Talk about playing the sticks

The New York Philharmonic has played two back-to-back concerts in the Far East, and the distance between the venues is far shorter than the distance between the two concert halls: "In the capital of newly-rich, communist China, the New York Philharmonic played at a recently opened, futuristic structure featuring state of the art acoustics. Beijing’s National Grand Theatre is a huge glass oval seemingly floating on a pond that surrounds it and was designed by French architect Paul Andreu. The building, opened only a few months ago and nicknamed 'the egg', stands in sharp contrast to the communist monoliths such as the 1950s Soviet-style Great Hall of the People and Beijing’s ancient Forbidden City for its emperor that sit nearby. New York Philharmonic officials were bowled over by the new facility.
In still desperately-poor, communist North Korea, it will play at a hulking, ramshackle structure the locals struggle to keep heated and lit at night. In Pyongyang, the Philharmonic will be playing East Pyongyang Grand Theatre in central Pyongyang, a bland communist building that mostly hosts propaganda performances in support of North Korea’s leaders as well as the occasional visit by Russian dancing girls. The theatre, which underwent a formative and artistic renovation last year to meet the requirements of the new century, has all necessary facilities as an edifice of culture, the North’s official KCNA news agency says."

And why can't Rico remember which comedian it is that Kim Jong-il reminds him of?