Mideast tour: Blake and Andrew

Apropos to my last post, on the victory of earnestness over irony among our armed forces, here is something I am delighted to have taped.

At Camp L.S.A., Kuwait, two young soldiers stood out in the crowd because they showed up after I'd already begun my set, and because they had bothered to go back to their tents and change into civilian clothes. One even had bleached-out hair -- they looked good, but a bit out of place. I teased them a bit from the stage, and when they came through the autograph line, they told us they made music, and asked if, should they go to their tents and retrieve their guitars, we would sign them.

That turned into this:



They performed two songs for us. Andrew, on the left, was charmingly nervous. I later received a MySpace message from Blake -- his profile says he's just 20! I know these young men have important and difficult jobs to do, but seriously: could boys get any cuter?

Blake and Andrew are thinking of moving to Nashville once they get out of the service. They don't have a band name yet. Perhaps they are taking suggestions?

I have kept in touch and offered to find them a place to play when they come to New York, perhaps in January. I am inviting all my lady friends.

The delighted audience. Comics rarely finish doing a show...
and then get a show done back for them.

Andrew, Blake, and the girls in the USO.
Note the signed guitars.
The USO at Camp LSA was an air-conditioned oasis full of IKEA couches on an otherwise bleak desert base. (Even though it all looks very nice, keep in mind one still has to leave the tent and walk 50 yards through 125-degree heat to get to the latrines). Note the psychedelic decorating scheme -- somehow the USO has co-opted the imagery of the Vietnam protest movement to provide today's troops with the nicest tent in all of Kuwait.

Eventually, Blake and Andrew's superior officers made us wrap it up -- after all, it was nearly 9:30.