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4 Dads in Aurora
By Milt Abel | April 9, 2011
| April 9, 20114 Dads in Aurora, IL
It had been a while since all four of us worked together. Dan St. Paul, Tim Bedore, Kelly McDonald, and myself travel in a theater-oriented stand-up show titled, ’ The Four Standup Dads.’ The last time all four of us participated in a Standup Dads show must have been a couple years ago now. Lately, the few we do a year, have been modular incarnation of the show, Three Standup Dad, Two Stand-up Dads, and on one college show with a very tight budget, I performed as ‘One Funny Babysitter.’ Okay the last one may be a joke, but it just isn’t that often that all four of us get to hang.
They are all good comics and good guys. A pleasure to travel and hang backstage with, we all have similar comic sensibilities, social and political views, and not that different in clothes sizes either; on more than one occasion we’ve had to share belts, wristwatches, shirts, and socks. A traveling frat house of men over 50 who can tell a joke while forgetting a wardrobe item or two. I was guilty on this trip of being the forgetful one.
My Portland to Chicago O’hare flight was a red-eye that left at 12:50AM the day of the show. (Yes, I was tired all day and night) Maybe it was all the little errands I did at home and with the kids right up until 10PM, but I forgot the power cord for my computer -it’s plugged in right now at Chicago O’hare as I wait (what’s new) to board my return flight home Saturday afternoon. Leaving from home two nights ago I almost forgot my passport and all the the trip’s itinerary paperwork and I think the relief of remembering that, fooled me into thinking ‘Good job! You dodged a bullet. You’ve got everything. Get on your way now.’
It was at Portland’s airport, seeing someone plugged in, that made me realize that I hadn’t brought the power cord for my Macbook. A new battery will do that, make think you can life forever without electricity. I recently replaced the battery and have been giddy with my untethered freedom, inviting strangers to plug in their USB devices and suckle.
I had made an effort to leave for the airport early so my wife could get back home before it was too late and get the sleep that she so treasures, so it made it all that much more regretful to call her on her drive back home and tell her the bad news.
“I forgot my power cable for my computer. I’m gonna need you to go home, pick it up, and bring it back to the airport.’
There was a long pause. I know she was lining up her arguments for not doing so inane a late night errand for my screw-up. But I tried to beat her to the punch. “In our ten years of living in Oregon and me traveling out of PDX I have never asked you to fetch something like this. I’m sorry, but I run the Powerpoint multimedia for the Dads show off of my computer. I need that cord.”
She was still silent, her bluetooth earpiece whispering ill-received errand requests while she got closer to home, to bed, to sleep. “Can’t you borrow one? Do any of the other Dads have a Mac? Can you buy one there?” All were possible but all were adding an element of chance and depended on the ‘kindness of strangers.’ and I don’t like leaving something so important to the success of the weekend’s show to those types of things out of my control. Having to count on my wife to help cover my mistake was out of my control enough. “No.” I said.
”Alright.” She said and hung up. But it wasn’t with a reluctant ‘I’ll do it’ inflection, It was more with an inflection of ‘alright, I’ll put it on my to-do list, while I think of ways to get out of it.’
I called back a few minutes later, understanding my wife’s pauses and inflections as well as 20 years of marriage can school you.
“Are you going to bring it?”
“I don’t know.”
“Where are you right now?” Time was becoming an issue. As I’ve said in an older stand-up routine of mine about getting to the airport on time ‘those plane’s leave without you.’
“I’m parked in the driveway. Thinking.”
That made me angry. Very Angry. Not only was she wasting her time, she was wasting mine as well. I had no time to waste. I said. “Okay fine!” With an inflection that could easily mean two other short words, and hung up on her. Then called our eighteen year old daughter and got her out of bed and told what I needed from her. She began to oblige me when she said, ‘Mom’s pulling out of the driveway.”
“Go downstairs and see if my power cord is there in my office.”
I was gone. She was going to bring it. I hoped. I hope she wasn’t driving in another direction to think further.
She brought it, and it turned out that no other cord would have been available, it was critical. And the show went great. We got a standing ovation in a beautiful theater.
Here’s a pix of Tim Bedore at the sound check.
Topics: comedy, humor, travel | No Comments »