On the Road...Again!

Okay...Here's another one. Enjoy.

2) Port Elgin

Port Elgin was my last stop as a member of the Second City National Touring Company.

I wrote a lengthy entry about the Second City on one of my other blogs…which I’m sure I’ll pilfer and put up on this one, some day. For this reason, I won’t delve into my time at Second City very much, here. It’s enough to say that, while I had a terrific time as a member of that prestigious comedy company, the fit wasn’t quite right, and we ended up parting ways.

I liken the Second City to the ex-girlfriend, that you love very, very much, but who you know you just can’t, and shouldn’t, be with right now.

GIT IN THE VAN!

But I met some pretty fucking good friends, while I was there. And I have some pretty incredible memories. This is just one of them.

On this particular trip, I didn’t start out in the greatest of moods. It might have been the right time for me to leave the company, but that didn’t stop me from feeling sad and pissy.

But it’s hard to maintain a disposition like that, when you’re surrounded by such great pals. And Rummy, Matt, Lauren, Derek, and Lesley are, to this day, great fucking pals.

And then there’s Smokey.

He's another one of those people that I honestly couldn’t do justice to without writing a library's worth of words.

Smokey’s real name is Jim, too. When he joined the Tourco, there were already two Jims and a James. Nug and I decided that we needed to give him a nickname, so we applied my theory that all great nicknames come from bare knuckle boxers, from the 1890’s.

We christened him “Smoke Stack”. It was later shortened to “Smokey”. He's one of those people who is so good that you feel that he needs to be shared with the whole wide world.

Everyone has those quirks, habits, and characteristics that can get on your nerves, after a while…except Smokey. He’s one of those friends who, when you’re hanging out with him, you feel like you’re at the exact place that you’re supposed to be at that exact moment.

He’s the type of guy that never has to do another nice thing as long as he lives. And you’d still take a bullet for him, because you just couldn’t picture living in a world without him.

Anyway…enough of the mushy shit…you get it. Smokey’s a good friend. On with the story.

Now, I’m not sure if these guys all conspired to make my last tour with them memorable. But that’s exactly what they did. To a person, they made me feel like a million bucks, and reminded me exactly why I loved working and hanging out with them. It started with a terrific show, that ended in a standing ovation.

And followed with an epic celebration.

One of the things you get pretty used to, when you’re in the Second City, is drinking. You tip the wrist A LOT at the Second City. And this night was no exception. We started out in one of the hotel rooms, but the festivities quickly spilled out into the Hotel Bar.

Where there was Karaoke.

Nothing is more appealing to a drunken actor than Karaoke. Hand an actor a microphone on an average day, and they’ll leap into the spotlight and start belting. But on this night, we became Karaoke legends! The assualt was bookended by two fantastic performances: Derek’s soulful spoken rendition of “Dude Looks Like a Lady”, and Lauren’s weepingly funny “Total Eclipse of the Heart”…ala Old School. Apparently the Karaoke Lady hadn’t seen the movie. She placed a shocked hand on the volume knob every time Lauren uttered “fuck”. One of the regulars even asked we were "Karaoke Ringers".

Does such a thing exist?

Then we wandered down to the beach. I think it was Rummy who found the swing-set. We spent the next hour or so pendulating through the sky, and swapping stories of all the places we’d been and trouble we had gotten ourselves into.

On the walk back to the hotel, Matt and Smokey improvised a sketch involving the inn’s vending machines. I had to sit by the side of the road for a while…weak with laughter.

I was truly sent off in style.

The Second City can be a ridiculously stressful place to perform. There wasn’t a second that I spent on that stage where I didn’t feel eyes watching me, judging me, and testing my skill and resources.

But there also wasn’t a second where I didn’t feel valued and loved by the people I was working with.

I wouldn’t trade my time there for all the sapphires in Sri Lanka.

I’ll try to crank out another one of these tomorrow.


Jim Out.