before at open mics was a performer by the stage name of Mavis O'Grady who did her whole set as a kind of folksy old-women grandma character. I did a show once at Improv Boston that was specifically for people to try out bizarre characters but I've never seen anyone really try to go for that kind of thing at a regular show so that kept things interesting.
I also want to highlight the host Richard Bowen for being just an excellent source of energy and cheesy/clever one liners throughout the night. My personal favorite of his: "How many babies are born with umbilical chords? One Hundred placenta them"
Favorite Joke of the night: Bob Pettinnelli - "My wife and I are older now so we only have sex about once a month. I don't mind though, I know some guys she cut off completely"
Favorite Random Sightings: A Bernie Sanders inspired smokeshop called The Bern Gallery; A sign saying "We'll Print Anything But Money!"; A license plate that just says "Rusty"; The Mutt Hut
Regional Observations: Vermont calls soft-serve ice cream creemees and it's real weird. Every cafe in Burlington has really cool local art on display. Everyone in Burlington has a story about running into Bernie Sanders at some point.
Albums Listened To: Black Ken by Lil B (base god)
People's Favorite Jokes:
What kind of tree can fit in your hand? A palm tree
A man goes to the same vacation house every year, and he loves it. One year, he hears a knock on the door and he goes to answer it but there's no body there. Then he looks down and sees a snail and gets all grossed out. He picks it up, throws it in the woods, and goes back inside. He doesn't really think about it again. A couple years go by, he still goes each year and enjoys himself, but after three years he hears another knock on the door. He goes to see who's at the door, and there's nobody there. He looks down and sees a snail who says, "Hey what the hell was that all about?!"
