rebill's Journal: PETA Seal Clubbing and Ohio River Bridge Painting Company

On Saturday, February 25, 2006, I was had tickets to attend a show called, An Evening with Colin Mochrie and Brad Sherwood in Louisville, Kentucky. During the show, one improv bit that they do is to send Brad Sherwood out of the theater so Colin Mochrie can collect a "crime" that Brad has "committed" and must confess to.

The gimmick is to get 3 unusual things that Brad wore, a strange "crime" that he committed, some other action that he was doing, a local (but unusual place name) where he committed it, a company that he was working for at the time, and what he used to do it. Let's see if I can get it all from memory:

While wearing bubble wrap, a Christmas tree and a green fedora, I tickled a kitten with a disco ball while eating Cocoa Puffs in Waddy-Peytona while working at the PETA Seal Clubbing and Ohio River Bridge Painting Company using a prosthetic leg.

While building this, a lot of it was just random shouts from the audience. However, when Colin started asking about the "place name", he rejected a few audience response because they were too simple. The reason I took note was what happened when "Waddy-Paytona" was first shouted out. The entire audience had been hemming and hawing up until that point, yet with those words, we immediately locked onto that name, and would not budge. Colin picked up on the shift and ran with it, even though he never quite said it right ... he kept saying "Pay-tone-ya".

Like it matters. There really is no such thing as Waddy-Peytona, that just happens to be the description put up on the signs on Interstate 64 for the road that leads to the two small towns of Waddy (south of I-64) and Peytona (North of I-64). Still, anyone who has driven from Louisville to Lexington has seen the sign, so we all know what it is.

"PETA Seal Clubbing" was another crowd "lock" once it was suggested. Colin did not seem to know what PETA was, but Brad Sherwood figured it out pretty fast when he was on stage (he said something like, "that's an extreme change from their original mission"). I've never been a fan of PETA (*) - but they have not endeared themselves in Kentucky after they started picking on Colonel Harlan Sanders (of Kentucky Fried Chicken fame).

Then Colin asked for more, and got "Ohio River Bridge Painting Company". That clearly confused him, but he perceived another "lock" from the audience, so he ran with it. Locally, we have had a little problem with the John F. Kennedy Bridge (I-65 bridge over the Ohio River) where it needs to be painted, but contractors quit or are fired, inspectors get arrested for soliciting bribes (i.e. worse than normal graft and corruption) and there the bridge sits, partially painted and draped in cloth, waiting to be turned grey, again.

The rest of it was fluff, but I felt those three audience "locks" ... and writing about it gave me an excuse to post the words, "PETA Seal Clubbing" several times.

Cheers!

(*) Any group that stands up and shouts, "rats have rights" has lost its grip on reality. A right is an agreement between two or more parties (individuals, governments or deities), and nothing more. The key part of a "right" is communication - both parties negotiating with the intent of following through on their promises. When a rat antes up and starts negotiating "we'll stop invading your homes if you stop using us for lab experiments", then they have met my criteria. I'm not going to hold my breath for that, though ...