Nick's Farewell

Nick Heller has been a friendly face at Sidewalk the last couple years. I'm not sure of his actual title,  but Nick has been involved in providing service at the restaurant (I think "counter guy" is how his job has been described).

This past Monday Nick stepped on stage and offered what turned out to be a surprising farewell to the restaurant. As his name was called I spotted Nick at the bar grabbing what certainly was not his first beer of the night.

He started his set by mentioning his inebriation and while I won't go into the specifics of the content of the act, suffice it to say that Nick took advantage of the opportunity to express frustration with the management of Sidewalk Cafe. In fact--in addition to lighting up a cigarette on stage--he revealed a couple bits of choice behind-the-scenes information which provided us all with some interesting perspective on how things go at Sidewalk. In all honesty, Nick didn't have a lot to say but seemed as if he really wanted to vent his feelings about the place. His finale was hurling the microphone against the back wall. I give Nick credit for letting loose. I'm not sure how his performance will contribute to his long term career prospects but in terms of witnessing raw humanity in action it was an intriguing spectacle. I've seen a few performances at Sidewalk over the years where people really let their id take charge. There are not too many opportunities in life to really let it all out like that and as long as its done with the safety of the audience in mind, I applaud the use of Sidewalk's Stage as a venue for working out the widest range of emotions.