Back from a performance that had incredible magic to it - Sami was terrific and there were only a couple of fumfers along the way, line-wise. This little tyke has so learned how to play an audience, something she just knew nothing about when we began and even when we did the workshop. During the Sex Education monologue, where she's talking about her class at twelve years old having to say the P and the V words, at one point she looks at the audience and says, "Is the thought of that making you uncomfortable?" They usually just sit there, she takes a beat and says, "I know, it made ME uncomfortable, too, you can't even imagine." So, tonight she says, "Is the thought of that making you uncomfortable?" And a young person in the front row says out loud, "Yes." Well, the audience screamed with laughter and Sami, having learned my Jack Benny lessons well, just gave the kid a slow take and kept on staring and the laughter just built and built and built, and then every single line that followed got roars of laughter - thankfully, we were taping and have it. It was priceless. But it was that kind of audience - about a third of a house and they were just so with the show from the minute it began right through to the end - major laughter, some tears, and it was great. Sami's initial entrance is very tricky to play and she's never quite gotten it right in terms of it landing the way I want it to, but tonight she did it perfectly and got a laugh right out of the gate.
