Stand-up comedian Robert Hawkins has a bit in his act about the Blue Angels, the military’s daredevil jet team. He says they should be fired — because “they don’t do anything, expect set off car alarms. I don’t know how they’re supposed to scare anybody. Run for your life, before they do a loop-the-loop!” Then he got a call from the aerial squad, which invited him to go up in one of its planes. “I might be the first person whoever puked just hearing he will fly with the Blue Angels,” he says.
When he’s not hurling 8,000 feet in the air, Hawkins says he spends a lot of time contemplating religion. “I think God must be in prison,” he quips. “Because that’s where everybody finds him.” Still, Hawkins can’t get his head out of the clouds. He’s still soaring from his jet ride — which has prompted much musing lately about airplane safety. “It’s getting crazy to fly now,” he says. “You’ve got to put your weed and your Visine in your underwear. It’s getting crowded in my briefs.”
Sat., June 16, 8 & 10:15 p.m.; Sun., June 17, 7 p.m.
This article appears in Jun 13-19, 2007.