Page 25 - MN

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Robin? He's leaving Chiangmai today and will be back next winter. At the dinner was his lady friend, Wan, his Canadian friend, Jeff the coffee roaster, and a young Thai couple, Ping and his girlfriend whose name I can't remember. I've played golf with Jeff twice and enjoyed it. Last night, sadly, I also found he likes Trump and hates Trudeau, so we're not quite in tune politically. My Saturday partner, Joe, also revealed he is a Trumpster, so I feel like I'm back on cruise ships. Luckily, most of the people at the bridge club are commie pinko leftists. I have achieved balance in my life.
Ping, the Thai guy, is a pro Robin met at the M-Sport range. He's young, very handsome, hits the ball over 300 yards, and has a beautiful girl friend. Other than that, his life probably sucks. Jintana and I think they both come from a lot of money and they seemed quite nice. Wan, the lady with Robin, assured Jintana that she and Robin were just friends. We thought this was probably right as he would be a bit overwhelming to a Thai person.
I say all this having no clue what other people think of me. Who does? I know raving assholes who think everyone likes them. It's a humbling thought. At dinner, Robin told Ping I had a beautiful golf swing and that I'd been a comedian and he could find my stuff on YouTube. I said something self-deprecating and Robin said I should just say thank you. He's probably right.
Afterwards, Jintana and I walked over to the Walking Street. We passed Alice's Place, which has an open mic on Sundays and I'd thought of checking it out. I looked, and realized it would be a tough room to work. Chairs facing away from the stage, bad sight lines, the usual bar setup. I worked lots of those places over the early years and they were always a struggle, so I can chalk this off the list.
I've played three or four open mics here in Chiangmai, with varying degrees of success. I found I'm pretty useless with Thai people, even if they speak English, because my stuff is based on word play. I've also never been good in loud bars because I love understated comedy and loud rooms are best handled by overpowering entertainers. When I worked bars, I figured I could get the crowd calmed down about two or three nights out of six, and those nights would be fun. The others were just earning a living.
Oddly, there is a country song I wrote that works well here. In my years on stage that song was just a middle-of-the-act piece of material but here it is big time. I'm guessing the people who retire here are ex-army, ex-police, ex-blue-collar workers, and country music is a common ground. Also, the song is pretty jokey, with lots of punch lines, so that works too.
Now, however, I don't do open mics because they start too late and I go to bed early. It's a lot of work to stay up late, drive into town, lug a guitar into a bar, and do a song or two. I think my stage career is over.