October 01, 2007
Tulsa!
So, a couple of Beyond the Borders Fests ago, I met this chick named Katrina. She was from Tulsa, an improviser, and pretty cool. She's very hyper and very sweet and I liked talking with her. Found out she's got an all-lady improv troupe in Tulsa, Okla, of all places. We offer them an invite to come play here sometime. A year passes. We restate the invite. They schedule a date. We turn it into an entire all-lady comedy festival. They say, "anytime you wanna come play in Tulsa, let us know, we'll hook you up." We wait a little while. I say, "hey Geegsters, let's take up SuperOvum on their offer to rock the balls off Tulsa." So we schedule it. P-graph comes with. We drive in my trusty Corolla 11 hours north up I-35, stop at Czech Stop to get some kolaches. I had poppyseed rolls, having loved the crap out of 'em the day IFE and I went to LaGrange. We try to locate the cool college towny part of Denton and fail, having dinner at a chainish place called Good Eats with visually unappealing plating. Shel's baked potato had butter, sour cream, AND cheese in it and that was ridiculous. Somewhere along I-35 in the great state of Oklahoma (my new state add for '07) I spot a billboard for breakfasts and say something about "plated breakfasts" which becomes a running joke. I impress the pants off of Merlin by locating Katrina's house in Tulsa without the aid of written directions. My internal compass is bitchin. I am a tired bitch so I fall asleep over at April's lovely home. P-graph arrives. The next morning there is BRUNCH at Toni's place, all set up pretty in her front yard. She served artful toast creations and grapes. And then we "saw Tulsa" which means this:
The HANDS! My Smithie from Oklahoma pal Jasmine used to talk about the praying hands all the freakin' time, back when we used to make fun of her home state. She even bought me an Abundant Life keychain, which I still have. Those are improvisers with the hands. Let me tell you, Oral Roberts U. is one creepy motherfucking place. It's like Tomorrowland at Disneyland, all pseudo-futuristic in its architecture. Behold this accidental admissions brochure photo I took::
There's the prayer tower! It's a spaceship on a stick! I can't believe that structure is load-bearing. Maybe God takes care of the bizarre gravity-defying characteristics of the building. The dorms and such look like decaying Army barracks or ancient motels dissolving and cracking. DUMP! There were no students milling about or flyers posted. I guess everyone goes home on the weekends. There was an alumni event happening outside the spaceship and they were blasting "YMCA" by the Village People on a PA, probably completely unaware that they were playing what everyone in the real world recognizes as a gay anthem.
We had dinner at a pizza place and then me, Roy, and Val got revved up before our show by watching the ending of "Silence of the Lambs." The theater where we performed is huge and has all sorts of props and wood shop stuff and an alley out back that looks out over the municipal bus garage. There was a huge pentagram painted onto the stage floor. We heard that a couple from Okla City read about us in the paper there (big props to the Ova for getting such amazing press coverage) and drove out to see us! Graph and Geeg did really good shows. I didn't see the P-graph show, but let it be known that the Geegsters did "Church Camp: The Musical" on top of a pentagram in the middle of the Bible Belt and it got big laughs. Okla pal Jasmine even made it out and we had some serious catching up to do.
The next day we sang Kareem happy birthday song to wake him up because he was celebrating the geezer b-day that is 29. We had brunch and then said bye-bye to Katrina and THANK YOU because that girlfriend worked so hard for us and showed us crazy amounts of love! We drove home with Okie love in our hearts and Olive Garden in our bellies. Good trip.