Nothing Says "Romance" Like Blue Men

Lucky us, we actually got to celebrate our 14 year wedding anniversary twice this year!  For an anniversary gift, I had given Dave tickets to see Blue Man Group at Chicago's Briar Street Theatre a week following the date of our anniversary.  Mom and Dad were all too happy to take the girls on a special outing to the zoo, followed by dinner and a sleepover, so Dave and I could enjoy this night out.

We started with dinner at a sentimental restaurant Dave and I would frequent with our high school friends after basketball games.  Our crushes on each other grew during these group visits to Houlihan's and we would later have meals there as dates.  We haven't been back in probably about 15 years, so dinner here was a fun way to start our anniversary date.

The Blue Man Group was an interesting show.  It was not really what I expected.  The main word I would use to describe it would be "wacky".  There was plenty of drumming with paint and playing instruments made of strange pipe configurations.  But, there was quite a bit of social commentary, comedy and audience participation too.

Shortly after we took our seats, a theater worker came up and inquired of Dave, "May I ask how tall you are?"  After hearing his reply, the man then asked, "How would you like to be in the show tonight?"  My husband, who has a college major in communications, had a role in every single high school and college play, founded a college comedy troupe and now takes a stage every single week for his career, completely lit up!  They marked our spot on the aisle with a big tape X and whisked Dave backstage to tell him about the role he'd play in the night's show.  The gig was that the Blue Men wanted to try "Human Painting."  They scoured the audience for a volunteer, picked Dave, put him in a full paint suit and helmet and brought him backstage.  A video was played for us in the audience that said "Live backstage" and showed "Dave" being covered in paint, strung up by his ankles, hung upside down and slammed into a giant canvas.  The Blue Men then wheeled out a cart with a Jello mold on top of it.  After poking at the Jello, they smashed it apart and revealed Dave's head inside of it!  Dave was taken out of the cart and sent back to the audience with the canvas his body had painted.  My first thought was, "NO WAY we're going to be able to take that home with us!"  But, the canvas was kept in the theater for people to look at after the show and only Dave and I knew that it wasn't really his dangling body that painted it.  Cool, huh?  

When I got this gift for Dave, I would have never guessed that an opportunity to get onstage and "perform" with the Blue Man Group would be a part of it!  So, happy anniversary to my husband, who is brave enough to do things I would never dream of doing and who continues to impress, surprise and delight me every day! :)