(Note: the temporary PIT chairs that Arlene Schnitzer hall pulls out are actually more comfortable than the regular seats, which always make my tailbone hurt like hell.)Like Kris, I'd actually NOT sought out much info about this show in advance. Frankly, it was Alton Brown. It mattered little what he was doing, I wanted to see him do it. His show, Good Eats, was the first cooking show to really resonate with me. The mix of humor, history, science and FOOD drew me into wanting to know more. He's a big reason I can actually COOK, instead of just blindly following a recipe. (Throw in a lot of my dear Scot, Cooks Illustrated and their series America's Test Kitchen and you pretty much have the whole of my education on cooking.)
He's a personality that I admire enough to say, "Hey, if he sees value in doing it, I'll spend some time and money to see it."
And he did not disappoint!
The show was a lot of fun. Clean enough for the family, but funny enough that I doubled over laughing often. A variety show of sorts, it had all the elements you'd want and expect from a show called Alton Brown Live. A cute video intro of burping/farting sock puppets. (Not gross... it's the explanation of how yeast works, a great illustration he used in his show.) A quirky set. A good concept that helps the show flow and melds together such divergent elements as a rap song that clearly illustrates some of his opinions about the industry and cooking show royalty, a diatribe about chicken fingers, some excellent parenting insight and advice, a few memoir vignettes, and of course: COOKING. With some science thrown in.
Oh. And some really, really deliciously ridiculous, overblown, overdone methods of accomplishing things. But that's just for fun.
There's no need to give a play by play; go see the show yourself somewhere if you're interested.
My challenge was keeping my composure, thanks to being on the recovering end of a bronchial catastrophe. After being sick for a week, I'd made it through the day at work (barely), but still had my moments of turning-inside-out coughing. Luckily dinner went well, and I had only a few normal coughs during the evening.
But, my voice.
My voice is really wonky, and my laugh -- well, I can't even explain how my corpus emitted some of the sounds it did that night. While I'm not a fangirl standing at the edge of a stage screaming for attention, it is really nice to exchange a look and a smile with a performer you appreciate (bands, Cirque, whatever.) The only Alton love I got last night however... well, Kris and I were discussing after the show how funny it was and how good it was to just let go and laugh, and he said, "Man, one time you made this sound, and he looked RIGHT at you."
Yeah. The same way you'd look in the direction of a noise that sounded something like a cross between breaking glass and a coloratura soprano getting run over by a garbage truck with a screaming belt. I'm a lucky girl. But you can see me in this photo he tweeted, on the very bottom right edge holding up my book! To the left of me is Scot, Kris and Leslie. #FAME!
(The FIRST edition which I brought WITH me, BTW, not some merch purch right at the show like a wanna be NOOB.)
#AltonBrownLive pic.twitter.com/20Jv8cBzwb
— Alton Brown (@altonbrown) February 25, 2015
Today I'm making a nice pizza dough recipe, to let it rise so we can enjoy it for dinner tomorrow night. If you saw the show, you'll know why.
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