Gettin' Schooled

This past weekend I did a set at a college regional booking event called the NACA Mid-Atlantic Convention in Lancaster, PA.

It was a hubbub times one jillion. See below! Lots of networking and handshaking and soulsearching and dealmaking and networthing and breathtaking!


Highlights:

Malcolm Jamal-Warner (people yelled out "Theo" when he came out onstage) recited his own poetry in one of the afternoon showcases. He is very soulful!

There was a spotlight on the stand up stage that followed you around like an attention-seeking shadow but the opposite of a shadow in fact.

Ben Kweller was in my showcase, strumming the gee-tar. Also soulful! Also really knows what he's doing during sound check, even during other people's sound checks (*cough* me *sneeze-snort*). Also his piano player was a kid I went to school with!

A complimentary brownie wedge that I had.

Some kid told me he wanted to be my best friend, and then I took a picture with him and his cohorts. But they all ended up throwing their arms over each other's shoulders blasting full camaraderie and I just stood in front like a sassy extra appendage.

Everyone quoted jokes that they liked/remembered back to me. Usually this is slightly terrifying, but it meant people were listening (this still blows my mind sometimes)! Sometimes it feels like a test.

College kids are surprisingly at ease with themselves. But then again, not everybody is me. How quickly I forget! College was like second high school with more naps for me.

It was cold and rainy the whole time I was in Pennsylvania but definitely warmer and bloodier in my heart. All in all, a class-A Experience with a capital E (not the drug).

P.S. This will come as a surprise to nobody especially the guy who wrote How to Win Friends & Influence People, but I still don't know how to schmooze. I have perfected the art of flinching in the beam of direct eye contact.

P.P.S. The rest of the weekend I was a lounge lizard, which might be a future freelance career move for me. Turns out that I am great at sitting around and flipping channels! And occasionally switching sides so my couch potato bod is fully marinated at room temperature.