Back in 1978, I was working in the Record Department at Sanger-Harris Department Store in Ft. Worth. It was a dream job. I could listen to music and sell it. I listened to everything. I had to, because people would come into the store and not know an artist. They might not even know the song, but they could sing a little bit of it. One time, a woman came in and said she wanted the song with a train whistle. That was Willie Nelson's song. I was also exposed to music I didn't normally listen to like Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys. Good stuff.
Around that time, there was a comedian that was gaining popularity. His name was Steve Martin. He had released a comedy album called "Let's Get Small". It was hilarious. We had an 8-track player in the department to play stuff on. We had it in our rotation of tapes to play. Steve's album got some criticism from some customers of some foul language, so I was told I could only play it at night. No problem. He released another album called "A Wild and Crazy Guy", and we played that at night, too. Another big hit at the time was a band out of Saturday Night Live called The Blues Brothers. We had a rockin' good time at night. Our record distributor would provide us with posters and other promotional material for our department. We were his number one account in sales. One thing that he brought us was a life-size standee of Steve Martin that we stood up in the department to advertise his two lp's. One night, it disappeared. Our distributor was furious. We could take home the posters, but that standee was special. There were only a few of them made. He wanted to know where it went. Nobody knew. It had gone into my car and into my apartment. I still have it. As far as I know, there are only two still in existence. I have one and Steve Martin has the other one.
So, it was announced that Steve Martin, Martin Short and Paul Shaffer were coming to the Township Auditorium in Columbia in 2020. I had to go. I knew Martin Short's work from his time on SCTV and in "Three Amigos" which also starred Steve and Chevy Chase. Paul was David Letterman's band leader and had been on SNL. It was going to be a perfect night. I bought a ticket for the balcony, because that's where I like to sit.
Then Covid came. Everything was cancelled or postponed. I was crushed. I got a refund for my ticket. Then, it was announced in 2021 that the show had been rescheduled for the fall. I had to go. It was also announced that Paul wouldn't be with them, but his replacement would be Jeff Babko who was in Cleto and the Cletones. They also were the house band for Jimmy Kimmel Live. They also had the Steep Canyon Rangers bluegrass band. Being a member of The Township, I got to get my ticket a day before the general public. I splurged and bought a third-row seat in the center. It was way more than a balcony seat, but it was my only shot to see two of my comedy idols.
I sat next to a man and his wife from Florida. We talked a lot about music, as it seems that he played with Lynyrd Skynyrd and Marshall Tucker back in the day. I wish I could remember his name. The show started. I wish I had stood up to applaud, but I sat. Steve made a joke about that great sitting ovation. If I had stood up from the third row, he would have seen me and may have singled me out. They were all great. I had taken a picture on my phone of the standee to show him, if I was fortunate to see him after the show, but that didn't happen.
After the show, I walked up to Baptist Hospital to call a taxi to take me home. I went inside of the hospital to tell them that I wasn't loitering. I was just waiting on a cab. I continued to wait. After almost an hour, a security guard came outside and told me that he expected it could be at least another hour. He asked me if I had ever used Uber. I hadn't. He told me what to do. After I got in touch with them, an Uber car arrived within minutes. I knew the security procedure to check for the license plate. A couple of years before, a USC student had called an Uber and got into the wrong car. She was murdered. I paid upfront, and the man took me home. I also cancelled the cab. Uber was much cheaper than a cab. It was a great night all around.
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