Paige is close to curing cancer, Nicole is a psychic who communicates with the dead, and Adrian is one of New Orleans most successful street performers who has been told by the police if he shows up again on Frenchmen Street he’ll get arrested. Just another random collection of New Orleanians hanging out at Wayfare for Happy Hour.

Paige Miller and her company Oleander Medical Technologies are on the brink of a breakthrough cure for late stage cancer. 50% of cancers in America are diagnosed too late to be helped by traditional chemo or radiation. Paige is not legally allowed to say the words “cancer” and “cure” in the same sentence, but make no mistake, that’s what we’re talking about here.  And, by the way, “I’m curing cancer” is not even the most interesting sentence Paige could use to describe herself. Wait till you hear how she met and married her current husband and what she can tell you about Bill Gates. (For starters, he’s known as “Trey” by his friends.) If Paige isn’t the most  interesting person we’ve ever had on Happy Hour she will be after she gets back from Stockholm with the Nobel Prize.

How do we know Paige is going to come home with the Nobel? Nicole Reilly is an “evidential psychic medium.”  Evidential means she can prove it’s true. That’s right, Nicole sees dead people and she can prove it. The reason she chats with the dead is to bring back messages to the living. Apparently when you’re alive you can be a know-nothing schlub, but somehow after you die you become an authority on what’s best for everybody you left behind. Whether or not you like the idea that your late mother or grandmother is now a bona fide know-it-all, she’s here to help you. What do the dead look like? According to Nicole, they choose to revert to the best looking version of themselves when they were alive.

Adrian Jusdanis has just parted company with the other two members of his trio, New Thousand, he’s been banned from setting up and playing on Frenchmen Street, and he’s sailing into uncharted waters. Nicole says his future is bright. With a  new album in the works and plans to conquer the West Coast, keep an eye on Adrian, Nicole’s prediction might just come true.

Photos at Wayfare by Jill Lafleur.