Some of the best times I've had in the past few years have been doing comedy. I've traveled to some places I've never been before, Toronto, Montreal. And I've shared the stage with some great people, Chris Gaskin, Dawn Dumont, George Leach, and of course Cliff Paul (R.I.P.).
Cliff Paul is one of the funniest people I've ever met. Every time you think you've heard all of his stories, he'll pull another one out that will have you laughing your ass off. Driving to a gig with Cliff was the best part about working with him.
But I'm gonna tell you about this one time we did a show with him in his hometown of Powell River. It was at a hotel and when we got there, he asked the organizer who all bought tickets. The organizer named a bunch of mutual friends of theirs and then he said, "Oh, and the hotel owner is going to be there, with her Autistic son." And this totally slips Cliff's mind. It might've been the joint he was smoking.
So anyway, the show starts and Chris Gaskin is our MC and he kills as always. But there's this young man in the front row making these strange noises and by the time I get up on stage, I realize this must be the Autistic kid. And I ignore the strange noises he's making, even though it is kinda disrupting the show.
Before the show starts, we made an announcement that there be no filming of any sort.
So Cliff takes the stage, and he's killing like only Cliff can. I'm sitting by the bar to the right of the stage and this very drunk Native woman is at the bar and she orders her drink. She then turns around and faces the stage to watch Cliff. She takes out her phone and starts trying to take a photo. She's very drunk and she's having trouble holding her phone steady. I'm right beside her and can clearly see she has an old phone and I'm pretty certain this phone doesn't have video taking capabilities. And I can see Cliff looking at this woman every once in a while and he's getting pissed off.
Not only that, but the Autistic kid is still making the strange noises. And it's starting to interrupt Cliff. But he's still killing.
Then suddenly Cliff stops the show, points his finger at the drunk lady and says, "You! Stop filming me!" And then he points to the kid in the front row, and in a booming voice, says, "And you! Stop with the Euugghh noises!"
The whole room is shocked into silence.
I just wanna burst out laughing because I realize at this point Cliff has totally forgotten what he was told at the start of the show.
Anyway, Cliff starts the show again and it goes alright, I guess. But afterwards, he is pissed about how things went. We pull him aside and remind him about what we were told about the Autistic kid. And this moment of realization hits his face and he bursts out laughing.
I can only shake my head. Fucken Cliff.
I miss you brother.
