Monday, December 16, 2013

12/13/2013-12/15/2013: Boise, ID

Our very last city of the year.  Wow.

What a year this has been too - lots of goods and very few bads (which is always a nice thing).

Boise went as most of our quick stops do - didn't see too much since its was cold and we were working most of the time.  BUT we did have a pot-luck/holiday party on Saturday since we were staying at a Towne Place Suites - which has FULL kitchens - I mean FULL kitchens with ovens and everything!  It was so nice to try what everyone had made - and there was A LOT of food to be tried too.  I gotta say - when this show ends - I think we should all band together and start a food truck because - damn….SO GOOD!

The other nice thing about Boise is that my Aunt and Uncle and Cousin live there - so they got to come and see the show and then we got to go out to dinner one night as well.  I rarely get to see extended family so that was cool!



But now the best part - going home for the holidays! I can't wait!!  

Happy Holidays to all and see you in Key West on Jan 8th!

Friday, December 13, 2013

12/12/2013: Riverside, CA

Our last One Nighter of the year!  Woot Woot!

And it couldn't have been in a greater place - the audience here was awesome!  I love playing California - sad that we'll only have one more city here in the rest of the tour…

As with most One Nighters - didn't see much of the town.  BUT there was a Holiday Festival of Lights going on across the street from our hotel that I strolled by after our show got out.  They had some great decorations, carolers, food, even a reindeer that you could feed.  All very nice.  Finally getting me in the Holiday spirits!!!



But now we are flying to our last city of the year - Boise - which means that we have to say goodbye to our Bus Driver Mary (as we'll be getting a new bus when we come back).  Safe travels Mary!


Thursday, December 12, 2013

12/9/2013-12/11/2013: Santa Barbara/Carpinteria

The last golden day of the year.  While most of the cast were spending it on the beach - which I am not the biggest fan of actually… I was busily working all day on my Christmas Vlog (lol).  But I have to say that its nice to be done with all my filming for the year - and just have the show to worry about of these last few days.

We are playing Santa Barbara but staying in the little town of Carpinteria about 15 mins outside the city.  So of Santa Barbara - I saw very little other than the block that the theatre was on.  But it was a nice block.

Carpinteria is a beautiful, quiet little seaside California town though.  Very quaint - with a lot of little shops and restaurants around.  The walk over to the beaches is lovely - and the beaches (from a distance) looked very nice too - if thats your thing.  There really wasn't a lot going on while we were here though - just the shows to be honest.  And we're slowly getting our newbies into the full show - they should be 100% by the time our last show rolls around - which will be good since we're off for 3 weeks after that (lol).


Sunday, December 8, 2013

12/3/2013-12/8/2013: Thousand Oaks, CA

Our last long sit-down of the year.  But lots happened here so - it was good we had all this time.

Thousand Oaks itself seems very nice - but you really need a car to get around - also there really isn't a lot to do if you're not into hiking - but the landscape is BEAUTIFUL!  Its very near to Simi Valley which was the backdrop to all of the old Western movies shot back in the day.  Lots of Mountains and desert areas - but sooooo picturesque.  Definitely worth a drive if you're nearby.

The one brilliant find I made was this Indian restaurant called Karma that was in this little outdoor mall area near the hotel.  They had some of the best Indian food I've had in a long long while - and the selections they had for the lunch buffet were awesome!  And all for like $10.  Couldn't be beat - I went 2 days in a row.  But we also made a Trader Joe's stop when we got into town - so I was able to get some great nibble options for the hotel.  Some beets and cheese for a beet salad - and some great chicken and lentils for a chicken salad plus some heat up Indian food (love my Indian food) and other goodies too…love some Trader Joes!

Most bittersweetly exciting though - Stephen (our new Caveman), Jillian (our new Flapper) and Ryan (our new Lurch) arrived this week and started a heavy rehearsal schedule to get them mostly into the show by Sunday. Which they did!  Its fun to have some new excited blood in the show. But that meant we had to say goodbye to Aaron, Liz and Dan - which was awful.  Their last day was very hard - mostly because they weren't in the show - but just kinda had to watch it from off stage - which made the 2 show day very tearful and exhausting.

But their farewell blowout aka Dragapalooza USA was equally as wonderful. LOL.  Aaron and Dan went full drag out - and was joined by Amanda and Jake.  It was so much fun - a night not to be forgotten.


Thousand Oaks was also the hometown of Blair Anderson (Alice) - so we got to perform for HER family and friends this time around.  Her parents made this wonderful Brunch spread for us on Saturday .  It was to die for - so many good things.  AND in a surprise turn of events, my friend Jonathan Kim (from my Curious George tour) got to come and see the show - we haven't seen each other for almost 5 years now so that was AWESOME!  We also got a visit from our original Pugsley - Sam Primack and his mom. So nice to see them!  Thousand Oaks was really a city of reunions and torch passing for us.  Very emotional.

But our time is has come to end - just  a short nighttime drive to Santa Barbara tonight and then a FULL GOLDEN DAY tomorrow!


Tuesday, December 3, 2013

12/2/2013: Bakersfield, CA

Tonight was cool for 2 reasons.


A - Our stage manager decided to celebrate our 2 week stint in California by throwing an In N Out Party for the company during the company meeting today.  Burgers and fries for all.  Not bad.  I've had In N Out before and generally like them - I'm not one of those enthusiasts though who crave nothing but them though.  I guess you had to have grown up in Cali to be one of them - Its kinda reminds me of a Wendys…but still very good and the party was well appreciated.


B- Not only are we in Cali but we are also in Jesse Sharp's (Gomez) hometown.  So that was kinda cool to have his friends and family filling the audience.  The theatre was more arena-like than theatre-like so it was hard to gauge audience reaction during the show but Jesse says that everyone loved it - so yeah!

I didn't get to see much of the town as we left the next morning - BUT Bryan, Dan and I knocked out some more of the Level 7 expansion - leaving only ONE level to beat when we get to Thousand Oaks before Dan leaves.  Oh yeah - Meeting the new family members tomorrow - kinda exciting!

Sunday, December 1, 2013

11/28/2013-12/1/2013: Reno, NV

Our time in Reno started out with Thanksgiving.  I have to say that as Thanksgivings on the road go - this was a really nice one.

Several of the cast had signed up for a Turkey Trot to do in the early morning.  I had thought about it but then decided that I didn't need to pay someone $40 so I could run/walk 2 miles in the cold.  But they had a good time.  When the parade started, our company manager Deb, invited everyone who wanted to join up to her room for some light breakfast and Mimosas - which was perfect.  Next we all bussed over to Squaw Valley for the rest of the day.  If you've not been - Squaw Valley is a little ski resort area up in the mountains right on the NV/CA border.  It was very pretty and relaxing up there - and the diner buffet they set out was great.  After diner we had our final Secret Moses reveal - which was also a lot of fun as not many were able to guess their person right off the bat.  Then we broke out into some spontaneous caroling that lasted from the restaurant, down the side of the mountain to the fire pit in the main resort area.  Other diners joined in and we even getting 'requests' from some of the people staying at the resort.  It was a great night of togetherness.


Reno itself was like a smaller and sadder Vegas - which is funny since I think Reno developed first.  I walked around the Casino areas a bit - but unless you were gambling, there really wasn't much to see.  I did have diner one night at a place called Pho Country - which had some awesome Vietnamese food.  Definitely one to look for if your in downtown Reno.

Show-wise, all went well.  The theatre we were in was in this building that almost looked like an army bunker -and you had to descend underground to get to backstage -but once you were inside it was pretty cool.  The audiences were great - as were the locals.  And we were able to put up a real wall-tag here.  Our first in a while.  In fact, our first since Darcy (our former props person) left the show - so we had to elect a new tagger, which ended up being Galloway.  I think he did a great job too.

All in all - Reno was a nice stop - lots of shows so not much time to rest - but a great place to have Thanksgiving.  And I think the company left not having lost too much money either...