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April 2, 2006:

APRIL IN EARNEST

Bruce Kimmel Photograph bk's notes

Well, dear readers, thank goodness April Fool’s Day is over and done with. Now we can begin April in earnest. Or, we can begin April in Paris. We’ll always have Paris, but will we always have April? Speaking of Paris, I had a lovelier than lovely day yesterday, which was, of course, April Fool’s Day. I behaved like a fool all the livelong day and I fit right in with all the other fools I saw. I did have a lovelier than lovely breakfast with dear reader Laura and son – we had pancakes and such at Du-Par’s. After that, I shipped some packages, did some errands, bought a shirt, and tried to relax. I finally toddled off to the theater for the final performance of Deceit. We had an almost full house. Tammy gave me a really nice present – a terrific photograph of the two of us. I got some nice cards, and we were all having a splendidly splendid time backstage. We had a really good closing night performance – Tammy and Matt both did a great job, and I certainly had my best show. I was completely relaxed from the get-go, and I just had more fun than I’ve had, got a few good laughs, and the energy was really fun between Matt and I. During the curtain call, Tammy stopped the applause and said she’d made something for the cast and crew – we then all watched a four-minute DVD she’d put together, comprised of stills and video footage, and it was lots of fun and the audience enjoyed it, as did Matt and I. After the show, we had our closing night party in the lobby. A few more of the LACC students came (one even brought me flowers), Tammy’s father was there (having flown in from New York in the morning), and lots of friendly faces. I hung there for about forty minutes, then packed up my belongings and left. Closing nights are emotional for me and I don’t do well in crowds. This production had its share of tumult all along the way, but I feel we just sort of found our sea legs. I should have, in reality, taken over the role a month ago when I really wanted to and when I got talked out of it by our very young and very inexperienced producer. The other actor never understood the play or his character, no matter how many times it was explained to him. He had an abrasive manner, played the role very darkly and angrily, and was extremely unlikable in the part. Some people thought he was fine in it, and some really liked him a lot – but they had no idea how the character was really written or what the character’s function in the play was. And yes, a couple of those people came back and saw it with me and understood immediately what had been wrong with his performance. It’s not about who is the better actor – it’s about the fact that I played the role as I wrote the role, and suddenly the entire second act worked exactly as it should of – people didn’t get ahead of the play, and its twists took everyone by surprise (you can hear audible gasps in the audience on two occasions). The reason for this is that I’m a likeable actor, I played it with charm and humor, and so the audience was listening to the dialogue and enjoying it, instead of trying to second guess where we were going. Like magic, thrillers are all mis-direction – getting the audience’s minds to go in the wrong direction. Anyway, last night’s show was really fun for me. Tammy and I had a really wonderful conversation alone just before I left – this play has been really good for her, both personally and professionally, and she’s really grown and, in fact, become an adult. It was really interesting to watch and I think it will serve her well in the future. I then came home and just crashed. I’m quite achy and sore from the tension of the last couple of weeks, and I’m in dire need of a massage and, wonder of wonders, miracle of miracles, I’m having one this very evening, and I cannot wait!

Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because soon it will be two o’clock in the morning and yet it will, in reality, be three o’clock in the morning because today begins Daylight Savings Time. So, let us Spring Forward to the next section, shall we, whilst we begin April in earnest.

Today I am hoping to sleep in and then to do nothing but watch DVDs all the livelong day and night, up until the massage begins. And I’ve got plenty to watch. I took in a bunch of trade-in DVDs yesterday, and a good thing I did, because they had tons of new stuff for me. I got the new Warners MGM musicals box set, I got the TCM Laurel and Hardy box set, I got the new DVD of the movie Magic, I got the new Warners Films of Faith box set, which has The Nun’s Story, The Shoes Of The Fishermen, and The Miracle Of Our Lady of Fatima, and I also got a Merv Griffin box set, with tons of highlights from his long-running talk show. I also got Narnia, and some movie I’m sure I’ll loathe called Stay, which I got only because Naomi Watts is in it.

Of course, I won’t have time to suffer from any post-show depression – I have a very busy week ahead of me. I have to figure out the next two Kritzerland releases, which should hopefully be coming in a couple of months. I have to have the first read-through of the new musical at LACC. I have several dinners planned for this week, and the lovelier than lovely Miss Julieanne Pogue is coming into town, so we’ll be getting together while she’s here. So, it’s onward and upward, by gum and by golly and buy bonds.

Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, set all my clocks ahead one hour, I must readjust my inner clock, I must eat something interesting, I must take a nice walk, or perhaps even attempt to jog, and I must watch a plethora of DVDs before getting my long-needed and much-anticipated massage of massages. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s free-for-all day, the day in which you dear readers get to make with the topics and we all get to post about them. So, let’s have loads of lovely topics and loads of lovely postings, shall we?

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