Some years back in this thread is a picture of Bobcat Goldthwait. And this is about Bobcat and Syracuse. So gather ‘round children while Old Uncle Dick tells you the story of his Bobcat Goldthwait Experience.
About 20 years ago Bobcat was appearing at a small standup club locally here in Michigan. I knew that he had grown up in East Syracuse and my wife and I got a table at the edge of the stage on the right side. Bobcat comes out and about ten minutes into his act he says “I grew up in Syracuse, NY. Our mascot is the Orange (yelling in the Bobcat voice) because there’s so many orange trees in Syracuse!!!” Which, needless to say, is pretty funny.
Taking that opportunity, I called out “East Syracuse!” Surprised, he looks over at me.
Bobcat: “Yeah, that’s right! Wait….do you mean me or you?”
Me: “Both of us”
Bobcat: “Where did you grow up?”
Me: “Not far from Carrier Circle”
Bobcat: “OK! I grew up (I seem to recall he said Fremont)”
Bobcat: “Did you graduate from ESM?”
Me: “Yeah I did. ESM and then Syracuse University. And you graduated from Grimes, right?”
Bobcat: “That’s right! Well, I went to ESM too (in the Bobcat voice) but they don’t like to talk about it!” (Editor’s note- I am about 11-12 years older than Bobcat so we never overlapped at any point in school)
I’m sure the audience was wondering “uh, what’s going on here?”
Anyway, Bobcat goes back to his act and about ten minutes later he comes over and says “Hey, when you were in high school did you ever hang around outside of Fremont Lanes and ask older guys to buy beer for you?”
Me: “Um, no”
Bobcat: “Oh, OK!”
And so it went. Every 10-15 minutes Bobcat would come over to my side of the stage and initiate a short conversation about something related to Syracuse. It probably messed up the flow of his show and I’m sure the audience probably hated the interludes.
Me? I thought it was great.