University of Evansville

That's right, the University of EVANsville!

Freaking amazing show except for one thing: my shirt got stolen! Yeah, some girl stole my shirt! If you have seen either my solo show or The ShowOff Show, you know that the rules of my skateboard catapult trick are that every time I miss the trick I have to remove a piece of clothing. Most of the time, it takes me four attempts and I have to take off my long sleeved shirt, at which point I use the oportunity to wrap it around a spectator's neck, and then towel whip another guest, and ocassionaly I throw the shirt at a third audience member. I have ALWAYS gotten the shirt back... but this time the girl kept it. I didn't realize she had claimed it as a trophy until after she was long gone... Oh well, what can ya do?

Indiana University Southeast

The show at IUS turned out to be an unexpectedly fun show where we made some great friends. We didn't expect much because the advisor of the activities board had told us she would be surprised if we had 10 people show up. There wasn't really a dinner hour at this school for some reason, so we couldn't do much of a teaser... In fact, I had to hunt around campus and do tricks for study groups tucked away in corners of hallways to drum up an audience for the show. But man, it turned out to be great! Although it was a modest sized audience, it filled the room with laughter and energy and made us feel great. It's shows like these where we feel like real professionals in our field of entertainment.

Northcentral Wisconsin Technical College, and heavy travel woes

So, from South Dakota we drove through the night in shifts until we arrived at the school at 7am on Thursday the 10th. We would have arrived earlier, but part of one of our highways was randomly closed for ten miles and we had to drive down a dirt road for a detour. We didn't actually have to check in with the school until 9:30, so we parked the rental SUV in an empty area of the parking lot and passed out. When we woke up, we were no longer alone in the parking lot, but surrounded by trucks you could haul horses with (pretty typical of tech schools).

So, we did our show and rocked it (of course!), and then we were off to the airport to fly to Missouri, the location of our next show. One fun thing about the show at Wisconsin Tech was that a criminal justice class got to come see the show instead of going to class, and they all came in wearing police utility belts, leather holsters- and blue plastic pistols. They were just like Glocks, only blue plastic, with no place for bullets. One guy shot me with his finger. I thanked him. It was really, really safe.

So, I want to take this time to talk about what life is like on the road and how our job is in fact a job. Of course we love what we do; every day we get to discuss and write new material, and then show off our work to adoring audiences. It's extremely rewarding to see the results of our efforts continuously develop, and it's been keeping us in the modest middle class. But it's not all fun and games! 

On a typical day we take a flight that's scheduled for the hairy butt crack of dawn, and it doesn't smell good. We've gotten pretty good at dealing with airports, but there is still the occasional frustration (see the Augustana College post). Then we rent a car and drive to a hotel (which could be as much as four hours away), then drive again to the school, then perform the teaser, then set up for the show- including sound check- and then perform the show. After the show, we pack up (another half-hour to an hour, depending on how fast we're moving at that point), and then we spend some time with the people who hired us. It's all awesome- well, okay, sound check isn't all that awesome- but it's long days of work that start at 5am and end past midnight. Occasionally WAY past midnight. 

Some people think that they envy us our travel, but we usually only see the inside of the hotel, the school auditorium, and the airport. Which, except for Detroit airport, pretty much look all alike.  And when we do have down time, we spend it working at our computers, making sure that our shows are properly "advanced" (which means that we call ahead to our venue to make sure everything is cool at their end), our travel plans are properly booked, our promotional materials are up-to-date and exciting, and our Facebook status is current. Even writing this blog is part of my work day. Then there's the fact that we spend a lot of time away from home, our loved ones, and our pets. I (Evan) sometimes go into "cat withdrawal" and have to go visit a house with a cat in it, whether I know anyone there or not.

So there it is: we love our job, but despite what a lot of people believe, it's no vacation.