Pennies from Heaven...or the 2nd Row!

The Penny Blog's not just for me & my friends (who support me so I don't come across as a TOTALLY crazy person) anymore...we went public at a comedy show a few weeks ago!

Yes, it's true. We became an integral part of the Upright Citizens Brigade show at the Arlington Draft House on November 9th. I shamelessly jumped around like a complete idiot (in my pink striped rain boots, no less) to ensure I made it on stage so the 2nd half of the show would be based on whatever foolishness I could think to tell these people about myself during the on stage interview.

I didn't start off with the penny story right away. That might have made me look a little nuts. Instead I led with, "My dad invented pizza rolls."

Uh, what? These people didn't quite know where I was coming from with this. Had they just invited Ms. Totino on the stage? Could my dad possibly be the true inventor of pizza rolls? I had to explain!

It turns out that one of my dates from match.com actually came up with the theory that we should change my dad's official title from "Tim the Penny Collector" to "Tim--Inventor of Pizza Rolls." It all started when I told him that in the 70's my dad had entered the Pillsbury bake off by mistake. Actually, it wasn't so much by mistake as it was on a fluke. With a recipe he'd never actually made.

"Tim" was at my grandma's house, who was getting ready to enter one of her own recipes into the bake off. She asked if he'd like her to send in one on his behalf. Without giving it much thought he said, "Yeah. What if you put some marinara sauce, cheese & pepperoni on one of those crescent rolls, wrapped it up and baked it?" So she jotted down the spontaneous concoction and off it went in the mail.

Well...sure enough the folks at Pillsbury saw the genius in it all and picked his recipe as one of the 100 to be made at the official bake-off. My mother was slightly less thrilled than he was because she had to be his guinea pig as he perfected his yet-to-actually-be-baked crescent pizzas. Morning, noon, and night she was eating variations of his new concoction until she felt she might actually bleed marinara sauce if someone sliced into her.

So, a few weeks later my dad and 99 women prepared to "start their ovens" and make their recipes for the bake-off. While my dad was not the overall winner, he did bring home a sweet 1970s microwave (I'm pretty sure we had that sucker well into the 90's) and the memories of the rally cry, "Ladies...and "Tim"...start your ovens!"

Alright...that brings me back to my date. After he heard that story he just looked at me and said, "Oh my God...your dad invented pizza rolls!" And what could I do but agree?!

Ok, so after I wowed the improv comics with my dad's pizza roll adventures (and they asked me to thank him for satisfying years of munchies), I moved on to the penny story. Of course, I don't need to restate that story here because if you're reading this...chances are you've heard it more times than you care to count! But I will add that I must've entertained & amused the audience with the penny tale (or at least inspired them to give a small amount to charity) since at one point it rained pennies from somewhere in the 2nd row! Sure...it was only 3 cents...but it's going on the spreadsheet!