Well, we eventually decided against a 2,000 mile round trip to watch a baseball game (though I'm not sure Sis was entirely joking when she suggested looking up flights), so we chose instead to spend a night at the Addison Improv, a Dallas comedy club I visited a year ago. I was secretly hoping to see Marvin Michaels, a comic we saw briefly last year, and of whom I wrote in my blog on 19th February 2004, "I could happily have watched him all night".

Of course, it was asking a bit much to expect Marvin to just happen to be performing there again on the very night we return, 13 months later. And so it proved. Turns out he's on tomorrow night. Dammit.

But who needs Marvin Michaels when you've got Michael Prince. Well frankly, we do. It wasn't that Mr Prince wasn't funny, it was just that he had such a strong southern accent that we couldn't understand a word he said. But he did break off at one point and do an impression of Steve Irwin, the Aussie crocodile hunter. If he'd done the whole show in that accent, we might have stood a chance.

Fortunately Michael left after twenty minutes, and we moved on to the headline act, Pierre, who's one of those people who prefer to be known by just a single name. A bit like Lisa.

He started well, with the line "I'm half black and half white. So I'll steal from you, and then help you look for it." but it was a bit hit and miss after that. He had some good moments though, and Big Sis was particularly taken with his hat. If only he'd worn it when he met Leslie Nielsen...



Anyhoo, the comedy over, we popped next door to Pete's Dueling Piano Bar, where we decided one of the dueling pianists was definitely gay. Until he started talking about his wife. At which point we decided it was only probable. Lisa also attempted to buy a round of drinks, and so confused the barman with her English accent that he had to pass her over to his boss. That'll teach her to ask for lemonade in America. It's Sprite 'n' OJ around here.

We made our way home via Belt Line Road, a highway we'd come to know intimately after Sis had got confused on the way there and turned a two mile drive from the Galleria Mall into a ten mile road trip with four u-turns. I'd never felt so lost. Until twenty minutes later when Michael Prince took to the stage...