I've mentioned before here that Dave Barry is my personal hero because of his many humorous books and columns. Well last night I finally got to see him in person at Webster University down the street.

We arrived half an hour early and were confident that we would have plenty of time to get seats (it was all free and open to the public), but when we got in the door we saw that there was a line beginning to extend from the doors. The most disturbing part was that the line was not moving because the doors were closed, and certain old rich-looking folks carrying neon green tickets were the only ones getting in. An announcement on the loudspeaker a few moments later confirmed our worst fears: there were no open seats left for the public. All remaining seats were reserved for ticketholders who had given money to Webster U., and if there were any donors who didn't show up they would let a few more people in.

By this time the line extended out the doors and the public was none-too-pleased. People were complaining to management and leaving the line in disgust. On a hunch (and because we had nothing better to do) we hung around and slowly moved forward in the line that was slowly dissipating. Sure enough, about 5 minutes before starting time the doors opened and they yanked in a few more people. We were in this group.

Ironically we got some of the best seats in the house because we were put into unoccupied reserved seats front and center. After a long-winded introduction by the president of Webster (or so he claimed to be, he could've been a Mafia hit-man for all I know about Webster), Dave came out and went through a funny hour-and-a-half long routine of his columns and some new material.

Afterwards, he took questions and after an incredibly creepy question from a large stalker-type man in the back of the room, he pointed at me. As you probably know (or should know anyway), Dave recently wrote a book called Big Trouble that has since been made into a movie which was supposed to come out last September but was delayed until next week because of the September 11 tragedy. What follows is an approximate transcription of my question and its rejoinder:

Me: After the success of Big Trouble are you planning on writing any more fiction books?
Dave Barry: Fiction books.....also called novels [crowd bursts into laughter, especially David, michael, and James, who were sitting with me].

So I can now say that I was zinged by the funniest man in America. As much as he made me look like a dumb college kid (luckily everyone probably thought I went to Webster), I must consider it an honor. Cross one more thing off of life's to-do list.