Not Jaywalking...

Okay, this is too good not to publish. 

Tonight, post show, we all decided to head over to the one and only bar in this one horse town that is still open, which also happens to be directly across the street from the theatre, and kiddy-corner to our hotel.  There is a traffic light at the intersection, but at this time of night, cars are few and far between.  Now, we're in small town southern USA, on a Tuesday night, so there isn't much else going on in town.  Bar rail shots are dirt cheap and bottles are cheaper...the cast and crew are having a good time, blowing off some steam after a tough travel day and our first double show day in a while.  I have a few, and as the responsible adult, who still has show reports to write, I decided to call it a night well before the stroke of midnight.  I literally walk out the front door of the bar, turn towards the hotel (which, remember, is kiddycorner), check that the road is not only clear but in fact deserted,  and start to cut across the intersection, on the most direct path to the hotel.  No sooner had I made it three steps out into the intersection than a car became visible headed towards me, so, judging the distance to be too close for comfort, I hopped back up onto the sidewalk, continuing to cross the street with the light, in the accepted manner.  Besides, if television has taught me anything, it is that some areas of the states take Jaywalking very seriously.

Ofcourse, the car turns out to be a local police cruiser that slows down and pulls to the side of the road just through the intersection.  There is no crosswalk signs at this particular intersection, so I wait for the light to change, giving me the right of way.  As it does the young female officer steps from the car and calls me over.  One hand in her flashlight, one hand on her holstered sidearm.  She immediately asks for my ID, and wants to know where I'm coming from.  I very honestly tell her that I'm coming from "the bar" (the angle is now wrong for me to read the sign at this time of night, and I don't know what the hell it is called, I have only been in been here in town for exactly 1 day, all of which I spent in the theatre, but I keep that fact to myself for now).  Not impressed that I don't know where I've come from, or at least the name of the establishment, she has me put my hands on the car while she radio's HQ to see if they have the technology required to run my ID.  She literally asks if they can run Canadian ID...While she converses with HQ, I stand with my hands on the cruiser, trying desperately not to die laughing at this whole situation.

Finished with HQ, She wants to know where I was headed.  I explain that I am staying at the hotel, which is now literally steps away.  She wants to know how much I've had to drink.  I tell her the truth.  She doubts me, this in fact seems to confirm her suspicions.  She starts to tell me that she saw me weaving into the street, obviously jumping to the conclusion that I am impaired so I very politely interrupt her to explain that I was in the middle of choosing to Jaywalk across the street when I saw a car, and thought better of it. I am calm, coherent and far from inebriated, and she is slowing starting to catch on...but she has already called in my ID, so we're stuck here...

So I'm still standing with my hands on the back quarter panel of her cruiser, basically in the middle of the intersection, and I ask if I could stand on the sidewalk, out of the street.  She grudgingly agrees, which seems to ratchet the tension down a few notches.  Now we're getting chatty.  She wants to know if I am here with anyone, I explain that I am with the tour, and that most of the group are still at the bar.  She wants to know how long we're in town, and how the show sold.  Suddenly it becomes very apparent that she knows that she has no reason to detain me, so she's just making conversation to pass time while she waits for HQ to run my ID, and confirm what I have told her, that I am not in fact a fugitive from justice.  It has now been at least 15 minutes, and I am almost surprised that no one from the cast has come out of the bar to discover my predicament.  She just keeps making light banter.  Some people might even suggest that she was flirting with me at this point, but I am not even going to speculate on that.  I just kept up my polite, honest, mildly bemused Canadian routine, and eventually once her dispatcher confirmed my ID, she handed me back my license and jokingly drawled "I bet you hate this small town now".  After telling me I was free to continue on my travels, she then told me that while it was good that I decided not to Jaywalk, but it was my "disorderly travels" that caught her attention.  I apologized (I'm Canadian, it is what we do) for having wasted her time with such an insignificant incident, and before she hopped back into her cruiser, she admitted that it was the most excitement she had had all night. 

I laughed the whole way back to my room.

Only in America. 

     

Back at it!

Okay, so I have been more than a little remiss about posting new content regarding our tour adventures lately, but I promise that I have a great post from Miami beach that I will get typed up as soon as I have a chance.
After a blissful week off at home, we are all back on the road today with connecting flights from Toronto to Atlanta and Atlanta to Columbia, South Carolina to begin our 3rd and final leg of this little adventure.  Once we land in Columbia we will board a shuttle for the hour long hike to Newberry where we will perform our first show tomorrow afternoon, our first double show day in a LONG time...Life is hard.
This leg we have bid farewell to Robert and our remarkable Soul Bus, so it will be alot of flights and short shuttles on this leg.
As I write this I am camped out on the floor of Gate D36 in the Atlanta international airport awaiting our puddle jumping 61 min connection to Columbia.  Something tells me that the plane for this next flight will be smaller than the soul bus, and that likely means a rocky ride.  God, I hate flying!  Somebody better pour me a double Jack & Coke very soon!

Update: After sitting on the tarmac for an hour we were all asked to deplane due to a maintenance issue, but not until after the flight attendant rewarded all of us with free booze (JACK!) because the cast sang a couple of numbers from the show to entertain the passengers.  We were supposed to arrive at 8:15pm, but now it is 8:30pm and we are still sitting at the second gate waiting for our crew to board this new airplane...another long travel day with connecting flights.

Update the second:  We made it...90 min late, but we got to Columbia, and after a painless bus ride to Newberry, most of us made it...We may not have any lights for the show tomorrow, but we'll give them a hell of a show!

Time for me to crash.  I promise more info soon, check back when you have a chance. 

No Weasels, Just Purple!

We don't need no stinkin' weasels!

After a 1 month hiatus for the Christmas holidays, we are officially back on the road! The 1st National North American Tour of Godspell began it's second leg on Monday, January 13th in sunny Florida.

After a god awful early bus call for our airport shuttle on Monday morning I discovered that my favourite kind of flight attendant is the kind that hands out free alcoholic beverages on commuter flights.  I always fly with a double jack and coke, and when its on the airline's dime, so much the better. 

After a couple of VERY CHOPPY, mostly calm flights, those of us that hadn't missed the flight (who shall remain nameless) were all happy to get our feet on solid ground, and the fact that the sun was shining made it all the better.  We must have been a sight.  Picture 15 Canadians in full January winter gear landing in West Palm Beach to immediately seek out the nearest washroom, telephone booth, or sidewalk to strip down into shorts, sandals, and tank tops.

This is just a short 2 week leg, with performances in new venues pretty much every night, but the first 10 days are all in Florida so with a little effort we should be able to soak up some sun and transform from pasty white Canadians into marginally less pasty white Canadians.

We had a brush up rehearsal at our first venue in Fort Pierce, before storming the stage for a 7pm show.  I hear through the grapevine that that first show was perhaps a bit of a shock to the system for many of the performers, but it looked and sounded great, and the audience loved it.

Oh!  I almost forgot!  We had our first live alligator sighting from the bus this afternoon!  Okay, so they were in captivity at a sketchy looking mini-putt course, but it still counts!

Tonight we are in Sarasota Florida, and just wrapped a big show at the Huge Purple Van Wezel Performing Arts Center.  The picture up above actually hangs in the star dressing room at the Van Wezel.  And it made me laugh!  I don't know what the staff have against weasels...but boy oh boy do they like purple.  The exterior of the building is PURPLE, the interior of the Theatre is PURPLE, even carpet and the sofas in every dressing room are PURPLE.

DAMN!  That is a PURPLE sofa.

All kidding aside, it was a big, beautiful venue, and the show went off without a hitch, and I'm sure that the Van Wezel's whomever they are, are very rich and possibly even lovely people...not at all Weasel-y.  Regardless, tonight's near capacity crowd loved the show.  We even had a couple from Ontario, who have been abroad with the Drayton Entertainment Travel Club hop on board the tour bus post show to tell us how much they enjoyed the show.

Tomorrow we hit the road for Bell Glade, where, just like Crockett, Texas, we may have to make some edits to the show...time will tell.

Tune in next time for more of our ongoing adventures!

Home for a Rest

So, after a very busy final week of shows in Charlotte, North Carolina, I am now back at home in Kitchener for some much needed rest and relaxation for the holidays.  The only thing I really want to say about Charlotte is that it really sucks to be sick away from home.  Food poisoning is never fun, and spending 24 hours sick as a dog in a hotel room, and then trying to call a show in that condition is something I hope I never have to live through again.  On the bright side, life would have been a whole lot more unpleasant if we had been on the bus for those 24 hours...but the show must go on.

While I am home, I am looking forward to spending as much time as possible over these holidays with The Thief, my family, and catching up on all the goings on around here that I have missed out on while I have been out on the road.  I also hope to spend at least a couple of days locked in my condo totally ignoring the outside world. 

Until next time.

The Walking Dead Mid Season Finale - In Atlanta! FAIL!

So life on the road is all swell and good, because this has been an easy week and since we left Austin, all I have been looking forward to is the Mid Season finale of The Walking Dead.  Icing on the cake, we are actually spending Sunday night in Atlanta, where they do a lot of the filming.  Awesome, right?  Wrong.  Our hotel has no AMC, and I can't get a decent internet connection to download the episode.

Total fail.

So now I have to avoid Facebook and Twitter until I can find out what happened...

First World Problems...I know.

This doesn't count as a blog post...just a rant.

I'll check back in once I finally get my hands on the episode.

Austin, Texas

Dipping our feet in the frigid waters of Barton Springs Pool on Nov 28th
 

  I know that most of my close friends know this, but for those of you just along for the ride here's a personal secret for you...I HATE flying.  To be honest, it's more than that.  I actually LOATH everything to do with airports...security, the tedium of waiting for flights, having zero control over the entire process.  But more than anything, I hate being strapped into a tin can 30,000ft above sea level, the entire time feeling like my life is in the hands of a stranger.  But, I love to travel, and often I have to travel for work, so flying is a necessary evil.  Truth: My trick...I try to never do it sober.  A double Jack & Coke and a couple of Gravol and I am good to go.  If I can be asleep before we even get off the runway, so much the better.  Of course this recipe doesn't work on show days for obvious reasons...but this was not the case last Sunday when we took our very first flight of the tour from Detroit to Austin, Texas, with a short layover in Charlotte North Carolina. We eventually landed safely at our destination, which I consider a win.

A few of us had friends and family flying down for the week, as this was the perfect week for a visit: only 2 shows over 5 days in Austin, and 2 whole days off inside that week, including American Thanksgiving.  We all took full advantage of the free time to explore everything Austin had to offer despite the unseasonably cold (for Texas) weather.

Over the course of 5 days we explored the bars & restaurants of 6th Street, ate some genuine Texan cuisine at Stubb's BBQ, wandered "The Drag" alongside the University of Texas at Austin (Go Longhorns!), Explored the local western culture of SoCo (South Congress) including Allen's Boots, and eventually made our way to Zilker Park, home of the beautiful Barton Springs Pool, a 3 acre spring fed swimming hole located right in the middle of a tributary of the Colorado River.  Free to the public on Holidays ($2 for non-residents otherwise) the pool is a vast public swimming hole with a natural (read: fish & plant life inhabited) bottom that's water stays at a brisk 68 degrees year round.  Since it was Thanksgiving (Nov 28th) and about 12 degrees outside, we only dipped our feet in the water, but there were a few brave souls enjoying a leisurely swim.  Proof that Texans are nuts! 

 



Here's an Arial shot of the pool to help you understand the scope and size.  Everything IS bigger in Texas.



We also had a company meal for American Thanksgiving at Threadgills organized by Technical Director and Company Manager. Good times were had by all.  With both the Longhorns and The Cowboys winning their Thanksgiving day Football games, it was quite the day to be rooting for Texas!

 

Of course, we are on tour with a show, not on vacation, so we also had a couple of performances at the beautiful Long Center for the Performing Arts.  The crowds here in Austin loved the show, and were very generous with their applause. 

 

I know for a fact that Austin has already replaced St. Louis as a few peoples favourite stop on the tour thus far, myself included.  This has definitely been a week to remember.

 

I am actually writing this post from my hotel room in Crocket Texas, where we are scheduled to perform in just a couple of hours.  A tiny little civic center with no wing space, available flylines for our lighting gear, and only 21' wide, tonight's show is guaranteed to be interesting to say the least.

 

But more on that next time! 



 



Meet Me In Saint Louis - One Very Busy Week!

Time for another Tour Update! This week we rolled into Saint Louis after a trio of long travel days with stops in Pittsburgh and Indianapolis. Indianapolis deserves mention as I got the opportunity to have an incredible meal at St. Elmo's Steakhouse. The city's oldest restaurant, founded in 1902, they know how to prep a steak!
We arrived in Saint Louis on Wednesday and the group immediately scattered to begin exploring the city. We were staying at the Westin directly across from Busch Stadium, a perfect central location for all of our planned expeditions. After dinner of smoked ribs, turkey and brisket at Joe Bucks, I crashed pretty hard. Thursday was a free day and I had big plans. After exploring the city around the hotel in the morning, a group of us took in the Saint Louis Zoo in the afternoon. I was really impressed with the facilities, especially consider that there is no admission charge for the public. It is entirely funded through government grants and private donations. While we didn't quite have time to explore the entire 19 acres of exhibits, I did get to see a large percentage of the animals that they have on display. While not as impressive as the Toronto Zoo, it is obvious that the staff and community take great pride in their facilities.
Thursday night was the highlight of our week. I had organized and arranged tickets for 15 of us to see an NHL game at the Scottrade Center. The St. Louis Blues were hosting the league leading Colorado Avalanche. The Blues group sales department cut me a great deal on the seats. We were in section 103, up and to the left of the visitors net, 14 rows off the ice. By far, these were the best seats I have ever had at a hockey game, and they were only $75 per person. The simple fact that average people could afford to see the local NHL team play, and not have to mortgage their house to sit in the lower bowl was a shock to a Leafs fan like myself. The hockey game was absolutely explosive. The Blues ran up the score 7-3, and every time an Avalanche player attempted to start a fight, hoping to shift the momentum, the Blues enforcers beat them to a pulp. It was amazing to cheer for a team that actually had the potential to win for a change!
As an added bonus, one of my cast members had an in with the Blues Assistant Coach, Brad Shaw, and was able to get us backstage guest passes, which allowed us the opportunity to meet the Blues, get autograph's, shake hands, and then get a full tour of the locker room and training facility. Pretty amazing stuff! The entire staff of the Blues were great with us, indulging our wide eyed excitement at this behind the scenes look into their organization.
Friday was also packed full of entertainment as I booked in on tours of both Busch Stadium, home of the 2011 World Series Champion St. Louis Cardinals, and Anheuser Busch Brewery. Both tours were both informative and a lot of fun. One gave me the opportunity to stand behind home plate on Major League Baseball stadium, the other gave me free beer. Win, win. Also the supply and demand facts that I learned on the Budweiser tour made my head spin. For example the American Mid-West drinks 2.5 million cases of Budweiser product every 12-18 hours. Also for an individual to drain the contents of one of their massive beechwood aging tanks you would have to drink one beer an hour for over 127 years. FYI Budweiser has over 300 of these tanks on site at this brewery. That is a lot of beer. My favorite fun fact from Busch Stadium was the cost of entry to their exclusive Cardinal Club. These are special reserved seats directly behind home plate that also grant access to an exclusive club house restaurant before and after every regular season home game plus priority parking. Cost: $12,000 per season, minimum purchase 2 seats
($24,000), minimum contract 10 YEARS (total cost: $240,000) Sweet Jesus! If I ever change careers I am going to work for a professional sports team! I would be remiss if I didn't mention the fact that we also played 5 wonderful shows at the beautiful Peabody Opera House, a 3000 seat auditorium staffed by great people. I took the time to get to know a few of their staff over the course of the week (including the Head of Marketing, Production Manager, and General Manager) and everyone was really phenomenal to work with.
Other fun anecdotes: While we were in town we also shared our hotel with the Carolina Hurricanes and the Bosnian National Soccer Team. The NHL stars were very low key, not so much for the soccer players. Mobs of soccer fans swarmed the hotel hoping for autographs and photographs, necessitating added police and private security. At one point late one night I ended up on an elevator with about 6 of the soccer players, after having been told all day that we were not to be allowed anywhere near them by their private security force. I'm not a soccer fan, so I couldn't care less, but after their head of security waved me onto the elevator I kind of wondered what the big deal was. I also discovered a bar with more than 80 varieties of beer on tap, apparently the most anywhere in America. Be sure to check it out if you are ever in town. The Flying Saucer.
It was hard loading onto the bus this morning to leave St. Louis, but more adventures await. Next stop: Wisconsin, land of cheese...?!? Check back soon for more updates.