aTypical Joe: a gay New Yorker living in the rural South

Sunday, May 01, 2005

Creative energy & edge

In Everything that’s wrong with Broadway, I said I missed “new, young, raw, creative energy and edge...in the small venues that are everywhere in New York.” Here’s an example of what I meant, from LA:

The performance of Dancing Barefoot at ACME went well. I guess about 35 people came, and we had a great time together. It was about 40 minutes too long, but luckily for me, (and the audience) I performed for probably the only audience in the world who wouldn’t mind such a long show...It wasn’t until I was driving down Beverly, near Highland, that I got that familiar rush of excited anticipation that comes before I do a show for the first time...it was just me, a mic stand, and a stool with some water on it. We put a color wash across the back wall that we could change when the stories changed (flickering orange for Inferno, red for flashbacks, and blue the rest of the time), and used spotlights to isolate me. I dressed in all black (if you saw ACME Love Machine, it was the same costume I wore for Untitled Office Sketch Number Nine.) After the show, I got several compliments from people who thought the staging was cool. Honestly? I thought it looked pretty cool, too. Mike and Travis did a great job putting it together.

Keep up the good work Wil!