Comedians, Crawfish, and the Amazon

A trip to Mobile, Alabama is full of surprises. Plus recs for Ken Lum's shopkeeper series, Conan on Twain, and Hamilton Nolan on the underlying problem.

It was 9 p.m. on a Thursday in Mobile, Alabama and just about every restaurant in the area had shut down for the night.

This was a problem because we had just finished the comedy show we were in town for and none of us had eaten dinner. We had arrived at the bar/restaurant that locals had recommended 5 minutes after their kitchen closed.

As we tried to figure out what to do, with blood sugar levels low and hanger setting in, we asked our waitress if it would be ok if we ordered a pizza to the bar from the one place nearby that was open. “I don’t care, but let me ask my manager,” she said.

She came back 30 seconds later. “He says if you want to order a pizza, feel free. But he’s also got 50 pounds of crawfish boil over there and you’re welcome to eat that for free.” She pointed behind her where a large bearded man was shucking crawfish straight from his hand into his mouth. He smiled and waved at us to come over.

Anyone who knows me or reads this newsletter knows that this could not have been more of a dream come true for me. A surprising, unexpected little adventure with people I never would have met otherwise? Free food? Regional delicacies? I was instantly on cloud nine and practically sprinted over to the trough of complimentary Cajun food.

The rest of our group was understandably somewhat more cautious. Surplus shellfish does not have the best reputation. In general, it’s a good idea to ask questions like “Why does this large, bearded man have 50 pounds of extra crawfish to give away?” “When was it cooked?” “What condition is it in?”

I didn’t have time for those questions, because I was already eating crawfish, corn, and potatoes with my bare hands.

The crazed look of a man having a regional food adventure

I can tell you now, more than 24 hours later, that I did NOT contract food poisoning. None of us it did. It was simply delicious and an act of pure generosity and hospitality. It was not a trap. I bonded with Tyler, our benevolent host, over his love of learning about new places through GeoGuessr, which I also enjoy, and heard about what it’s like to live and run a business in Mobile.

Even before the miracle of the crawfish, I was having a great time in Mobile, a city that surprised me over and over. Great food, friendly people, and beautiful nature. I was in town with some pals to do a comedy show at the University of South Alabama where we interviewed Gabriel de Olivieira, a Brazilian scientist who studies deforestation in the Amazon rainforest.

It was wild to learn about Gabriel’s research. More than any other scientist I’ve interviewed, he risks his life to collect data. Over the years, he’s been threatened by AK-47-wielding illegal mining gangs, come face-to-face with jaguars and deadly snakes, and once got lost for four days during a flash flood in the Amazon rainforest without any food, water, or supplies. To survive, he and his team had to sleep out in the open, drink contaminated water straight from a stream, and trek for miles and miles to a break in the thick canopy where a helicopter could finally airlift them to safety.

The biggest thing that stuck with me from talking to Gabriel is how deeply he believes that small changes can add up to have a transformational impact on deforestation and climate change in the Amazon and worldwide. He talked about how much of the transformation of forests into farmland could be made unnecessary by using existing scientific advances to help farmers use their current land more effectively. And he talked about how, after getting rescued from the rainforest, he found himself on a plane flying back to safety. He’d spent days desperate for clean water and now he was in the air, sitting in a comfortable, air-conditioned seat. The flight attendant asked him if he’d like ice in his water. He was speechless at the almost impossible chain of events that made an offer like that possible.

I felt similarly while shoveling Cajun-spiced food into my mouth out of a communal trough. You never know where or how the solution to your problems might arrive.

I also ate breakfast at a Waffle House and saw this sign:

Now that I’ve left the state though, I can safely say that I fucking loved Mobile.

My projects and upcoming events:

LIVE IN LA: Wrong Answers Only - Dynasty Typewriter on Tuesday, May 20th at 7:30 p.m. Three comedians interview a parrot expert about the famous wild parrots of Los Angeles. Why are they here? What do we know about them? And why are they so loud? Get your tickets now (also available for livestream if you live outside LA and still want to join in the fun).

PODCAST: How to Be a Better Human (TED/PRX) - What does it take to cultivate kindness? Rick Weissbourd has spent his career at Harvard trying to understand that question. At a time when the world can feel very cruel, Rick’s research offers a path forward. Listen to our conversation here (or wherever you get podcasts).

This week’s list

GREAT:

One of the local institutions in my neighborhood in Los Angeles is a drive through burger joint called Rick’s. They’re a landmark for many reasons, but for me personally, it’s because they often have confusing or inscrutable messages up on their sign. Once they had the phrase “Spaghetti is back!” up for several months, which became of a kind of hyper-local meme and always made me laugh. Another time, Mollie tried to get them to put up a message for my birthday and they did but misspelled my name so the sign read “Happy Birthday Criss!” which I thought was really bold assumption to make about the default spelling of the name. Sadly, Rick apparently passed away this week and it was announced on the sign. I shared the news with my friends Alex and Sarah and they pointed me to this collection of work by the famous conceptual artist Ken Lum: Shops announcing their owners’ passing. It’s a little funny, a little sad, and quite beautiful in my opinion. The Shopkeeper Series

FUNNY:

Conan O’Brien received the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor and gave an acceptance speech that wasn’t as focused on jokes as it was on the power and importance of humor, especially in this historical moment. As a comedian who is about to publish his first book, a nonfiction look at the importance of having a sense of humor and how to laugh more, this could not be more up my alley. Conan on Mark Twain

INTERESTING:

Hamilton Nolan is a journalist who writes “stories that [try] to get at the infernal, surprising, enraging, and sometimes very stupid machinations that make our world how it is.” At a time when opening up the news at any moment seems to reveal a dozen new terrible problems desperately in need of solving, I think Nolan’s framing of the key, fundamental issue is very clarifying: The Underlying Problem.

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That's it for this week. Thanks for reading! Please share Bright Spots with anyone you think might enjoy it.

Wishing you the weight of a large kindergartener in crawfish,

Chris Duffy

This has been Bright Spots, a newsletter.

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…wait, who are you?

I'm Chris Duffy, a comedian, TV writer, podcast host, and both a former fifth grade teacher and a former fifth grade student. I’m currently writing a nonfiction book about humor for Doubleday.