Keith at Irvine Spectrum -- 21Dec2012

Since it was a Friday, I came straight over from work at about 4:15 (so I'd have time to eat dinner and get set up to start at 6, or earlier), but the parking structure was already full! And the regular parking lot was completely jammed too, so I circled a while (hoping to not have to drag my stuff *too* far), but ended up pretty far away anyway.

Oh well, it meant that there would be lots of people there, right? I thought so, but I really didn't get many people coming by at all, and almost nobody sitting around at the tables. Apparently, the only people desperate enough to brave the mall this close to Christmas are actually *shopping*. How weird is that?

So it seemed really slow to me, but there were small groups that would stop for a while, and I made $138 in tips, so there must have been *somebody* listening and in the holiday spirit. I mean, beside the guy who came up on the stage from behind, threw his arm around me and started loudly singing along, who clearly had had lots of the *other* kind of "spirits". Fortunately, he only stayed long enough for his friend to snap a picture, and he was actually singing in key. And even better, he didn't steal my hat...

I did come up with a new "shtick" where I, when some kids come by, ask them if they know that song about the reindeer, and then I start it up but sing, "Prancer the red-nosed...", and stop, acting confused. Then I restart but sing, "Blitzen the...", and by now all the kids are shouting "Rudolph!" at me, and I act like, "Oh yeah!", and restart it with the right words. I guess there's a reason that that kind of thing is Standard Kids' Entertainment Procedure -- it works every time.