Sunday, October 10, 2004

The Proof is in the Pudding

No matter what you do there is always someone that inspires greatness from their own greatness. Moreso, it is impossible to understand the feeling obtained by being in the presence of greatness. Allow me to build a more than justified pedastal for one Bill Cosby.

My brother and fiance took myself and my mom to the Cosby stand up show yesterday. His perfromance was so good that at the times of high laughter I found myself not laughing but grinning with awe and respect for witnessing probably the best stand up comic ever. The show is the best one to take you spouse/lover to since it tends to be an intervention on why your wife is not your friend, she is your wife. Did I mention the show was two and a half hours, no break, not even a glass of water. Hands down the most deserved standing ovation I have ever given.

As it tends, there was more to the show than just the show. There were a couple people near us that just made the show extra memorable. My family were talking about random things (ok, it pretty much is either Peyton or Dan and Steph's wedding that we talk about.) when I started to multi listen.

Multi listening is not recommended for all people. If you are a glass half empty kind of person it would also be called eavesdropping. In my defense, they were talking much louder than recommended. When eavesdropping, people always tend to start at a rather mundane part of the conversation and keep listening out of hope of a juicy scandal. Like people go out to a theater and confess to adultery or something. Wrong. I and my family members were compelled to listen further when the lady said "well you can't compare apples to oranges." Topping the news at 10:00pm, apples and oranges, no longer comparable.

I then lean forward to address the fam and say "so how do you pretend that you weren't blatantly eavesdropping?" Amazingly enough, their conversation was headed nowhere and we went back to ours, until a woman sat down next to me. I should mention that because of seeing cheesy movies where people meet on buses, trains, and diner counters I think the feasibility that my life love will sit down besides me is very high. To date I am yet to be proven right on that theory.

Sometimes in life you may not know the level of class or rules of etiquette to obey. When in this situation, just look a the women in the room and look at the style of their purse. If most women have a simple strapped black purse, you guys best have a tie on. Otherwise you need to be escorting people to their seats. Or if some of the women have purses with sequins, you should buy the pull tabs in between Bingo rounds.

This woman that sat next to me had a humidor for a purse. At first I thought she brought a music box, then when I saw the troft of personal items. A cigar box for a purse? That just dictates a whole new level of classy feminity. (Groucho would be proud.) I tried. I tried so hard to not look as she scurried through the humiurse. She saw me looking and she covered her precious up and I was never to see it in full again.

Those tales thread directly into the message of the great Cosby. It is not every day you get to see the best doing their best. Bill Cosby started at 4:39pm and went until about 7:10pm. The next show was at 8:00pm. That is something truly awesome. A man confident and excited to perform goes for two and a half hours twice in six hours. When someone is great at what they do time has no significance, they simply say -bring it. I was in the presence of greatness on Saturday, and I am sure he relished the audience as much as the audience relished being with him.

1 comment: