The Ups and Downs of Comedy

This Saturday was the first of the Second Saturday series of improv comedy shows at the Westport Coffeehouse.  Ed Doris and I have been planning these shows since last July.  We both thought that this could be something that could catch on, mainly because of the variety of shows that we'd be producing, and that if just one of the shows got a little press it would be hard not to mention the others in the same blurb.

The months leading up to the first show were filled with nothing but excitement and anticipation.  The week leading up to however, was a different story.  There's no business like show business.  Whatever can go wrong will go wrong.  What goes up must come down.  

UP - A week before the show we learn that there will be improv articles in both the Pitch and the KC Star.

DOWN - Monday rehearsal goes only so-so.  Plus we learn that one of the members of the Makeshift Militia, the troupe that the Trip Fives are splitting the night with, might not be able to play. 

UP - Wednesday arrives with the Pitch article and a mention in the Ink's calendar section.

DOWN - Wednesday evening our booth person remorsefully tells me that he forgot to mark the show date on the calendar and now has scheduling conflicts.  

UP - Thursday arrives with a mention in the KC Star's Preview section. And I find a tech replacement.

DOWN - Thursday night I get a call from Jen Roser, of the Trip Fives, who informs me that, due to reasons that were out of her control, she would be unable to do the show saturday night.

DOWN - Friday mid-afternoon to late evening.  Turns out my cell phone, one which I have been substituting for the improv reservation line, decided to stop playing the message when people called.  It would ring, like normal, but instead of going directly to voicemail it would just be dead air.  All. Day. Friday. 

DOWN - After two hours of speaking to Verizon customer service and tech support, they come to the conclusion that they don't know what's wrong with my phone.  They do know that it has to do with the messaging system and not the actual phone.  But they don't own the messaging system, they have a contract with them.

UP - Saturday morning.  I let my phone charge over night thinking that it's quite possible that the phone only acts crazy when it is not fully charged.  That oddly seemed to do the trick.  So I called back every number that wasn't able to leave a message and everything is fine.  Oh, and the KC Star article came out.  As I walked up the street and got closer to the newspaper machine, I could see the photo above in the top left corner of the front page.  Very cool.

UP, UP - Collin had his first basketball game at the Cleaver YMCA.  It was not at all as bad as I thought it was going to be.  There were plenty of coaches, assistant coaches and referees on the court to point all the kids in the right direction.  Collin played a lot but didn't take one shot, which is totally fine.  His defense however, was tenacious.  

UP, UP, UP - Now, I don't know this for sure, but I would guess that 50% of both Saturday night's audiences came because of the Star article.  Something felt different, in a good way. There was just this overall feeling of newness all over the place.  The Trip Fives/Makeshift crowd was way more than expected, and because we split box after rent, the two members of makeshift walked away with a pretty penny.  Thunderdome was close to a sellout, maybe by 10 seats or so.  But what please me was knowing that half of them were new and neutral.  And even though all three teams put on entertaining sets, the crowd picked the one that deserved it.

DOWN - The night ended.