| | | Top Story - June 30, 2016 | | | | |
| | DAVE'S WORLD | | Iggy Pop's apartment, John Oliver, Mexican prisons, and lots and lots of guitars may seem like disparate things, but they're all part of the wonderful life of comedian/author Dave Hill. | Seven years ago, comedian Dave Hill decided to challenge himself. Doing standup in clubs and theaters around the world was getting old. It was time to take his act somewhere a little more unusual. Okay, a lot more unusual: the Sing Sing Correctional Facility in Ossining, New York.
"A comedian hadn't performed there since Moms Mabley in the late Sixties, and I was warned that the inmates can really intimidate people. If they don't like your show, they'll make you end it," Hill recounts over a cup of coffee and a plate of chocolate chip cookies in the living room of his cozy, whimsically decorated Greenwich Village apartment, which takes up the third floor of a 19th-century brownstone and was once the residence of James Osterberg, a.k.a. Iggy Pop. "Because my comedy's not exactly broad—I guess you'd call it 'alternative'—it seemed like the worst possible environment I could put myself in. But I wanted to try it, so I thought, what does every man in the world—even a violent felon—respect? Guitar solos."
And so, when the time came to head for the big house, Hill brought along one small part of a guitar collection that numbers about two dozen: his 2007 Gibson Firebird with flame maple wings, signed by the Allman Brothers' Warren Haynes (the signature was the product of a chance airport meeting on the way back from the 2009 Bonnaroo festival). Before saying a word, he plugged in, turned up, and launched into "Eruption" by Van Halen. "I was scared shitless," he says, "but it worked. The guards were saying to each other, 'They respect him.' And then I talked for an hour and a half, and they let me do it. The guitar playing bridged the gap…" | | Read More» | |
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Dave Hill – Iggy Pop's apartment, John Oliver, Mexican prisons, and lots and lots of guitars may seem like disparate things, but they're all part of the wonderful life of comedian/Author Dave Hill. | | Buy This Issue» | | Subscribe Now» | |
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