A week ago today, one of the greatest nights of my life took place. Even after just a week, I still can’t stop thinking about what happened that faithful night! But, instead of telling you about the apex of May 6th, 2011, let me show [dope] you!
I MET DONALD GLOVER / CHILDISH GAMBINO! It was truly a life dream meeting one of my biggest inspirations in comedy writing. :{D->—<
Oh, what a fantastic tale that lead up to this beautiful rendezvous. Where do I even begin? I’ll get started by showing you a picture I twitpic’d:
This was a pretty neat little collage that the Variety Playhouse had on their bulletin board outside. You might be thinking… “Hey Jeffrey, I can see your reflection! It looks pretty bright outside, when did you take this picture?” Oh, I’ll tell you, hypothetical question-asking person… I took this picture around 10 AM, right when some lady came out and put it up. “Woah, did you say 10 AM?! But the flyer clearly says the show starts at 8:30 PM!” Well… I may or may not have started the line at 9 AM. 9. A. M. Long story short, it was a LONG day. I had always planned to show my dedication unnecessarily early (the second person to join me in the line arrived around 3:45-ish…), and I even live-tweeted it with #IAMFIRSTINLINE. It was highly enjoyable, but actually I also had another motive. Kireet (my comedy partner), my sister, and I had come up with this campaign to try and get Donald to make a cameo in one of my Nintendo Boy videos, and we had done that by continuously tweeting this video:
Sadly, he never saw our tweets (I mean he literally gets like 20 twitter replies directed at @DonaldGlover every 5 minutes, so you can imagine all the people tweeting him after Donald himself tweets something), but it was still incredibly fun to do, and hey, we all ended up meeting him, so it worked out okay!
So that video slash campaign was part of the reason why I was there so early, hoping that maybe we still had a chance that day. But boy oh boy… what a long day. It actually wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be, as my sister joined me around 3 PM, and then Kireet, his sister, and their friend joined us around 6 PM. Obviously, at that point, the time flew by as we joked around and freaked out that we were about to see DONALD GLOVER / CHILDISH GAMBINO LIVE. But seriously, all the time before that… it was spent pacing around the front of the venue, people watching, and just twiddling my thumbs…
Note: The picture above was taken after a few people had finally shown up around 4 PM. But anyway. All the time before that, I was alone, and it was very… I was just… wow. It was tough. SO MUCH ANXIETY! Let me tell you though, it was obviously worth it. Obviously another reason I was there very early was because the venue had general admission seating, so I knew that my camping out for the day would mean I would be front and center hoping Donald would spit on me (which he did… multiple times!).
The Variety Playhouse had incredibly friendly people. I was there even before any of the staff arrived, but once they arrived and did stuff inside, one lady came out with a magazine around 11 AM and was like, “want some reading material?” Hahaha, I was so grateful. We actually chatted for a while, just about random things, and then she said how excited they were for Donald, and then she gave me a flyer about upcoming shows with the headline band being Death Cab for Cutie in August. I was planning to go, but the tickets actually went on sale on this very same day, so I wasn’t able to be by a computer. That being said, you can’t imagine my excitement when she told me that I could actually buy the tickets right at the box office I’ve been at for 2 hours and counting… the best part was that I completely avoided the horrendous fees that Ticketmaster charges! So I called my sister and told her to withdraw a lot of cash out of my bank account (*twitch*) so that when she got there we could score the tickets! Ah, that was awesome. So after that, the day went on. I had my lunch that I brought from home, paced some more, realized I had to go pee and then quickly accepted that I wasn’t going to be able to pee anytime soon, and also continued to people watch. Man, there are some real weirdos in Atlanta. After being approached by a couple people, a guy from the Variety Playhouse came out and said “hey, if someone bothers you while you’re waiting out here, just ring the bell… we got your back!” Like I said… they were so incredibly friendly. It was a great experience, and as I mentioned earlier, the time definitely accelerated once my sister and Kireet’s group arrived.
So, the doors opened at 7:30 PM, and I couldn’t be more excited. It was literally impossible to be more excited. Once they scanned our tickets, we excitedly ran inside and into the theatre (the venue used to be an old one-theatre cinema), and we were all screaming like little girls (with our arms flailing in the air) running down the aisle to the front as we realized how small the room was and how close we were gonna be. I think this picture sums up how close we were (I mean we were first in line after all, so we were front and center!)
Yeah, I know. I KNOW! I was breathless. After we had claimed our spot, Kireet held down the fort so I could get a shirt before a line forms as well as run to the restroom with tears in my eyes. My sister and I went back to the entrance of the venue to get our shirts for just $25! So worth it. I wanted to get a shirt with the tour dates (as I usually try to do when I go to concerts), but it was just a plain white shirt that said IAMDONALD on the front. As cool as that was, this CHILDISH GAMBINO shirt with his silhouette on the back was clearly the best choice!
After paying for the shirt, I literally ran to the bathroom and probably pee’d for a full thirty seconds. After almost 12 hours of waiting, it was so satisfying. We walked back into the now-packed venue, fought our way to our rightful spot, and freaked out with everyone around us for the next 45 minutes until the show started. THEN… DONALD CAME OUT AFTER A CRAZY INTRO VIDEO. This was our view for the next hour and a half (no zoom!)…
I won’t spoil anything for anyone who hasn’t seen the show yet, but if you want to know about it, this Splitsider article has a great summary of the show. But my guess is that if you’ve read this far into my lengthly tumblr post, you probably just want to finish reading my story, hahaha (thanks for making it this far, by the way!).
OH MY GOD, READER. THE SHOW WAS INCREDIBLE. HIS STAND-UP COMEDY PART OF THE SHOW WAS SO HILARIOUS, AND THEN IT TRANSITIONED WITH A 10-MINUTE PRE-RECORDED HILARIOUS SKETCH OF DONALD TALKING TO FUTURE DONALD ABOUT WHY HE CAN’T DO MUSIC IN THE SHOW, BUT THEN THE PROBLEM THAT IS PRESENTED IN THE VIDEO (see, spoiler-free!) IS RESOLVED AND THEN OUT COMES THE BACKING BAND, FOLLOWED BY CHILDISH GAMBINO!
IT WAS INCREDIBLE. I’m serious, he was INCREDIBLE live. He sounds exactly like he does on his album. Donald Glover is so incredibly talented, it makes my brain explode just thinking about it.
I don’t even like rap, but Childish Gambino is SO GOOD. I can’t stress this enough. If you are reading this and you don’t listen to him, CHANGE THAT RIGHT NOW!
What are you doing still scrolling down?! LISTEN TO HIM NOW! All his music is out there on the internet for free, so go to his tumblr IAMDONALD.com and his blogspot and DOWNLOAD HIS MUSIC NOW! If you don’t like it, I’ll pay you. That’s a promise. If you already listen to him, congratulations! It’s fantastic, isn’t it?
After the mind-blowing concert (Kireet got pregnant), we immediately ran outside to the back of the venue, where we went on to wait an hour against the tour bus in hopes of meeting Donald.
After we realized what was going on, we realized we were at the end of the line. Yeah, kinda not fair considering how long I waited the entire day, but at that point I was just hoping that I could meet and hug my biggest inspiration, as well as to autograph my Season 1 DVD of Community! After an hour of joking around, worrying, and pacing, Kireet’s group, my sister, and I were about to meet DONALD GLOVER!
I kept choking on my own spit as I was next in line to get something autographed, and then once it was time, I walked up to him, and then… CLOUD NINE.
So the video pretty much sums it up. (If for some reason the above video doesn’t play, here is the original link: http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=10150243605235466) Footage of me nervously mumbling at my favorite comedy writer, rapper, actor, comedian hero, DONALD GLOVER / CHILDISH GAMBINO. After the camera stopped rolling, the best part was the following conversation that happened:
Me: May I get a picture if you don’t mind?
Donald: Yeah! Of course! What, did you think I’ll be like “FUCK NO!”?
Me: Yeah. *starts crying*
Haha, okay, I didn’t really cry- er, no, wait, I did cry. I want to be him so bad.
As I mumbled to him, he signed my Season 1 DVD of Community and the Kickpuncher comic that his character Troy created on the show! AW YEAH!
My sister Bridgett was also able to meet and hug Donald, and he signed her purse that she took to see Conan O’Brien’s tour! Here is a photo of them talking. DONALD GLOVER AND MY SISTER TALKED!
I also got a traditional picture of them, but I’m sure she’ll post that on her tumblr!
AHHHHH! OH MY GOSH. I CAN’T BELIEVE ALL THIS HAPPENED! It was an incredibly wonderful night. <3
I hope you enjoyed my incredibly detailed account of May 6th, 2011! I just… can’t believe that I met Donald Glover! I mean… Donald Glover from Derrick Comedy?! Donald Glover as in the guy who wrote for 30 Rock when he was under 25?!?! Donald Glover as in Troy from COMMUNITY?!?!?! Donald Glover AKA CHILDISH GAMBINO?!?!?!?! It’s so unreal. Every time I think about it I still can’t believe I met and hugged him. It will be a night I will never forget.
:{D->—<
*tumblr post fades to black*
