My wife got tickets for Alton Brown’s road show in Concord, NH on Tuesday 3/11.
Anybody see him before? How is his show?
I’ve seen him twice, and I actually have tickets to see his new show next month, probably the same show you’re seeing.
He’s a lot of fun, combining interesting stories about cooking with machines worthy of a mad scientist. In the first show I saw he had a jet powered ice cream maker, in the second he had a huge chicken fryer.
I was a big fan of Good Eats and saw him in Spokane a few years ago. Overall the show was Meh. Lots of music and other things that had nothing to do with food or cooking. I think at the time he was trying to branch out in different new directions. I haven’t seen or heard much of him since.
I saw one of his live shows, seven or eight years ago. I’ve been a fan of Brown’s since Good Eats first premiered, and I enjoyed the show a great deal.
That said:
This was also true. IIRC, the show was built around three or four segments, each of which was, at best, tangentially related to food (but which I did find very fun). If you go in expecting that it’ll be a 90-minute-long Good Eats episode, you may be disappointed.
A co-worker saw him just recently and couldn’t stop raving about it. He spoke directly with her husband in the audience.
I certainly didn’t expect it to be a 90-minute Good Eats, but I expected to learn something I didn’t know. It was a pure entertainment show and not at all what I expected. I really didn’t know what to expect. Shame on me for not finding out what his live show was all about ahead of time.
I’ve seen him twice, both times an awesome show.
My daughter still re-lives the story of his aunt’s chocolates. I’m sure he’ll tell it again, that alone was worth the price of the show.
He’s also signing books at Gibson’s before the show. I wanted to go and bring my collection of his books but have plans Tuesday evening.
I saw him live in Toronto about 8 years ago, still have the t shirt. I thought the show was great.
I’ve seen him twice, too. I remember a bit where he was discussing how temperature impacted taste, and had a wheel to create a random drink to demonstrate the point. I enjoyed both shows, but haven’t bothered to go the last two times he was in town.
(It apparently was still awful, according to the audience volunteer that was on stage.)
Cool! I see he’s coming to Detroit.
I remember reading a thread here several years ago that he was kind of an asshole in person, in a “don’t meet your heroes” type of thread.
I think he’s moderated quite a bit in recent decades, so if I can justify it, I think I might give this a try. I’ll keep subscribed to this thread for a couple of weeks, though, to see what I can gleen.
I saw him at a promotional appearance for his first cookbook, in 2002; he spoke for about a half-hour, then signed autographs. I got to chat with him for a few minutes during that, and he certainly seemed very personable, at least on that evening.
However, I’ve also read that he can be intense and sarcastic, which may make some people feel like he’s a jerk.
As with anything where someone says, “I met a famous person, and they were an asshole,” it may depend on the day – there are times when most of us can get asshole-ish, and if a random person happens to get their sixty seconds of experience with you when you aren’t at your best, they’re going to go away thinking, “jeez, that Kenobi guy is a real asshole.”
OTOH, if most people who encounter Famous Person X say that they’re an asshole, there’s probably something to that. 
Especially when you dig deeper into the story, and it turned out famous person was out to dinner with his kids, and balked when the fan demanded they all line up for a selfie or something inappropriate and intrusive like that.
I seem to recall the issue was that he made some homophobic comments during his show.
I’ve met him twice and this was my impression. When I met him the second time (about ten years ago) I was doing a local radio food show and he was kind enough to record an ID for it, but did point out that he usually charged about $1000 to do those.
I know he tends to get cranky when people approach him and he’s with his family, but that’s understandable. Otherwise he’s not especially warm, but he’s fine.
Anything’s possible, and I do know that Brown was a conservative Christian for much of his life. I’d be curious if there are any good cites about him saying things like that – either because he does (or did) hold anti-gay views, or went overboard in making funny, sarcastic remarks at some point.
OTOH, his Wikipedia entry also includes this:
Seconding that I met him at meet and greet before one of his lives show, and he was super nice and funny.
Well, I got our tickets, and a babysitter! Can’t wait. I saw Penn and Teller again in December, the Violent Femmes last year, and now Alton Brown next month. My bucket list is filling up fast. Uh, that’s probably not actually a good thing, if I reason about it…