the Luckiest Man on the Planet

This past weekend, I had my last show at Second City, and a group of my friends came up just to see me and celebrate my being on stage...


It wasn’t a huge deal really, it was my final show in my final class of the basic improv program. It was basically the adult improv version of a piano recital. In the past, I’ve had other shows and would get on an early train, go up and do the show, and get on the train home like it was a normal day. But the support was huge for this last show. Subash and Kathy flew in from Pittsburgh, Hurl flew up from St. Louis, and Laura drove up from St. Louis. Kirsten and I joined her, a great old friend Stephanie met us there, and Kirsten put us up for the night so we could enjoy our time there. 2 of my cousins showed up for the show as well, I couldn’t believe all the support. Everyone seemed to have fun, so I’d like to think it was worth everyone’s trip.


We were a 9 person ensemble, and 3 days beforehand we lost 1 of us to a family emergency. The
weather was horrific, and most of us were late to our planned early arrival to rehearse a last minute new plan... which we didn’t have in our hands really until 20 minutes before the show. And of our remaining 8 players, 3 of us, including myself, were sick.


But we still kicked it in the ass and rocked the place. We played, I felt like we hadn’t at first, but after hearing everyone simply start with how they didn’t even have it in them to get up on stage, much less do it all without a script - and then watching the tape and seeing the laughs we got and the creation that occurred, it wasn’t bad at all... in fact, it went very well.


After, we hit the various bars around Second City, my friends took me to a handful of great places, and others joined us. We traveled down Wells and eventually ended up back downtown near our hotel to round off our night of many drinks. That night i think everyone slept well, and the next day we got up and had a great breakfast together after a quick walk across the street in a horrific -3’ wind. Chicago winters... bone chilling. After, the weekend was over, and we made our escape... almost. First, the hotel valets had to have an accident with Laura’s car and cause a few grand in damage. Luckily, two valets hit each other and they admitted it was all their fault, so things should be ok.


As we left, I caught Kirsten on tape, which apparently bothers her...