The Old Thunderbird and the Ramada Inn

Last night I went to the Joke Joint Comedy Club in Bloomington. It's only been around for 5 weeks and the audience was pretty lame. I did a guest set for Bruce Baum (apparently he's been on the Simpsons as himself 4 times...). The audience was made up of all men except for 2 women and I was incredibly worried that my material wouldn't go over as well if there weren't more women in the crowd. Like I said, it was a weird audience and I ended on "faxmachine" which *always* gets some kind of response but last night - nothin. Awkward. I'd say one of my strengths is covering myself pretty well if a joke bombs, but last night was just too much. The room looks like a lounge singer's bedroom and the crowd looked like a bunch of hunting Republicans. It was comforting to see that in the bar they had the Democratic debates on, though.

The Joke Joint is located in the Ramada Inn across the street from the Mall of America. Any club located in a Ramada Inn is doomed. I honestly hope this one isn't though. Minneapolis needs more genuine comedy clubs around other than just ACME where a lot of comics don't feel welcome. There was a club called Knucke Heads in the Mall of America, but they were shut down for some reason. Now all of the comics who were doing really well there and making a name for themselves have nowhere to go really. According to some comics, there are two groups of comedians: the road dogs and the ACME comics. I ran into a few guys at the Corner Bar on Friday night and they asked me where I performed the most. I said ACME. They groaned. I don't know what the process is at ACME for who gets on and who doesn't. All first timers automatically get on (fair enough), all comics who work at ACME as either emcees, features or headliners automatically get on (also fair), the in-betweeners who Louis Lee (the owner of the club) is looking at to possibly hire in the future get on regularly too (again, fair). But there are a few who get on every time they sign up or call in and they're neither first timers, in-betweeners nor employees at ACME. I don't know why they get on. To me, they're not very funny and they rarely come up with new material. Oh well, not my place to judge or decide.

Back to the Joke Joint. As I said, it's located in the Ramada Inn near the MOA. It used to be the Thunderbird Hotel, a historical landmark in the Twin Cities apparently. I couldn't decide whether or not I was offended by this place. There were all sorts of Native American memorabilia on the walls, the floor, the ceiling and in the bar. Sacred designs, taxidermied animals, totem polls. It felt like a casino, but worse almost. I'm incredibly interested in Native American culture and traditions and I'd like to say I know a little about it - enough to determine what's offensive and what's not, at least. There was not one Native American present last night - that I could tell. Mind you, I don't know much about the Thunderbird and whether or not it was established by Native Americans or some white guys who thought it would be a cool tourist trap, but it seemed to me that it
was definitely the latter. I would assume that a full blooded Lakota person would be offended by the "Shoshone Suite" or the "Anishinabe Suite". It was just odd, is all. Tommy thought I was overreacting by saying I was offended. He said "you're not even Native American." Do I really need to be a certain race to be offended by something like this? Oh well, that's a discussion for a more serious blogger, not I. Not here, at least.

Well, tonight is Monday and I've got my three minutes down I think - I need to time it and see.

Bye bye bye