Gift-Wrapped Buffett Speaks and Performs at Prep School

A couple weeks ago Jimmy Buffett spoke at the Lawrenceville School, a private boarding school near Princeton, New Jersey:

The Lawrenceville School’s gift to students in the days before their summer break quite literally arrived on the Kirby Arts Center stage yesterday with a gift-wrapped box on his head. A more appropriate present there never was, for beneath the festive packaging was famed singer/songwriter Jimmy Buffett, a fellow who knows how to start a summer off right. Buffett entertained the whooping, cheering crowd with hilarious anecdotes of his life on the road — and also delivered on his promise to tell a story or two that would make his daughter’s face “as red as her shirt.”

“Fun has to be a part of life,” he said in his iconic drawl. “And I’m fortunate to have made a career out of it.”

As a young man, Buffett took a little while to figure out what he wanted to do with his life, “But I did know that I wanted to get the hell out of Mobile, Alabama.” He learned a few guitar chords in college (to impress girls) and, after some ups and downs, this “child of Mardi Gras” established himself a fun-loving performer that knew how to make audiences walk away happy. “Your relationship with the audience is about what they want to hear, not about what you want to play,” he told the students. “There are eight or nine songs I have to play or they’ll kill me.”

He urged the crowd to live life to its fullest and see the world in person rather than through the glow of a computer monitor. Then, after a lively Q&A that riffed on everything from buying a boat in lieu of an insurance policy to his relationship with Santa Claus, Buffett, launched into a rousing rendition of a few of his iconic songs.

Mac McAnally also joined Buffett for a couple songs.

Check out a photo gallery from the appearance on Lawrenceville School’s Facebook page.