Sunday, November 25, 2007

Canned Laughter

Speaking of shows at high schools, we were recently the featured entertainment at a canned food drive at a school in New Hampshire. The performance venue? The gym.

While in high school, we avoided that building. Still, it was fun to change in the boy’s locker room as an adult and with no one around to call us gay.

As traveling performers, we’re always the away team. We never have the home court advantage. But with so many miles under our belt, we’re accustomed to performing in all kinds of spaces, ranging from god-awful to endurable.

The audience was divided into two lengths of bleachers facing the basketball court. This might be good for watching a game, but it’s bad for skits that have, as we say in the industry, blocking. We had no choice but to perform up and down the court, always not facing half the crowd no matter which way we turned. It brought to mind images of English Redcoat columns being attacked on both flanks by colonial revolutionaries. It was exactly like nightmares that I actually had in high school.

That said, we were happy to be the entertainment for an event dedicated to such a good cause. And to get money.

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