Lydia, Mary and Lily have all been involved in Battle of the Books competitions lately. Today, Ammon and Clarissa were tagging along.
In the evening, Dad, Suzanne, Lydia and Mary and I all went to a Brian Regan concert. I bought the tickets for Lydia when I saw Brian Regan would be performing near her birthday. It was also so fun that today was Suzanne’s birthday! We met my dad and Suzanne the performance and I sat separately because I originally didn’t realize how much Mary would enjoy it (and I didn’t get her a ticket) so I got a 5th ticket last minute so she could come (but it was not with the group). While I was going to my seat, my dad called to inform me that the 4 tickets he, Suzanne, Lydia and Mary were using were actually for tomorrow and they weren’t letting them in. Oh now! I felt awful. I had mixed up the dates of the performance. Amazingly, and thanks be to God, despite it being a sold out show, 4 people had returned their tickets, and they were right in the front left, and they allowed my dad and the group to exchange them free of charge. Wow, crisis averted! Even though my dad and Suzanne were so nice and offered to go with Lydia and Mary the next day, it would have been a lot of extra trouble, and my ticket was for tonight, and I was going straight to the airport for an overnight flight. I’m so grateful it worked out the way it did.
Brian Regan and his warm-up act were hilarious. Here are a few highlights:
- His friend told him his plants would grow better if he said nice things to it. So he thought the reverse should be true and replaced mowing his lawn with 30 seconds of screaming and berating his lawn (you call yourself grass!) to keep it from growing.
- Pointing out that there is no need for the reversed “Ambulance” letters. The idea is that people can read it in their rear-view mirror. Brian pointed out that with the flashing lights and blaring sirens, you don’t need the additional help of the word ambulance, joking about someone seeing the flashing lights and hearing the siren, but saying to himself, “I and pulling over for no ecnalubma”.
- And my favorite joke of the night: If you want to ever feel insecure, just go to a carnival cruise photographer. My girlfriend and I walk up to get our picture taken, and the photographer says, “Ok, stand up a little straighter, straighten your spine, now lift your chin, a little straighter, shoulders back, straighter still, lift your head” Brian says, “Geeze, what did I look like when I walked up there!” And he folds over almost in half with his arms draping down, and he makes monster/ape noises. He said, they could have just not given me any instructions and gotten a picture of Bigfoot!
A love for stand-up comics is something I particularly share with Lydia, and it was so happy for me to share that moment with her around her birthday. It was also so fun to be with Suzanne on her birthday. She always so sweet and fun to be around. What a happy evening for all of us!
After the show, I jumped on a flight to New York!