Tour #34: Seaside, CA

Ok, so you could call Wheaton and Orland Park tours #33a and b.  I didn't count them, as in my old tour age I no longer conider a Chicago suburb a "tour."  No offense, IL. 

One important thing about those mini-tours: it was the first time these guys played together as RedCo!

And now our first tour...morning flight to San Jose, CA.  Kevin made Tilliski laugh, so it's a good start.

 And Warren found a sandwich.  Also a good start.

Another drive directly to the venue, thanks to a long flight and long drive.  USC Monterey Bay had a lovely theatre.  And apparently they was glad to have us.  Here is a wall of the press they did in prep for our show.  It's very nice of them...and as Jessica pointed out, slightly stalker-esque.  But moreso nice.  The show did sell out after all.

Here is our lovely hotel, the Bay Park. 

 And even more lovely...N. California.  Everytime we tour around here I don't want to come home.  It's beautiful is the point. 

Before our departure, we were treated to breakfast at the adjoining restaurant, The Crazy Horse.  Derek offers an homage to Ross and Mystic Lake. 

Mom was taken from us for this trip and sent to Texas instead.  Boo.  But we were lucky enough to have Josh Miller step in as our surrogate parent and it was great.  Did I take any photos with him?  No.  Because I am starting to suck at this.  Touring for too long.

And speaking of touring for too long, I should mention that I neglected to celebrate my one year tour-versary properly.  It was unofficially on January 22 and officially on February 1.  In some ways it's flown by and I still feel new.  In other ways...I mentioned to Tamara recently that I had been touring for a year, and she said, "Really?  It seems like 2 or 3!"  Well, yeah.  I did get off the boat just over three years ago now, which was my official understudy start, so technically I have been doing some manner of the job for that long.  Maybe tour years are like dog years.  In which case, I've been on it for 7.  Makes sense. 

Home for a while.  Next stop: Florida!

Tour #33: A lot of places

First I would be remiss if I didn't mention that we had our last matinee with Ms. Angela Dawe on Feb 12.  We are happy to welcome back JJ, but Angela is dearly missed. 

 I mean, look how sad she is to go!

 So off we go on tour #33 (roughly) to Hazard, KY, Blacksburg, VA, Cullowhee, NC, Lynchburg, VA and finally, Rock Hill, SC.  After a treacherous flight on a tiny plane (Joe Ruffner, I appreciate your apologies), we landed in Tri-Cities Airport (for the second time on tour, we discovered) and rented our cars for the long journey across the southeast. 

 Our first stop was straight to the venue in Hazard, KY.  Turned out to be a dinner show preceding a morning of improv and workshops the next day.  We got to hit the buffet and eat in our weird section-of-a-ballroom green room, so that was nice. 

The next day before our IAS show, Mom and I discover an off-brand version of Splenda called Allure...?  Anyway, we had a free evening in Hazard and took advantage with a RedCo family dinner at Reno's Steakhouse.  Fine, except it was attached to a hotel that had the creepiest doll collection the world has ever known.  Yikes.  JJ wasted no time in making a quick Flip video.  See my Facebook page for that. 

 Onward to Blackburg, VA, home of Virginia Tech.  The on campus hotel was lovely, as was the whole place.

 See, classy hotel.  JJ, Patrick and Daniel were first to call time and took advantage of the sensible lobby fireplace.

V-Tech show was good...next stop: Cullowhee, NC.  This college was awesome.  We stayed in their "campus hotel" which was actually a dorm called Madison Hall.  JJ talked everyone into a dorm hallway taco party post-show.  Cullowhee was by far our best show of the week.  The college (WNCU?  Something like that) went NUTS for Gaga and Jessica got to be the closest thing to a pop star a comedienne can ever hope for.   

 Next Stop: Lynchburg, VA.  Our show was in a small performing arts center.  I think this place won best food of the tour (veggie lasagna, salad and pecan pie from a friend of Tilliski's fam) as well as best het find: a sombrero reminiscent of the one we used to carry for History Boys.  Mom's new headshot!

On to the final stop: Rock Hill, SC.  We got some free time in Rock Hill during the day where we learned that people who drive there don't think pedestrians exist.  Thanks for not actually killing me, you weirdos.  Oh yeah...and we did a show in a bank. 

 The theatre space is a converted bank branch, which still has teller windows and an official FDIC sticker on the door.  For turning over a recent financial institution, they did a really great job making it into a theatre.  It was acutally lovely.

Especially the mechanical seat for going down about 7 steps.  Unfortunately it was only for show, it wasn't functioning.

And we're done.  This was Daniel and Patrick's final tour and show with RedCo.  We closed out there stay with a trip to a Rock Hill Chili's .  They were awesome to have around and I hope they get to tour again.  Too bad it may be with Blue or Green.  You heard me.

Long, long road trip.  Next stop: Suburbs!