A space to post my thoughts and musings about anything. This includes but is not limited to community, politics, current events, relationships, LGBTQ+ issues, favorite things, and stuff that would make your dead relatives blush. I am not afraid to go there, as some can attest.

January 01, 2008

New Years Eve

Back in September I made plans to see Artie Lange in Philadelphia for New Years Eve. I am a fan of Howard Stern and when he moved to Sirius, Artie came along with him. Since then he's only gotten funnier because now he has a forum where he can basically be just as raunchy as his stand-up.

Anyway, so when my co-worker John mentioned he was coming to Philly for NYE, I jumped at the chance to see him live, and it was worth every penny. We were the 9th row from the stage, so we could see everything easily. The only thing I wish I had done was taken a camera with me because even though the venue (Tower Theater) said no cameras, people brought and used them anyway.

The opening act was Shuli, and he surprised me by being funny because usually I find he can get annoying when he's on the show. Plus he's also fairly new to stand-up, so I figured he would be like the girl I saw at Lisa Lampanelli who had no timing at all. Either way, he killed. The second comedian, some guy named Antonio started out well, but then he fell apart when some people started heckling him and chanting "ARTIE ARTIE ARTIE!" While he may have been right to try and get off of the stage, his last bit before leaving sucked.

Next came the band Blue Collar, they did a cover of the song "When I see Beth Smiling" which was written by a Howard Stern fan before he died recently. They did a good job with the song, and they knew how to handle anyone in the audience who gave them shit quite nicely. They told the audience "Fuck you guys, we already got your money." and that pretty much shut the people up during their act.

Rev. Bob Levy was the next act, and he killed, which was to be expected. If you've ever listened to a roast done on Howard's show, he knows how to handle a crowd and to be funny most of the time. The only issue with his act was the drunk guy in the front row (he would be a problem during Artie's segment as well) who couldn't shut the fuck up and kept trying to interrupt. I hope his wife didn't give him any sex that night.

Finally we get to Artie, he had me rolling in the aisle with some of the stories he told. It was like being on the show, except it was new material, there was only one story I recognized him telling before, but it was funny to hear it again. He came on and did about 45 minutes before we hit the countdown to midnight. After midnight Blue Collar started playing AC/DC's "You Shook Me All Night Long" with Artie being the lead singer most of the time. Of course, by midnight he was pretty wasted since audience members brought him shots of Jack Daniels. There was even one chick who showed Artie and then the audience her tits after giving the shot to him. It was hot, there were more girls who said they would show their tits at midnight, but then they backed out, what a bunch of pussies.

So, one of the best comedy shows I saw this year, it was worth every penny, and I would totally see Artie again.

Driving home was rather easy, shockingly enough, I think we saw only one sobriety checkpoint, and that was on the other side of the road in Baltimore. There was virtually no traffic to speak of on I-95, which was great as well.

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