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It practically gallops!

Harold and Fumar

There’s a guy in North Carolina who might be my brother from another mother, or at least my cousin from another aunt and uncle. I found Chris Ayers’ blog because of a clever comment he made about “1776″ on Twitter. Obviously, I heartily concur with his opinion. (For the uninitiated, “1776″ is the best musical ever made about the Declaration of Independence.) Chris writes about his love of improv and performs in Raleigh with a group called ComedyWorx.

This time of year makes me think about my own love of improv. Friday was the eighth anniversary of my first performance with Einstein Simplified. Back in those days we performed through the nasty cigarette smoke at Manhattan’s, which closed on Saturday. Within a year, our group moved to the better performance space at Patrick Sullivan’s Steakhouse and Saloon, which is owned by the same folks as Manhattan’s. Thankfully, our shows became smoke-free in 2007 when the state banned smoking in restaurants. I never returned to Manhattan’s, which continued to allow smoking because they restricted admission to those 21 and up. In hindsight, I wonder why I tolerated the smoke pollution for as long as I did. I have no intention of booking any future gigs where smoking is permitted.