The Play's The Thing

He's a ham.

                -My Mom

In 1994 I was in 11th grade, and in Home Ec class Keith Koroschetz told me about an improv show he saw at a theater in Uptown called Comedy Sportz. He described the show, and I thought it sounded a lot like the English show on Comedy Central Who's Line Is It Anyway?. I went to the theater to see a show, and LOVED every minute of it. I became a regular. The owner and usual 'referee' of the Sportz began to recognize me upon entry. 

During one show I got to be an audience volunteer and perform a scene with my local improv idols. I didn't know how one got to become a star of this stage, but wanted to be part of it really bad. I was so excited the night I was leaving a show and saw a flyer on the wall that open auditions were the following week. 

I obsessed about the audition. What would it be like? Will we play the games that I see almost every weekend? Will the performers I love be there to judge me? Audition night finally came, and owner/referee Steve greeted me with a form to fill out. We did do the games that I knew. About ten people were hired from that night, and I was one of them. 

I was fresh out of high school, starting my technical college radio-school, but those days with the improv troupe were my real "college experience." I didn't stay friends with one person from radio school after our nine months together (including the guy whose I.D. I used to get into The Fine Line for a 21+ show to see Tracy Bonham). I met my life-long friends at what was Comedy Olympix when I joined. 

One of those friends is Jimmy D, who moved to Chicago toward the end of my run with the theater. Jim learned long form improv there, and when he moved back to MN he taught it to about seven of us. We became The Drunk Baby Collective and were a troupe from 1998-2005 playing a lot of shows at the Bryant-Lake Bowl. Also many festivals nationally and internationally. In addition to improv, we did sketches, and a few original shows in the MN Fringe Festival. 

I miss performing. I miss the stage. A friend whom I met at Comedy Olympix is directing a musical comedy at a theater in Anoka. He posted about auditions, and I looked up the show. It looked interesting, so I reached out to him asking how musical it is. (I love karaoke, but don't really sing, and don't even ask me to dance. Imagine Lurch from The Addams Family.) He said it's pretty musical, BUT there's one role who doesn't sing that much, and is best for an improvisational actor. 

I auditioned. It was nice to see my old friend again, and I actually memorized my lines in the 30-minutes before I was called in. I got a call back, but I didn't land that part. The process whet my appetite for the stage, and I looked up community theater around me. Fridley has one. Who knew? I reached out to them asking to let me know of the next auditions. They told me the next production was going to be Steve Martin's Picasso at the Lapin Agile. 

Auditions were at the Fridley Community Center. Everyone was really nice to me when I arrived. They had scripts for different parts (or sides) sitting out, and one guy-Tom-told me to read a few and the director would have me read what he felt like when he saw me. I knew that I wasn't going to memorize lines for five different roles, but looked them over and got familiar with them. 

When I told Tom that I was comfortable enough to go in, he informed the director, who called me in to read with another auditioner. The play is set in the titular bar and features interaction between a young Pablo Picasso and Albert Einstein. We each read those roles, and then the director excused the other auditioner and had me read a monologue by another character. I asked him about call backs, and he said he would call people the following night. 

Tom told me that I should audition for the musicals they do before I left. When I told him that I can't sing or dance, he said he can't either, but was thrown into Fiddler on the Roof, and has done musicals ever since. 

The following (Saturday) night a call/text/email never came. I had fun though, and met some really nice people. 

Sunday I watched football and played with Ozzie. Typical lazy Sunday. As a cartoon that Ozzie watched before nigh-nigh ended, and I was just getting up to start the bedtime ritual of waiting for him to pick out jammies, waiting to put them on him, waiting... basically waiting, my phone rang. It was the director asking if I'd like the role of Albert Einstein in the show. Uh, yeah! I told him that when I didn't hear anything the night before, I figured I didn't make the cut. He said he knew he wanted me in the role right after my audition and didn't require a call back. 

I'm honored, and proud to have earned this role. I found a copy of the script online and read it. There are several male roles, and I realize that if I was cast in one of the other ones, I would covet the role of Einstein. He, like the script, is witty, high-brow, and funny (see: Steve Martin wrote it). The first read through is on Monday and then nothing during the holidays. Rehearsals start in earnest in January. Performances are in February. I can't wait to meet the rest of the cast and get started. I'll detail the process right here in Nerd Dad.