Air Guitar takes on the Iowa Barnstormers and History Made Up

Air Guitar takes on the Iowa Barnstormers

Harvey Wahlbanger of Iowa Air Guitar fame set up an event where we could air guitar during the half time show at a Iowa Barnstormers game.

His store can be found here

https://www.threadless.com/discover/s/harveywahlbanger/design/wahlbanger-card

Everyone in Des Moines saw our amazing performance. Afterwards we celebrated with a 15 minute standing ovation and woman tossed their underwear to us ala Tom Jones. Then all of the cheerleaders demanded we party with them and we got into a helicopter on the roof of Wellsfargo Arena and flew to Frank Sinatria's old pad in Vegas where we partied until Monday morning.

The End.

Wait. You think that is a little dubious? Ok, Maybe that isn't 100% accurate.

Harvey did get us lined up to perform at the Barnstormers game to help push our show at Doc's on the 25th.

I'm used to making an ass out of myself in front of people doing comedy, there have been times when I've done well and decided to toss out a bad joke just to turn the crowd against me. That's comedy and ,if I am lucky, there is maybe 50 people tops.

Doing air guitar at the barnstormers was a completely different animal. Our set list of songs lasted over 6 minutes, so that's 6 minutes of time a big guy who barley moves has to fling his body around to pretend to air guitar, not just in front of a the biggest crowd I have ever been in front, we were also projected on the the jumbo tron above our heads, and I found out Monday this aired on TV. This was going to be a little nerve wracking.

Unlike Harvey, or Flying Finn, or any other air guitarists I haven't invested in a full costume yet.

I compete under the name Mene Gene Simmons, a mixture of Gene Simmons from Kiss

In the past I would get black and white face paint to paint myself up and just wear a nice button up shirt. One year I want to go the whole nine years, get an old tuxedo, foot ball pads covered in spikes but for now I settle for a button up shirt and face paint.

Except for this year; this year I never made it to the store to get face paint but I figured it's ok, no one will notice I am enough of a character.

Day of the show begins and I go downtown, I stopped into a bar called Tonic where I was able to have a beer and cigar, it was a lovely night but the best part was that someone brought two (TWO!!!!) Boston terriers! One came over to me and scratched at my legs demanding to be picked up! Listen to this weeks Dog I Saw to find out if they were good boys.

I then made my way up to the arena where I ran into Harvey Wahlbanger. We got a couple of beers and Emily and I ate corndogs the only way we know how.

I didn't pay to much attention to the first half of the game because I wanted to go and listen to the songs again. I think its safe to say at this point I was getting nervous. Soon it was the magic hour, our group got pulled to the side and Mene Gene Simmons, Flying Finn, Harvey Wahlbanger, CC DeThrill, Jampire, Misfit of Punk, and Def Leprechaun were escorted down a stair case and into an area next to the field, with all the cheerleaders. One looked up at me and said "You look nervous." I pulled Harvey aside and told him I had to run off to the bathroom.

"You better hurry, we are next and you go out first," he said. I guess I will just hold it. I probably will end up peeing myself anyway.

Soon they announced that Des Moines Air Guitar was taking the field. I unbuttoned my shirt to show off my vampire shark tee, which can be bought here.

The nerves melted away pretty quickly once we started actually performing and the crowd seemed to get into it, enjoying it for the spectacle that it was. In hindsight I learned that I need come up with more moves for air guitar. Flying Finn bounced around and flailed around while I just leaned back and did my best Slash impression. Look he's the 4rth greatest air guitarist in the world and

Afterwards my friend James or Jeremy (I don't remember which one) said I looked like an accountant. Yeah, I didn't have the practice I needed or the best costume (or any costume) but getting out of my comfort zone and doing stuff is what this blog is all about and our group did something that very few people can say they have ever done.

So I need to work on my costume but it seemed like everyone had a ton of fun and Harvey got this message.