Last night was Alton Brown Live, and OMG it was freaking awesome. It was absolutely nothing that I was expecting (because honestly what are you supposed to expect when a chef goes on tour?), but it was so good and so, so worth it.
First of all, Alton Brown is a much better singer than I'd have expected, and during the show he plays guitar and has a keyboardist and a drummer on stage with him. He opened with a song called "Science: Heck Yeah!" that was very entertaining. Then he talked about what he'd do if he was the God of food (which he says will only happen if current God of food, Anthony Bourdain, is killed or kidnapped). Then he talked about GMO's and sang another song about a GMO protester who told him how GMO's will bring about the zombie apocalypse (that song was a cowboy waltz). After that he brought a mobile bar on stage and had a volunteer from the audience come up to play a game called "Spin Your Poison," which ended with him mixing a gin, brandy, and soy sauce cocktail and then playing with liquid nitrogen to make it not so disgusting.
Then there was an intermission and the second act was all about popcorn. It opened with the third song of the night, which was a pop synth song about popcorn. There was also a giant air popper called Astro Pop, and an eventual popcorn explosion that was pretty amazing to watch. Also in this portion of the show was a part where Alton and his second audience volunteer sucked helium and read a scene from Pulp Fiction, which was awesome. Alton kept joking that he's going to make a whole show where he just does movie scenes on helium with various celebrities and call it A Helium Home Companion with Alton Brown. (For the record, I would watch the hell out of that).
After a Q and A (where all the questions came from Twitter), he did another song called "Mise en Place" that was set to the tune of "Edelweiss" from the Sound of Music. Side note: this was especially hilarious because Jerbs and I have a weird inside joke related to the song Edelweiss. Basically, a few years ago, not too long after I'd moved back to Flagstaff, there was a point where I realized Jerbs had never seen the Sound of Music, and we ended up watching it one night when it was on TV. I honestly don't remember now exactly how it came about but somehow we ended up having this weird joke where we basically sing Edelweiss in this weird voice, and now whenever we hear that word or song we crack up. So Alton Brown singing something to its tune was just . . . amazing. It felt very full circle. He started playing and Jerbs and I just looked at each other and burst out laughing, and kept laughing until we cried. The people next to us probably thought we were nuts but whatever, it was such a perfect moment.
After that song Alton got a standing ovation so he did another song called "Airport Shrimp Cocktail," which has been stuck in my head ever since. And that was that. By then it had been 3 hours since the show started but I still wished there was more. It was really just so, so great. Alton Brown is quite an entertainer, and there's something about seeing a guy who's a self professed nerd doing a show that is just so completely all of his own making and selling out venues doing it that is really inspiring. I loved every second of it.
Oh, at one point in the Q and A, he called himself a high functioning sociopath, which is a Sherlock reference, and I was the only person in the audience who got it and cheered. It made me feel special lol.
Other than the show, we also went to Hobby Lobby (dangerous dangerous dangerous, it was a good thing I hadn't gotten my new debit card at the time) and Hastings (so nostalgic). And we had dinner at Red Robin, since we don't have one here in Flag. And we had In and Out on the way out of town, because we can't go to Prescott and not get In and Out.
All in all a great weekend, I can't wait for Alton to tour again!
ALSO, 8 DAYS UNTIL SEATTLE!!
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