THE CLASS CLOWN: Of the 3,500 rides I've given there have only been three people who were just naturally funny or hilarious. One, was the IBM manager who I told that he should do a comedy special and I wanted a video of it. His reply was, "it's going be a cheap video to make since I'll only need one copy." Another funny rider was the young woman who suggested that we do stand-up comedy together that night and called her one mile Uber ride, "a magical evening ride." The third guy in sales had been up all night and at 6:30 am I was taking him to a "hook-up." His last words to me were, "make good choices."
The couple I picked up recently was visiting from Pennsylvania and I knew immediately that this guy was going to make me laugh the whole ride. I had to interrupt him at the beginning, because he sounded like he should be in sales. When I asked him what kind of work he did, he said, "death sales." He said it was usually "overlooked" as a career and he sells "caskets, plots, and mausoleums too." He added, " I can get you 15% off on a casket. Sometimes people ask if they can get the discount later on and I tell them that when it's time, it's too late for the discount."
He used to sell insurance, but he said, "but I'd much rather talk to people who are 60 with one foot in the grave." My reply was, "I won't be 60 for 6 more weeks so I'm good." I thought he said that they were getting married on Monday, but he really said, "some day, I have sell a lot more caskets for that." His humor runs in the family since his Dad and Grandfather were voted class clowns in high school. "When my older brother was not, the pressure was really on me but I did it without a problem." His girlfriend said, "his Dad is even crazier than he is." It was a lot of fun driving them and I got them laughing with some stories too. As the ride ended he said, "I've never given an Uber driver a tip, but I have to give one to you." I should have tipped him, it really was entertaining.
THE BREAKFAST RIDE: It should have been easy picking up a couple from The Hilton and taking them a mile away to a breakfast place, but everything went wrong. As I started to drive, the Uber app said, "you have arrived." I had gone nowhere and I saw the address was the same as the hotel. My passenger looked up the breakfast place and I put the address into Google Maps. As I passed the big outlet mall on the left I mentioned it and the Wal-Mart was on the right. The directions took me to a mall that did not have a breakfast place in it. I looked up the address and it was exactly what I had, but now the directions took me back where I was. I got some laughs mentioning the Wal-Mart on the left and the outlet mall on the right. The new directions took us into a campground and sure enough at the back of it, was the restaurant. It was a brick building, that did not look appealing and they decided not to go in. Since I had already recommended Blueberry's Grill, they agreed to go there. The Wal-Mart was now on the right and the outlet mall was on the left and we were all laughing again. They were happy with how their breakfast place looked and when I got there they all also had a bigger appetite.
MR. AND MRS. SUNSHINE MEET THE SUNSHINE MAN: I guess it was just a coincidence, but it was some coincidence! Recently, I put a sign up in my van for passengers to see; "If you can't find the sunshine, be the sunshine." I drove 14 miles out to Conway and picked up a truck driver and his wife to take them back to the beach. I told them they were in luck, because it was hot and sunny at the beach today, unlike the clouds that covered the sky in Conway. The wife hadn't been to the beach in a long time and yesterday was her birthday. Her husband was taking her there for an hour after he made a supermarket delivery. The wife said, "I was 41 yesterday and 17 the day before." I replied, "you had a really long day," and we had a good laugh.
The husband was tired from driving and the wife seemed to be the positive and enthusiastic one. She loved my sign and told me that she calls her husband sunshine. When she was in a difficult marriage he would see her around the apartment complex and sometimes, "his friendly greeting was the only kind words she heard all day." She said that maybe my "sunshine" sign is the reason I picked them up. I added to that and told her that my business name was "The Sunshine Man," which made the connection even better.
I told them the story of when I picked up the couple who had slept overnight at the police station. I made it a point of giving them some "sunshine' and opitimism and when I dropped them off the sun came out and the guy shook my hand for my encouragement. She loved the story and as we approached the ocean she actually started to cry she was so happy. She was a photographer and asked if she could take a picture of the three of us which I agreed to. I would have have gotten a copy, but wearing masks we looked like we were about to rob a bank. Oddly enough, as I left them and headed away from the beach I saw that the clouds had followed us from Conway. Within 30 minutes it was raining, but at least she made it to the beach and had some sunshine for her birthday.
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