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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