First off, to Chris and Bombshell Ray, I just met you at the Art Theatre in Hobart, Indiana after watching you both work tonight, and I will say that I definitely hope you come back this way again. You will definitely be welcome, and both shows were awesome. I haven’t laugh that much or that hard in a very, very long time, and I thank you both for all of the work that you did and will do to make me and the rest of the world laugh, because, as I found out tonight, I, like the world, needed it.
Secondly, Ray, you new material resonated with me quite a bit. As a Navy Veteran, I definitely notice how I tend to look when I stand “At Ease”, but it’s like training an animal to some extent, once we get trained to do something it becomes instilled into our personality, and can be difficult to unlearn. But, in all, some of those stories in your bit I definitely related to and I couldn’t stop laughing.
Thirdly, Chris, you new material in Zero Side Effects is awesome as well. Personally, being a Blue Progressive (ironic for a Veteran) in a Red State (Indiana), I struggle getting my digs in against the Trumpers, GOPers and others who lack sense (I would say common, but we both know it’s not common), but your approach, I couldn’t have said better myself. Like you, I love this country, especially so seeing how I served in the Navy without reservation. And yet, even more over the last couple of years, I want better for this country as we deserve better. I mean, we put people on the moon and are the only ones to have done that, and now we’ve become enamored with reality stars whose claim to fame was doing or saying something extremely stupid that we, as a country, became more stupid for listening and watching. Even the Trump bit reminded me of my similar take of “what did he say now?”, which turned into a drinking game for me at one point. And the callbacks to your prior work, like the Ice Cream Parlor Darth Vader with the shoulder herpes, I still can’t stop laughing.
Finally, in getting to meet both of you tonight while buying some merchandise after the show, I do hope that I didn’t freak/creep either one of you out as it’s not often that I meet celebrities whose work I actually enjoy. I mean in meeting Chris, I commented that I’ve been watching your (Chris) work since the 2000s when it was on Fox, I have, but I also mentioned that things in my life have been similar to yours, it was.
I mean, my father is a hard working man (firefighter) (thankfully not a drunk, I guess?) who is now on wife #3, but both my mother (wife #1) and grandmother are both clinically insane. My grandmother is a religious nut job (suspected Paranoia and schizophrenia, however undiagnosed) who doesn’t believe in anything outside of the Bible and hasn’t seen a doctor in 45 years. And my mother is a diagnosed Paranoid Schizophrenic, who got arrested by the Feds 6 years ago and was jail for 3 years for Bankrobbery in DC, after being missing for 3 months prior, and she got released 2 years ago after which I found out that she’s got terminal Cancer.
And that, while being a mouthful, has made me extremely stressed to the point of insanity, especially having to relive most of the abuse that my mother put me through, including the divorce, as I didn’t have many, let alone anyone, with whom I could relate, until I rediscovered you and your work. And as the World when to shit in hell in a hand basket over the the last couple of years, rewatching your TV show and laughing through all of your comedy specials and the Armageddon Update podcast has helped in giving me a better perspective and has brought a good amount of sanity to the insanity that has seemingly been my life. You help save me from going too far down a deep dark hole of crazy caused by my family’s drama.
I probably shared a lot more than what I expected, but I felt that it would be better to give appropriate context to my appreciation for both of you, you work and all of the good that you add to the world. I just hope that one day soon I will find my “ice cream truck” so that I get to fly like and “astronaut” in outer space. Stay strong, stay safe, have a Happy Holiday and I hope to see and watch you both again, specials, podcasts and all, and please come back to northwest Indiana in the future.
P.S. To the Highlander, there can really be only one.