University of Illinois at Springfield

Sunday was a day off for us, so we went to Columbus, OH to visit our favorite magician friend Michael Kent. On the way we stopped off for a round of mini golf, where Jonathan stomped me by 14 strokes, boasting 4 hole in ones. After trouncing me on the green he proceeded to successfully attack the high score on the Ms Pac Man machine.

At the Kent residence, we watched football (Steelers lost), and talked with Michael about how our shows have been going (we've all been having an amazing year). We played with the dogs, went out to eat, and had an overall solid day of "R&R".

On Monday 9/28, we flew to St. Louis for a show at the University of Illinois at Springfield, but before driving to the school, we took a little time to go check out the St. Louis Arch. I'm a big fan of the Arch, and having grown up in Missouri, I have been to visit it many times. It looks really interesting from each different angle. When you're right up next to it it seems like it could be a giant slide. We didn't go to the top this time, but we did check out the free "Museum of Westward Expansion" below the arch. Interesting! Historic! Educational! Free!

Our show at the UIS was an MC spot hosting their homecoming pep rally. We introduced the various varsity sports teams and the homecoming court. It was a drastically different experience performing in a gymnasium to bleachers (as opposed to a theater) during a pep rally, but we didn't suck. And got some laughs, too.

U of Illinois at Springfield has a unique mascot, "the Prairie Star". Nobody really knows what the Prairie Star is because it's something that the school invented, but it was described to us as "a blue star with a constipated face". Check out the pictures and decide for yourself.

P.S. This was the last day for Jonathan's Mustache. Some day he'll post his thoughts on the subject.

Southwest MN State, MN Rennaissance Fest, and Mall of America!

With two days off and time to kill, Jonathan and I hit up the Minnesota Renaissance Festival to do some mustache interviews. Jonathan's going to post his blog thoughts about the mustache experience later on, so I won't get into that, but we did see some other cool stuff there as well. One of my favorite sights was a dog-sized live tortoise harnessed with a tip jar that wandered through the faire grounds attended by two human minders. He liked having his neck rubbed. There was a giant rocking horse, jousting, and plenty of shows to see. The show that most impressed us was the Danger Committee! These guys do a knife throwing act where one of them actually catches the knife out of the air!!! Holy cow! I also enjoyed checking out some of the artists booths at the faire, especially Josh Boock, who makes cookie jars and mugs with grotesque faces. Right before we left, I took the Jacob's rope ladder challenge because I have beaten them before, but not on this day.

This photo gallery has some of the mustaches from our interviews, which you'll probably see  again later.

On Monday we visited the Mall Of America for some retail shopping, and sight seeing. Other than the fact that this mall houses a small theme park, it's pretty much just a big mall. Jonathan bought a pretty slick jacket and some gifts for his wife, while I picked up a couple of pairs of new sneakers. I went to see the Bodies exhibit which was showing for a limited time in one of the exhibition halls on the top floor. I'm glad I went, but I'm not sure I liked it. When we were at the Renaissance Festival, we were given passes for a free roller coaster ride in the Mall of America theme park. It was a good coaster, and free!

The show at Southwest Minnesota State University on 9/22 was a blast, and dinner afterwards with the activities crew was equally fun. One really cool highlight of this school was our interview on the school radio station, which was the first time that had ever happened to us. 

Several girls at the college claimed to have camping gear and fishing tackle ready to go in their trucks, and the bait leeches are in their refrigerators. Minnesota girls, huh? Our new friend Candice filmed the show with her fancy video camera and promised to edit together some clips for us, so we're all looking forward to that.

Oh- I almost forgot to mention that at this show our front row was made up of bean bag chairs! It just seemed like a great idea that more college venues should use.

Monmouth College

We made the drive down to Illinois, to Monmouth College for the beginning of parents' weekend. The show was great. One unique thing that happened was that when I made fun of Jonathan's mustache, one of the moms in the audience came up on stage to make sure it was there. Because from a distance of about eighteen inches, it's invisible.

Jonathan is taking this two-week stretch of our tour to grow a mustache, and the results are pretty comical. He's been writing about it along the way, and those writings will wind up here on the blog at some point, so stay tuned.

We had a hard time with the sound system at this show; apparently there are ghosts in the system that don't like the sound of Jonathan's voice through a microphone. You won't hear any of our technical difficulties in the slideshow, though. We sound fantastic, take my word for it.