Clayton Champagne and I met at the Main Street Bistro yesterday afternoon and headed into Illinois. Olney (pronounced All knee) Illinois, specifically, home of the white (albino) squirrel. Gabe Kea, Joe Hart, Ken JR were leaving later that afternoon and would eventually meet us at Papa Mike's, the venue. Butch Lord was already in Olney doing radio for the show that CW Robertson had put together featuring all of us.
I have to admit that I was a little skeptical about the show; remember that bar, the Double Deuce, in Road House. I kind of imagined that. The show room was actually very cool, and packed full of people at round-tables (6 and 8 tops mainly) with a bar in the back, manned (operated, I should say) by Haley, the bartender. I don't remember too many of the names of people I was introduced to, it was a pretty full evening. Anyway, the order was Gabe, Me, Clayton, Joe, CW, Ken, Butch.
I recorded my set and Clayton's; mine will be up hopefully by Monday.
I had to write an introduction for the MC (who was a radio DJ and kind of looked like Lt. Dangle from Reno 911, only a little pudgier); it said something like "your next performer has toured clubs and colleges all around the midwest, and was a co-founder of the Columbia College Taco Bell club, please welcome Marcus Robinson". I added the taco bell club thing because 1) it's true and 2) ever since I told John Garrison about it on my first trip (ever) out to Fairview, I've been trying to write it to stage. Plus it was a good lead-in to my college material. I had some sort of weird energy last night, and really felt like I was excited, but paced. I didn't rush, I emphasized, enunciated and connected; and I had fun. The audience seemed to like my set, I was on for about 11 minutes, and though I know of a couple mistakes I made (like I completely forgot to do any of my holiday material) I am very pleased with my set. After the show, (which started at about 8:00 and ended around 10:30) we went to a bar called the FireSide, where we had a blast. The funniest part was this morning when I didn't know where everyone's hotel room was (we didn't have phones in our rooms and none of our cell phones worked). Eventually we all met up and grabbed some fantastic breakfast at Hovie's on Main Street. The ride back was fun, and we listened to a radio show teaser that Butch was working on. I thought you could check it out here, but I think I was wrong... This was my first paid show in almost 8 months and it couldn't have gone better, I am super excited about this coming weekend's shows in Bloomington, IL.
I'm the baddest of the bad
Since you've been gone,
The baddest of the bad,
Since you've been gone.
I lay around here
And I just drink beer
The baddest of the bad,
Since you've been gone.