Okay, at the end of the show, he said that he didn't have his cds for sale, but what you could do was buy a piece of lucky paper. It wasn't for charity or anything, it would just bring you good luck to buy it. He was totally pitching the idea in a humorous "I know it won't really bring you luck, but yes, I'm still selling it that way anyway" sort of way.
When I left the theater, I saw the table with the lucky paper on it. There was a cardboard box with a slot in the top, and a stack of 8 1/2 by 11 paper that had the words "Lucky Paper" poorly xeroxed on it. There were a few groups of people standing around just looking at the table, not doing anything. I pulled out a dollar, stuffed it into the box, and took a sheet. This seemed to be all people needed. A few people just started grabbing sheets, and walking away. Todd had made it clear that you didn't HAVE to pay for the lucky paper, but that paying would fully activate its luck. Again, in a totally "Of course I know that what I just said is stupid. I'm a comedian, that's the joke" way.
I went back inside, grabbed a pencil off of a table that had been left there for the comment cards, and when I asked Todd if he would sign my lucky paper, he agreed. "I don't know what to write... I'll put Happy Birthday... What's today's date?"
Now at this point I thought I was pretty clever at the quickness of my response, "Hmm... well gee, seeing as it's my birthday, you think I'd know... the 21st, I think."
That got nothing from him. That's fine, I'm not a comedian, but I was still pleased with myself. Plus, he still had another show to do. I've heard enough comedians talk about the performance to get that he was probably still deep in his own head, thinking about the show he had just done, and the one he still had to do in another hour. I thought it was sweet that he got a little upset at himself for messing up the date. "Oh..." he said in the way someone says it when they see a hurt puppy, with that little inflection in the middle.
I told him I was a big fan of his podcast, Comedy and Everything Else. He got a little emberassed. "Yeah, I haven't been on in a while."
He had been touring with David Cross, and was now doing some dates on his own. "Yeah, I know!" I said, "I miss hearing you on there. When are you going back?"
He hesitated for a long moment, then said, "Next week..."
I thanked him then left, super happy. I looked at my lucky paper. His signature was a scribble, and below it it said,
"Happy Birthday, Chris!
11/ /21 09"
Awesome!
The next week, there was a short announcement in the Comedy and Everything Else thread. It was the other hosts of the show saying that Todd had left the podcast indefinately. I was stunned. To my mind, he was the best part of that podcast. I understood why he didn't want to tell me that. He didn't want to have to answer the questions I probably would have asked.
But that was later, the show was fantastic. I had a great time, payed $20 for a pretzle and a glass of tea. ($8 + tip) The glass was a souvenier one that I forgot when I left. I wasn't used to taking glasses with me from places, plus I was probably super psyched about geting my sheet of lucky paper.
