RodeoHouston 2018

He said what about The Astrodome? Garth Brooks talks Rodeo and Houston

Garth Brooks poses for selfie with fans to announce RodeoHouston appearances

Garth Brooks is a master of warming up the crowd before a RodeoHouston show.

Photo courtesy of RodeoHouston

Garth Brooks appears downright jolly as he courts the Houston media February 27, hours before his first Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo performance since 1993. Seeming only slightly less pumped to be answering questions than he is singing in concert, he notes that his two Astrodome shows in the early ’90s pushed him towards adopting wireless microphones onstage, and, personally, represented huge strides toward following in George Strait’s footsteps.

RodeoHouston, Brooks says, is “a place of great history for us...it’s the reason why we started.”

If anyone can get away with the royal “we,” it’s probably Brooks, now 56. The reigning CMA Entertainer of the Year, he has sold upwards of 148 million albums in the U.S., and 6.1 million seats on his recently concluded Garth Brooks World Tour, which began with 11 straight sellouts in Chicago.

The morning after the first show of his June-July 2015 stand at Toyota Center, Brooks says, the phone rang with an offer to come back to RodeoHouston. Of the heavy promotion he’s done this week, he jokes, “they’ve been working us like a rented mule since we got here.”

His groundbreaking turn as the first entertainer on the the rodeo’s new high-tech star-shaped stage wasn’t lost on him either. “We don’t want to push every button,” says Brooks, noting he expects his show to be much different when he returns to close the season on March 18.

Before heading off to sound check, he took the time to meet individually with a handful of local reporters, including CultureMap.

CultureMap: What do you like to do in Houston if you have any time to kill?

Garth Brooks: Oh, it’s just a fun place. It’s a great place to come here to get, you know, your clothes. It’s a great place to come because you’ve got so many choices. But my favorite thing is still hanging out with my buddies. My brother lived down here for a while; he’s back up in Tulsa. But still, all the relationships from there. It’s just the people.

CM: What do you remember about your days here playing the honky-tonk circuit?

GB: It was fun, man. I remember coming here. Clint Black was out of here. When we first started Clint just cast this shadow, man. No matter how hard you worked, Clint was the guy. His family came out; I remember seeing them, hugging them, which made me feel really good.

We played a little place, I almost want to call it the Library, but it wasn’t. It was a club. We had a great time. There was a dancehall. And here comes The Woodlands, with Reba. And then Compaq. And then before Compaq, it might have been...I can’t remember the name.

CM: The Summit.

GB: Summit. Yeah. So it was the Summit before the Compaq [now Lakewood Church]. And in between those you’d play the livestock show. So it was fun. This has always been a place that I’m not from but has treated me like I’m from here, if that makes any sense. They’ve always supported me and treated me like a hometown guy and made me feel good.

CM: What do you think about when you look over and see the Astrodome over there?

GB: What about it? It’s cool? Have you ever been in the Superdome?

CM: No.

GB: It’s the same thing, man. Because they were the new kind of big structures at that time, so it was neat to get to play there. I love to say that I played there.

I’ll tell you this from just rehearsal right here — this place is amazing. This is a lot different. The Astrodome, if you said [sings] ‘Oh say can you see…’ and before you got to the end of it you heard ‘oh say can you see…’ The sound here is phenomenal. Loved playing over there; really going to love playing over [here].

CM: One music question: Is it tough to decide which song to play last?

GB: It’s not hard for me, because “The Dance” has always been that space for me. It would be like going to see Strait, and not hearing “The Cowboy Rides Away.”

Movie Review

An all-star cast delivers clever laughs in new comedy The Invite

Photo courtesy of A24

Olivia Wilde, Seth Rogen, Penelope Cruz, and Edward Norton in The Invite.

Once upon a time, well before scandal embroiled him, Woody Allen made great comedies aimed at adults. That type of film — which is different from the raunchy, R-rated comedies of the 21st century — has fallen out of favor in Hollywood, but as the new film The Invite proves, when done well it can be as funny as anything else out there.

Joe (Seth Rogen) and Angela (Olivia Wilde) are an unhappily married couple living in San Francisco. As we meet them, Joe has arrived home to Angela preparing for a visit from their upstairs neighbors, Hawk (Edward Norton) and Piña (Penélope Cruz), who have moved in relatively recently. Their impending arrival starts a new round of arguing between Joe and Angela, something they can barely contain once the other couple comes to their door.

What proceeds is a getting-to-know-you process that is mostly awkward as Joe and Angela continue sniping at each other while Hawk and Piña put in their two cents in a much calmer manner. A sticking point between the two couples — the loud sex Hawk and Piña have on an almost nightly basis — turns the film on its head with an unexpected invitation.

Directed by Wilde and written by Will McCormack and Rashida Jones, the film is a fast-paced chamber piece that takes place almost entirely in Joe and Angela’s apartment. Wilde, the writers, and the actors speed the story along not with action but through almost non-stop dialogue that often has the characters overlapping each other’s lines. The rapidity of the speech fuels the humor of the situation and establishes the differing personalities of each person.

Sex is very much top of mind for each of the characters for most of the film, but the filmmakers approach the topic in such a way that it never feels salacious. Each of the characters is a rational adult who can talk about sex in a mature manner while also acknowledging their unique feelings on the matter. And it’s the discoveries each of them makes along the way that brings about the most comedy.

But, like any comedy for adults, the film also has a dramatic tilt to it, and Wilde edges the story back-and-forth between the two tones extremely well. Joe and Angela fighting is played for laughs at times, but the sadness of their relationship comes through loud and clear. Hawk and Piña are much more intimate with each other, but the funniness of their openness is juxtaposed with a depth that arises through their conversations.

In the 2020s, Rogen has managed to make the transition from goofy stoner to stoner with real acting chops. In a stacked cast, he is the one who sells every moment the best. That’s not to say that Wilde, Norton, and Cruz don’t measure up, though; each of them inhabits their respective roles magnificently. The four actors play off each other as if they had been working together for years.

While The Invite will likely play better to those who have experience with long term relationships, its insights — and occasional bawdiness — make it a comedy that can be appreciated universally. With four actors at the top of their games and a razor-sharp script made even better by some well-done improv, it proves that you don’t need to go low to get great laughs.

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The Invite is now playing in theaters.

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