After settling in at the hotel (and having dinner with plenty of wine), we walked the couple blocks over to the show, which was at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall.* When I grew up near Portland, everyone called it The Schnitz, and I don't know if anyone still uses that nickname, but I like it -- it sounds like a cross between a schnitzel and a snitch -- so I'm sticking with it.
When we arrived at the Schnitz, they informed us of the rules for the performance, which specified that phones had to be completely turned off, and no heckling would be allowed. I've been to a number of these kind of comedy tours over the years, and they all have the anti-phone policy. I get it, if you're a big-name comic, you don't want your bits leaked online before you can officially release them in your TV special. But heckling? I've never witnessed a heckler even once in all the gigs I've seen. So why call that out?
Later on, I realized why. There was an improv section where the crowd was asked to shout out suggestions... and then they kept shouting things, unsolicited, for the rest of the show. Evidently, once people get permission to yell at the performers, they don't think they have to stop. I know this makes me sound like I'm 185 years old, but... Does no one know how to behave in public anymore?
Also, maybe 5-10 minutes before showtime, I glanced at my phone (still on, because we were 5-10 minutes before starting, but locked because I was just checking the time) and some usher-type guy leaned over and menacingly said, "TURN YOUR PHONE OFF. I WILL kick you out!" I was so shocked by the outsized reaction to me looking at a clock for 1.3 seconds that my only response was to give him a WTF! Roid-rage much? face while I hit the power button. Steve's reaction to the guy's rudeness was a bit stronger, so luckily Mr Phone Cop walked away before my protective friend had a chance to chew him out (and probably get us removed from our seats).
Anyway. The show was fantastic, super funny, including Zarna Garg's opening set. Tina and Amy told stories, did both planned skits and improv, tried their hands at separate stand-up sets, read the 'news', even answered audience questions, and it was all hilarious. But even as great as it all was, Maya Rudolph's guest appearance (as the ghost of Whitney Houston) stole the show. I was laughing through the entire performance, but Maya's Whitney was almost painful, it was so funny. I guess different cities got different guests, but I feel pretty certain that ours was the best.
Afterward, we went back to our hotel and hung out drinking more wine in the lobby bar, where we chatted with the other guests, laughed about the show, and Steve occasionally exclaimed, "I got to see Minnie Riperton's daughter!"
Which is not a weird thing to say... for him.
The next morning we woke up for our late morning train home, to find ourselves surrounded by nonstop snow, freezing temperatures, high winds, and Amtrak extremely delayed. After waiting around the hotel for a while, we headed down the road to the station to wait there and cross our fingers that the train would leave before too long. That few blocks was the only bad part of the trip, with icy feet in the snow, wind gusts nearly knocking us over, frozen snowflakes stinging our faces, and Steve's poor service dog so badly sliding and blowing around the sidewalk that he couldn't do his primary job of (much needed in that weather) stability support.
We finally got on the train around 2pm (the time it was originally supposed to get us home), and arrived over 4 hours late, to no sign of a winter storm up in our 'hood.
Two weeks later, Tina & Amy announced their tour was coming to Seattle. Because of course.
*Interesting (or not so much?) side note about this particular theatre: despite growing up in the area, the Tina and Amy show was only my third occasion to go to the Schnitz. One was when I performed there -- I don't remember why my dance group had this gig -- and the other was seeing Sinéad O'Connor in 1990, when my friends and I were in the actual very last row, with nothing but a wall behind our seats. So after the extremes of being on stage, and as far from the stage as possible, this was my first normal, floor seat visit.
