Well, dear readers, here is last night’s show report. A third of a house but a great audience. That’s two in a row, and it’s just wonderful having that kind of energy and reaction. The opening of the show is tricky and it’s never worked quite the way I’ve wanted it to. I added a line on Thursday and that really helped, but last night Sami came on and instead of just doing what she’s always done, she did exactly what I’ve been asking for since we began – she had energy and played the audience and made her expression work with what she was being given – and boy did it make all the difference in the world, got a laugh right out of the gate, and we were on our way. The show was going along very well – nice laughs – and then we got to the third monologue, which is the monologue that lets the audience know that we’re going there and are not afraid of it. It begins as a monologue about girls having periods and morphs into a monologue about having to take sex education at twelve. As she explains what that entailed, she says that the teacher makes you say the P and the V words really loud. She goes on a bit about it and then looks at the audience and says, “Is the thought of that making you uncomfortable?” Usually there is an uncomfortable beat of silence and she continues, “I know, it made ME uncomfortable, you can’t even imagine.” So, she says the first part, “Is the thought of that making you uncomfortable?” and an eleven-year-old girl in the front row says out loud, “Yes.” Well, it brought the house down. And Sami, who I’ve been teaching how to do takes and time looks, handled it brilliantly. She looked right at the girl who’d said it and just did a classic Jack Benny stare off and the laugh just doubled and then tripled – I think it was a real lesson for her and I think she now finally knows exactly what I’ve been on about from the beginning. When she resumed her lines, every single line got a huge laugh until the end of that monologue, and then TMI, the song that follows it, also got a great reaction. From then on, it was easy sailing, and there were huge laughs, some tears, and it was just great. My pal Joan Ryan and her ever-lovin’ Howard was there, and they really had a good time and Howard especially was praising the writing and the songs. They both loved Sami. As I said yesterday, I’d rather have a third of a house that’s a great audience, than a full house of quiet people.
Afterwards, a few of us, including Sami, her mom, and her uncle Michael, went to the Coral Café. I had the salad with three scoops – two chicken salad, one egg salad, and I felt like some pie, so I had a small piece of chocolate cream pie – I haven’t done pie in ages and ages.
Prior to all that, I’d gotten about ninety minutes of sleep, woke up, couldn’t fall back asleep and so wrote commentary – I just have three songs left to write about. Then I finally fell back asleep at around seven and slept until eleven-thirty. I got up, did stuff, and then went and had a breakfast burrito containing eggs, cheese and onions, although if there was cheese in there it wasn’t more than an ounce – I don’t actually think I tasted any. Then I came home, had a brief visit, and then I did some work on the computer, relaxed, and then moseyed on over to the theater.
Today, I must be up early for she of the Evil Eye is coming. I’ll go eat some poached eggs or something light, do some errands and whatnot, and then come back home, finish the damn commentary, and then attend our evening performance. It’s extremely light right now and I was frankly on the verge of cancelling, but we seem to get a bunch of last-minute reservations, so we’ll tough it out.
Tomorrow is our closing. I have no idea if Sami will miss this or not (she’s fifteen and in school and has all that stuff to occupy her time), but I sure will. After the performance, we’ll all go over to Genghis Cohen for our celebration and closing party. Thankfully, we’re over half full for that show and it keeps going up – I suspect it will be pretty full by show time. Next week is all preparation for the Kritzerland show, and I have to find a pianist for a musical theater workshop I’m doing at LACC in mid-October.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, eat something light, do some stuff, finish the commentary, relax, and attend our evening performance – don’t know if I’ll go out after or not – depends who’s there. Today’s topic of discussion: What is the single longest laugh you can recall hearing in a play, musical or film? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy to have had such a fun audience and happy the lessons on the art of the take have been so beautifully understood and implemented.