A Number of Positive Experiences in and around the City of Los Angeles, California
We set out early from our spot in Mountain View, California for the Pacific Coast Highway, easily the most anticipated part of this trip for me in terms of actual driving. I had to trick the GPS into guiding us there by first entering Big Sur rather than Los Angeles or it would attempt to take me away from the coastline and down some humdrum highway past all the Walmarts and Taco Bells. Somebody create a “Scenic Routes” option for the Maps app.
Our earlier attempts at riding the coast, as you may have read, failed rather miserably, but this time around we were blessed with a beautiful blue day and the PCH did not disappoint.
Big Sur met the glowing description of one of the most underrated Beach Boys songs:
Beautiful Pismo Beach was everything Bugs Bunny had always imagined, though he never quite seemed to find his way there:
And then there was the elephant seal beach…
Dozens of beautiful, lazy seals lounging in the California sun, frolicking in the waves, and playing seal games in the sand. I could not stop taking pictures. I was like a helicopter mom at pre-prom. Rushing around, frantically snapping photos, dabbing at my eyes, mumbling baby talk like an unhinged maniac.
Conclusion: Seals are my new favorite animal. Dinosaurs and Bengal Tigers be damned. They’re sun bathing aquatic dogs. Nothing is cooler than that.
Once we were finally nearing L.A. we booked a fantastic Air BnB in Santa Monica in order to keep Fishtank from spending too much time in god forsaken public parking. We had our own little guest house about 15 minutes from the pier, which we visited early the next morning.
After that we hopped on some of those insanely cool Lime scooters and took a cruise down to Venice Beach where we absorbed the far more salt-of-the-earth scene of artists, musicians, skateboarders, and other assorted beautiful freaks.
That evening, we decided to hit up the Comedy Store on Sunset Boulevard for a free show of mostly unknown comics.
Image via L.A. Times
The Store has an incredible history. You name a comic from the 70s on and their face is on the wall in there. Richard Pryor, Robin Williams, Sam Kinison, Roseanne Barr, Eddie Murphy. All of ‘em. It’s also purported to be haunted, which is always a plus for me, and even if it isn’t, there are still ghosts. Just go in and take a silent moment to look at all the names and the faces on display and tell me you can’t hear the echoes of long-ago laughter.
We made a friend waiting on line to go inside. He was a Vietnamese-American cat named Andy who had moved to L.A. from Maryland to try and make it as a comic. He was a friendly guy and I admired his story. It takes incredible bravery to chase a dream like that. I know that L.A. is full of such stories, but it was my first up-close experience with it and it felt rather cool and romantic. See you in the Main Room someday, Andy.
The night’s entertainment was essentially a showcase for a couple dozen amateur comics. Each one got about five minutes to give us their best stuff. The first guy to come up was a big black dude in his 40s. He was hilarious. Polished jokes, sharp delivery, good crowd work. He had a bit about white guys being intimidated by him in public bathrooms that killed. Then up came a young lady who seemed nervous and really raw. Almost nothing landed. It was five minutes of wincing and cringing and uncomfortably sipping our drinks. I began to become nervous that the night was going to be a whole lot of that. Fortunately, I was totally incorrect.
We were cackling and slapping the table and wiping tears of mirth from our eyes for almost the whole evening. Of course there were still some complete cringe-inducing failures, but the consistency was rather amazing for what was supposedly a bunch of amateurs. The thing that struck me the most, though, was these comic’s magical ability to discuss all sorts of taboo topics, race and religion and politics and gender issues, and get an entire room of assorted persons to laugh about them. That sort of non-partisan mockery is something I think we can all use in today’s strange social climate. Gabby and I walked out of the Comedy Store that night totally overjoyed that we’d decided to make the trip.
The following day, we packed up our things and drove up to Burbank to meet my old high school friend, Maria, at her job so she could show us around a bit.
Sounds boring right?
Wrong.
She works for mother-effing Nickelodeon.
I could create an entire separate blog about my childhood relationship with Nickelodeon. This wonderful orange children’s network had a hand in raising me and I’m positive that some of my original love for art and storytelling stems from the magnificent shows they produced in the 1990s.
Rugrats, Ren and Stimpy, Doug, Hey Arnold!, Rocko’s Modern Life. Are You Afraid of the Dark?, All That, The Adventures of Pete and Pete, Clarissa Explains It All. They’re a common source of nostalgia for almost anyone around my age, but for me they’re a little more than that. They inspired me to create.
Maria has been working on a new show called Cousins for Life. It’s a sitcom in a similar vein to those of the network’s past. Kenan and Kel, Drake and Josh, iCarly. Cute kids, kooky parents, goofy humor, lots of heart. It’s actually being produced by two of the guys who created All That: Kevin Kopelow and Heith Seifert. You may remember Kevin as the guy who came out in the beginning of the episode and reminded the cast that they had five minutes to air.
These two guys were absolute gentleman to us. They not only allowed Maria to have us come to the studio, they let her bring us on set to watch the cast run through the script. We essentially watched an entire live episode along with the crew. It was god damn fantastic.
After the whole thing was done Maria introduced us to Kevin and Heath, who were both super friendly and excited to hear about our trip. We were taken aback by their sincerity. After a long conversation about wild, beautiful America, Maria chimed in, “Oh, they’re also big All That fans.”
“No,” I told them, “Nickelodeon literally had a hand in raising me.”
Kevin smiled, “You’re welcome.”
Come ON now. I mean really, seriously, are you kidding? That whole experience was just absurd for us. To see all these talented people at work in this awesome environment run by these incredibly warm, friendly people that also happened to be two of the minds who brought us some of our childhood’s fondest memories? It was just perfect.
All I can say is thank you, Maria.
We left the studio in disbelief. Who knew this trip could bring us to such a place? We pulled out of the lot laughing about our good fortune and took to the road once more. Destination: Laughlin, Nevada?
