Tour #11: CT and NY

Welcome to NYC!  Your rental car has a sun roof!

And welcome to New Haven!  You're on Yale campus! 

We had guest artists Julie Nichols and Shawn Pace with us for this mini-tour through the northeast.  We were fortunate enough to be performing at the Broadway-preview venue, the Shubert.  It was a beautiful theatre and we had a great house.  So what do you do when you're on Yale campus, doing hot comedy and staying at the swanky Omni?

Oh no big deal, you just have a robe party to watch Twilight New Moon!  We had a long day and only got through about half.  Good thing we had two days left.

Before we go, though, I'll have a couple of New Haven coffee beverages. 

Thanks, Julie, for being a veg and bringing us to Claire's Vegetarian Cafe!

Off to Peekskill.  Look, the Peekskill Inn may not be the best place to watch a movie about werewolves before you go to bed, but we found it charming.  Great show, great house, the exciting conclusion of New Moon* and a loopy, bitty pajama party ensued.  We also stumbled upon some awesome NY pizza in an unassuming strip mall.  Thank you, Peekskill.

Concluding the tour, we moved onto Brentwood.  These pink trees were everywhere, and I don't know what they are.  Good story. 

En route we hit an adorable diner in Long Island, thanks to Shawn's research.  Look how excited our understudies are.

 Full of ice cream treats and New York charm, we closed our tour at a community college theatre.  The show went well, but only after a steamer Edgar was using set off a fire alarm.  The alarm monopolized what I guess to be the only full-sized fire engine in the town, but we still only started about 15 minutes late. 

Fire alarms do not preempt our bits.

This trip has been a lot of fun.  So much fun that I would rather not being heading home tomorrow.   Yes, I miss Matt and home and friends...but the next two weeks will be the craziest they can possibly be.  I'll be packing my apartment, working my office's annual conference, writing for RedCo and coaching and teaching all at the same time.  If I come out of it alive on May 1, I will cry tears of joy and relief.  Then I will go back to unpacking and hoping for money to fall from the sky. 

Next stop: Billings, MT (a fairly long time from now)

*The Twilight movies are enough fluffy fun for a bunch of dumb improvisors to bit-riff on for hours, but let's get real, this series is TERRIBLE.  It's an awful message to girls that you should end up with the guy who's kind of mean to you but you are inexplicably "in love" with while the guy who actually shows concern and care for you gets the shaft.  Not to mention Taylor Lautner is hauling around that 8-pack while ex-Cedric Diggory looks like a crack addict.  Come on.  COME ON.  Just my two cents.

Tour #10: Edmond, OK

Happy DecaTour! 

Welcome to Oklahaoma!  And to the Salt Lick.  We quickly realized there was not much to do in Oklahoma, but that was fine considering Edgar and I had a workshop to teach, we had a 7pm show and then we were leaving the next morning.  So we had lunch and ice cream from Braum's (nice work, OK) and stopped by the hotel.

Jessica and I shared a room at Comfort Suites that had this inexplicable wall design.

Edgar and I had a good time with our UCO students, members of the campus's comedy troupe, Friday Night Live (Google it!).  They were fun to play with and I'm sure that Edgar and I lead them to master the art of improv in two hours.    We then headed downstairs to the auditorium to get ready for the show, which went really well and allowed us to debut our college specialty piece "College Gaga."  Those are the only spoilers I'll give.  My blog is frequented by saboteurs.  Incidentally, our set also gave birth to the character Cat Girl.  I'm sure it'll be a huge hit one day.

Oh, here's one more Gaga spoiler.  For now this is Derek's costume.

After the show we sought out a late night hangout, which in our tour towns isn't always the easiest thing to find.  But we ended up at Hudson's, which was cozy karaoke bar/pool hall that served crazy cheap drinks and allowed indoor smoking.  Bad news for my hair and clothes.  But great news for the two drinks I had that cost the same as one at home.  We rocked the karaoke hits and then went back to our weird Comfort Inn where I think we were the sole patrons (more continental breakfast for us!).  We had a rough flight back the next day (Good Friday, so I really couldn't complain...Jesus went through a lot that day too) but got home in time for me to join Easter Triduum, already in progress.

Hot, hot RedCo.

Next stop: Conneticut and New York state