Julian, Bubbles and Ricky

If you know who Julian, Bubbles and Ricky are, I'm impressed.  They are characters on a Canadian TV show called Trailer Park Boys.  The show is everything that is stereotypical of a trailer park and stereotypes in a Nova Scotian trailer park are no different than in the United States.  The series ran from 2001-2008 and they had two movies.  The show is full of drinking, drugs, illegal plots, jail and tons of swearing.  And it's hilarious.

Last Tuesday, M and I went to see Trailer Park Boys live....the Drunk, High and Unemployed Tour. The show consisted of the three main characters; Julian, who is never seen without a rum and coke in his hand (and I mean ever), Bubbles who wears coke bottle glasses and lives in a shed with all his kitties and Ricky who is considered the dumbest of all of them with tons of malaprop's (or Rickyisms like "it's a catch 23" or "get two birds stoned at once") It basically was a live episode of their TV show.  It was very entertaining and kind of surreal to see these characters in real life.  I bought tickets to this probably four months ago and we had really great seats, 3rd row on the aisle.

If your are into crude comedies, check it out!  Has anyone out there seen Trailer Park Boys before?  

Via

Before I show pictures from the show, we walked past this place on Hennepin which featured art from Dana-something.  It was creepy!  

Now for the show:

Ricky (my favorite), Julian and Bubbles

Thanking the crowd out of character

Patton Oswalt

I forgot to write about going to see Patton Oswalt on Thursday, March 24th, mostly because you can't take any pictures at Acme.  Because we are Acme Insiders, we were able to purchase tickets to this show before they went on sale to the public.  I always enjoy going to see a high-profile comedian at Acme since the capacity is only 290 people.

The show was great.  For the first time, probably ever, all three acts were funny!

Last Wednesday M and I went to Acme Comedy Club to meet up with our friends Loren and Michelle to see a free comedy show.  Wednesday was Acme Insider's Night, which means if you are signed up as an Acme Insider, you get offered two free tickets once a month to see a featured show.  Since M and I are trying to do things that do not cost a lot of money, we thought it would be a perfect mid-week activity with friends. The headlining comic was Jamie Kilstein.  I would describe him as a politic comic, whose views are way to the left. He was very versed and passionate about his material but I can't say it was laugh out loud hilarious.  He was very good at what he does though.  I forgot to take any pictures of the evening so I'll use a photo of Acme that I took last year.  If you are interested in becoming an Acme Insider and get invites to free shows, sign up here.

Quest for Comedy

I forgot to blog about this because I didn't take any pictures but for June's Quest for Comedy, M and I went to Acme Comedy Club to see John Evans on Tuesday, June 8th. The night was just...weird. There were many things that made the night awkward. Let's keep track:

• It was a Tuesday night there were only 40 or so people in the audience.
• M and I were seated in the very front row. Our feet touched the stage and it was not comfortable being that close to the stage.
• The 1st comedian was a female and it was painful to watch her. She was not comfortable up there and she wasn't doing very well. If it wasn't her first show ever, it was probably her second.
• M was picked on repeatedly and yelled at by the 2nd comedian and was called a "a f*cking a$$hole" multiple times. M wasn't bothered by it though. It just comes with the territory of sitting so close to the stage.
• The 2nd comedian also asked M questions about our sex life and if we are freaky in the bedroom. I was pretty embarrassed and I thank M for not answering his questions!
• John Evans headlined the show. We saw him open up for Bobcat Goldthwait last fall and he was hilarious but not so much this evening. His timing was off and there were so many awkward pauses. Nobody likes uncomfortable silence, right?

This night was truly a QUEST for comedy and I'm not sure we really succeeded. Better luck next month.

Conan O'Brien

When tickets went on sale for Conan O'Brien's, "The Legally Prohibited From Being Funny on Television Tour", I jumped at the chance to go, however there was only a 9 hour window of time from when people were notified to the time the actual tickets went on sale. I was busy purchasing presale tickets to see Craig Ferguson at the time Conan tickets went on sale on March 11th and by the time I knew about Conan, about 3 hours later, tickets were LONG gone, which meant that we'd be searching the secondary market...Stub Hub, Ebay, Craig's List, etc. And that is what we did every other day until we finally scored tickets. It's not that tickets weren't available, they were, just at a huge premium, which M and I could not justify paying. Only 6 days before the show did we find more tickets show up on Stub Hub for a "reasonable" price that we ended up swooping up for purchase. And wow, am I so glad we did. We had tickets in the box seating, which is not in the balcony but on sides of the walls of the main floor area. And so it became, Conan O'Brien was our featured act for May for our monthly Quest for Comedy.

The show opened with Reggie Watts who was a combination type comedian/beat boxer/rapper/musician that was....interesting. I'm not really sure what to think of him but he was funny at times and I had such a high from just being there getting ready to see Conan that that night that he was probably funnier to me than if I was about to see someone else. The show also included stand-up from Deon Cole, one of Conan's writers from The Tonight Show.

Conan's show opened with part of his band playing horns and running through the aisles of the main floor audience until Conan finally walked out and the crowd erupted with a standing ovation. Conan's show consisted of the use of a multiple uses for the huge video screen including what Conan's been up to the past few months, an appearance by Triumph the Insult Comic Dog, whom I met before, Conan's 8 stages of grief and Walker, Texas Ranger clips. He also played music with his band and his girls, The Cokettes. I did not do any research before the show to see what entailed but I was pleasantly surprised when Andy Richter was introduced to be part of the show. In addition, when Conan was playing with the band, he introduced Brian Setzer of the Stray Cats and Brian Setzer Orchestra and they played, "Rock this Town". Brian Setzer lives in Minneapolis and Conan is a huge rockabilly fan so after they finished their song together, Conan said something similar to, "That was a highlight of my life. I can die now" referring to playing live with Brian Setzer. The last part of the show was again a performance with both Conan and band and Brian and Conan takes off from the stage and runs up the aisle and takes off and disappears for about two minutes when he suddenly appears in the balcony running around and just about 15 feet away from us.

The show was incredibly awesome with so much laughter, talents, guests and just a mix of everything that encompasses and spells Conan O'Brien. Conan had so much energy and gave the audience 110% throughout the whole show. Enjoy all the pictures!

Craig Ferguson

In our monthly Quest for Comedy, M and I went to see Craig Ferguson on Friday at the State Theater, with no days to spare for the month of April. A comedian by the name of Randy Kagan opened up for him. Craig Ferguson was one of the most polished comedians I have seen. I've seen plenty of comedians and a lot of them do refer to notes sitting on a stool or a chair and Craig did not, as well as telling jokes or stories so well and with much charisma and charm. For those that don't know Craig Ferguson, he is the talk show host of The Late Late Show. If you still don't know who I'm talking about, he was played Drew Carey's boss on The Drew Carey Show. Craig was born and Scotland but became an American within the last couple of years and truly LOVES America. He starts out his TV show with, "It's a great day in America" and he started out his show at the State Theater the same way. Check out his show if you haven't. He is goofy and a little far out but if you like that type of humor, you'll like Craig Ferguson.

Dinner and Lots of Laughs

M and I went to a restaurant last night called Wooley's Steakhouse and it is located in the Embassy Suites hotel in Bloomington, close to the airport and Mall of America. I bought a gift certificate on www.restaurant.com six months or so ago and was able to purchase a $50 gift certificate for $4. There were some stipulations to this gift cert, including that you had to spend $100, excluding alcohol. After looking at the menu prior to going there, I knew we could spend $100. M and I are not big fans of restaurants in hotels but decided to give it a try anyways. Overall, we were not happy with our experience. I don't even want to get into details about the whole dinner but basically we spent $45 each on a steak dinner that was equivalent to a $7 meat market filet you would buy and prepare at home. Actually, M commented that the steaks I prepare tasted better than this. They weren't bad, just bland. No seasonings and our meat was cooked incorrectly. M also made a special request regarding his food and when the plate came out, his request wasn't granted plus we're pretty sure that they got my steak mixed up with M's. Our server was nice though. Her name was Grandma Sue. Her name tag even said that and we even heard another customer request Grandma as their server. So even with that $50 discount, we still ended up spending $88 including tip and all the stupid hotel/Bloomington tax or whatever and only included one beer. When you spend that much money, you expect a certain quality and we didn't get that. Extremely overpriced. So. Not. Worth. It.

The best part of our night was to come. We headed over to the Mall of America and we knew our luck was changing when we were able to get a front row parking spot. You know how much of a hassle it can be to park at the MOA. We walked into the 4th floor of the MOA to Rick Bronson's House of Comedy. As you might remember, M and I go and see a comedian each month and March was supposed to be Jimmy Fallon, however I got an email and phone call from Ticketmaster the day of the show stating the show had been cancelled. Jimmy Fallon stated he had hurt his back but I think it was lack of ticket sales that was causing the pain. So, we were left to find another comedian to see. There were plenty that came through Minneapolis this month but M is usually the one that does the research on the comics and we both agreed on the one we saw last night.

This was the first time we had been to House of Comedy and for those of you who use to hang out at the bars on the 4th floor back in the day, it is the old Gators location. Once inside, we were seated as part of a long table that was actually on the side of the stage. We were only five feet away but our table was actually behind the front of the stage so we didn't really know what to expect to see once the comics came out. There were two comics besides the host. One was Elaine Thompson, who is a local comedian and she was pretty funny. The headliner, Sebastian Maniscalco, was HILARIOUS. He was one of the best comedians I've ever seen in person. We had a chance to meet him after the show and he was truly happy to be meeting some fans. After coming off a meeting with Pauly Shore the month before, Sebastian was much more friendly and genuine. After the show we each got an Easter egg with candy in it and mine had a 2-for-1 ticket inside and M's had a free ticket inside so we'll definitely come back to see a show. It is a little pricier than Acme but so far our debut at House of Comedy was well worth it. Check out the video of Sebastian from Jay Leno.

Rob Schneider

M and I went to see Rob Schneider on Friday night at the Burnsville Performing Arts Center. I had never even heard of the place so it was it a surprise to see a very nice theater. It has been open for a year but it still had that "new" smell. Rob Schneider was our choice for January's Quest for Comedy, our own monthly outing for comedy. You know him best for his time on Saturday Night Live as a cast member from the late 80's to early 90's and his movies. The comedian that opened for him was Jeff Richards, who was also on SNL for a few years and is known best for his "Drunk Girl" character. Jeff had some very funny impressions and Rob was also funny. You can tell by his act that he is an intelligent person. My favorite joke from him that night was he was imitating those guys on the gold commercials asking you if you have any unwanted gold. Unwanted gold. He went into a big joke about that. The pictures I took were low quality. There was no photography allowed so of course I had to sneak in a picture or two whenever I could. We were in the 4th row, center section and the spotlight on him was so bright so the pictures just show him as one big glowing face.

After the show, we met Tanya and Chris at Tavern on France in Edina for some dinner and drinks. Tavern has an awesome menu idea where you can Build Your Own (BYO) Salads, Burgers and Pizzas. It was nice to see these two finally. We hadn't seen them since Cherrie's tailgate party!

Acme Comedy Club

Our December's Quest for Comedy was at Acme again and we saw Dan Cummins on December 16th. This guy was hilarious and is one of my favorites for this year. We got to meet him after the show and we told him that we see a comedian every month and he thought that was great of course and was happy that he "won" as the comedian of choice for December. He has a couple of Comedy Central specials so if you ever get the chance, check him OUT!

Bobcat

This month's Quest for Comedy was back at Acme to see Bobcat Goldthwait. I'm hoping you all know who he is but if you don't, you might remember him from Police Academy movies and also his very distinct stage voice. He didn't use that voice during his stand up though. In recent years, he has been behind the camera directing popular TV shows instead of on-stage. Last Thursday's show was his first (I believe) in 3 months as he just had back surgery and was returning to the stage. He seemed a bit rusty but I don't know if that was just him. He is all over the place with his words and thoughts that a story/bit is never told very smoothly. I thought he was very funny at times. He was very dirty at times and pushed the boundaries on some certain jokes (Michael Jackson) but you wanted his show to be politically correct, you probably wouldn't have been there in the first place. John Evans opened the show and he was also very funny. He's been on Comedy Central and Last Comic Standing.

I didn't get any pictures of the comics on stage as you cannot take photos so the posters will have to do.

Michael and Michael

In M and I's quest to see a comedian every month, we went and saw Michael Ian Black and Michael Showalter at the Pantages Theater last Thursday. They have a show on Comedy Central called Michael and Michael Have Issues, which I've never seen. I actually won the tickets through The Onion. If you watch VH1, you will know Michael Ian Black. He's been a few Sierra Mist commercials too. I picked up the tickets at will call and was surprised when we were seated on the main level, center section, row 7. They were good seats but if you've been to the Pantages, they are all good seats. There wasn't that many people there. The ticket prices were steep, almost $30. The show itself had it's funny parts but some of it was so far out. There were some scripted parts but I think a lot of it is improvised as both Michaels are on the stage with each other and they just feed off one another. You could meet the Michael's after the show but I just snapped a quick picture while they were signing autographs. Before the show, M and I ate at Hopscotch Grill inside Gameworks on Block E. There was hardly anybody in there but my sandwich was super good. We drove down Hennepin to get there from Washington. Remember Hennepin and First Avenue are both two-way streets now! It was so weird driving that way down Hennepin! I think it's been a one-way since at least 1993 when I started driving down there.