Three Minutes of Hell and Other Sordid Tales

Most Esteemed Dudes (let's be honest, it feels good to be called a dude, does it not?),
I have quite the story for you. It is a true tale of woe. It will shake your sinews and infuse your very blood with fear.

Actually, it's not that bad, but it IS the worst thing that has ever happened to me on stage. In my show, there is a scene that very heavily involves a video. Basically, I talk to the video and then I dance while the guy in the video sings (he is the emperor of Storyland and is basically a the floating head of my coworker Jason, which appears to be on fire and there's a green background). Now, there have been times when, for whatever reason, the video has not come up when it's supposed to, so I've had to improvise for a few seconds until it starts. I don't mind this at all. One thing that's always drawn me to live theatre is the fact that you have to deal with any problems or mistakes right in the moment. It's incredibly invigorating and creative.

The morning of the dreaded incident, after a rehearsal, my understudy had voiced her concern over video, as she'd seen the show once or twice when it didn't start right away. "Don't worry," I had told her, "The video always comes up eventually, you just have to think of a few things to do or say in case it doesn't start right away." Little did I know that in making this statement, I was cursing myself.

Later that day, during the first of two performances, the video did not come on. I did what I usually do, I looked around, wondering aloud where I was and marveling at how much my surroundings looked like the pictures in my story book. The thing was, the video did not come up after a few seconds. Oh no, friends, we're talking minutes now. So there I was, on stage with only a broken castle wall and two trees to work with. I called out asking if anyone was there. I looked into what hopefully appeared to be the heavens but was actually the tech booth and pleaded for someone, anyone to help me. I did and said any number of things that I don't clearly remember at this point.

Finally, I said that I was going to go and try to find someone to help me and ran off stage, thinking that the tech folks could bring down the lights and we could communicate over walky-talky to decide what to do. When I got off stage, they did not bring down the lights. Instead a stagehand came up to me and very apologetically said, "Uh... Oh-lay-na? Computer... no. Computer no. One more minute?" I gave him the ultimate "you've got to be kidding me" look and headed back out on stage with a large stick (the only thing I could find on my way back out) and continued to improvise.

I could see my fellow cast-member who plays my father sitting in the stage-right wing laughing his face off at me. He couldn't have come out on stage to help me because that would have completely ruined the plot. I suggested at one point during the harrowing episode, that "maybe a dragon could come help me," but my friend who plays the dragon apparently didn't get the memo.

In the end, after what felt like about two and a half-lifetimes (which is why I estimate it to have been approximately 3 minutes), the video came on. At that point, I was almost angry with the video for prolonging my time on stage. I felt incredibly shaken for the rest of the show and of course at the points when I wasn't on stage, all I could think of were better things I could have done during the three minutes of hell.

I cannot tell you how terrifying this experience was for me. But hey, I survived and it's another notch on my belt of crazy theatrical experiences. Also, it's a good lesson that if I ever have to work with a video again, I had better think up a battle plan for this kind of incident in advance.

I don't have a picture of the incident...


So instead I bring you a picture of my bathtub exploding with bubbles. Things got a little out of hand while drawing this particular bath, but let me tell you it was truly the bubble bath to end all bubble baths.

So you know that part in the title about other sordid tales? That's pretty much a lie. I don't have much else to report and it's all good stuff. Work continues to be fun. Apart from the fateful 3 minutes described above, I am having a total ball doing the show. I just love it and have a great time every time I do it (we've done it 31 times so far!).

The other night I made Mexican food for about ten of my friends.


Here are a few of the lovely ladies who came over to partake. The meal was well-received and I had fun cooking and chatting.

After the food, a few ladies hung around to drink wine and watch The Other Boleyn Girl. We enjoyed the movie and were so inspired by the crazy house-like hats warn by the women in it that...


we made our own! In this picture we are trying to look fraught and scandalized. Well, some of us are.


A few nights ago the Edutainer ladies had a fun night of games and dancing. Here are a few of us breaking it down. I do love a good dance party. In fact, last night I stayed out dancing in Seoul until dawn. I hadn't had a full night of dancing and dancing and dancing some more in a long, long time, so it was refreshing and fun.

And that, righteous Dudes, is all she wrote.

Things Are as Real as You Want Them to Be

Time flies when you're super busy both in and outside of work. Since my last update, I spent a whole second week doing the show School Days, because the actress for whom I was understudying went on vacation again. I then had a very hectic week of final rehearsals for my show, George In Storyland, which opened today. I've also done a slew of other noteworthy things between then and now.


I went to see Evil Dead the Musical in Seoul. This is what my feet looked like after the show. The show was in Korean and I wasn't familiar with the music (though I know all of the movies in the Evil Dead trilogy quite well). Aside from having some serious fun, I really felt like I learned from seeing the show. It was probably similar to the experiences of students who know hardly any English and come to English Village and see our shows. I of course understood the physical comedy and enjoyed the funny voices. I loved the musical numbers, but sometimes got bored during scenes with lots of dialog. How neat to be able to put myself in my audiences' shoes and then get them splattered with fake blood.


I also taught line dancing A LOT during the past few weeks. Here are a couple of the cute kids I got to dance with. It was definitely fun, but tiring. Seriously, there is only so much of the Hand Jive and the Bunny Hop that a person can be expected to bare, and I am happy that I won't have to do this activity so often now that I'll be primarily performing for the next three months.


Last Friday the South Africans among us hosted a Braai, or barbecue in celebration of their national day. Above are some folks enjoying the tasty food and lively talk.


Here I am enjoying some yummy South African Shiraz with one of my bosses.


The EV Boyz, the makers of the video I posted a few entries back also performed. I enjoyed their antics as always, and it was cool that they got to perform for their home crowd, because the next night they had two huge shows in Seoul where they sang their crazy songs to benefit a charity that does AIDS relief work in Africa.

Here I am all gussied up for the event with my friend Andrea. For the record, I am wearing the coolest hat in the world. On the side it says "this charming man" in silver lettering and has these neat little button thingies. Only Korea could make a hat like this. The shows were packed and the night was what one might venture to call a blasty blast.


The following day I met up with a random Israeli dude who was in Seoul on business and wanted to do some sight-seeing.


We headed to Changgyeonggung Palace pictured above and checked out its elaborate buildings and its nifty garden. We talked about cool stuff in Israel and our respective travel experiences. It was pretty fun hanging out with a random total stranger who I'm sure I'll never see again. Good times, good adventures.


After that I met up with some friends to grab some tasty Mexican food (a rare treat in these parts). I invite you to click on the picture above and take a closer look at the handsome waiter's name. That's right folks, his name is definitely Bong. Sometimes I just want to hug Korea for its abundance of awesome things that make me laugh.

And, on an entirely different note, here are some pictures from today's triumphant show-opening.

This is Derek. He's all dressed up and ready to play my dad, George.

This is me in my costume for the role of Chelsea, a 12-year-old girl. My smile is not usually this fear-inducing.

Here I am dressed as Allegra, the grumpy Unicorn who becomes cheerful.

And here I am with my friend Brian who plays a cowardly dragon named Milo who becomes brave.

I had fun performing the show. As always, there were plenty of technical glitches, which can get rather discouraging and annoying, but we did the best we could and we had fun. The show is technically very difficult because it involves a veritable plethora of videos. There are times when we talk to videos, sing to videos, and sing with people in videos (I even get to sing with videos of myself as another character!). Thus, I definitely look forward to having the kinks all ironed out. The music in the show is really good and fun to sing.

And that's about it for now, most bodacious readers. Life continues to be full, amusing and productive.