Friendship House is a sobriety house in South Portland, Maine.  Adult men who are wanting a Christian approach to overcoming alcoholism and other addictions live there for several minths or more.  Thy are free to come and go, and most have day jobs.  I have had a friend who lived there for a time, and I've heard nothing but good about the program.

In late August, my wife, Sue, and I were blessed with the opportunity to do my show there again for their Monday night Bible study.  Since it was August, there was plenty of daylight to do the show outdoors, and we had a blast. Early on I did my 'burial plot' comedy routine, one I don't do often, but brought on a huge laugh.  I also included "Jester's Creed" juggling routine, which is one of my favorites, but not a regular part of most shows.  In both cases, having an all adult audience allowed for me to use them.  Not because they are off-color, but the first is somewhat dark humor, and the latter is a pretty symbolic juggling version of the Apostle's Creed.  

I went through a lot of standards, too.  Being an outdoor show, I was also able to juggling fire in the form of torches, fire diabolo, and flaming devil sticks.  Everything is more exciting when you light it on fire!  But I built my message around my shackles escape.  This simple escape is based around Paul's words in  his letter to the Romans: "Wrethched man that I am, who can set me free from this body of death?  Thnks be to God through Jesus who sets us free."

When we were done, the house manager, and a  former house resident himself, gave us a lot of left over pizza from their evening's supper, and gave us an open invitation to come for dinner with the men.  Sue and I will definitely do so, and we only wish we lived closer so it could happen soon.