Standing tall on the wings of my dreams

Jim Gaffigan's book Dad Is Fat comes out today! That seems like appropriate motivation for me to finally blog about my trip to Chicago last month, a trip highlighted by the moment pictured above. (Read this if you don't know the story of how I won the chance to hobnob with my favorite comedian.)

The Gaffigan meet-and-greet was the highlight of a fun but short visit to Chi-town (my first time ever in the Windy City), sandwiched between a LOT of waiting anxiously in airports. My friend Andrew and I were flying standby on JetBlue (my employer, though I make no claim to represent them on this blog or any of my personal social media accounts), which meant we had to fly to New York before we could fly to Chicago, and that we were never guaranteed a spot on the plane. It's a very cost-effective way to travel but can also be fairly stressful.

Our flight from Salt Lake Thursday night was slightly delayed, and we arrived in New York just barely too late to make the connecting flight. As a result, we had about ten (!) hours to wait until our next chance to get to Chicago, so Andrew and I caught the subway into Manhattan for breakfast at Max Brenner, one of my favorite places in the city. We both got hot chocolate and regular breakfast foods. In the dozen or so times I've been to the restaurant, it was the least chocolate I've ever had there. I was glad to see they still have very flattering bathroom mirrors.

We napped briefly in Union Square before heading back to the airport, only to learn that our flight was delayed. Now, I was starting to get worried that we wouldn't make it in time for Jim's show. While waiting, I checked Twitter on my phone and saw that Gaffigan was also having travel issues--his flight had been canceled and he wasn't sure if he'd make it from Ohio to Chicago in time for his show. Shortly before we boarded our flight, though, he tweeted again that he had found a way to get there and the shows (he was doing two on Friday and two on Saturday) would go on.

We pushed away from the gate, and then our captain came on the PA to tell us that we were 15th in line for takeoff and we'd be on the runway at least 35 minutes. At that point I knew we wouldn't make it to the show on time, so I sent Jim a direct message on Twitter (he follows me, you know) to check if it was possible to switch our tickets to either the Friday late show or either Saturday show. He literally replied immediately--like, within three minutes--saying he'd hook us up for the late show that night! In the midst of what was likely a stressful afternoon for him, when he was likely very busy dealing with his own flight problems and getting ready for his show, he stopped whatever he was doing to quickly reply to and help out someone he doesn't know. I've always been a fan of Jim Gaffigan the comedian, and now I'm just as big a fan of Jim Gaffigan the human being.

With that settled, I became much more relaxed. Switching to the late show was doubly good, because my friend Will was flying up from Kansas. He was planning to head straight from the airport to the theater, but still was likely to be a little late for the show. Now he'd arrive in plenty of time. Our flights ended up arriving at about the same time, and the three of us took the train to our hotel, got checked in, and took a taxi to the theater. This theater.

Yep, that's the historic Chicago Theatre, featured at the end of the Perfect Strangers intro (this post's title s lifted from the theme song). Jim was true to his word--we got our tickets (great seats!) and VIP wristbands (you know it!) from will call, and laughed our butts off at opening act Hannibal Buress (by far the best opener Gaffigan's ever had, and I've now seen him 6 times in 3 different states). Then Jim did his set, which had a surprising amount of new material even though I just saw him on this same tour last November. This was the first time I'd heard him do his Hot Pockets stuff pre-encore, but that's because in lieu of an encore he brought out a cameraman to record us chanting "CBS! CBS! CBS!" as a sign to network execs that they should pick up the sitcom pilot he just shot and add it to their fall schedule. Good times.

After the show we made our way backstage with the other "VIPs." I use the quotes because they all had to PAY for their VIP privileges. Suckers. However, by buying the VIP package they did get a bunch of Gaffi-swag that we did not. They had us all line up, and since Andrew is pretty aggressive we ended up at the front of the line. Jim came out, and we went to greet him and snap some photos. I thanked him for switching the tickets for us, and once he knew who I was he asked if we had gotten the gift bag. We said no, so Jim sent a lackey to fetch some stuff for us. This probably resulted in us getting two or three extra minutes of conversation that the others in line didn't. (I told you, we were the real VIPs.) During those extra minutes, Jim said that he liked my video, which is still somewhat baffling to me. The concept was good but the production values were atrocious. (Again, if you're not sure what video I'm referring to, check the link in the first paragraph.)

The lackey came back with a DVD of one of his previous specials, a poster, and a Gaffigan mask like the one I used in my video. He signed "Andrew Pockets!" on Andrew's poster, "Will my hero" on Will's mask, and on mine...well, check it out.

That's right, Jim Gaffigan and I are BFFs. Before signing he asked me my name--he said he remembered my last name was Hofmann but couldn't recall my first name. He probably gets dozens of people tweeting at him every day, but he remembered my name from our online interactions. I thought that was pretty cool. Overall, he was a very normal guy, who seemed flattered that so many people wanted to meet him. Not at all pompous or arrogant or anything like that. Again, I'm a big fan of Jim Gaffigan the human being.

This is getting long, so I'll save the details of all the food I ate the next day (my birthday!) for another post. Thanks for hooking us up, Jim!