The Hype Continues: Our First Adventure to Cleveland
The Cellar Dwellers have spent the last few months touring around the area promoting our "greatest hits" show, "A Thousand Rays of Hype." So far it's been a blast, reliving some of the best skits we've written over the past two years while reaching out to some new audiences. Last night was a completely new experience for us: we performed our first show in the city of Cleveland.
The Dwellers have had a connection to Cleveland for a while now; both Larry and Joe attended the Second City Improv School when it was there, and currently three other Dwellers are students at the Cleveland Improv Institute. But we never got around to doing a show there before... and so here we are, doing two shows in a row (the next performance is Saturday, Feb 11) at The Hermit Club, in Cleveland. While I love performing in Beaver County, I always look forward to performing abroad for one reason: the road trips.
This time around, we road in James' new car, the Maroon Zoom (yeah, it's a lame name... I tell him all of the time). I was shoved in the back, riding between Ben and Larry. The plan was to ride up on the turnpike and enjoy the Pens game, and everything was going according to said plan until we hit the Ohio border. Suddenly the soothing color commentary of Phil Bourque turned into a weird polka station. For as much as I loathe Ohio sometimes (inspect your cars for Pete's sake!), I am always in awe of their amazing roads and their cheap gas. The rumbling and shaking of the Maroon Zoom dissipated as soon as we crossed that ambiguous state border, and I knew I was in O-Dot Country.
I still have to admire all of the members of my troupe who have made the trek to Cleveland for weekly improv classes. That drive just seems to take forever (when in fact it takes about two and a half hours), then again maybe it just feels that way when you are sandwiched between two dudes. None of us have problems keeping things interesting. We passed the time by eating candy (or in James' case, being fed candy by Joe) and trying to find sweet game demos on our cell phones. I highly recommend Pro Curling on the Verizon network. I played that game for a good twenty minutes, then the cell phone got too hot and I had to quit.
There are two rest stops of interest between home and Cleveland. We stopped at the one that sucks. It basically consisted of a McDonalds with a limited dollar menu and gift shop that sells handbells with "Ohio" printed on them. Two double cheeseburgers later, we were back on the road, passing the good rest stop which features Starbucks, Au Bon Pain, and clean floors.
When I first entered the Hermit Club (about two hours after we hit that rest stop) I was incredibly impressed with its atmosphere. I would recommend people come to our show just to see the amazing surroundings! The Club was established over 100 years ago as a hangout for artists, actors and musicians. It's architecture is reminiscent of an old English pub, and has more ambiance than a boat ride on the Nile. The theater itself is on the second floor, above the dining room and bar area. It was the first time we had ever performed on the second floor of a building, and in a room that has a huge fireplace in it!
We immediately began setting up our equipment and arranging the stage lights. We would be working with a new tech person, so we had to run portions of the show for her (she ran the lights and sound perfectly, of course). Once we had the place ready for comedy, the group dispersed shortly. Some Dwellers took smoke breaks, others studied lines or got changed... Dave and I decided to run to Starbucks. I hadn't had coffee all day, and I had been chomping at the bit to take a trip for Seattle's best (and no, Seattle's best isn't Seattle's Best.)
At 7:15 Dave and I began our run to Starbucks, which we thought was across the street. Turns out it was a block away, and we had to take a skyway to get there. The Hermit Club is located right behind the State Theater (one of the large theater/opera houses in the city), and apparently a matinee show was just letting out. We found ourselves struggling to make our way through the crowds in the narrow air walk, like salmon trying to make their way upstream. Once we emerged from the bustling hall, we found ourselves in the lobby of the now-empty State Theater. We shuffled across the marble and out the double doors leading to one of the main avenues of the city. There, across the four lane road, was our Valhalla, that lovely mermaid and her delicious black life force. We darted through traffic and rain, and claimed sanctuary inside. Two medium coffees with cream, two red eyes (one with hazelnut) and a doubleshot in a can later and we were ready to make the journey back. Unfortunately, Dave didn't see the step outside of Starbucks and nearly lost our entire order (thanks to his cat-like reflexes, he just burned his hands really bad). It was already 7:30, the doors to the theater would be opening in a matter of minutes and I still wasn't changed for the show. We ran, darting through the straggles who were still filing out of the opera house. Coffee was leaping out of the containers like a hot spring. When we got out of the air walk, our faces met the sting of hail. It was pouring down ice! The race began again, and now I was being pelted by both hot liquid and ice at the same time... I felt temperate about the whole thing.
Cleveland was in the middle of a crazy storm last night... luckily most of the predictions were terribly off. We were told there was supposed to be 6-8 inches, then 2-4 inches, and in the end there was just alot of ice and rain.
The show itself went swimmingly, and we laid the groundwork (and word of mouth) for future shows there. Afterwards we went to Steak n' Shake to celebrate, and headed home... tired and filled with beef. Actually, I had six beef patties yesterday (if you add the McDonalds and the Steak n Shake together) and about two and a half cups of coffee... that's about it. The ride home consisted of James and I trying to decide if I was smarter than my iBook's chess program (which trounced me... and then confused me).
And so we got back around two in the morning, a whole twelve hours after we left. I can't wait to do it again next week.
Posted by MikeRubino at February 5, 2006 2:02 PM | TrackBack