poverty line, pt. 2

I signed up to get weekly notices from the local comedy club, which features local comedy talent. By talent I mean, the shitty improv actors and randos and occasionally half-decent amateurs who frequent this dimly lit basement joint's stage.

 

You might laugh last. But you won't laugh for free. The comedy club weekend shows are 150 HKD a pop, and weeknights are 50 HKD. Now that I have fallen below the poverty line, such extravagances are out of the question.

 

Besides, I can amuse myself by talking to a local or reading some Engrish on a t-shirt and I would probably laugh more from that than from watching a comedy lineup in which 1 in 6 acts are funny.

 

But the other thing about being below the poverty line is that you get really good at spotting the word "FREE." Thus it was that I've noticed something in the weekly comedy emails. It goes something like this:

 

"Tuesday night: English standup comedy. FREE to perform, $50 for others."

 

I've been so conditioned to thinking about freedom (I mean free things) that I contemplated going to this bootleg basement and performing a standup routine. Because it's free.

 

But after the heady rush of a low-cost-high-carb-low-vitamin diet recedes, sobriety kicks in.

 

Is dignity ever free?

Is respect?

Self-respect in particular?

 

Those are things you have to consider when you're below the poverty line.