Highlights from my Brisbane gig
More housekeeping from last year today – an entry about the gig I did at Mary Ryan’s in Brisbane back in the middle of December.
I always like doing events in Brisbane. There’s always a good turn out and the crowd (almost) always laugh at my jokes. And my mum always comes down from the Sunshine Coast so I can tell embarrassing stories about her.
Bris-Vegans are also a little less world-weary and cynical than their southern cousins so I don’t feel like I’ve got to keep proving myself all the time.
This event was no different. The guys from the Europa Scooter Club parked their rides out front to give the place a little ‘Italian’ flavour. The local scooter dealer had provided a shiny red LX to display in the window. (I was tempted to do my talk sitting on it but the cable for the mic wouldn’t reach that far.) And I got asked why I slagged off Brisbane in No Shitting in the Toilet. My excuse that the Brisbane Bronco’s had just humiliated my team, the St George Dragons, when I wrote it seemed to placate them.
Anyway, a big thanks to all the staff at Mary Ryan’s at Milton for organising the event and everyone who came along. Thanks as well to Joe from Scooters Scooters for his kind offer of a Vespa to ride while I was up north. (I’ll take you up on that next time I’m in town – better keep one of the new GTV’s ready for me.) Matt Granfield, the man behind this web site, for driving up from the Gold Coast. And James Mackay, a regular contributor to this blog, who I finally got to meet in person.
A special thanks goes to the lady who brought in the most battered copy of Vroom with a View I have ever seen for me to sign. Her dog had chewed it, apparently, and so badly you could stick your finger through the hole. (That’s a picture of it below, taken with my phone.) She did tell me her name, but I was so impressed by the state of the book that I promptly forgot it.
The other picture below is a group shot of some of the guys from the Europa Scooter Club. I had a coffee with them after the gig. In a situation reminiscent of my adventures in Bosa in Vroom by the Sea, one of them had snapped his key off in his lock and was waiting for a mate to come and fix it!
The Blog!
January 16th, 2008 at 9:11 am
That feeling you get when you break off a key in the ignition is similar to the feeling you get when you see a knife falling off a bench and rotate in the air so the pointy bit is heading for the top of your foot. You know there is pain on the way but you can’t do anything to stop it.
Are you doing any book talks/signings in London? I recently watched your youtube vids and it looks kind of entertaining to come along to a live thing.
I also vaguely recall some spots on triple j years ago that may have been you talking about NSITT and various travel bits on a regular basis. It was almost as good as Dr Karl.