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backstage, but got up unhurt and feeling good. Ah, but the audience yelled for more. I walked back out, covered in dirt, hair in all directions, and got a great laugh. Then I did a short song and ran off, carefully. Encores are tough.
I'm realizing as I write this that it's not impressive to drop names that people under 30 have never heard of. A smart person would've written this book 50 years earlier.
I love minimalism. In shows I wanted a stool, two microphones, a dark theater and a spotlight. I know there are people who love spectacle and I think my all-time favorite version of that was the opening ceremony at the Olympics in London. I thought it was inventive and awesome. But it was not something I'd ever dream of doing. This feeling carries over in life. I'd rather have a small, good house than a mansion. I love looking at expensive cars--the Morgans are my current favorites--but I'm happy in an inexpensive, good car. I'm way happier in shorts and a tee shirt than I am in a tuxedo. I love to keep it simple.
Oh sure, when you drive up to the front entrance of Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas in a VW Beetle and say, "Hi, I'm the new opening act", people think you're weird.
Want to Learn Humility? Come to Thailand
It took me awhile to realize that Thai people are really unimpressed when you tell them you had a career as a musician/comedian. For them, musicians are the people who do background cover songs in bars while everyone drinks and talks. Also, judging from the Thai TV shows I've seen, the comedy here is extremely broad and filled with sound effects. Kind of like The Three Stooges with bells and whistles going off on every punch line. It is changing, and there is a Thai comedian named Udom who is very good and a woman comic actor who's in all kinds of shows and reminds me of Carole Burnett. I'm sure there are more and that Thai comedy is improving but with my nonexistent language skills it's hard to watch a lot of Thai television. What makes it even harder is not having a TV set.
Another problem is there are a lot of fine musicians in Thailand and compared to them I am limited. If there is a language problem, my songs and stories are met with blank stares and polite applause. I know this because I've sat in a few times in Chiangmai with very mixed results. I've written hours of material and songs and over here I've found that I only have one that works in a mixed- nationality open mic. It's the country song that I never thought of as an opener or closer, but it's big in Thailand. It's about a country singer who can't write country songs because his life is too good. His wife never leaves him, his kids don't have dread diseases, he doesn't lose all his money, his dog loves the mailman and so on.