This week I got to drink at a liquor store called Khoury’s, laugh at a comedy club, and vote at a caucus. Hopefully I’ll figure out what to laugh at and what to take seriously.

THIS WEEKEND

• Go there within this page: Khoury’s Fine Wine and Spirits | Or visit their site: khourysfinewine.com | 9915 S Eastern Ave #110, Las Vegas, NV 89183
• FiAMMA Trattoria & Bar | www.mgmgrand.com/en/restaurants/fiamma-italian-restaurant-bar.html | MGM Grand
• Brad Garrett’s Comedy Club | bradgarrettcomedy.com | MGM Grand
• For ALL the places we’ve gone in 2016, click here!
  

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Okay, so I went to the Democratic Caucus. I realize that it might be a little too early in the year to talk politics, but to me it was more about the experience. I’ve never done anything like this. It was pretty neat.

I’m not a registered Democrat. Apparently I wasn’t even registered to vote. So I had to do those things. But I have a valid government ID, so it was pretty easy. (Take that, Texas.)

The lines to register at the Democratic Caucus

The Democratic Caucus

Can you tell this is the Sun City Anthem Precinct?

Let’s back up for a minute first and go over exactly what this thing is.

For those who don’t know (I didn’t know until very recently), a caucus is basically just a big get-together where the major parties – the democrats or the republicans – try to figure out which candidate their voters are going to like the most. In the case of this weekend’s event, the democrats wanted to figure out who should represent the party for the big race – Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders.

I love the idea of democracy; mostly because it works.

In the first ever American caucuses (yes other countries do them, but America sort of invented them… yay America!), folks sat around in rich people’s houses and taverns and stuff, smoked tobacco and got drunk, and privately debated and decided the fate of the impending election’s ballot. This weekend’s event was probably nothing like that. But it DID get just as passionate.
Not all states do this caucus thing – it’s considered a bit out-of-date. Most states just hold a vote now. And Nevada is early, which makes us kind of important and cool.

Each caucus is run a little differently state-by-state, but it basically worked like this: (It’s super complicated, and I’m gonna over-simplify it.)

• Everyone who showed up was divided into precincts based on where we lived. There were 85 attendees from my precinct, 1511.
• Then you divide up. Everyone for Hillary stood on the left, and everyone for Bernie stood on the right. The “uncommitted” (that’s me!) stood in the middle. There was 6 of us.
  

  This dog was feeling the Bern.

• A representative from each side then has 15 minutes to persuade the uncommitteds to vote with their side. Okay, this was the super awesome part. This dog lady (pictured) tried to get us to side with Bernie (surprise). She was passionate, and she definitely said some things that made EVERYONE on the Hillary side yell and scream at her. It got pretty intense. She also said that her dog has met Bernie, and her dog licked Bernie, so her dog must like Bernie.
• Hillary and Bernie seemed amazingly similar on many of the issues. So we saw the Hillary side basically arguing that this girl can get it done. She can get elected. She can get votes. She can call world leaders. She’s practical. And the Bernie side basically argued ideals. Integrity. Honesty. And that whole bit about not taking money from big corporations.
• People were jumping in from both sides, interrupting, shouting facts or disputing other facts. The crowd closed in on us from both sides. 79 people standing around us. And the 6 of us, listening, asking questions, deciding. This might be the first time in my life I’ve felt important – or at least pretended to be important for just 15 minutes. So… my 15 minutes of fame was applied quite literally, I suppose.
• When the time was up, we had to either choose a side or go home. Our uncommitteds split right down the middle – 3 for Hillary, 3 for Bernie.
• Then we added up all the votes on both sides, did some fancy math, and arrived at a proportional amount of delegates for each side. Our precinct went 4-3 for Hillary. Another precinct in the room had a 3-3 tie, and the Sun City old folks went (you guessed it): 6-1 Hillary.
• These delegates will go on to represent us at the state level and potentially the national level. They’ll vote for us.
• State-wide, Hillary barely squeaked a victory, 52/48.
  

  (fancy math)

The caucuses are important because they set the pace for the rest of the primaries, they teach candidates what to tweak about their campaigns, and they serve as an early bellwether for the national stage. Iowa is particularly important because it’s the first state to caucus. (Those slow midwesterners need extra time I guess…) Nevada isn’t too far after – we’re third, I think. Nevada has only been doing them since 2008 – we held elections before that. So I guess Nevada’s on the map now. Historically, we’ve also been pretty good at predicting the national vote. (Only one miss since 1912!)

That guy.

I think our district got some extra love because Harry Reid lives up this way and showed up to our caucus. Fox 5 was there, and Chris Hayes from MSNBC. I guess the origin of caucuses in Nevada are Harry Reid’s brainchild, so it’s kinda cool to have him show up to ours.

I SO BADLY WANTED to go to the republican caucus as well, but it’s on a Tuesday. (Really, Republicans? A Tuesday? That should probably tell me something.) Anyway, I think it would’ve been even MORE interesting. Don’t you want to see the republicans sort this shit out? Don’t you want to hear people defend Donald Trump? What could their talking points possibly be? It could be hilarious.

Although, I suppose at the end of the day, it’s better I don’t get caught up in THAT spectacle. The country should probably stop laughing the Trump debacle. Someday very soon, he’s either gonna disappear from all this nonsense, or it’s gonna get REALLY NOT FUNNY. And we’ll all feel a bit guilty we let it go on as long as we did. It’s probably time to start being the bigger person, America.

Human-Sized Democracy

10 points if you can name this guy

I love the idea of democracy; mostly because it works.

And sidenote: shit, isn’t it kind of amazing that it works?? I mean, if democracy had never existed, and you asked me if democracy would work, I would probably guess it wouldn’t. Tim, I’ve got this idea: Let’s let the populace decide our political matters. A bunch of people who are farmers and blacksmiths and clergy and tradesmen; NOT political science majors; do NOT spend day-in-day-out thinking about this crap; are not trained in foreign policy & relations tactics, economic theories and history, do not have a rich understanding of law and the legislative process… Let’s put them in charge of electing a leader who can only stay in power for a few years, regardless of how well that leader performs in office. Then we start all over again.

Oh, and the voters mostly just vote for leaders. Not decide things. They’ll just pick politicians who promise to do certain things. Promises the politicians make without having a crystal ball/knowing exactly what’s gonna happen the day they take office let alone 4 years later. Okay, now let’s go have a carpenter fix my alternator, and get those children to advise me on a mutual fund. 

It all sounds kinda crazy, right? But that doesn’t matter. All that matters is we’ve been doing it for hundreds of years and it’s working pretty well.

This is where some people might say, “No it’s not! It’s broken! We’re all gonna die!” To those people, I say it’s working better than most other solutions, right? Sure, politicians might have a lot of conflicting opinions they’re trying to reconcile from a lot of different constituents, but that’s kinda the point right? The biggest group wins! That’s democracy! And sure, sometimes it’s not the biggest group that wins – it’s the richest group. But I would argue that most of the time, it tends to regress back toward the majority. And if not – if we didn’t get it right, we get to try all over again in the next election. Or to take from The Newsroom, we get to overturn our government every 4 years, all without a revolution. Kinda beautiful, right?

This guy.

Our democracy has become so grand. It’s usually practiced and experienced through national TV news anchors and professionally produced commercials and millions of votes and… it’s so big and distant. It’s a reality TV show. It’s a documentary.

But the caucus – that experience was so real. It was human-sized. It’s you and your neighbors. I mean, how cool is that? This ordinary person that lives down the street from you is trying so passionately to sell you on this idea that you should vote a certain way. Then you physically move to that side of the room. You visibly vote. Everyone on that side applauds as you join their cause. You were uncommitted, and now your vote matters, you’re vote #1 of 1… at least to these 39 people. It feels like you’re jumping back in time 200 years. It feels like human democracy.

Khoury’s

Nope. Not employees.

We had lunch on the patio of Khoury’s Fine Wine & Spirits. Joseph James was there doing a tasting, we made some friends and bought a Khoury’s t-shirt.

On the surface, Khoury’s is a liquor store meets a bar. But as you experience it, Khoury’s becomes so much more.

They’re constantly hosting beer and wine tastings, giveaways, food truck nights, and more. Regulars come and share libations and laughs. Play games. Enjoy good company and local brews from CraftHaus or Joseph James or Tenaya Creek or Bad Beat.

Issa Khoury cut his retail f&b teeth in his dad’s market in Elko growing up. He went on to study business and marketing at UNLV. Then, in a job with a local distributor, he got really interested in wines and craft beers and spirits. And something else happened. He discovered these little specialty shops all around the tri-state area that were able to offer specialty products that the big stores couldn’t. He realized there was an unfilled niche here in the valley. He opened Khoury’s in 2004.

Things were progressing along. Then Khoury’s Thursday wine tastings exposed demand for something else – something unique that didn’t exist anywhere in Las Vegas. Khoury petitioned the city of Henderson for a license to be part liquor store, part bar. This isn’t a thing. He kinda made it up. Which is why it took a good bit of time. But eventually, he sold them his vision, and they sold him a license to do something truly unique. He installed some taps, added some more tables, books, board games, a patio. The rest is Khoury’s history.

Oh, and Khoury’s definitely has one of the most amazing beer selections in town – especially for such a small store.

One of the other amazing things he’s done is hire a team of beer nerds. These guys know their stuff, and it changes the whole experience. It becomes a place for other beer nerds to gather. Trade beers. Try new things.

Khoury’s gets people together. As Official Khoury’s Ambassador Frank would say, “Beer is the great equalizer.” You make friends at Khoury’s.

Fiamma

Since we were going to Brad Garrett’s Comedy Club, we went to MGM Grand for dinner – to Fiamma. Plus, we need to get all of our MGM experiences in before the parking tax kicks in.

Corporate picture of Fiamma that I stole from the internet. Thanks, internet!

It was… not worth the price? I mean okay, I get that Italian can be overpriced, but this was ridiculous. Ravioli was like $29. I had the Mediterranean Sea Bass for $38 and it was dry and pretty flavorless. The carpaccio was pretty soaked in oil and salt. Maybe we mis-ordered. My advice: Stick to the ‘Chef’s Favorites’ section.

Also, Fiamma sits in restaurant row, and they did that thing where the fourth wall was a pony wall that looked out onto the passers by. As a result, it was loud with drunk people coming back from the pool and shit. The atmosphere lacked that quiet intimacy that I guess I expect for that price. The decor was pretty cool though.

Interesting that Italian food is always associated with romance in America. I wonder why that is.

No, Brad Garrett Isn’t Here Tonight

Darrell Joyce

It was a decent show. The first guy was okay. The second guy did that play-the-guitar-the-whole-act thing. And our headliner (Darrell Joyce) was pretty hilarious.

I think Brad Garret personally “interviewed” every cocktail waitress, if you know what I mean. They were way too attractive for a comedy club. Sorry, I don’t have pictures for you, because I’m not a creep.

Comedy Isn’t Real

Comedy isn’t real. I mean, it isn’t one of the laws of physics. We invented it – like love and beauty – to make life a little more tolerable.  But why comedy? How does the humor mechanism work? Why do we find things ‘funny’?

I’ve decided comedy is a coping mechanism. Comedy is there to handle the negative: discomfort; awkwardness; pain. Whenever something makes us uncomfortable, we laugh. That’s all comedy is, plain and simple. We tackle the situation by smothering it with a new feeling – a pleasurable feeling. Lemme give you some examples so you can see what I mean:

• Slapstick humor is funny because it’s awkward to watch others in pain. Note that the amount of pain must be below which our Danger Zone trigger kicks in. In order to be funny, it has to hit the sweet spot, The Humor Zone. It must be barely not enough pain to trigger sadness or deeper empathy to where we need to take the situation more seriously. See the chart below.
• Some comedians make fun of us. And that hurts. But if they do it right, it hurts just the right amount.
• Most comedians make fun of society in some way – a joke we can all be in on. “Are you ever walking down the street, and…” Yeah, we do that. “The biggest difference between men and women…” YES, that TOTALLY sums up women!
• Sometimes jokes trick us. And the bait-and-switch makes us feel duped. Oops, they got us. Darnit. A weakness. And we laugh. Because sometimes pain comes in the form of humility.

Okay, so that’s why things are funny. But what about laughing? Laughing’s pretty weird. Why is this the way we express humor? With most emotions, there is some visual cue – a smile, a furrow. With humor, it’s both visual and verbal! “Ha!” We actually have an onomatopoeia for the sound we make; that’s how standardized this is. So what’s going on there? Why must humor be one of the most obvious emotions?

We invented comedy to make life a little more tolerable. 

Dangerously close to the danger zone

Maybe it’s because we want to signal to the company we keep that, ‘hey, while you can see that I might be in some pain or discomfort, it’s not enough to be in the Danger Zone.’ The laugh is the green flag. The all clear. The at-ease.

So, we’ve talked about a receiving sense of humor. But sense of humor refers to both givers and receivers. So what about the givers? Afterall, a great ‘sense of humor’ is considered to be a bellwether personality trait. We value a sense of humor. When a woman likes a guy, she displays it by laughing at his jokes. But that basically means this person can make us uncomfortable, right? So what gives? Why does sense of humor top every dating profile request for their mate?

A guy is sitting at home when he hears a knock at the door. He opens the door and sees a snail on the porch. He picks up the snail and throws it as far as he can. Three years later there’s a knock on the door. He opens it and sees the same snail. The snail says: ‘What the hell was that all about?’

Maybe because someone who’s able to trigger the funny bone in others must have an acute sense for where that person’s Humor Zone is (again, see chart above). It’s not about making us uncomfortable; it’s about making us JUST uncomfortable ENOUGH to trigger Humor Zone, but not TOO uncomfortable where you’re in the Danger Zone. And everyone’s chart isn’t the same. You gotta read a person. Sense of humor is valued because it’s a clear signal of high empathy. AKA That this guy can read you and get right in your Humor Zone. And that’s really important.

Quiz: 10 points if you now understand WHY this is funny.

Or maybe it’s a sign of creativity. Think about it. In order to be funny, I must be able to take the context of our current conversation, craft a contextual reply that’s in my audience’s collective Humor Zone, and do it all in real time. This takes a really high level of creativity and intelligence. That might be why good leaders often also have a good sense of humor.

So in a way, humor is just another expression of sadness. And sometimes, we’re so sad that all we can do is laugh. Or maybe because in those moments, it’s welcomed more than ever. Because we’re so far in pain that we’d love for a minute to be that close to the Humor Zone.

It’s funny like that. Humans created humor as a pleasure to cover up pain. Then the pleasure (humor) takes on a life of its own. Before we know it, we’re seeking out the pain so that we can experience the pleasure. We go to comedy clubs.

And who do we go to the comedy club with? Our significant others. Our good friends. So we can laugh with them. Because it brings us closer together.

Love and comedy are opposites. Love is a reaction to comfort. It’s someone who makes us feel really, really comfortable. (Maybe because they know exactly where our Zones are.) So here we have this person who makes us super comfortable, and what do we do but go seek discomfort together. It’s interesting, that’s all I’m saying.

For all weekend recaps, visit maketheweekend.com.