Technically, the show was in Arlington, VA, bordering DC, at the Alamo Drafthouse. My wife Jane, Brad, and I arrived at the venue with almost no time to spare. We didn’t even have time to check into the hotel first. We found a seat near the back of the room. It was general admission, so we didn’t have the luxury of reserved seating. The Alamo Drafthouse is primarily a movie theater, but it is also equipped with a stage for live performances. It is much more spacious than a typical movie theater, with many of the seats surrounding a table. It had more of a dinner-theater feel than a movie theater. There was a wait staff who would serve food and drink during the show. Chris Scopo and Stavros Halkias, two other comedians we knew from YKWD, performed the opening acts. Then Robert took the stage and did 45-60 minutes of topnotch comedy. It was every bit as good as we’d hoped. After the show, we passed Scopo near the bathrooms. I got his attention, told him we were fans of the podcast, and talked for a few minutes. When he heard how far we had traveled, he motioned for us to come with him so we could go talk to Robert. This is nothing unique at a comedy show. There is typically a meet and greet afterward, but we were high on the experience and gladly followed him to the lobby. We didn’t feel as if we were nervous to meet Robert. We had met famous people before and the novelty wears off pretty quick. This was different, though. This guy had done more for us than simply entertain. He’d taught us things about ourselves and about people in general. We felt a real camaraderie with him. Talking with Robert, we felt the exact same connection in person. Of course, he is a professional and his job as part of a meet and greet is to make every interaction feel personal, but we all felt that he was genuinely gracious to us for coming to the show and for being fans of the podcast. We talked to him for 30 minutes or so, he gave us some free merchandise since we’d traveled so far, and we left the Drafthouse. Outside, Brad and I were speechless. According to Jane, we were visibly shaking. I know for sure that my palms were sweating. So, maybe we were more nervous than we had thought. Maybe it was just adrenaline. Either way, it felt amazing. We found our way to the hotel. This place was basically a dump. It had no amenities, loud people hanging around outside our room late into the night, and wasn’t very comfortable. It was already around 3a.m., so we didn’t need to be there for long, anyway. We slept for a few hours, woke up, saw some of the sights in DC, and headed back home. 
A few months later, Jane, my son Damien, and I were trying to find a shady spot in the Magic Kingdom when I heard that Jim Florentine would be performing in Kingsport, TN in September of 2015. We were also fans of Florentine’s podcast, Comedy Metal Midgets, and could not fathom how he managed to book a show in Kingsport. We attended the show, which was excellent, with my Father and Stepmother. As we were walking out of the auditorium, we looked over the flier and saw, on the back page, “Be sure to check out our next show in March 2016: Robert Kelly!” I turned to my Dad and excitedly told him that this is the guy we saw earlier that year. Again, we had no clue how we could be fortunate enough for this to be happening in our city. During Florentine’s meet and greet, we came to realize that his show was put together by Doctor Steve. Doctor Steve is the host of yet another podcast called Weird Medicine. This show is also aired on satellite radio, so it has a wide reach. Doctor Steve is local to our area, has appeared on some of the other podcasts, and is friends with Robert and many of the other New York based comedians. Suddenly, it all made sense. Doctor Steve knows these guys, is a local guy, and was trying to broaden the scope of the live entertainment options that we have available to us. The name of his organization was ETNComedy, or East Tennessee Comedy. I loved the idea, and I wanted to somehow be a part of it. The following day, I emailed Doctor Steve through his website, told him that I had attended the Florentine show the night before, and volunteered to help with the Robert Kelly show or anything else that he did in the future. To my surprise, he was incredibly receptive. It turns out that these shows are being run with a skeleton crew and he would appreciate any help that he can get. There was no formal paperwork, no interview process, or anything that typically comes with a standard job. I was told that I was added to the list and that he would be in touch when there was more information. 
