The last place I expected to discuss "Fallout 3" was last Friday was in the audience of comedian Andy Richter and Upright Citizens Brigade member Matt Besser, but when Besser made a crack about video games, I managed the courage to shout back "hey, I write about video games for a living!'" Oops…
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Do you ever have to defend your hobby? Because I've made a living off it, I don't normally need to, but while watching the Upright Citizens Brigade improv comedy troupe in San Francisco last week, I found myself doing that.
The group heavily encourages interaction between the stage performers and the crowd. UCB member Matt Besser was going talking with an audience member and somehow video games came up, prompting him to make a crack about video game players and the audience of nerds he was probably performing for.
I don't usually call attention to myself in crowds, but seconds later, I apparently blurted "hey, I write about video games for a living!" at Besser.
One of Matt Besser's better skits
Besser didn't hear me, though, so comedian Andy Richter -- yes, the same Andy Richter who used to be Conan O'Brien's sidekick -- repeated what I'd shouted out. Expecting that Besser was about to make a public fool of me, I started to cringe, only to have him ask "What game are you playing right now?"
"'Fallout 3,'" I shouted back.
"Hell yeah!" said Besser in response, leading to a back-and-forth dialogue between us about how Dogmeat is a word that I can't repeat here (it might rhyme with wussy -- his words!) and whether each of us blew up the town of Megaton. The experience was surreal.
Besser is one of my comedic heroes, someone my friends and I idolized in high school, as we watched new episodes of the Upright Citizens Brigade every week on Comedy Central. I never anticipated the first time I saw him live, we'd be talking about video games, let alone our progress in "Fallout 3."
That's one unexpected life dream to check off the list.
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