Gabriel Iglesias
I just got home from a Gabriel Iglesias show. It was freakin' awesome. I had no idea he would be that good. He was on stage for about two hours and I believe he genuinely lost track of time because he was enjoying himself so much. I think this was his first time in England and he really seemed to be having a great time. He did all new stuff for most of the show then at the end he asked if anybody wanted him to do any of his old stuff. Suddenly all these people are yelling out various bits of his which he graciously performs while a significant percentage of the audience say the jokes along with him. He was really surprised that so many people knew his stuff, and seemed surprised that people were yelling the jokes along with him. Maybe that's not a common thing? I have no idea, I don't see many famous comedians. He said it was the closest he'll ever get to being something like a rock star. The whole atmosphere of the show was excellent. Gabriel comes across as a really genuinely nice guy and it soon feels like a small gathering of friends sharing anecdotes rather than a professional performance. And this is a very, very good thing.
Early on in the show a drunk guy in the front row kept trying to get Gabriel to take a large glass of some kind of hard liquor from him. Gabriel patiently explained that he doesn't drink during a performance because the performance suffers. The guy kept pushing it. Gabriel eventually offered to pay the guy's bar tab all night if he'd just go away and I think he meant it. Got a little awkward for a moment. But here's the awesome part. At the end of the show Gabriel downed the drink and shook the guy's hand. Really impressed.
After the show I was waiting outside with my friend, just waiting for his girlfriend to catch up. Suddenly these two extremely drunk but very nice young ladies start talking to us, trying to get us to go party with them. Once they realized my friend had a girlfriend I got the distinct impression they didn't really mind if it was just the three of us. At this point I had been awake for about 30 hours, hadn't eaten in about 20 hours, and had only had one drink during the show. So, and I can't believe I'm saying this, I left them with nothing more than a hug. The highly important moral of the story? If you're a fat guy and want casual sex thrown at you, hang out outside a Gabriel Iglesias show. It's awesome.
“Today a young man on acid realized that all matter is merely energy condensed to a slow vibration, that we are all one consciousness experiencing itself subjectively, there is no such thing as death, life is only a dream, and we are the imagination of ourselves.” – Bill Hicks