Zane Lamprey has traveled from sea to shining sea, around the globe and back for the purpose of educating television audiences on a topic close to the comedian's heart -- drinking.
The host of HDNet's "Drinking Made Easy" and former host of "Three Sheets" has tallied 77 episodes of globetrotting adult beverage consumption, but he'd like to remind you that it wasn't all lumped into 77 consecutive days of drinking. He says, "I've been doing this for the past five years."
The latest installment of "Drinking Made Easy" which premieres Wednesday night at 8:30, brings Lamprey and crew to various spots throughout the Sunshine State, including stops in Orlando, Clearwater, South Beach, and Jaxson's Ice Cream Parlour in Dania Beach.
Lamprey, who is currently on his "Sing the Booze" tour, found some time in his busy schedule to talk about his time in Florida.
What can you tell about a city or location based on the way that they drink?
I don't think anybody really drinks any differently than anyone else. They might like to think that they do, but that's really down to a personal level... We really do drink the same. We just drink different stuff. I'd say even on a world scale, it's not like you can take one culture and say they drink so much more than any other culture. For where we've gone, we've always found people drink and like to have a good time, and that's the thing that's universal.
How would you describe your time in Florida filming the show?
When we were in Florida, it was difficult because we were traveling every day. We have a live standup tour that we did in conjunction with "Drinking Made Easy," so we would do a shoot for TV during the day and our live shows during the night. We didn't get a lot of time in a particular place in Florida... We were in Orlando for half a day. We were in Fort Lauderdale for half a day. We were in Clearwater for half a day. So we did what we could with it. That's why we gave the title of this show "Florida." When in actuality, I would have liked to spend more time in just one of these places and made an episode focusing on that place.
While doing your research and preproduction, what are you looking for in a bar or spot?
It's either the history of the place or, for example, Jean Lafittes in New Orleans is the oldest bar in the country, so that was significant. Regardless of what they served, we had to go there. Low and behold, they had a specialty house drink called "The Voodoo." It was as the bartender put it, "Everclear and grape mix." It was a pretty powerful drink.
In Florida, we tried to find things that were unique. We went to Redlight Redlight in Orlando, a place where they have casks of real ale. Usually beer is pasteurized; this beer is not. So when you tap the cask, you have to consume it within a few days. We went to Larios on the Beach, a bar in South Beach owned by Gloria Estefan... which is significant because the amount of mojitos they serve is mind-blowing. The Ritz-Carlton in South Beach doesn't sound like a place where everyone would say, "Oh you have to go the Ritz-Carlton if you're doing a drinking show." However, the drink that we found there was so unique. They make a mojito with liquid nitrogen. That was actually super interesting.
We're all over the place with this episode. Because of our schedule, we had to move around in Florida and made the entire episode about the state.
And what are you guys doing at Jaxson's Ice Cream Parlour?
We sent Steve McKenna, my cohost and my buddy. He does eating challenge in all of the places. He went to try to eat the "Kitchen Sink." I'll just say, it was a tough process. Dairy products don't agree with Steve, and we were all traveling on a tour bus, so that next day was very rough on all of us.
Is Steve lactose-intolerant?
Yeah. And I'm Steve-intolerant.
