Few things in life meet their expectations. Trust me, that is the concept Dave Anthony and I have based our entire Walking the Room podcuddle around. So last month, when, two days before our first WTR-flavored live show, I realized that the 100 Paul Armstrong “Starfish Circus” posters I ordered were going to arrive three days after the gig, I thought, “Here we go!”
Early phone calls to the club revealed that ticket sales were light and the Walking The Room shirts still had yet to be made. The morning of the show, I was filled with dread. My mind racing with the thought, “It’s too early in the Cuddle to do this. We don’t have enough fans!” Par for the course, I was wrong.
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Monday, June 25th, was one of those nights where things came together in ways I couldn’t have imagined. The pre-show vibe was great, the club was buzzing with people and the t-shirts arrived.
By the time I was standing behind the curtain, guitar in hand with the band, I was certain this was gonna be a great night. And it was fucking awesome. The part I had miscalculated was: who it was for and what it was about.
The Starfish Circus was for Cuddlahs, Customers, Maxfuncons, NNFs, Comedians of Comedy, the Uncools, TOFOPers, Gryphons, Elefons, one Reigning Monarchs fan and assorted uninitiateds and, had there only been 10 of you there, it still would have been a blast because it was you guys.
We weren’t trying to sell an idea to people that didn’t want it.
I hate that the Insane Clown Posse has co-opted the word “Gathering,” because that’s what it was. At last, a bunch of us are in a room together and we get to fuck off for two hours, laugh and listen to the broken genius of Patton Oswalt, Brian Posehn, Wil Anderson and a tragically stunning set by our Dave Anthony. Then afterwards hang out and shoot the shit. We were as excited to meet you as you were to meet us.
The cynics will often tell you that Internet communities and social networks are a way of not really connecting with people. They will say that they are facades for real interaction but, in the classic words of the Elephon, “They can go fuck themselves!”
I think Internet communities are a way of finding people you really connect with all over the world and then figuring out how you all get together in a room for a “gathering,” or perhaps a Starfish Circus.
To those of you that traveled far, to those that didn’t, to those of you that brought gifts, to those of you that just walked to the club, to those of you that wished us luck and to those of you that couldn’t but would have if you could have, we thank you from the bottom of our soiled clown suits.
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