We took a swing through southern New England this past weekend. The main excuse was Paul F. Tompkins's Varietopia tour stop in Westerley, Rhode Island. We also visited our child in western Mass and our dear friends the Mocks in eastern Mass - quite a lot of territory for one weekend.
Tompkins's tour is essentially a traveling variety show. He himself, of course, is the comedian. He also has a four-piece band, a singer and a magician along for the ride. Tompkins sings, too, and he's surprisingly good. I don't mean to imply that I'm surprised he's talented as he certainly is. I just didn't know singing was among his talents.
The show's a lot of fun. Tompkins's comedy is the highlight, though the singer (Medusa) was also quite good. The magician (don't remember his name) was a good showman but the tricks themselves were pretty basic: card tricks I've seen friends do.
As ever, a stop in Northampton requires a visit to The Botanic Garden of Smith College. At the moment, they're featuring a student-initiated and -created exhibit of Gnome Houses, hidden among the other plants for visitors to find, scavenger-hunt style:
A few other highlights:
Sounds like you had a good trip.
ReplyDeleteA lot of driving but we got to see people we care about. That's the most important thing.
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