A weekend of entertainment

This past Saturday, I went (w/ Val, Megan, and Stephen) to see Opie & Anthony's Traveling Virus at the PNC Arts Center in Holmdel, NJ. While it was not quite the day I had hoped for, it was a blast nonetheless. First off, I had hoped to get there by 1:00 to join in the O&A fan tailgate party. Unfortunately, there were too many question marks about whether or not it would be able to go off as planned in light of the recent ban on alcohol that the venue had just imposed only days earlier. Also, it was hotter than a motherfucker that day, and the thought of standing outside in the heat for 6 hours before showtime did not appeal to us. In hindsight, I regret not sticking to the original plan. The party went off as planned, and when we got there around 4:00, the party was in full swing...with alcohol. Keeping in mind that I had already posted my wimpy concerns on the message boards and telling them to remove my entries from the Guitar Hero contest, the first thing I did when I got there was introduce myself to Deb Wolfe (a.k.a. HappyTypingGirl), and when I told her my FBA username, she exclaimed, "You're the Pussy!". Yep, that's me!

They had two 5 foot grills going, more than enough food for the hundreds in attendance (at just that tailgate), including steaks, chicken, chili, burgers, dogs, brats, sausages, beans, corn on the cob, homemade salads, watermelon, beer, soda, water, sangria, wine coolers, etc, etc. They had Dru Boogie himself spinning tunes. Not a single cop gave anyone a hard time or even came over to us (that I saw), and I think that's a testament to the fact that the O&A fans are really a bunch of cool people who know when NOT to act like assholes and to draw a line of responsibility. It really was a great crowd of seemingly cool people, and there were no idiots at all that I noticed.
And of course, as planned, they had a Guitar Hero tournament going. Someone had brought a portable generator, and they had the game hooked up to 4 monitors on a pickup truck. One TV on the tailgate, one on the roof, and a flat screen monitor on either side for spectators to watch. Even though I had pulled us out of the contest earlier because I knew we weren't coming earlier, I managed to get Stephen in the Medium competition. Unfortunately, he let the other person pick the song, and it was one Stephen almost never played. He lost. No big deal though, because by that time it was time to go inside to check out the O&A Village, where they had Octane performing live for the crowd.

Some of the highlights of this "village" are the O&A Pest petting zoo, where you could meet the likes of Stalker Patti, No Filter Paul, Big A, and Pat From Moonachie. They also had a clown dunking booth sponsored by the Stress Factory. 92.3 KRock was there with assorted swag, and they had some sort of magician who got out of a straightjacket. Of course, they also had O&A fans brand of contests to participate in, sponsored by Mafialife.com. Valerie and Megan decided to take part in two of these challenges. The first one, which has become an annual tradition and is based on the wet t-shirt concept, was the Andrea Yates challenge. The idea here is to submerse 5 balls underwater in a tub and hold them there for 10 seconds. Val and Megan tied for the win and each got a t-shirt and towel for their efforts.

The other "challenge" they participated in was the O&A popsicle challenge, and it involved sucking on a popsicle to get down to the ice cream center...without biting.

Valerie would have won easily if she wasn't jawjacking to Megan so much. Her carefree attitude was especially disturbing to me because the prize for winning this contest was the opportunity to sit ONSTAGE for the first half of the show.

We could have sat either here:

or here:

The fact that we were 8th row near center made it so I didn't really get upset about it though.

While Val and Megan were getting their tits and snatches wet (the latter of which would be a discomfort for the rest of the night), I managed to get a picture with Rich Vos, who agreed on the condition that I didn't touch him with my sweaty fat hands. He really is a cool guy.

Speaking of Rich Vos, he would be the first comedian we'd see on stage as MC for the first half of the show.

Rich comes across as quite the moron on the radio show, but he's really funny as a stand up.

Mick Foley from the WWE provided the intro for the night.

The first comic was an amateur who was the winner of "Car Crash Comedy" (similar to the Gong Show) on Friday's O&A show. He didn't win because he was good, but rather because he was the only one who wasn't eliminated with 3 car crashes. He fared much worse on the stage on this night. He got booed off the stage after only 2 or 3 minutes. But hey, ask any comedian and they'll tell you it's part of the job.
The first "real" comedian up was Bob Kelly. He killed. He had us laughing hysterically for pretty much his entire set.

Next up was Otto & George. I'm not too crazy about them as a stand up act. They're pretty funny on the O&A show when they sit in and interject George's raunch at opportune times, but on their own they leave a lot to be desired. Next up was Patrice Oneal. Like Otto and George, he's much funnier on the radio show than as a stand up. He held his own mind you, but he's much better playing off others. After that came Bob Saget. I'm not a very big fan of his at all. He has the kind of dirty humor (yes, dirty) that gets old pretty quick. "Alright Bob, we get it! You're not the wholesome guy we knew from Full House and the stupid home video show! Enough already!" He's not bad when he has his guitar though, which is usually how he closes his set.

Then came about a half hour intermission with the DJ and the obligatory "dancers", which Stephen didn't seem to mind. For his sake, I was glad that while the stripper...umm...dancer closest to us couldn't dance very well, she did have the nicest body (IMO) and what appeared to be natural boobs...something you don't see much of these days.

After the intermission, out came Opie & Anthony to MC the rest of the show. Between acts, they showed video clips of memorable moments on the show (like the baby bird video....search that on youtube or break.com), as well as animated videos of Jimmy Norton telling stories on the show that are in his book, Happy Endings.
The last 3 comics were the reason I was here (although like I said, Bob Kelly was the man on this night). First was Louis C.K. (creator and star of the defunct HBO series Lucky Louie), he is a hilariously funny comic, but I must admit that tonight was not his best material. It was funny mind you, but he's been funnier.
Next up was Lewis Black. I was really looking forward to seeing him. He used to be a regular on the radio show back in the WNEW days, and he's just recently come back to the show after a long hiatus. He was one of my favorite comics of the night. He did not disappoint.

Last but not least, on came Li'l Jimmy Norton to close the show.
He killed as always. A great end to a great day.

On Sunday, Valerie, Lauren, and I went to see Wicked on Broadway (which was Val's present to Lauren this past Xmas). Wicked is "the untold story of the witches of Oz." It was an outstanding play; the best I've seen in a very long time. I enjoyed it more than Spamalot, which I saw last year. This had just enough singing to be called a musical, but not so much so that it appealed to someone like me who is not into non-stop singing and dancing. I prefer the type of plays that are more like a live movie (another favorite is The Producers). For anyone who enjoys a Broadway show, I highly recommend this one. It is entertaining from start to finish.

What a fun-filled weekend it was!


Two years, four months, two weeks, one day smober.
30370 cigarettes not smoked, saving $7,972.36.
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