Oregon State Fair

Last weekend, Mary and I went to the fair. I hadn't been to the fair in 15 years or so. I'd almost forgotten what the fair was like - except that my bro and I went to the Benton county fair last year to see Carrot Top.

I guess all fairs are about the same, you've got your carnival rides, carnie games, food on a stick, food booths, animals, etc. We watched a couple of equestrian drill teams. The first one was pretty dorky - just some young kids that rode around with horses that were dressed in red white and blue. It was nothing exciting. The second one was based off of "Lord of the Rings" and had the dark riders, Gandalf, and the chasee - an elf on a white horse (yes, I know Frodo should have been chased, not an elf, Mary told me to "shush" when I pointed that out). The costumes were pretty fun. The best part was when the elf's horse layette on its side and "died". At that point, a little wizard came out on a miniature horse to heal the elf's horse. Some little faeries also came out with a little goat. They all danced around the elf's horse - which of course recovered beautifully. We promptly left after that performance as I'm sure it was the pinnacle of the horse-drill-teams.

Of course we sampled the food. My new favorite is funnel cake. I'll take funnel cake over elephant ears any day of the week. I'd never had them before, but their crispy crunch is so much more consistent than the sometimes soft or soggy elephant ears. Plus, there are a large variety of toppings for the funnel cake that are just not available for the elephant ears. And, of course, I picked up a large bag of kettle korn. Delicious.

The surprise for the night was not the discovery of funnel cake, but of a comedy act, Hypnomania. When the show first started, Mary and I thought it would be pretty dorky. But it was hilarious. He had people doing really silly things, like being a shoe thief, using "magical" glasses that let you see through people's clothes, and other silly things. The "magical" glasses were awesome, because the guy who got them immediately began looking up-and-down at the woman next to him. The next step was that they were to slap themselves when they thought a dirty thought, and that guy was constantly slapping himself.

Ok, so it doesn't sound very funny, but trust me. It was almost as good as Carrot Top, people were rolling in the aisles with laughter. I don't think it was rigged, because there's no way those people could have kept straight faces while doing the act.

The only thing that could have made the show funnier would be eating a funnel cake while watching it.