On December 13, 2014, I took the stage in a stovepipe hat (Party City was out of Top Hats) and did one of my favorite sets of my life in character as Bob Cratchit. I had even shaved my beard into mutton-chop-sideburns for the part. Despite the sass I got from Todd Lewis when I arrived at Pilot Light for soundcheck (“Hey, I didn’t know Abe Lincoln was roasting Scrooge!”), one of the best moments pre-show was wandering over to the Jig & Reel Bar with Shane Rhyne (already mostly in character as Scrooge) and having a nice middle-aged woman at the bar say, “Hey, it’s Tiny Tim’s dad!” We found Gail Grantham (who was playing Cindy Lou Who), who completed Shane’s Scrooge getup, and we were off to the races.

It was a rare event where pretty much all of the humor, technical, and crowd involvement stars aligned to create one of the best comedy shows I’ve ever been a part of. It feels rewarding that Knoxville has given me so many opportunities like this that I couldn’t have imagined having anywhere else: actually helping create something that falls into the canon of stuff I enjoy kicking back and enjoying around the Holidays. Wrap this up in a bundle with the Alistair Sim Scrooge (my favorite Christmas movie of all time, 1951), A Garfield Christmas (1987), A Muppet Family Christmas (1987), The Yobs’ Christmas Album (1980), A Christmas Story (1984), Home Alone (1990), and the absolutely wonderful books American Country Christmas (Emmerling and Chapman, 1989) and Christmas in America (Nancy Grant, 1997).

Anyway, I would have posted this yesterday, but I’m bad at pretty much everything. Merry Christmas!

Oh, and if you’re in Asheville on Sunday, Shane Rhyne (Scrooge), Aaron Chasteen, and I will be in town and hitting Fairview Tavern at 9:30pm.