The End

Last night was the last Happy Ending event at the Happy Ending bar. It was a truly amazing night and I’m damn happy the last night was one of the best shows. Thank you all for coming and thank you all for participating. I did the math (however shakily) and announced last night, that I’ve hosted 148 shows, 154 musicians and 409 authors. That’s a total of 563 performers. My casting couch is worn out.

I’m truly grateful for all the support I’ve gotten these past five years. From everyone at the bar, to the audience, the performers, the press, friends, family, strangers…I’m so appreciative. Thank you, all of you, for all you’ve done, for helping me make this series successful.

I’ve been a bit melancholy about the end of this incarnation of the series. In fact, I kind of, sort of, cried in front of a lot of strangers last night. Some people are confused about why I’m sad. So here’s why I’m sad…It’s true that I’m moving on, and well, up. And I am every bit as excited as you’d imagine a person would be. However, the Happy Ending Series at the Happy Ending bar and the Happy Ending series at Joe’s Pub are two separate entities to me. I’m saying goodbye to five years of intensely hard work in a space I’ve grown to love. I’m saying goodbye to an experience, to the close friends I’ve made, to a bar that I love, to half a decade of one routine: the same subway route there, the pre-show hanging out at Grotto, the after-show eating at Congee Village (or back to Grotto if the group is small) and hanging out with regulars who come. I’m saying goodbye to five years of condensed Happy Ending bar energy. What was created there, what happened there, will not translate in the same way. Joe’s will become it’s own thing and when I’m done there, I’ll feel exactly the same way. But right now, it’s this time period I’m mourning. The series at the HE bar was its own kind of fantastic but now that’s over and a part of me has ended and we’re all just memories now.