This past Saturday Luke and I performed a show in Gotham City Improv called, "Character-Building". We brought characters we created at The Living Room out to the big city to strut their stuff.
We had a great turn-out of friends, fellow-comics, college buddies and friends of family. More specifically, we had a great turnout of muscular, tattooed guys, classy, well-dressed women, non-denominational Christians, interracial couples, spoken word artists, musicians, Georgetown graduates, Starbucks employees and members of Delusions of Spandex and Bacivo Nuggets.
Greg of Aemiessence Fine Arts (who does all the eye-popping photography for The Living Room) took pics of the event, and Nick Cobb was our featured performer and did a smashing job opening the show for us.
We both come out, have a little banter, and then I abruptly leave the stage to get something "hilarious for the show". Luke buys time by interacting with the crowd. He finally can't stand to wait any longer and exits. My first character takes the stage: an old woman intensely involved with her work as a feline behaviorist. Luke's first character enters the scene, and the night carries on with eccentric personalities from brown-toothed hippies to jilted sea captains. By the end, I have returned as myself, out of breath, to present what I think will be the perfect prelude to a night of yuks. Luke informs me that I've missed the entire show. (The stupefied audience never realizes it was me on stage! A little trick I picked up doing dinner theater in Indianapolis.)
The entire night was in preparation for a performance we'll put on for a middle school in Maryland this week. If the kids like it, we could be the next Sharon, Lois and Braham. Without the guitars or the hip replacements.
The highlight of the night was seeing comedian Kumail Nanjiani among the guests after the show. I had only met him a month ago, and seen him once since, but I threw my arms around him and said, “Kumail! Thank you so much for coming!” He looked at the floor and said, “Uh, I’m actually in the next show. I didn’t catch yours.”
“Oh! Ha ha! Well, I still appreciate your being here. At your own show. Supporting live comedy and all.” Then I turned to thank a fire extinguisher.
1. Tim the Party Man, 2. Lucinda Wentworth-James, Mystery Novelist, 3. Billy Hawkins, Old Sea Captain, 4. Kerry True, Environmentalist, 5. D.B. Westchester of the Bull Moose Party, 6. Dr. Erick Newberry, feminist motivational speaker, 7. Tony Francione, New York Sports Guru, 8. Betty the Cat Lady, 9. Nick Cobb
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3 comments:
Sounds like fun Abbi. Hmmm, any plans of putting some of this on YouTube?
Interracial couples were there? You mean there's more of us? Oh, to be able to blend in at an event instead of being the only interracial couple in town where patrons openly gape when you go into a restaurant...
Or maybe it's just cuz we're so damn good looking ;)
kumail is great
Chris, my camera takes lousy footage indoors. We do have some other clips on our youtube channel . And there are some on mine.
Maybe they're staring at you because of your hypercolor shirt.
Mo: Kumail once saved a man from a burning Papaya King. Actually, the man was rescued by firefighters and woke up next to Kumail, who was really only there to get a hot dog.
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