Le maudit Mo D.

sweet potato-prov

Last night, as I was getting into bed with my snuggy lovemuffin/full-time squeeze Bob A., I looked at our light blue flannel sheets a little differently. Powder blue : Chapel Hill as Burnt Orange : Austin. Go heels.

The Geegsters had the serious DRAMA WEEKEND.

1) DRAMA #1: Dre spent the night before we left in the ER, complaining of chest pains and shortness of breath. We do not like it when our friends require hospitalization. We want Dre to be healthy and to show off her bad-ass opera-trained singing voice. So we began this journey at 5:10am with this.

2) DRAMA #2: The untimely death of tabloid celebrity Anna Nicole Smith. Cargill, the funniest Lady around, took this tragic opportunity to deliver some serious hilarity as well as some noisome farts. Indeed, travel with six ladies and one J-Rat is indeed giving away your right to privacy. I was openly mocked for having a bowel movement at 3am. To me, pooping is a 24-hour event, but apparently to the Geegsters, the ass must close up shop by midnight.

Geegster MILF Julie got mad hit on by the proprietor of Carolina BBQ restaurant. He even made her a copy of a CD. My love for pulled pork is boundless. We also had the first of many sweet potato-based food items, the sweet potato bread pudding w/whiskey sauce, which was outstanding. We then checked into our hotel, the plushly appointed Hampton Inn, where we learned of the ANS tragedy.

3) SUB-DRAMA #1: The Unclean South Theater is housed in a lovely old mill building that has been converted into a mall of boutiques, a diner, and their food co-op. I was absolutely flabbergasted that they built their theater space around these three heinous load-bearing pillars which obstruct at least half your view of the stage should you be unlucky enough to sit close to the aisle. I mean...wow. I would be seriously pissed if I paid $10 to watch a show and half of my view was blocked!]

4) SUB-DRAMA #2: Coldtowne did a really good show. I give mad props to Arthur's awesome, consistent, and strong elderly grandpa character. Tami's new hairdo looks really nice, too.

5) DRAMA #3: Our rivals, the NYC musical improv troupe, shocked the hell out of this musical improviser when they gave themselves an encore. They finished up their set, did their finale song, the lights came down, and when the lights came back up, as we were all grabbing our coats and making a dash for the door, they continued singing and came into the audience. It was an awkward moment.

We did, indeed, make brown bread out of them.

The other female troupe was good, too. I liked their format a lot.

6) SUB-DRAMA #3. Bitches are tired. This trip consisted of about half napping and half doing stuff. Jen and Jules were champion sleepers. I, on the other hand, was an insomniac for the first two days. I couldn't sleep for shit. Special props to J-Rat for being the only man over 35 that I know of who doesn't snore.

Also, let me take this opportunity to share this: if you travel to a festival, you might naturally assume that, in the application process, crap troupes get weeded out and only the best, most brilliant troupes perform. If only that were true. We saw quite a bit of mediocre improv. Even some bad improv. We also saw a show performed by capable improvisers with undeniably awful content. Hey, NYC: ANAL RAPE IS NOT FUNNY.

I know I am heavily biased, but in Austin, troupes dress for performance. Most troupes clearly did not put any thought into their outfits and just wore jeans and t-shirts. On the other end of the spectrum, there were a few troupes who overthought their wardrobe to the point of distraction.

Another one of my biases is that I prefer narrative/character driven improv. I know the Chicago school doesn't do that, but watching a bunch of badly dressed kids have weird conversations over and over again made me crave an actual story with a beginning, middle, and end. Most Harolds I saw lacked characters with names, defined locations, and consistent callbacks and other tricks that I really admire in an improv performance.

I need an improv moratorium for the next week. My head is spinning.

MAJOR DRAMAS: Dre landed back in the ER. She went off with one of her math friends for the day and she didn't call us back when we called her to tell her where we were having dinner. Shana went to be with her at the hospital while the rest of us were watching shows. I kept getting updates on my cellphone, which vexed the usher who prohibited me from returning to my seat after the second time I got up. We had a minor organizational spat regarding who would go to the hospital and who would stay, or should we all go to the hospital, or would Shana bring her to the hotel while some of us stayed at some of us went back to the hotel to meet her there. Being an avoider of confrontation, I just clammed up, happy to do whatever everyone else wanted. By that time, I had seen my fill of improv and just wanted to go home.

So we went back to the hotel and Jen finds out there has been a death in her family. Drama on drama. More drama. Drama. Sadness. Sad drama.

It all turned out okay. We still love each other and the troupe will go on! It felt good to get home. Yesterday was J-Rat's birthday and the goofball Southwest Airlines flight attendant sang him a birthday song on the intercom and gave him "Birthday Potion" which turned out to be hot chocolate.

The best fest, hands down, is the Beyond the Borders Improv Fest and Croquet Bonspiel right here in the ATX.

FOOD INDEX:

Carolina BBQ.
Crepes.
Omelet breakfast food.
Carrburrito #1.
Carrburrito fish taco w/the fabulous Robin!
Mediterranean Deli spread
Diner food.

All restaurants, except for the last diner, had sweet potatoes in the food. It must be a Carolina surplus crop. Which is a good thing. My troupe needed a little extra B vitamins.

Posted by Zerd at February 12, 2007 01:44 PM