Bet You didn't Think I'd Do This!

I’ve always been told how funny I am and have often been told that I should be a comedian. Personally I know I look at things a bit differently than most but I’ve never seen myself as one who can “tell jokes”. I do much better telling stories and “working off” other people. I add things to conversations. Kind of like a counter puncher in boxing. I see what’s thrown out there and react to it. Fortunately most people find the things I say funny. I’ve always enjoyed that.

Stand up comedy has always fascinated me. The balls it takes to get up in front of a crowd of strangers is something that I’ve always thought very highly of. I used to stay up watching Johnny Carson until 1:00 am when I was young just because he used to have the comedian on last. I could never count the amount of times I’ve gone to local comedy clubs and concerts featuring comics. Suffice it to say its well into three digits. Hell, I used to be a local at The Comedy Store in La Jolla.

With all that being said, I went and did something that, I’m sure, none of you out there thought I ever would. I went down to the Detroit area and found a comedy club that was having an amateur night and I got my nerves under control and actually did it.

I had been thinking about this for ages. As I stated earlier, I’m not into the telling jokes with setups and punch lines and that’s all you ever see at an amateur night. I wanted to find a couple subjects and then try to just talk about them and give my somewhat odd take on that subject. I did practice some. I have found a couple places where people do readings and things like that, you know, coffee shops and things out in Ann Arbor. I would go and read an essay or two that I wrote and I found that I would throw in a couple comments about what I was reading about and people would laugh. It was really cool because I wasn’t even trying, it would just be something that would pop into my head about the subject I was reading about.

So, I got myself all dressed up, suit, tie and all that stuff and drove down to the club. I didn’t tell anyone where I was going because I know I couldn’t have done it if anyone I knew was there. I did tell Karen and Bobbie, one of the girls here at the office, what I was doing, just not where. It was about an hour and a half drive and the entire way down I kept running the essays I’ve written in my head. I was trying to figure out which ones I felt I could play off of without stumbling. I settled on a few I thought would work and felt pretty good about what I was about to do.

Of course, when I got there I was as nervous as could be. I sat in the car for quite a while trying to find the right excuse to not go through with it. After convincing myself to go ahead and just do it I went inside and signed up. The guy at the sign up desk asked me what music I wanted. I told him I had no idea what he was talking about and he explained that there was a list of songs that I could go through and choose from to play me on and off the stage. Cool. I looked through the list and saw “Born To Run” by Springsteen and figured, what the hell, I love the song, it’s an up tempo kind of thing and I thought it would be a kind of motivating factor in getting me up for what I was about to do.

Well, of course the dreaded time came and they announced my name. It was different from the time I did Karaoke. I felt totally prepared with how I wanted to do this and wasn’t nearly as scared as I was when I did the singing thing. As I went up and the song was playing the crowd cheered and that was nice. As the music ended the crowd kept cheering and yelling “Bruce” real loud. There were only about 25 to 30 people there and at least half were yelling. I mentioned something like “You gotta love Bruce” and they cheered louder.

It was at that very moment that everything changed. The plan I had went out the window and I decided right then and there that I was going to talk about Bruce and see where it went. I mentioned that a number of years ago some state representative from New Jersey had submitted a bill to make “Born To Run” the state song of New Jersey. Again, the crowd cheered and started yelling his name. I asked if they really thought it was a good idea and again, they cheered.

I then took the next three or four minutes and recited the lyrics to the song pausing numerous times along the way to talk about what I had just said and how ridiculous it was that this could be a state song. With lyrics like:

“Baby this town rips the bones from your back
It’s a death trap, it’s a suicide rap
We gotta get out while we’re young
‘cause tramps like us, baby we were born to run”

and:

“Together we could break this trap
We’ll run till we drop, baby we’ll never go back”

It was quite easy.

I think they actually had fun with the whole thing. The further along I got the more comfortable I was. About mid way through I took the mike off the stand and had one hand in my pocket and was just strolling around the stage. Then something really cool happened.

I’ve spoken before about how there are moments that happen where everything just fits. Well, this was one of them. I had forgotten to turn my phone off and, needless to say, it started ringing. This was how I knew things were going my way. My ring tone is “Born to run”. I pulled the phone out of my pocket and put it up to the mike and that got a few laughs. I then asked if they minded if I took the call and they laughed some more. Of course I didn’t, I just turned it off and put it away and asked where we were in the song. A couple up front told me exactly where I was and I just continued. I finished the song with the line in the last verse that goes:

“Everybody’s out on the run tonight but there’s no place left to hide”.

And I said something like Resolved: Born To Run should not be the state song of New Jersey. I got a nice hand and I told them thanks for making a dream come true and that was it.

I went out to my car and just sat and brought myself back to reality for well over an hour. I didn’t get home until 2:30 in the morning. I was and am very proud of myself with the way I changed my plan with no warning and was able to go ahead and talk about something off the cuff. Of course it seemed like I was up there for hours but I’m sure it couldn’t have been more than three or four minutes. I’ve been asked by the gang around here if I’d do it again. The answer right now is absolutely not. But, who knows. That could change someday. I did like the feeling of being up there but it was the two or three weeks I spent convincing myself to do it that was pure torture.

Anyway, another item off the list.

He Got Me Too!

So I went and saw Bruce Springsteen last night down in Auburn Hills. I think I’ve written a few things about Bruce in the past but, sorry to say, here we go again. I wrote to a friend of mine just last week about how I’m not really a huge fan of his but if I had to name my top 100 songs, odds are, eight to ten of them are Springsteen’s.

A few of them are the usual suspects, “Born To Run”, “Rosalita” “Blinded By The Light” and “Fire”. Manfred Man and The Pointer Sisters made the last two famous but, to me, Bruce’s original versions have so much more passion. Anyway, four more of his songs in my top 100 all come from the album, “Tunnel Of Love”. Three of which pretty much talk about the impending end of his marriage at the time.

Anyway, once again, way off track. Stay focused. The concert. The tickets said the show started at 7:30 and we got there about ten minutes early. The show didn’t start till 8:15. Sort of a drag but I can live with it. He opened with his latest single as most bands do and then went right into “Night” from the “Born To Run” album. He pretty much did that all night. One or two new ones then something you recognized.

One thing you really see at a Springsteen concert is the complete and utter devotion of his fans. If you are a real Springsteen fan, your loyalty is unconditional. I consider myself pretty knowledgeable when it comes to Bruce’s music but there were a number of songs that I had never heard. Most, I’m sure, from the new album. The thing that got me though was the rest of the crowd. I was something like a mile and change away from the stage so I used my binoculars throughout the show. I spent a great deal of time looking at people in the crowd. I saw a number of folks literally doing dance routines to these new songs while singing along. Pretty impressive, at least to me.

“Badlands, you gotta live it every day.
Let the broken hearts stand as the price you've gotta pay. We’ll keep pushin' till it's understood.
And these badlands start treating us good.”

It’s really something to see a crowd react so strongly to certain songs. I’ve seen Springsteen twice and both times the song “Badlands” was a sight to behold. The crowd knows the whole song and it obviously means a whole lot to them as they are up and shouting the words throughout. I know this happens at most concerts but the fervor with which these fans do it is really quite different than any crowd reaction I’ve ever seen.

Every time I go to a concert I like to see how people react to songs. A couple that hears something that is “their song” or some 10 or 11 year old with his parents just going nuts with each song and you wonder how he even knows this music. It’s a complete range of emotions that lets one understand even more how powerful this art form is. There was a little kid being held up by his dad and just rocking on beat to each song. I kept watching him throughout the show and pointed him out to the friend I was with. It was really cute. After the band came out for the encore and did the first song of the final set, Bruce saw that the kid was holding a sign. The kid was being held up right in the front of the stage. Anyway, Bruce came up to the kid, bent down, and talked to him for a second or two and took the sign and held it up for all to see. On it was a request for the song “Ramrod”, it just said, “Ramrod please”. Bruce turned to the band and said, “Let’s do it” and told us all he hadn’t done the song in five years. Now, it’s easy to say that it was a setup and he had planned to play it but when I got home I went on line and found the set list, you can do that with concerts. Turns out that he dropped a planned song and put this in just for the kid. Imagine how that kid felt. Bruce kept coming down to the spot where the kid was and let the kid touch and slap the strings of the guitar throughout the song. A true rock n roll moment that that little boy will never forget. He connected with that kid in such a way that nobody there will ever forget, I even read about it in the morning paper.

“It ought to be easy, ought to be simple enough.
Man meets woman and they fall in love.
But this house is haunted and the ride gets rough,
And you’ve got to learn to live with what you can’t rise above if you want to ride on down in through this tunnel of love”

I also had one of those connecting moments with Bruce that night and I was as far back as one could be. I wrote earlier about the songs on the album “Tunnel Of Love” that are in my top songs list. Well there are two in particular that, every time I hear them, just shake my entire being. Well, he started playing title song from that album. As soon as it started I felt my eyes well up, as you all know I’m just a chick inside, and as I stood there I kept trying to wipe the tear that kept forming in my eye while not letting anyone see. Thank goodness it was dark. I was more moved in this moment than at any concert or movie I’ve ever encountered.

There is only one other song he could have played that could have possibly meant more and that’s “One Step Up” off the same album. I don’t think I could have kept my balance if he’d started that one. I mean it. My kids can attest to how many times in the car throughout their lives they’ve had to bear with me while I skip the rest of the cd to hear this song.

“When I look at myself
I don’t see.
The man I want to be.
Somewhere along the line
I slipped off track.
Moving one step up
And two steps back.”

No, I don’t think I could have handled that at all.