The City of Mobile was recently considering demolishing the Civic Center. It was slated to be smashed to smithereens in March of 2016. Then Elton John booked a concert for late March. Shortly thereafter the WWE announced it would bring LIVE to town, Katt Williams booked a February show, Widespread Panic signed on for a February gig. And then Kevin Hart announced he'd be in the Center tonight.
I went. Tear that fucking place down. Or hire new management.
The show was supposed to start at 7. At 6:30, traffic was backed up for miles. People were jammed in all around the place and the fucking doors weren't even open yet. When they did open, they funneled a dozen open doors and a herd of people through two lanes. We stood there for an hour and twenty minutes, with nowhere to move as people crowded over through and past. I did not feel safe in that crowd. If something had started, nobody could have done a thing. Would have been deadly mayhem.
When we finally got in, none of the event staff had any idea how to direct us to our seats. We had box seats and were twice taken to the wrong section, wrong row and had to move. The staff, whose only purpose seemed to be to twirl glo-sticks and look for cell phones, gabbed loudly during the show and were a distraction.
We parked in a parking deck next to the Holiday Inn on Government. Took us more than 45 minutes to get out. Just sat there on the second level without moving. When we finally got to the gate there was a guy standing there with a handscrawled "$10, no larger than $20" whiteboard. His buddy had the exit blocked. He was letting one car out at a time and only if they gave him cash. There was no notification that anybody needed cash to get in or out. I saw nothing on the guy identifying him as being an employee of the city or the hotel. But he and his buddy were hijacking every car on the way out. I was pretty pissed off and thought seriously about telling him to go fuck himself and run over his lane blocking pal, but the people I was with begged me to just pay the toll and get the fuck out of there.
The show? It was good. A little profane for my older sensibilities, but about what I expected. Hart has a way of expressing himself that makes his standup much funnier than his efforts in movies.
I particularly enjoyed his take on Starbucks and his stories about his dad. This show seemed a little more subdued than some of the ones I've seen on TV. It was funny, but to be honest I enjoyed Seinfeld when he came to Mobile just as much or more.
Worth seeing, but not in Mobile.
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