Rebel Rousers Entertainment were on a quest to find the happiest city in the world, to host a comedy festival. We had been traveling for the better half of a decade, in and out of 1000's of towns from Kilcock, Ireland to Phukit, Thailand. While in Tunisia we stopped at a local eatery to grab a bite, when we noticed a little boy riding a donkey with two giant saddle bags, holding what appeared to be the lost and coveted treasure of comedy festivals, "The Golden Greek Theater Masks." But, before we could get to the street, a wave of Arab Spring protesters had blocked our path, and the boy quickly vanished. While fleeing he dropped one of the masks, the golden tragedy mask. We spent several days in Tunis searching for him, then one day we received a mysterious phone call telling us to board the next ferry to Palma, Majorca. Before I could ask the name of the caller, the phone went dead. We arrived in Palma just shy of one day later. The city was bustling with an electric energy. We found a small hostel near the city center, next to the Basilica of St Francesc. As we are getting ready for bed with 16 other people on vacation from Sweden, I notice that a note had been placed in my bag instructing us to be at the Basilica at 12 noon on the dot. The next day we get up, grab a coffee from the hostel common area, and head over to our meeting point. Flowing with excitement we enter the church, and immediately notice an old wooden crate that looked like it was pried open and quickly discarded. On the lid was an etched figure of Junipero Serra. Inside we see two impressions where the masks should be. On the bottom of the crate was a stamp, "Made in Veracruz Mexico". The next thing we knew we are on a flight to Mexico. Two days later we arrived in Veracruz, our emotions were running high, and our heads full of unanswered questions. Will we ever find the boy with the mask? Can there really be one great city for comedy? Why did I just drink that giant glass of tap water? Days turn into weeks, and we had all but given up. Until one sunny afternoon sitting at a small cafe looking at the Gulf of Mexico we observed a man telling jokes, sitting on a donkey, next to a statue of Junipero Serra. This was no ordinary donkey show, as we were heading over to the Mexican Comedian we spotted a placard at the base of the statue that read "Your journey will end on the El Camino Real", THAT'S IT! So to the King's Highway we go, California. Landing in San Diego just a short time later we started our trip up the El Camino Real. After a few days of searching we stopped in the beautiful town of San Luis Obispo and saw Jenny McCarthy doing an interview for Oprah about America's Happiest City. To our surprise she was interviewing the little boy from Tunis and he was holding the coveted golden comedy mask. We quickly interrupted the interview and gave the little boy the golden tragedy mask so that the two could be united once again. A few months later the SLO Comedy Festival was born. Some say if you take a tour of the Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa during the first weekend of March, late in the evening you can see a vision of Junipero Serra holding the coveted comedy/tragedy masks riding a donkey... true story.
