Saturday night was the end of a remarkable run. The rush of live theatre multiplied by the fact that it was a play you wrote, to the power of an improv set to finish the evening.
It was a packed house. On the strength of word of mouth. Apparently many of the bookings had been coming in over the preceding day or two, a sure sign that people were telling their friends to buy tickets, and the friends were doing just that.
The closing night crowd was not too noisy, but happy and smiley with a few laughs. After wavering all week on the issue about which jokes in the play were funny and which weren’t, I’ve come to a conclusion: they were all fucking briiliant and the ones that didn’t get laughs were just because the audience was too stupid to understand. I will not pander in my writing, so I will continue to write hard-hitting, obscurantist jokes that compliments the audience’s intelligence. And mix them in with dumb broad stuff.
I will not change my mind about this.
The addition of 3 guitar players with 7 songs to play into an already full programme made the show a little different and a little longer. I guess they were ok, though the reviews from the audience were mixed, and less diplomatic.
Finally: the improv was again a strong closer. I’m happy the folks have earned some stage time and been rewarded with laughs and confidence. They are ready for some more lessons (in the fall: Intermediate Workshop)
We had people in from Amsterdam, and even a guest from Rome. This made me very happy and honoured that they’d come from afar to support.
The fact that the support consisted not just of laughter and applause, but also of that douchebag Ben throwing the occasional ‘Booooo!’ out into the audience darkness during the improv was in fact, much appreciated. Gave me something to work with (and reason to be a dick).
Book sales: 8(?) Most of them autographed. Total sold: 25 or 30*.
* I was wondering why I greatly overestimated the demand for the play, and I remembered I originally thought I would be getting a price break by printing 100. When it turned out that wasn’t the case, I probably should’ve hemmed in the dorder slightly. Ah well, these first editions could be worth something some day, (like when the movie comes out!) and it’ll be good to have a stock of them.
BY THE WAY: Copies of the play are still available!! Get yours TODAY!
