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Clearwater, FL YAL Convention 2005 Log Sunday, May 29, 2005 June 8, 2005 Sunday, May 29, 2005 Realistically for those leaving on Monday afternoon, this was going to be the last day at the beach. But the beach was really just a prelude to the most anticipated night of weekend, the dance at the church. When the Clearwater folks throw out numbers like 1500 Greeks, it’s because the locals come out in force on this one night to add to the rest of the participants. We decided to hop on the first bus to the church if only to ensure good seats during the scheduled performance of a Greek-American comedienne. We had already seen Basile come through a couple of times with his comic stylings based on being a Greek-American. Having occasionally dabbled in Greek-American humor, we were more than curious to take someone else’s take on it, and particularly wanted to see if being a Greek-American woman would add something to the performance. So after getting to the church and having dinner we were two tables away from the night’s opening act. It might be a little unfair to judge Eleni Carras based on this performance. Starting at 9:00 with the acoustics being bad, everyone still piling in for dinner, and at least one priest in the audience, this was not a great set. We were wondering if it would have been a better show if she could have made it at least PG-13. It’s just that after Basile and My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Greek-American based humor is difficult to pull off unless you are bringing something new to the table. (We struggle with that everyday here, so we can empathize.) Carras’ set was different than the typical Greek-American humorist because she didn’t strictly make every joke about being a Greek-American. Unfortunately her non-Greek material was as unremarkable as her Greek material. It was a struggle to laugh politely at times. We were hoping someone would heckle her because we figured that being from New York she could respond with some good comebacks. She did a few shots at some of those at the first few tables and frankly we wish she had done more of it. As for the dance itself, there was the dance inside and the people outside in the courtyard, and both areas were just as packed. It was the one night where those who decided to get dressed up really went all out. We’ve taken some pictures of guys over the years (or even in the past few weeks) wearing some interesting suits, but we couldn’t bring ourselves to take the picture of the guy in the pink suit walking around. So one girl from Denver, Paula, who started referring to us as the “Baldwin Brothers” took the camera from us and went on a spree including taking the picture of the guy in the pink suit. We invite more girls to take the camera from us because it leads to a much better composition of pictures. At 2:00 the church served breakfast, which gave many a chance to sit down and really get to talk and get to know each other. The last night at Clearwater is where people decide if they are going to keep in touch with someone after the weekend is over because for some it was straight from the church to the airport to get back to the real world the next day.
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