This past Friday night, I did a show in Au Grey, Michigan, about two hours north of Detroit, in the Upper Peninsula at a place called Allie’s Up North. Generally towns in these remote areas are starved for entertainment, and tonite was no exception. My opener, Zach Martina, did a great job warming up the crowd, and setting the stage. The show went great, and the audience seemed to love it when the lip-flapper of the evening, Mary, got what she had coming, for talking during the show.
On the way out of town, I stopped at this shack off the side of the road- Bruce’s Smoked Fish, for some maple-cherry smoked turkey jerky. Not bad. The route to my next gig- happened to go through one of my favorite stops for food in Michigan- Ann Arbor, so of course I went to one of my favorite places – Frita Batidos, that specializes in Cuban street food. I had the Best Snack Ever/Inspired Cuban combo – layered coconut-ginger rice with black beans, melted Meunster, and cilantro-lime salsa. The 1/2 sandwich had lemongrass roast pork, thick bacon, tasso ham, gruyere cheese, cornichons, and chipotle mayo on Cuban bread. Thanks to Ian, for giving me a Churros (nutmeg & orange zest with tons of cinnamon and sugar) on the house, and pointing me to Roos Roast Coffee. The proprietor of RRC -John Roos, could be the Owen Wilson of the coffee world, based on his looks and personality, and was fun to talk with. I took home two delicious-smelling bags of beans, a boutique Honduran blend-Serveilo Sanchez, and Cowboy Blend, (both organic/free-trade) and also from Honduras. You could tell whatever John was brewing up inside his Willy Wonka style-shop, you wanted to drink.
Saturdays show was a corporate gig in Hillsdale, Michigan, at a building on the campus of the local college -for an auto-parts manufacturer. While they were stiff as cardboard, I still got the job done.
On a sour note, I’ve been running a weekly Tuesday night show, called the Samurai Sushi Comedy Hour, at a place called Gallery Bar, in the River North district. The show was geared toward people who enjoy stand-up comedy & sushi. We’d done about 8 shows since September, and while we had a few slow nights, most of the shows went well. We’d picked-up where we’d left off in May, where I had the show at another sushi spot in town that also went under/got sold. I was informed by the owner that they were changing the days of operation and planning on being closed Mondays & Tuesdays… effectively dealing a death blow to the Samurai. Can the Samurai rise from the ashes yet a third time ? That remains to be determined.