Let’s just start by saying that leaving the Blackhawks behind and going back to planes and cars is going to be a HUGE letdown. I sat up by the gunner for the first flight today and had an even better view.

The gunner took my camera and snapped a pic of his view for me (he wouldn’t give up his seat though).

Dude...

The first show was at FOB Falcon, which hadn’t any entertainers there for a while because it hasn’t been that safe. The stage was outside and it was a colder than normal day (gotta love the global warming). The show also marked the return of my voice. Sort of. It’s probably at about 85-90% capacity now, which is quite an improvement over a couple of days ago.

Our escorts there were in such good moods it was almost easy to forget what they were doing. Again, I don’t know how they do this. I haven’t met anyone who is here for the first time and yet they’re all still upbeat about their work. All of this with no beer. Amazing.

(Early Saturday AM now)

Our longest flight day over here is delayed by weather so I’m trying to get this finished.

We had two new roommates show up at 1:00 AM to join Mark, Col. Shock and me. Bunktastic!

Back to FOB Falcon. The base had a little bazaar run by the locals so the ladies were excited. Not for long. The goods consisted mostly of pirated DVDs, software and cheap electronics. It was like downtown L.A. without the parking hassles.

We did the show outside with a sandbag covered concrete bunker right next to the stage and some heavy equipment behind it. I told Carole (my oldest friend in comedy) that a loud, long siren meant she was supposed to stretch the show.

Stage Backdrop

The chopper/limo showed up on time and got us to the next place, Nasr Wa Salam in western Baghdad. It’s a joint security operation with a small American presence surrounded by a larger Iraqi base. This was the first show we had Iraqi soldiers attend. This place was a freakin’ wreck and one of our escorts from VBC (Victory Base Complex) told us it looked a LOT better than the last time he was there.

As always, the attitude of the troops contrasted greatly with their surroundings. We had dinner with them, cleared some room in the DFAC (dining facility) and did the show there. The base is one of those all-male affairs so Mark and I served primarily as the buzz kill portion of the show.

(It’s now 3:00 AM on Sunday morning and I’m still writing about Friday. I’m just going to end this post with a couple more pictures and get to work on the next.)

There are worse things I could do...

Mark being Mark

Lt. Kay was a stellar escort.