Rockin out at the Fringe Caravan on the Mall
Today was a little nuts, in theme with the rest of the festival itinerary thus far. I’m so happy that things are calming down HUGELY as of tomorrow, as despite the fact the kids are travelling with me, these past few days have been so busy that we’ve hardly had any time together. I MISS THEM! Tomorrow is all about them, baby and I truly cannot wait. Hence, I am blogging right now before bed-time. No work tomoz! (Well, okay, one gig at Gluttony in the early evening, but I may well bring them along as my roadies.)
Today’s highlights:
– doing the Fringe Caravan stage again, where my improv song was for a woman who was a “decor consultant” and her partner, a “fitter and turner”, neither of which I still have any inkling as to what they actually entail). I have to say, I thought my brain was particularly slow on this one. The song was okay, but I think sleep deprivation plus the shocking heat of late have seriously stalled my synapses somewhat. No excuses – except for those ones I just wrote 😉 – but yes. Upward and onward!
– being part of the fabulous “Theatresports: Clash of the Titans!” show. The show itself was just fantastic (I’ll be doing a number more of these throughout the fringe, woohoo!). I LOVED, LOVED, LOVED my team, which is a huge relief as I literally walked straight from the Fringe Caravan into the greenroom for the improv show to meet my team-mates for the very first time. Such top guys, so much fun! Our scenes included a dentist cracking onto an abscess-riddled patient in Rockhampton, a historical journey through time set in the Bermuda Triangle concluding with me being sacrificed in a Mayan ritual, improvising a musical “fly on the wall” account of K-Rudd and Julia’s secret love affair and re-enacting the pre-wedding jitters of a highly cheery audience member. We came in second place, the winners being the incredible Sound and Furys direct from LA. These guys are hilarious and they have a fringe show at Gluttony which I’ve only heard good things about!
At some point I texted my friend Jade to beg for an afternoon stop-in at her place for a little “recovery nap”. She was not only obliging, but proceeded to pick up some solid cardboard, fix up the easel and sort out a smoother running plan for tonight’s “Unexpected” show. (Anybody who saw the gong-show that was my opening night’s final portion will appreciate why that was so very needed!)
My dear friend Jade doing what bodge-job Jenny never would: actually LEVELING the easel!
This is not the only reason I love her. She also has rad fingernails.
Fringalicious fingernails!
Then, it was off to the Light Hotel for my show!
My dressing room has pokies in it. Yes. Pokies. I'll bet even Gaga can't make that happen.
Nearly packed house, GORGEOUS audience and things ran much more smoothly tonight, so so happy!
I floated off to do a guest cabaret spot at La Boheme; I thought I’d do a backing CD of one of the songs from my show, but then the wondrous pianist (oh goodness, his name??!?!) said he was happy to play it if I could just write out the chord chart. So I hopped to, he hopped in and together we hopped onstage and made sweet musical moments. It’s a song I’ve been performing for so long, but never to a live accompanist. It brought out something so different in the piece, I felt for a moment I was performing some bizarre brand of gothic vaudeville. SO FUN.
Then I traipsed over to Radio Adelaide for an interview on Radio Notes, where I was stunned into a smiling fit of shock upon having presenter John Murch kick off our interview by hitting “play” on an interview he’d done that very afternoon with the MAYOR OF SALISBURY about the SONG I IMPROVISED FOR HER LAST NIGHT! Can you believe that?!!!
He also showed me this nugget of jawsome; I’d heard through twitter that my show had been included in this feature but had yet to actually see it:
Sunday Mail lift-out: the top 24 shows to see in 24 days at Adelaide Fringe
Stoked and flattered. Mostly stoked. No, flattered. Ummm...it's a tie.
Also got this post on my Facebook wall…
The beautiful post that made my night shinier.
And found out that my next “Unexpected” show at the Fringe is 7 seats away from SOLD OUT. Oh my.
So happy.
As much as I’m piffling on about how brilliant everything is and tra la la, let me also say for the record that on the down-side:
– I have been pining for my kids so severely. Did I already write that? Yes? Well there you go. I feel bad because I know that it’s tough on them to have me being so busy right upfront of the trip and besides that, I just WANT TO BE WITH THEM! I adore them (and the nature of being separated from your pint-sized brood makes you blind to their challenging aspects). But, as I said to Miss 9 yesterday, at least we’re getting the hard yards out of the way. The rest of the fest (with the exception of one or two days) should be much more chilled with time to actually hang out and enjoy some Adelaide kids-style!
– I have the biggest blister of my life on my little toe right now and my back hurts.
G’night! xxx