{"id":92,"date":"2025-06-19T14:02:36","date_gmt":"2025-06-19T11:02:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/jrn350-su25\/?p=92"},"modified":"2025-07-24T21:44:05","modified_gmt":"2025-07-24T18:44:05","slug":"ritual-dept-higher-power-bum-bags-and-an-open-mic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/jrn350-su25\/2025\/06\/19\/ritual-dept-higher-power-bum-bags-and-an-open-mic\/","title":{"rendered":"Ritual Dept.: Higher Power, Bum Bags, and an Open Mic"},"content":{"rendered":"

A dispatch by Noah LaBelle<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"
Pam Benjamin, defacto host of “Hear No Evil Comedy Show,” bares the mic at Ziggy Cocktail Bar in Pangrati, Athens.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

There\u2019s a portrait of the Sacred Heart, only it\u2019s Snoop Dogg bearing the halo. He\u2019s cherubically lit by a ceiling fixture and framed by clouds\u2014puffy cumulus above, puffed cannabis below. A blunt smolders delicately between his two-fingered benediction. On the mantle beneath, a sign reads #MAYTHEBOOZEBEWITHYOU, nestled next to pothos vines that have far outgrown their pots.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Welcome to Ziggy Cocktail Bar, Pangrati, Athens, just across from Saint Spyridon\u2019s yellow fa\u00e7ade. Population: thirty-odd Anglophones of varying nationality, fluency, and sobriety. All here for what\u2019s billed as \u201cHear No Evil Comedy Show,\u201d a Thursday night staple.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cPersonal philosophy, go!\u201d Pam Benjamin, an Athens-based, California-raised D.J., calls out, pointing the mic, identical to the one tattooed down her right arm, toward the open-air bar tables.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cNever fly Turkish Airlines,\u201d one woman offers. Benjamin repeats it, fortissimo, to claps.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cTurkish Airlines is incredibly racist,\u201d Benjamin adds. \u201cWhen you choose your language, Greek is not represented! Every other language, but no Greek.\u201d Someone, presumably not Greek, suggests learning Turkish.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cGreek airlines don\u2019t have screens, it\u2019s crazy,\u201d she continues. Much heartier laughter. \u201cWe\u2019re lucky the planes can fly, bro!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Amateurs wait for their slot, glancing at pre-planned bits scrawled in journals. They\u2019re the only ones with pen and paper in sight. Them, and your correspondent.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAre you stealing jokes, mate?\u201d asks a bar-goer with a pink fanny pack and a cigarette.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cNo, I\u2019m a journalist,\u201d I say, too quickly.<\/span><\/p>\n

He pauses, then snickers. \u201cThat\u2019s even worse.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

I can\u2019t parse out from his accent if he\u2019s a local\u2014the fanny pack, I figure, suggests not\u2014but he\u2019d already shuffled to a back table and grabbed a beer before I could ask.<\/span><\/p>\n

Next up: George Moulos, a trim Australian in a burgundy polo, seven years in Athens behind him. (A search reveals he\u2019s cracked the Guinness World Record for fastest traverse on foot of mainland Greece, from north to south. Comedy\u2019s next.) He thumbs an A7 notebook, whose inane daintiness in his hands almost makes up for his first three jokes, all duds.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAh, ok,\u201d he says, scanning the page. \u201cGreek or gay. You tell me if this is Greek, or this is gay.\u201d Beat. \u201cGreek dudes who have manicured eyebrows, like, fully waxed eyebrows.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cGreeeekkkk,\u201d a few slur. \u201cEuropean!\u201d insists one woman, loudly, twice. Consensus reached.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cGreek dudes who are on the back of their friend\u2019s scooter, and they\u2019re holding them like this\u201d\u2014Moulos puckers his lips, knees bent, hips forward, arms laced around a phantom torso. More cackling than clarity, but it\u2019s not leaning Greek.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Fanny packs, or, as the Aussie self-corrects, bum bags? Decidedly Greek. (I glance back at the anti-journalist.) Carrying little bottles of olive oil everywhere? Also Greek. \u201cSo, apparently I\u2019m not gay,\u201d Moulos deduces.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Benjamin tells everyone to grab more drinks. The music turns back up. Ten minute intermission.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mo, from Manchester, recognizes me. Earlier, Benjamin had clocked me on the outskirts\u2014thanks, notebook\u2014while trying to fill the front barstool. I declined. With prodding, she gleaned I was a Seattleite who didn\u2019t drink coffee. (\u201cStereotypes aren\u2019t real, you guys!\u201d)<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis might be, like, an insider view,\u201d Mo starts. \u201cI don\u2019t know if Americans know this. So: the Schengen Area.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

He can\u2019t give specifics\u2014his parents told him not to\u2014but outlines a general path: a land crossing from Iraq into Greece, a flight to France, a hop across the Channel. He was born two years after they arrived.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI love geography, all things countries and cultures,\u201d he says, a month into two years of pilot training in Athens. \u201cWhen I heard that my parents lived in Greece and all these countries, I was like, \u2018Damn, I missed out on that trip.\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

We\u2019d have kept talking, but Benjamin\u2019s back at the mic, now sizzling, riffing on an A.I.-generated song that\u2019s been stuck in her head all week. \u201cHave you heard about Pam,\u201d she unleashes, \u201cin love with a twenty-six-year-old Greek man?\u201d The crowd howls, briefly. \u2666<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A dispatch by Noah LaBelle There\u2019s a portrait of the Sacred Heart, only it\u2019s Snoop Dogg bearing the halo. He\u2019s cherubically lit by a ceiling fixture and framed by clouds\u2014puffy cumulus above, puffed cannabis below. A blunt smolders delicately between his two-fingered benediction. On the mantle beneath, a sign reads #MAYTHEBOOZEBEWITHYOU, nestled next to pothos … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Ritual Dept.: Higher Power, Bum Bags, and an Open Mic”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6882,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-92","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culture"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/jrn350-su25\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/jrn350-su25\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/jrn350-su25\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/jrn350-su25\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6882"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/jrn350-su25\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=92"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/jrn350-su25\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":268,"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/jrn350-su25\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92\/revisions\/268"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/jrn350-su25\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/jrn350-su25\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/jrn350-su25\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}