No Free Passes
As anyone who's ever seen me live can vouch for, I'm no stranger to hecklers. I especially expect it from rowdy late show crowds in Texas. In Fort Worth this past weekend, I stumbled on a gem of a pair. A guy was in the front row seated next to a girl, and the two...
It Will Eat You
If the American population was a ride it would be closed for maintenance, and more likely condemned to be torn down and rebuilt as something better. What are we mad at today? Boko haram, gay wedding cakes, dead gorillas, Mexican walls, trans rights? Or was all that...
Honduras/El Salvador
Ah, Central America. I had checked most of the region off my list already, but El Salvador and Panama had eluded me. So had mainland Honduras for that matter (San Pedro Sula is the murder capital of the world, after all). Panama may have to wait, but the other two are...
2017
Reasons I liked 2017: Rehabbed elephants Thai sunsets Dragon boats Street food Singapore in the rain Toronto Colorado hikes Ethiopian dancing (yo yo yo yo yo!) Storms in Agadez (and late night drinks in Niamey) The Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque Lagoon pools in Bahrain...
White Sands
You don't have to share an industry to be inspired by someone. I mainly tell jokes and I write, but I make sure my social media input is full of more than just authors and comedians. I follow comic book artists, rockstars, base jumpers, novelists, rappers, boxers,...
What Are You Mad At?
Who is Walter Palmer? Don’t Google him, just run him through your memory’s filters and we’ll get back to it. We live in a culture of outrage. In my line of work, one of the things I have to do so deftly is walk the tightrope between empathy and calling out bullshit. ...
Afghanistan
Journeys can be about a lot of things. The destination, the road, the purpose, or in this case, the people. It's hard to describe what a tour like this is like. The pace is intense. We took a 15 hour flight into Dubai, caught a handful of hours of sleep, caught up on...
Ready Player One
Ready Player One. I stole the title. It’s a book by Ernest Cline, soon to be a Steven Spielberg blockbuster. Still, I couldn’t think of a video game reference that fit better. I find myself intrigued by people’s purposes. Their motivations. What makes some people...
Buy What You Need
The whole world is selling you something. It’s in IKEA floor plans and checkout lines and the way they herd you past impulse items. It's in the way the lead character in your favorite show sets his glass down with the logo facing you. It’s in every Facebook post. Buy...
