And for one moment, I too was a Barenaked Lady
For some odd reason, I had a bunch of people ask me recently about the time I opened for Barenaked Ladies. So I decided to post the story here as a blog (it originally ran on my old website). You can also click here to hear the clip of them riffing on me "as Dido". Enjoy!
As some of you know, I had a very cool gig offered to me last minute to open for Barenaked Ladies at the Bushnell Theater in Hartford, CT this past Friday night (Edit: This show took place December 2004). I was replacing the singer Dido, who was sick and couldn't make the show.. That still cracks me up and became the running joke of the night. During BNL's set, they quipped about "Dido was a lot funnier than I remembered her being...I was expecting someone hotter, but she looked like a regular college guy."
First off, I'm a huge Barenaked Ladies fan and when the gig was offered (by Rob Steen of North Shore Comedy), there was no money but they said they would limo me from Boston to Hartford and offered a hotel. It was a benefit show for Care For the Children (sort of a Toys for Tots thing, which I try to perform at some TfT benefit every Christmas) put on by 96.5 in Hartford (sister station to 98.7 in L.A.) No problem, I'm there. Then the booker calls me back and says, "oh they are offering a couple of hundred bucks now because they are so thankful you bailed them
out on such short notice". So I ended up getting paid and drove myself down there instead of having them send the limo.
The show could not have been more fun and the guys in the band could not have been more gracious or nicer.
I was a little concerned about how the show would go. First off, it was a music crowd and that can always be a little strange adjusting to a standup comic. Second, they were expecting Dido. Combine their expectation of Dido, me performing instead and the fact that I'm a comic and not
a singer and well, it could have been a long 30 minutes. As I started my set, the crowd was still filing into the theater so I thought that could be a little rough...it was fine..they were getting into it, good laughs. But I knew I had them when I did a joke about having no chest hair (sad but true) and some girls in the crowd screamed out "SHOW US!"...so I did. I took off my shirt and the place went nuts. Clapping and laughing. I said, "you ain't gonna get that kind of action from Dido!" And that got another round of applause. I finished my set and it was a great time. The radio station people were thrilled and so thankful and want to have me back for other events.
But that's not even the best part...
I go back downstairs to the dressing rooms and the guys from BNL are hanging out. They asked me how it went and chatted...we took pictures together. And then Ed, the lead singer/guitarist, turns to me and says, "hey, do you want to come out during the encore and sing 'Do They Know It's Christmas' with us?"
Ummm, yeah. I believe I do.
So I did! I watched the show from the first row in the crowd and during the encore went backstage and went out with the station DJs when they hit the chorus (the band Guster was also on the show and out on the stage) I got to go out and sing along with one of my favorite bands in front of close to 5000 people!
Pretty cool way to kick off the holidays!
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