Ten years ago this month I did five minutes about dorm food in a campus cafeteria, to an audience that had mostly come for the free noodles. They laughed anyway. I have been chasing that feeling ever since.
The gigs that shaped the act
There was the Tuesday-night bar with four people in it, where I learned that four people laughing is still a show. There was the festival tent in the rain, where six hundred people stayed and I learned what a room can give back. And there were the hecklers — mostly teachers — who taught me to listen faster than I talk.
The van, the rooms, the people
Somewhere along the way the van got bigger, the rooms got bigger, and the same friends from the open-mic days ended up producing the tours with me. Backrow Bandit was never supposed to be a company. It was supposed to be the row we sat in because the front was too expensive. It still is, spiritually.
If you were at any of those early gigs — especially the noodle one — the August shows are for you. Come and sit in the back. You have earned it.