What a weekend! First off let me say that if you let Priceline.com pick your arrival and departure times on a flight you a MIND NUMBINGLY CRAZY! I know this becuase I did that very thing. My plan for the festival was to come in mid afternoon Friday and leave mid afternoon Sunday. I got there Friday night at 10:30pm and left at 6:00am Sunday. 36 hours total in Austin! BLECH!
So, I get to the airport and after refusing EVERYTHING that Budget Rental Car tried to put me into I got on the road to meet Cameron at the Hideout Theater. (He had arrived at 6pm like a normal human being should) By the time I got to the theater I had already missed seeing my friends show but got to hang with them in the coffee shop and see a lot of LA folk that I have not seen in a few years. Once Cam, Mike and myself were together Mike said "Hey, we are going to hit a few bars with some friends I have not seen in forever want to come and then after that we can go to the festival after party." Ok, sounds like a good idea. And in theory it was, practice was a different thing. The first place we went had a Brady Bunch-esq voodoo theme with half naked go-go dancers on the walls and dunk U of Texas students EVERYWHERE! Cam drank a few drinks (I had decided to not drink while in Texas since... I don't EVER want a DUI, but I definitely NEVER want one in Texas!) After about 45 minutes in the club the guys decide to move on to the next on and Cam and I decide to go to the after party.
The after party was at a house and FULL of LA and Chicago friends! Much catching up was had and Cam proceeded to claim a bottle of red wine as his. I got to also catch up with my friend Tom Booker and make plans for lunch the next day at 1pm (remember this... It will be relevant to my stomach later in the story) at about 3:30am Cam and I decided we should get to the place we were staying and get some sleep.
OUR HOSTS WERE AWESOME! My wife's good friends "The Amanda's" as she calls them (since that is both their names) were kind enough to put both Cameron and myself up and they were great! Not only did they wake up to let us in at almost 4am but they then took us to breakfast for some authentic breakfast tacos! (which were honestly AMAZING!) We made plans with then to see Tom Bookers show Confidence Men which is improvised David Mamet at 7pm and then since it was almost noon went to meet up for lunch with Tom Booker. YUP! We ate breakfast and less than an hour later at a BIG BBQ lunch! YAY! Now, I should also note that Cam was not feeling 100% at this point.
He had almost no sleep and was a little tender from the wine and booze, so since I had a little time I let him sleep while I walked around the "Lake" that looked like a "River" but I was told in no uncertain terms not to call a "River" becuase it was in actuality a "Lake". Well to me it looked like a river and I walked round it while Cam recovered in the car. At 1pm we went to Iron Works BBQ for some Texas style cooker meat in sauce. It was really good and for some reason I was OK with eating again less than an hour after I had just eaten two of the mess you see in the picture next to this text. It was great to catch up with Tom but there were also some Portland people I knew there and a lot of LA and Austin peeps as well. FUN!
I could not help myself... Had to take a picture. Cam was a wreck and I was not helping matters much. We then made our way back to our place and I took a two hour nap and Cam did some video editing.
We then made our way to see the show. After some parking miss-haps we got in and it was a great set! But what came next was some of the best improv I have every seen. They festival had paired the improvised Mamet with a troop from LA called "The kindness of strangers" which was improvised Tennessee Williams I know it's futile to try and write about an improv set. But there was a father-son wrestling match that ended with the "father" full on slapping the "son" so hard the guy had a hand print on the side of his face into the next day. Now normally I would frown on such a thing. BUT DAMN THAT WAS THE MOST EPIC THING I HAD EVER SEEN IN A SET!!! Anything less and the whole feel of watching a improvised Tennessee Williams play would have felt off and fake. These guys had there stuff together!
We then went to dinner with the Amandas and then made our way over to where Extra Shelves was playing. When we got there I made arrangements with the Stage manager to film our show. "Here is the RECORD button and here is where you turn on the mic. PLEASE don't forget this or our set will have no sound." He looked at me with a smile and said "Got it!" (Yeah, I'm not going to talk about this anymore... He was doing us a favor and I'm sure he had a lot on his mind. No sound for our set though. Sad faces all around)
Mike introduced us to his mom and as we warmed up we said "OK, Mikes mom is here, lets keep is clean." Now Extra Shelves is not know for doing dirty shows, we get weird once and a while but dirty is rare. The Amandas were also there and my LA friend Joetta and her boyfriend also came. The crowd was decent but not packed and the theater was small but nice. I introduced us and asked "Can I have a location that would fit on this stage, like a tire store or a kindergarten?" .... Nothing, silence... I can hear them thinking almost. Finally some guy in a bored voice says "Sperm Bank" now normally we would have a few suggestions that we could choose from if only to avoid "Sex Room" "Torture Chamber" and "Sperm Bank" but after this guy spoke it was like everyone said "That's good enough for us... Dance monkeys!" and I thought to myself "Sorry Mikes Mom... Sperm Bank it is..."
Well, this show was one of those shows that reminds me WHY I LOVE doing a Extra Shelves show. We had a Sperm Bank dealing with a failing economy, husbands and wives dealing with infertility and mom's and sons dealing with the idea that "I don't really know who your dad is, only that I love you." it was really a great set! And after Mikes mom came up to me and said "Thank you for being such a loving mother to my son." and gave me a hug. HUGE SUCCESS!
After the show and saying goodbye to our most wonderful hosts and friends we made our way over to the after party. Which was in a "UNTZ-UNTZ" club called the Speakeasy. Which was way to load. So many of us ended up in the alley by the dumpsters chatting and generally avoiding the college coeds that were busy puking and or pissing in the alley. (God bless them, one and all) Cam and I had decided that since we were to be at the airport at 4am we would just stay up. We then made our way to a real speakeasy and chatted with our good friends Chris Compton and Stephen C. James about life, the festival and general geeky subjects. I really miss those guys so it was nice to just relax and catch up.
After Chris and Stephen decided to call it a night we went to the OOB Jam at the Coldtowne theater and hung out, Cam did a few games and hung out (I was done and ready to go home) at 4am we made it to the airport and had some last breakfast tacos then went our separate ways. My wife had some friends in from out of town and Cam was on his way to San Fransisco to meet a friend. All in all with the exception of no sound on our tape I am VERY pleased with my 36 hours in Austin and think that the OOB folk put on a wonderful festival! I hope to do it again one day!
