Winnipeg Fringe Updates
Hello! I am in Winnipeg! I have done four out of my eight performances of "Burning Brothels: Sex and Death in Nevada" so far and, as usual, I am getting small(ish) but appreciative audiences. The response has been great (both in terms of audience response during the show and comments made afterwards) and overall it's been fantastic for my general mood and well-being, even if it's not doing a whole lot yet for my bank account.
Some bizarre and/or awesome things that have happened:
1. Super fucked-up guy at my late night show, who was definitely engaged and paying attention but who would make inappropriately loud and weird responses, like "Ooooooh, homophobia." I initially opted to ignore him, but after another audience member actually yelled "shut up!" at him from across the room, I broke and said, "Yeah, it would be really nice if you could stop talking during my show."
And the guy, sounding 100 percent sincere, replied, "I'm trying! It's really hard!"
My tech finally had to throw him out, which was the right thing to do, because he was really distracting, but it meant she missed one of her cues, so that was another irritating side effect. Though I have to say that the thing I hated most about it was all of the well-meaning audience members who told me the next day how well I handled it. It was nice of them, but somehow it almost felt condescending. "I know I know," I wanted to say, "but did you like the show?!?!?!"
2. Someone left a gift for me with the box officers on opening night -- a brass plaque that says "bordello." I have no idea who or why. Mysterious. Intriguing.
3. A woman who wrote an article on the history of prostitution in Winnipeg came to my show, along with a guy who just a released a documentary on the same subject, and they introduced themselves to me after the show and said they loved it. That made me very happy. In general, I love audience members who appreciate the fact that my stories are well-researched and (to the best of my knowledge) accurate -- since, honestly, researching the show was a lot more work than writing it, and I had to cut some wonderful details that I couldn't verify.
I also wound up flyering a woman who told me she did walking tours about Winnipeg's naughty history and she was already planning to come to my show. So that was also awesome. Hooray!
4. I have a line in my show about having to look up Rock Hudson on Wikipedia. It got fantastic laughs in Fresno, and it's getting laughs here, but they're almost amused groans of disgust and disbelief. Apparently everyone in Winnipeg knows exactly who he is, and I've had to defend myself several times in conversations with people later on, saying, "No really! I watch old movies all the time! Yes, of course I've heard of Doris Day! Just... not him." I guess it's because none of his movies are in the top 100 or Oscar-nominated? Anyway. I feel shame.
Some bizarre and/or awesome things that have happened:
1. Super fucked-up guy at my late night show, who was definitely engaged and paying attention but who would make inappropriately loud and weird responses, like "Ooooooh, homophobia." I initially opted to ignore him, but after another audience member actually yelled "shut up!" at him from across the room, I broke and said, "Yeah, it would be really nice if you could stop talking during my show."
And the guy, sounding 100 percent sincere, replied, "I'm trying! It's really hard!"
My tech finally had to throw him out, which was the right thing to do, because he was really distracting, but it meant she missed one of her cues, so that was another irritating side effect. Though I have to say that the thing I hated most about it was all of the well-meaning audience members who told me the next day how well I handled it. It was nice of them, but somehow it almost felt condescending. "I know I know," I wanted to say, "but did you like the show?!?!?!"
2. Someone left a gift for me with the box officers on opening night -- a brass plaque that says "bordello." I have no idea who or why. Mysterious. Intriguing.
3. A woman who wrote an article on the history of prostitution in Winnipeg came to my show, along with a guy who just a released a documentary on the same subject, and they introduced themselves to me after the show and said they loved it. That made me very happy. In general, I love audience members who appreciate the fact that my stories are well-researched and (to the best of my knowledge) accurate -- since, honestly, researching the show was a lot more work than writing it, and I had to cut some wonderful details that I couldn't verify.
I also wound up flyering a woman who told me she did walking tours about Winnipeg's naughty history and she was already planning to come to my show. So that was also awesome. Hooray!
4. I have a line in my show about having to look up Rock Hudson on Wikipedia. It got fantastic laughs in Fresno, and it's getting laughs here, but they're almost amused groans of disgust and disbelief. Apparently everyone in Winnipeg knows exactly who he is, and I've had to defend myself several times in conversations with people later on, saying, "No really! I watch old movies all the time! Yes, of course I've heard of Doris Day! Just... not him." I guess it's because none of his movies are in the top 100 or Oscar-nominated? Anyway. I feel shame.