Never Can Say Goodbye (No No, Bay-bee...!)

I still listen to the Jackson 5. I love all the big hits, but I’m a fan of the deeper cuts, too—like “Never Can Say Goodbye.” I’ve been listening to that one a lot lately, for obvious reasons, singing along under my breath. I’d like to say that I played it on our two drives between Baton Rouge and New Orleans, but that’s not true.

Last Thursday, Kechi and I headed out to New Orleans for the weekend—again! Our comedian friend Trixx was coming to town for his birthday, and he wanted his trip jam-packed with comedy shows. Thursday night was a Don’t Tell Comedy show at the Sea Cave, with Kechi hosting. The show wasn’t packed out, but there was a solid crowd. Jade Bronte is producing Don’t Tell in New Orleans, and she’s doing a fantastic job. We even got to bring Karate as the Sea Cave allows dogs, and I walked him around the Bywater a little bit before the show began. I was in town for that show and a string of others at Sports Drink, but I was also there for the Tennessee Williams Literary Festival.

I dearly love TWFest, and I’ve made great memories there over the years—like the time I accidentally ate lunch with Roxane Gay, of all people. This year, I’ve been serving on the TWFest Writers Circle, which is a sort of advisory board attached to the convention, and it’s been a great time. One stressful thing we had to deal with was figuring out lodging. It was a busy weekend in New Orleans, and rooms weren’t cheap—rooms at the Monteleone were totally out of the question for us. We wound up staying at Sports Drink’s comedy condo where they put up their headliners—owing to our friend Trixx’s generosity—and the location could not be beat. It’s cozy up there, homey, and while I sometimes complained about it, I did enjoy walking up that long flight of stairs since it would have been much (much) more difficult for me a couple years ago.

Kechi had agreed to take photos for the festival while we were there, and we bounched around to a lot of the events—even hitting up the scholarly offerings at the Historic New Orleans Collection, which I likely would not have otherwise gotten to, especially if we weren’t staying in the French Quarter. On Friday, I had a morning panel on The New Orleans novel with C. Morgan Babst and E. M. Tran, moderated by Megan Holt of One Book One New Orleans. One Book does fantastic literacy and education work in New Orleans, and it’s always a joy to work with Megan. Kechi and I even made a couple goofy videos in the car Friday afternoon, which I'll stick at the end of this post—just know that they are VERY silly.

Trixx dearly loves the city and its comics, so instead of just bringing a feature and packing out his weekend shows, he added three or four New Orleans comics to each one, giving them a chance to strut their stuff in front of the crowd and the industry folks in town to celebrate along with him. The shows were excellent—Trixx destroys reliably, and by the time he steps off the stage, the audience feels like they’ve just run a mile. Kechi was on the Saturday show, doing bits she’d just written, and she spent the weekend not just taking photos at the festival, but shooting inside and outside Sports Drink, as well. I loved seeing Trixx go up so many times back-to-back, but more than that, I loved hanging with the comics outside. Because we live 60 to 90 minutes away in Baton Rouge, we often have to high tail it right after shows, spending little time catching up or just talking after shows end. Since we were staying right across the street, we could stay chatting as long as we wanted.

On Saturday, we even mounted an expedition out to Dong Phuong Bakery for what are still the best banh mi I’ve ever had. Since learning that we’ll be moving to Chicago do I can attend Northwestern, these little trips have taken on an out-sized significance. The fact that our time in Louisiana is drawing to a close—at least for a few years—makes all this mean so much more. We intended to see Josh Johnson perform at the Joy Theater on Sunday night, but after the weekend we had, we were just too tired. In the end, we transferred our tickets to our friend Jon an hour before the show, packed up our things in the comedy condo, and headed home to our own bed. We’ve been taking it easy in the days since, since this is Spring Break, but we’ve got several events coming up in New Orleans soon—tomorrow we’re going to check out the new African art exhibit at NOMA for our friend’s online magazine, and then Kechi has more photo jobs over the weekend. I’ve also got a panel at the Overlook Horror Festival, which I am utterly thrilled about. It's not easy preparing to leave, but that’s because New Orleans has so thoroughly embraced me over these last couple decades, and every time I remember as much, I have to smile.