Bob Newhart in Tacoma

Journeyed this evening to Bob Newhart down at the Pantages.

First, it's been awhile since I've been to a sell-out at the Pantages, so that was particularly cool.

Second, there was a pretty great moment of Tacoma pride. A large swing band played a few numbers before Bob Newhart came out. After their first little ditty, the band leader made the colossal mistake of telling the audience, "It's great to be here in Seattle." All 1,169 people in the audience shouted back in something close to unison: "Tacoma!" Awesome.

Third, Bob himself was good fun. I've listened to a number of his routines with my dad on car trips and enjoy his comedy. Perhaps the loudest and longest laugh came when he was complaining about country-western music. He told people he didn't want to denigrate country-western music, and then "for those of you who like country-western, 'denigrate' means to put down or make fun of ..."

I can already see that it's not as funny here, but that's OK. Fun night at the theater. Things seem to be running very well down there these days. I'm officially impressed.