2/25/13-3/3/13: Appleton, WI

One might think that after spending a full week in Florida...in February...that having to be in Wisconsin for a week would have been a major disappointment.  But you'd be WRONG! Our week in Appleton, WI was both fun and exciting - and full of surprises both good and double sided.

The town of Appleton, to start with, (at least the downtown area where we were) was very cute and well put together.  There were lots of little shops and plenty of restaurants up and down College Ave (the main strip). I took a little sight seeing excursion with Julio to go see the Houdini Exhibit at the History Museum At The Castle - which was right up the road from where we were staying.  It was pretty cool - I have to say.  Modest, but very interactive with a lot of fun tidbits not only about his life but about his act and how it was done.  As I mentioned, there were a bunch of cool restaurants in our area as well, and on our last day in town I got to try out the Cozzy Corner - a Soul Food place.  Lots of character here - and great food...some of the best Fried Chicken this side of the Mason Dixon...plus they have a wall of Kool-Aid...so how can you go wrong... Right next to Cozzy was an amazing little coffee shop called Acoca - which had some pretty darn good milk shakes (I had an English Toffee Malt...I know right...)

The venue itself was HUGE - and fairly new, so it was very nice to perform in.  And the locals - both part of the show and in the town in general... - were incredibly nice.  They brought in some local fare one day and made us lunch on another - all from local meat markets and dairys.  The audiences seemed to really love the show as well - in fact we were visited by an audience member who saw us twice and brought us a gift basket.  To which we are all very thankful by the way (a very thoughtful gift basket - btw- which included a copy of the game Gloom! (one of my favorites - and very Addams Family appropriate)

On the down side -- the area was a bit icy from the snow they had before we arrived...and poor Keleen (our Morticia) took a spill and tore/strained some ligaments around her knee.  This means that she needs to stay off it for about 3 weeks (sadly).  The good news is that she will still be traveling with us instead of being sent home to heal...AND our superstudy, Lexie Dorset gets to go on as Morticia for a while.  I call her a superstudy because Keleen's accident happened about and hour and a half before curtain - giving Lexie about 40 minutes to have a put-in rehearsal before going on as one of the largest roles in the show (she sings 2 solos and dances 3 big dances). She went on without batting an eye - and you'd never know that she hadn't been going on since we started. 

Another fun thing I got to try out in Appleton was an Improv/RPG game I've been hankering to try called Fiasco.  Basically, the game helps the 3-5 players create and flush out a story that you might see in a Coen Brothers movie...you know where everyone has low morals, high aspirations and no impulse control.  Basically our game (Myself, Jesse, Amanda and Dan) followed 4 characters in a small town who were power and/or money hungry - and who mostly ended up getting killed by a bunch of runaway poisonous snakes.  It was hilarious and definitely a game I want to try again soon...

Well, our time in WI has come to an end sadly - now we are off to lovely city of Dayton - where, hopefully, they won't be offended by all the OH jokes we make...