Cultural payback

Some Americans seem to have very little purchase on UK culture. The other day, I did a gig down by Marina Del Rey, about 20 miles outside of LA. It was a good gig, despite being hit on by the drunkest man able to stand upright but the weirdest thing was the compere.

After I left the stage he said, "Andi Osho there. The black Austin Powers. She'll be at the back of the room reading palms for a nickel". I wondered if it was the done thing, after you'd left the stage to shout at the compere, "Fuck you!". I thought better of it.

But seriously, was that the sum total of his knowledge of the UK, reading palms and Austin Powers... an American film... where the lead is played by a Canadian??

I thought it might be karmic payback for when I offended some of the Americans in my improv class that week. I told a story that in hindsight, I perhaps should have kept to myself.

Me and a friend were in New York last year and were looking for a subway. We saw a couple eating hotdogs and asked them for directions. She, for some  reason, aggressively turned to us mid hotdog munch and said, "We don't know.We're from Canada". In the retelling of the story I said, "Oh I"m sorry. I saw you stuffing your face by a hotdog truck. We thought you were American". Had I said, locals, or New Yorkers, it wouldn't have been so offensive. Then I tried to back track by adding more insults about Americans being overweight.

You live and learn and perhaps the Austin Powers thing was a little bit of payback.