What Should I Do Now That It’s Sweater Season?

I love to laugh. I love spooky szn. I love to be surprised. Mainly because I feel like these days nothing surprises me, which is kind of sad but also not surprising. Get it? Sweater season usually includes staying home and binge-watching some streaming service, but I refuse to continue down that same routine. I propose an alternative.

Before I dive into that recommendation, here’s the backstory on my recommendation: I was reading this report on how a promotional events company hosted some “Bring Your Own Basket” picnic and they were charging people $20 to bring their own basket.

That’s what tripped me out. People were paying to bring their own basket to have a picnic with strangers because the survey they ran reported people felt like life missed excitement. What does that have to do with bringing that exact same basket for free to a government-owned park that we all have access to for a true “picnic with strangers” experience is beyond me. But apparently, we like it enough to pay $20 bring our own shit.

The marketing industry would call it experiential marketing and in the age of Instagram-worthy moments, it makes sense. More than that, though, this picnic event got me thinking about the dying art of surprising oneself, which is what boils this whole essay down to.

Has life truly become so predictable that we’re willing to pay to bring our own picnic baskets with our own food or has our well-intentions of being “woke” turned us into cynical unimpressed snobs?

RAAD TIME!! Variety Show Hype Reel from Roberto Raad on Vimeo.

While the Scary RAAD Time: Variety Show by Roberto Raad, longtime comedian, director, and overall hilarious “RAAD” Vegas personality who famously had the most awkward (and I mean aaaaawkard) interview with Farrah Abraham formerly from Teen Mom, isn’t asking you to bring anything of yours but your sense of humor for $20 at the door ($15 online using the code “letsfuck”), it’s an alternative sweater weather experience because it has a purpose.

The Halloween costume-friendly variety show happening this Wednesday, Oct. 23 also got me thinking about Jim Carrey and Jerry Seinfeld. Doing local, and eventually national, stand-up shows is what helped launch them to stardom. The Scary RAAD Time: Variety show by Roberto Radd, I noticed, is working with local talent comedians, artists, and more.

“This is a FULLY immersive variety show. We bridge the gap between comedy, film, dance, and the arts within the local Las Vegas community. It will be part-haunted house, part-live show, and part-Halloween Costume party. Get ready to F*CK,” says the website.

I’m not I’m ready to “fuck” anyone in particular, but I am ready to be surprised “AF” while supporting local creatives doing their thing.

As I hunt for other things to add to my “Sweater Season” bucket list, tell me what things you’re getting into local to our city.