Wednesday, August 08, 2007

This just in... Cairns Capers not as funny as Edenhope Chronicles.

At a recent wedding I was told Edenhope Chronicles were a lot better because nothing much was going on. I think I'm just a happier more well rounded person these days. Which is unfortunate for my comedy career.

Over a month ago now I went to Canberra to do an Aboriginal Cultural Awareness workshop. I thought about telling them my old joke about how in Werrimull "we shot them all years ago". I've always been worried that the joke could be taken the wrong way. There's a very fine line between being satirical and witty and between offensive and racist so I erred on the side of caution.

By the end of the awareness training I'd become more aware of some of the things we've put the aboriginal population through, and also gained a better understanding of their traditional culture and way of life. I've since then helped Gerry with his website Aboriginal Art. But the biggest thing I took away from the workshop was a self-righteous and smug attitude. I was therefore required to attend the Aussie Anglo Cultural Awareness Worksop at the Labor Club for retraining.

Moving ahead to late July I headed to Albury for Adam and Cherie's wedding. I spent the first night in a quaint little town called Burrumbuttock. You may not be familiar with Burrumbuttock but I can tell you it's exactly how you would image a place called Burrumbuttock to be. Adam and I just popped in to the local pub for a quick one. It turns out that the manager of the pub is Adam's long lost cousin. He was out with the boys but we chatted to his wife for hours. She was happy for the chance to chat so she innundated us with free beers, it would have been impolite to turn them down. After many hours of deep and meaninful conversations ranging from politics to whether her husband was a latent homo-sexual, her husband arrived back with his mate. It was then I realised I could play darts and argue politics at the same time. But neither of them well.
The wedding was really great, their kids were really cute and everyone was really happy. So again unfortunately there's nothing funny I can say about it. You can check out the wedding on youtube here's part 1 of 3.

After the wedding I spent 2 days in Sydney with my old mate Andrew. No we're attached at the hip I'd organised this before I knew I was going to Canberra. I recently turned 34 and Andrew is 36. Andrew has a new toy called a dopod. It's a PDA computer, mobile phone, GPS the lot. He showed me the best button on it, the "record your own fart" button. Here's how it works;
  1. Press a button on the side

  2. Hold the device between your legs

  3. Fart

  4. Release the button

It was great. After a big night out drinking beer and eating Pizza I managed to record 10 farts. Andrew managed 15. But he only beat me because he had the device while we were watching Transformers. I think we need a rematch.

It was at about fart number 8 when I cast my mind back to my childhood. I wondered if this is what my mum had hoped I would be doing at the age of 34. So I only told my Dad about it, he seemed impressed.

Now I haven't played poker for about 6 months. I gave it away after the failed attempt to win into the Aussie Millions. But since it was a bit of a boys night out in Sydney the suggestion was made to go the casino. There was a $300 tournament on and I was keen to play, so I thought I'd buy Andrew's approval by saying I'll give him 5% of the winnings. Little did I know I would win $12,000 and have to pay him $600. I also won entry into a million dollar tournament in December. The $6,500 ticket is non-transferable so wish me luck. This is actually a happy story so again not funny. But you can think of it as an investment in the future as no doubt I will have a hilariously tragic ending to tell in December.

I shared the flight back to Cairns with Michael who was keen to see some of the sites. So I took him on the obligatory tour. Again I had a good time so there's no comedic instances to speak of.

Only a few days to go and I'll be heading to Africa (via a few places). I've decided it requires a new blog so you can find out about my adventures in the African Advocate. Hopefully I find myself in various awkward and humorous situations.