Gilbert Gottfried
Growing up in the 80s and 90s it would be impossible to not know who Gilbert Gottfried was because they put him in pretty much every movie aimed at children. Yep all 2 of them.
https://amzn.to/2Gd9SDq
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I wouldn't have really called myself a fan of Gilbert, I knew he was a guy with that funny voice but that was about it.
But after I saw him on an episode of Norm MacDonald live I went from being indifferent to him to being one of his biggest fans.
Sadly it seems to have been removed from YouTube but it was illegally uploaded here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGVtd6aHtXc&t=5807s
I became obsessed with is stuff. Watching old sets on youtube, listening to to his podcast, and even buying the documentary about him and really understanding that his is a living legend in the world of stand up comedy. A comedian from a past era that's been working his way through clubs and theaters for longer than I have been alive.
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My hope was to one day open for Gilbert, that was a comedy goal of mine. Not get a comedy central special or an album released... (oh you mean another one. HA HA thank you!)
https://amzn.to/2Gcm5Il
Well last week that goal of mine was still unfulfilled but a very funny comedian and good friend of mine, Chris Schlicting, posted on Facebook that he was going to be the feature act for Gilbert at Jukebox Comedy club in Peoria Il.
I commented about how jealous I was and he told me to come on up and offered me a place to stay. I thought that was crazy. I mean the midwest is the middle of winter storms and Peoria is 4 hours away. But I thought about it and said "You know what. I have a blog to write and the last post had 4 people read it and Damn it I owed them an adventure."
So I took Chris up on the offer and got a vip seat.
I did some research and found a comic book store just down the street from JukeBox called Acme comics. I felt that maybe I could run over there and see if they were interested in some vampire shark comics and then head to the the comedy club.
Friday comes around, I packed a quick bag and headed out the door. The drive was pretty uneventful at first, I made my mandatory pit stop at Steak and Shake in Iowa City (the unofficial sponsor of this blog) and rocked out to an old favorites playlist I had on an old Ipod. It was a nice mix of Blink 182, Ramones, and Tom Jones.
Everything was running smoothly until I got to the Mississippi river, that's when the snow began and the traffic slowed.It was eating into my schedule. Acme comics closed at 6 but I left with enough time to get there at 5. That hour buffer slowly began to disappear.
I got to Acme and it was 5:55, just minutes to spare. I told the owner about my comic and explained that I just drove from Des Moines (I mean then he would have to take it) and he did!
I was only able to look around Acme for a few minutes, sadly, but it was a really cool store. I wish I was able to look at it a little longer.
https://www.facebook.com/pg/acmecomicspeoria/photos/?ref=page_internal
I got to JukeBox comedy club and got my ticket.
The owner looked at my ID and said "Did you come here from Des Moines?" and I told him I did.
"Good God!" he responded.
https://jukeboxcomedy.com/
JukeBox is an awesome club and with legends photos on the walls (yes I am including Louis CK).
They sat me at a table and told me that I was going to have to share it with another person. "Maybe it will be the woman of your dreams." they said.
Soon a man about 10 years older than me sat next to me. "They said I had to share it with someone and it might be the woman of my dreams," he told me. Sounds like they have a scam going. We had some small talk before the show began. He told he had moved to Peoria about a year ago, his girlfriend died in November and we was doing drugs all weekend.
This will be fun.
Soon the show started, the MC, Joe Roderick, set the night off on the right note. He was extremely funny plus made a couple jokes about Bill & Ted and Back to the Future.
Chris soon hit the stage and he destroyed, as he tends to do. The nicest thing I could say to another comedian when they had an amazing set or joke was "I hate you now," because they were so funny that they intimated me and I could no longer be their friend. Chris falls into that holy crap he's funny camp but he's so cool that I couldn't hate him. It would be like trying to a hate puppy or a baby bird.
I loved Gilbert's set! Yes it was funny but he also just said a lot of horrible things that wouldn't pass in this politically correct world we live in now. Many people would be upset by his jokes but he doesn't care maybe because he thinks that ,maybe, just maybe, it's ok to make a joke.
At one point he made a joke about Bill Cosby, wondering why is everyone giving him such a hard time, and then started doing his Bill Cosby impression which woke up my new drugged out friend who was sitting next to me. Good time for everyone!
I made a point to stick around and shake Gilbert's hand and he even got bitten by the vampire shark. I am sure this was the greatest moment of his life.
Also does it look like he's flipping me off? I think he is.
In case you are wondering, here is Chris's website
http://schlickcomedy.com/?fbclid=IwAR0kIhVnSth0H_nfSdohVlP-4qICJpsd50pRkxZ57ZPitLrQaSlLU64Qmxo
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Dogs I Saw
Also check out the newest episode of Dogs I Saw
https://www.podomatic.com/podcasts/dogsisaw/episodes/2019-01-24T17_52_33-08_00
