Comedy & Construction

Hey everyone. Thanks for coming by the first Yankee Near Nashville blog post for this week. 

After a long weekend in Florida, I have a lot of things to share with you in an upcoming post series. But before I do that I want to share an experience and an observation from the first half last week. 

On the night of Tuesday, August 13, I went to Zanies comedy club in Nashville. I went to see some of the students from from the Rik Roberts' School Of Laughs, graduate from the performance class by doing their stand-up on stage. 

Now I've been to almost half a dozen of these types of performances over the last several years but this one was different. For the first time I knew one of the students who would be performing. 

June Colson, has been pursuing a stand-up comedy for the past 3 years. She is a member of the Christian Comics Association. Her comedy is actually more of a ministry than it is a career. She is a very dedicated and funny writer and performer. 

I have known June for long time. She and I went to the same church for quite a while. When I found out she was taking Rik's classes, I promised her that when she graduated, I'd come see her perform. 

She was very glad to see me and insisted on taking a selfie to mark the occasion.

 She told me she was a little nervous because it was the first time she'd performed in a comedy club. Most of her appearances are church engagements where she combines comedy with motivational speaking. 

But she had no reason to be nervous. She was very funny. Telling jokes about everything from having teenage sons to the perils of being a kindergarten teacher. 

The other members of the class were funny too. The stand outs for me were a couple of older guys who showed me that it's never too late to try stand-up. The stand out performance was the last. A woman sang the 12 days of Christmas impersonating the styles of a dozen different singers. She was really good. But overall it was a very good group of first timers. 

 Congratulations to all of them. I wish them luck in whatever way they use their comedy training. 

I don't really like to mention the name of the small town where I live on this blog but I have to share with you what's happening around here these days. 

The town's population is between 700 & 800 residence. It is about 2 miles from end to end. But for such a small community, over the last year or so there has been a lot of building and construction going on. 

On Main Street across from the town's only hotel (although there is a bed and breakfast) and next to the truck stop, is this building. It's been under construction for close to a year or more. Not sure what it's going to be or when it will be done. But at least there has been considerable progress lately. 

Across the street from this one with a rather large footprint, is the site of what will be the new Speedway Cafe convenience store. 

Paula and I stopped at a Speedway Cafe on our way to Florida last weekend. If this one is going to be like it, that will be a great addition to our town.

Off Main Street on the same road that the Speedway is being built is a couple of construction projects right next to each other.  You can see that the set of buildings in the back are apartments. The one in the foreground appears to be two buildings. One an office and the other some kind of warehouse or garage. I'll probably only find out after it's finished.   

The most recent project I have seen is closer to where I live, at the other end of Main Street. It appears that a home moving company is getting a house ready to be relocated. 

Now I've come to my neighborhood. Over the last 18 months or so, a local contractor has built 2 houses on the empty lot directly next to where I live. 
In addition, behind my house, a home has been demolished and there are two new ones being built. 

The area directly behind our backyard has been cleared of trees and brush and a stone driveway has been laid down to allow access to the houses being built back there. 

 Also, at the end of our block, there's another new house being built. 

So once these houses are completed it looks like our once quiet and roomy neighborhood will be quite full. Not exactly something we're thrilled with. But who knows it might be nice to have some new neighbors. Maybe there will be some kids for my grandchildren to play with. You never know. 

So there you have a couple of things I wanted to share with you. 

I'd like to hear what you think about these things. Do you like going to comedy clubs or do you stream comedy specials at home? 
Who do you find funny? 

How do you feel about the building of new places or homes in your area? 

Feel free to leave a comment or message me on Facebook. 

For my next post I will be starting my series sharing with y'all what we did on our trip to Florida this past weekend. 

Also remember that the finals of the SOKY's Got Talent competition is this Saturday, August 24 at 7PM. It will be at the SKYPAC building in Bowling Green, KY. 

I would love to see any and all of you there. You can get tickets at TheSKYPAC.com. 

If you can't be there any and all prayers and crossed fingers would be appreciated. 

Thanks for taking the time to read this post. I'll get back to you again soon.