History of The Talented Talent Bros -- Chapter X

The Looking Glass Theatre is a un-air conditioned space under a church on 57th Street. The space is fairly old and features some nice leaky pipes in the ceiling and wants to flood if and when there is any rain. There is a huge fan that attempts to keep the place cool during the summer months, but once you fire up the stage lighting the place (at least on stage and backstage) becomes something of an oven. This was discovered a few days before we opened on August 4, 2006. The Wednesday prior to opening, we moved in – “load in day,” they call it – and as fate would have it, it was the hottest day of the year in New York with temperatures in excess of 100 degrees.

Nothing comes easy.

Considering how minimal our set was one would think that load in would not be terribly time consuming or exhausting. They would be wrong. A good amount of our time would be spent hanging and focusing lights. Thank goodness that Melissa recruited a friend of hers who just so happened to be a bit of a lighting expert. Raven would be more than valuable that day as we quickly discovered that the space had some major issues – the wiring (or cabling) was a convoluted, tangled, hazardous mess. We would have to pull everything down, rewire, re-hang all the units, point and focus and then program the light board to accommodate all of our scene changes, of which there were quite a few. All credit for making our low-budget, hardly-a-set-at-all production goes to Raven … he did a magnificent job with the tools at hand.

It is truly amazing how cleaning a stage, hanging a bunch of black fabric, making a “Bob’s Burlesque” sign out of Christmas lights, running a few errands and such in ridiculously hot and humid temperatures can wipe you out. I am certain that at some point in time I actually suffered a heat stroke. Luckily we were able to get everything done and actually have a rehearsal in the space that evening. The entire cast pitched in and worked their butts off to make sure it was all done. A solid, complete and collaborative effort. Whew!

Weasel Erotica Rolls

The next four weeks would be filled with fun on stage, fairly good-sized audiences (for the most part), a practical joke here and there, a constant battle to stay cool and just a great deal of enjoyment. Although there were nights where I had to suck it up, put on a brave face and ignore the pain I was in. But once I hit the stage, all was right with the world. Professor Wagstaff might be dehydrated and sweaty, but he was back and he was ridiculous.

As mentioned before, Weasel Erotica contained a handful of elements first worked out during Abnormal Stew. I would perform a variation of the “Monster-logue” towards the end of Act I (this time with the bonus of having Rebecca sing her own rendition of “Embraceable You”), She Said Maybe would set up our young couple’s relationship near the top of the play, Harry (played by Matt) would torture the evil Mr. Grimm with a variation of the “deaf guy” bit and Tony and the monster would question one another’s sexuality in a variation of He-Man’s bit from Stew. Even the legal disclaimer would make an appearance in Act II as I would come out on stage and apologize for offending the audience while Jeremy made a massive costume change from Larry back to Grimm.

Every night was a new experience as folks adlibbed here and there and explored their comedic potential. I was genuinely surprised most nights to find out just what Rebecca might pull from her impressive (and adored) cleavage each night … brussel sprouts, ice cream, an artificial hand, a hot dog with mustard … during my speech to-end-all-speeches. Tony and Jeremy would explore the boundaries of bad taste in bed (and one night, I explored it on Jeremy’s behalf). Kimi would be forced to do different animal imitations on occasion. The show was meant to be nothing more than silly and the cast embraced the idea whole-heartedly.

I have mentioned in this blog several times my disregard for critics and reviews, but was pleased that we received a few nice little write-ups and one completely nasty, negative podcast of a review. I was thrilled by them all. Good press, bad press … so what? As long as our audiences were having fun (the majority of them certainly seemed to) and as long as we were having fun, what did it matter?

This cast also loved to party with one another and some of the evenings spent post-show were great fun ... jeez, I drank a lot for a few weeks there. This was one run that I was not looking forward to ending. I was dreading the “load-out” considering how exhausting the “load-in” had been, I was not looking forward to a scheduled surgery the week after the close of the show (it would be postponed until the middle of September) and frankly I wasn’t looking forward to saying good-bye to this group of people. Actors have a habit of moving on after a show and those relationships just kind of fall by the wayside (another topic I have covered in this blog) and this is a natural progression that I didn’t want to accept.

How sad it would be to say good-bye to Weasel Erotica. But the success and sheer joy of the experience really got me to thinking that perhaps, just perhaps, this whole Talented Talent Brother thing could continue. However, I was fully aware that for it to continue I would have to go back to the drawing board. Fact of the matter is that nobody has really grasped and embraced this silly little concept (or maybe I should say, conceit). Clyde and Jabbar didn’t grasp it. Neither did Jef or Paige. JB grasped it for a bit but it ultimately wasn’t a priority. It wasn’t necessarily a priority for Matt, Mel and Tony either. Baby Hippopotamus Productions and The Talented Talent Brothers were my creation and would only move forward with my driving it.

Don’t get me wrong, I have zero negative feelings towards Clyde, Jabbar, Jef, JB, Matt, Mel or Tony … it’s not their baby, they feel little if any ownership of it. The ownership, as much as I might wish it otherwise, is all mine. I breathed first life into it and it would require my breath, my energy and my dedication (not to mention my time and my money) to survive. And although I was completely exhausted mentally, physically and emotionally my mind was swirling with what could be the next step in this little adventure.


But there was also a more personal story that I wanted to tell …