Mike’s House

I seem to be hemorrhaging words today. Hope you’re enjoying it.

Tonight I went to a show.

I say “show”, but I’m a little concerned that this might lend some preconceived notions as to its purpose, quality, and overall experience.

I saw the event listed on the NonsenseNYC email list update (thanks to Jeff Stark). He had an interesting description there, and had listed that the event would be starting at 8pm, and that the event price was $5. I say again, $5 - not $15, which I was asked for at the door.

Since the event was scheduled to start at 8, I came a little early, and bought a beer. Went outside to drink it - on the street! Ha! Outside, I met another couple of people - a guy waiting for a lady friend of his from Hungary to arrive, and another lady named Aida who was, like me, there alone, and because of the listing.

So we chatted a bit, and when the doors opened for admission, we entered a smallish performance hall, and got the best seats in the house, right on the floor, not a foot away from some of the actors. On the other hand, considering the performance value, it may not have been the best seats in the house - those might have been outside.

With harsh red overtones, and a 4-piece band playing discordant music, smoke pouring in, it was more than a little bit eerie. The name of the piece - Hot Blood Cabaret - seemed to be apt to the scene.

As the band played on, and my eyes adjusted to the dimness, they wandered over the room, where the performers were already in place, doing whatever they were supposed to do.

The once that stays fresh in my mind is one gal, dressing in black lingerie, heaving over a toilet bowl, for about 45 minutes - it never got old. She’s take a break, feel something come up again, and dive right back into it, with vim and vigor.

The show was MC’ed by a severed head, with running humorous patter - probably a large amount of improv worked in there. He was amusing enough to keep the audience from getting too restless with some of the other performers.

There was a guy who played both parts in a short classical monologue piece, turning from left to right to display the gender of the character he was speaking as. He strayed from the original, bringing in a lot of modern language and concepts to the piece. Quaint.

Anyways, as Aida and I left - we turned to each other and said the same - “It was worth $5 - not $15!”.

Good night.

It is said that you get 15 minutes of fame.

What happens when that fame is not the fame you wanted? Can you get a refund, trade in, rebate or something like that?

About a month and a half ago, my friend Beka and I went out to see The Fantasticks.

It was a fun show, and as we were leaving the theater, we were set upon by media people - men with cameras and lights and microphones and such, asking questions about the show we had just seen.

They were from a new web site, that hadn’t launched yet - NWHYC.com (catchy name?) - and the both of us, being theatrically oriented, had no problem standing in front of them and pushing a few lines their way. They edited them heavily, obviously, so the transitions are not some effect of a space-time warp something or other.

Here’s the videos of us (if they don’t show up on my site, drop me a comment and I’ll link to another video mirror):

Me:

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Beka:

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The $1,000,000 question really is: Are these videos specific to this show, or could they be applied to any show? You decide.

So Thursday night was great.

Thanks to:

Shira, Annie, Ari, Asi, Danny, Dorf and Joe!

The show was great - the place was packed. Over 100 people were there, and it seemed to me that they all had a pretty good time.

So, if you were there, I hope you had a good one, and if you weren’t you really missed out. Don’t believe me? Ask someone who was there, they’ll tell ya!

In the same news, I got my name in the “In Jerusalem” section of the Jerusalem Post Friday’s paper for the event, here:

So tonight I’m performing again, and this time it’s the same format as last year.

Here’s the flyer:

It’s bound to be a blast, after all, if we weren’t good, would they ask us back every year?

So it turns out there was a production of a theatrical piece without me in it that was actually good.

The production is called “Stage Fright“, written by Charles Marowitz, directed by Shannon Kisch.

The acting is done by: my main man, Yossi Fackenheim, Rebecca Gillis and Yaron Shavit.
The shebang takes place at Merkaz HaMagshimim’s Center Stage Theater. They’ve done something to the theater and made it different than other production that has ever been done there.
I almost kicked myself for not being involved, but you know my line - “I have a life. I have a JOB!”
I think I laughed harder during that show than I’ve done in a very long time. I highly recommend this to anyone that likes laughing.

They’ve got a lot of performances left, so be sure to head over there and catch one of them. They’re a hoot.

Dates:
December: 12, 13, 17, 19, 20, 21, 26 and 27. These are all weekday evening performances at 8pm.
Saturday, Dec 23 @ 9pm
A special Friday matinée on Dec 15 @ 12pm, with a wonderful Daycare service for people with children that can’t make the evening events.
You can get more details via cst@themerkaz.org or call 02-561-9165 x202.
Be sure to tell ‘em Mike sent ya - I’ll be there again closing night!