Sometimes people say I should just "be me." That I should tell jokes I like, even if I know they're wrong for the audience at hand on a given night. They say not to pander to the crowd; not to "dumb down" my act.
I don't to listen to such advice, at least not completely. Yes, I put in some bits only a few audience members will get, but I hope those people will explain them to the ones that don't. I try to get the audience to rise to the material. But I can't make an entire act out of such material.
A case in point: There's this former Congressman Eric Massa who's apparently admitted to having gay sex, even in the Navy. A new term is entering the mainstream, just as "teabagging" once did, and the term is "snorkeling." Rather than explain them, I'm going to let you look up each one. So, first of all, this bit requires an audience of news hounds, people who have heard of Massa and the "snorkeling" act he's supposed to have committed.
Which brings us to Aging and Broadway Musicals. Not everybody follows Broadway Musicals any more. In fact, probably few people do. There was a time when more people did. That was back when I was a child and watched their touring companies play in San Francisco.
And so, I have a bit I think is very funny, but cannot tell, I'll tell it to *you*, but I'll add an explanation afterwards. If you need me for anything later tonight, I'll be quietly chuckling to myself.
This is how the snorkeling song begins:
Get-ting be-low you
Get-ting to blow all a-bout you
Leaving it up to you, as I did, to find out the meaning of "snorkeling," I'll tell you there's a song in the musical "The King and I" called "Getting to Know You." If I thought more people would understand that fact, I'd write more verses.
Not that it matters, but I saw Yul Brynner play the King both on stage in San Francisco (1951-1954) and in the movie version (1956). Et cet-er-a, et cet-er-a, et cet-er-a.
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