Drinking Professionally

Sure any of us can (and do) drink socially, but how many of us out there can say that we drink professionally?  I cannot consider myself a professional drinker, so I was very excited when The Wife recently surprised me with tickets to Zane Lamprey’s Drinking Made Easy show here in Orlando last night so I could see a professional imbiber in person.

Now we planned on getting there early just because, but we left to get there early for the 8:00 show time that was indicated on our ticket, not for the actual 9:00 starting time.  So you might ask what you do to kill some time for an extra hour?  Well you start by . . .

Making friends with Pleepleus.

High fives for everyone!

Then fortunately there were also other ways to distract myself . . .

Decisions, decisions . . .

Having a few Northern Lights IPAs from Starr Hill Brewing Company made the time go by quite nicely.  I was not the only one passing the time with a few drinks though . . .

The lobby was filling up quickly.

The show was good fun, especially for someone like me who has seen all of the episodes of Three Sheets at least a few times each.  With that said, the show was not as enjoyable for us as it could have been. 

The main distraction from it being a great comedy show was mostly due to the collection of winners (read sarcasm) that were in the crowd that apparently could not hold their Bud Lights that they were continuously running to the back of the showroom to purchase.  Comedy shows are a lot about the flow of what is happening on stage and with an increasing level of intoxication among many on this Tuesday evening, the interruptions (both physical and verbal) were very frequent.  As Zane tried to explain on a few occasions, he had already written jokes and did not need the help.

Kind of like the bat signal.

Did I mention that the gentleman sitting in front of me exhibited what seemed to be full body heaving and seizure-like movements each time there was something mildly amusing?  Combine that with old(er) seats with a lot of give and my knee caps were bashed numerous times as a bonus to the constant commentary from the crowd.

Hecklers happen at comedy performances (I understand that) and can be good fun when those on stage attack the attacker.  However, when the interruptions are essentially after every joke, you eventually find yourself just waiting for the show to be over so you can run away.  I loved Zane and Marc and Steve, but I wish that I could have seen a more uninhibited show from them.

Comedy in motion.

Maybe I should have expected all of this at a show (mostly) about drinking, though based on the case study of the crowd last night there was no question that the only professional drinkers in the room were the guys on stage.