I had the good fortune to be working with Mike Lester last week at Courtney’s Comedy Club in Moorhead Mn. It’s a killer room that’s been doing shows for almost 30 years. In the fifteen-hundred odd weeks they have been doing comedy, I am only one of about a dozen comics who have never made jokes about the name of the town sounding like something every guy wants. (Although I believe that number is down to eleven now.)
It’s also one of the first clubs I was ever banned from. Back in the early days, when I was far less patient, I chased a table of hunting widows out of the showroom, because they kept talking. I insulted them so severely, they organized a letter writing campaign. All six women sent letters to the Club Manager, the General Manager of the hotel it’s attached to, the CEO of the chain that ran the hotel, and the booker of the room.
The booker read one of the letters to me. She claimed, “This comic was so extremely rude. He continually interrupted our private conversation.” Of course, anyone who has ever been to a comedy show knows, you’re not supposed to have “private” conversations. He tried to explain that the the hotel owner to no avail. They were guests of the hotel, and the comics are just amenities, like the bar of soap and shower cap. It was almost ten years, two changes of management, and three different hair styles before I was allowed back.
As good fortune would have it, this week my good friend John DeBoer was working right across the river in Fargo. So we got together for lunch. But before lunch, we couldn’t resist visiting one of the oddest tourist attractions in the nation, the woodchipper from the movie Fargo.
Apparently the woodchipper used for that famous scene was owned by a local farmer who also worked as a Dolly Grip on the production. He had the Coen Brothers sign it, before he put it back into service on his farm.
In 2011, the town held a Fargo festival to celebrate the 15th anniversary of the film, and they contacted the farmer about loaning them the chipper as part of their event. It was such a hit, that they eventually bought it from him, at an undisclosed price (which I was assured was above and beyond the normal cost of a used Eager Beaver).
The oddest thing about the chipper being there in the tourist center, is that the movie isn’t even about Fargo. Despite the title, only one scene actually happens there. The rest of the film is set in Brainerd and the Twin Cities.
Originally I had intended to do an extremely sarcastic post about what a ridiculous tourist attraction it was. About how silly it was that a bunch of Rubes would honor a movie prop that was used in an obscure movie from last century. Then I realized it had attracted these three tourists.
Guilty as charged.