Got Sore and Saw a Local Play
10/14/2

Not the most restful weekend, but packed with stuff.

Friday, when I got home, I worked out. It was back day so I killed my lil� lats. Then we ate at Qdoba and went to play cards & dominos with the oldsters at church. The college age was supposed to show up, but only Aisai and I did out of our group.

My Qdoba was much better than the last two times. At first Qdoba was really good, then it was kinda lame, now it�s good again. And I know the secret! The first time, I got the poorly named chicken pesto burrito (no, it has no real pesto in it, thank goodness). Then I got some other signature burrito. And lately I�ve been getting either a steak or chicken and picking everything I get on it. Like chicken burrito with black beans, cilantro rice, habanero sauce, and a little cheese. That doesn�t end up being that good really. This time however, I saw the burritos being made for the people in front of us and asked what they were. Beef Fajita burritos. I got chicken fajita. Very good. Next time I need to remember to get some lettuce in there so get me some crunch.

Playing cards was fine. First it was chickenfoot (a domino game) with the old gals. I�m just now coming around to the way to win at chickenfoot. After a few hands, the Deck boys showed up. They�re teenagers and I had brought the medicine ball, only 10 lbs, just in case some more athletic guys showed up. Well, not only did I really kill my back (but not in a bad way) but I jammed my pinkies on the ball several times. Left pinkie got bent back twice. My right pinkie got jammed bigtime. I was swollen and red for the rest of the weekend. After some exhaustion via the medicine ball, I taught the Deck�s and Mr. Brown how to play Nine Hole Golf (a card game). The Decks really liked it and no one really had a problem with the Spiderman cards (which some people have difficulty determining what�s a 4 and what�s a J).

Saturday, we woke, we shopped, and then we went to Christine�s play. Christine initially auditioned for the role of Jack�s Mother in Jack And The Magic Beans. Chris would have done a better job that the adult who played the role. There were six cast members of the Children�s Fantasy Playhouse which weren�t kids. Jack�s Mom was one, and could have been replaced with a more talented youth easily. The Giant, sure, needed the huge guy, and the old woman was good.

My Review:

The writing is what really holds this play back. The first half almost seems to be written by a different person than the second half. It lacks the quality of comedic elements and really just feels like it�s stalling around. Unfortunately, this is the half that Christine is in as Village Woman #2. Unfortunately, it�s not a very challenging role. The first half also has many unneeded characters which are given names. Scarecrowboy being the most obvious. I told Aisai that if I was touching up the script, I�d call him Village Idiot, but still keep him dressed as a scarecrow. It�d honestly make more sense. There was also a horribly written segment where the Shefiff (if my program was correct this was the office of the local police authority) is talking to the Troll Wearing Women�s Shoes (actually just Troll, but hey, they were women�s shoes and it showed, Chester) and the Giant Chicken running around through the audience. No one heard a word that the characters on the stage said since, hey, there�s a Giant Chicken running around, and then later sitting down and pretending to read the program. At this point, my thoughts on the Chicken was that he needed some pain infliction.

The most horrible thing in the play was Miss Clumsywhatever (almost her name, really). I guess I just don�t subscribe to the idea that a person talking really fast and allegedly making no sense is funny. Especially after the third minute long episode of their lame dialog. If I were to rewrite this, I think I�d incorporate her getting disemboweled later. I know that a certain demographic (me) would like that.

Now, the second act was very good, with the exception of the dancing cow segment, which was actually very well done, but embarrassingly freakish, and the final fight scene. If your weakness is action scenes, perhaps they should be much shorter. However, the chicken gained the ability to speak and ham it up. Yes, hamming it up is a good thing since it has much more humor than, oh, your crap script. The housekeeper hammed in moderation like a pro. The butler hammed in a professional manner also. The chicken was Lord Of The Ham. I still wanted to hurt the cow though.

At the intermission, I hated the thing. I said to Aisai, �I thought this was a real script and not some local crap.� Aisai made a face that meant �Fhuurr!� which she shouldn�t make in public really (not ladylike). But the second act made me forget that what would make for the most entertainment value would be bum rushing the chatterbox character and smashing her to the ground.

I was thinking, �What would Johnny Knoxville do in a situation like this?�

WWJKD?