A Pre-Review of This Coming Weekend's Gag Reflex Show at The First Street Playhouse in Batavia, IL
What an amazing show. The audience was rowdy, bawdy and ready for us to hit the stage. They were lubed and ready to be topped off by Gag Reflex. When the lights first came up on Charlie, sitting reading a news paper, the fans went nuts. They knew what scene was coming and they were ready for it. Millie, being the professional, gave the audience a moment to settle down before making her entrance, which caused another thunderous response. And this is how Friday night went. The fans calling out dialogue and roaring with laughter. We simply ate it up.
Then there was that moment during MEG when Steve and I did the new soft-shoe routine that we've worked out. It was like God came down and joined us. The audience went bananas and the cast got caught up in the oozing, warm orgy of laughter and spirituality.
But that was only Friday night. Saturday night we had to turn nearly 300 people away as the sold out crowd from the night before turned up with friends. Again the sold out crowd seemed to be dangling from the teets of Gag Reflex. MAgic happened in that room. Life changing, pants wetting magic.
Saturday's most amazing moment was when we pulled an audience member out of the crowd (as usual) for LIKELY STORY, and the audience member turned out to be Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert, a local boy who dropped by to see what all the fuss was about. So when the sketch began Ben and I went to town on him. Eventually we were both face down in his lap. And then he ad-libbed the line "I feel like Michael Moore at Cannes". You can't always tell on TV, but the guy is a cut up.
And then it was another standing ovation. Another lobby full of screaming men and women. Another night of people we don't know buying us vats of booze, just to keep the funny going a little longer.
A spiritual peak happened for hundreds this weekend. And for 10 humble comedians, our lives are fulfilled.
http://www.firststreetplayhouse.com/gagreflex.htm
5 Comments:
Wow! I got so freaked out when I first read this, I thought I'd been in some kind of narcolepsy-induced haze for the last week. Then I re-read it and realized you were broadcasting your precognitive powers onto the blog and I calmed down. Whew.
P.S. Why don't any sketches ever end with 2 guys' heads in my lap? Huh? Where's the fairness in that? I'll bet Dino's head is in all the girls' laps down in Austin and that's probably why he's so popular. Isn't that right, Dale?
You're gonna have to let go of the Dino is hot thing... No really. The T-shirt is a bit much.
But my "Clay is a HornDog" t-shirt has queso stains all over it ...
I dunno what dat Erock is talkin'about. I don't know nothin' about no comedie group. Musta be that Erock's wet dream. All Charlie dos is the moving, theaturd & that ol' clown stuff, ya know? That Erock say Chuckie boy shoot somebody--a Millie. My grandma's name was Millie but she died 20 year ago. So I killed my grannie pack? What is that gobblygookpook? Look likes Charlee went to the bar after that, as no mention of that Charly fella except the time he done played de Speakher. Matter fact, I heard Char used to be called Ernest T Bass but the guy who played that part done fell dead so he nows feel kinda guilty. So he use part of his real name now maybe he save them other folks & go kick the bucket himself next. Now that Princess Mariotia double head stuff is mighty fine. I'm sure she can find some fellas in the Land of Linkcoin to help out here. Maybe Erock can asssisther here recrwting some of them fantasee comedie fellers. Anyhoo, that's all I gotta say.
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