The show that was
absolutely never supposed to happen. There was no need
for it, wasn't gonna help my career, couldn't stand
alone without the first one which meant I had to do a
full hour - it was completely
unnecessary...
...that is if The
Journey was only about "making it". It's about
survival and I needed to do this show simply to
breathe again. This show healed me and kept me going -
and it all came from a rather "Pat Riley" moment in
Columbus the year before.
"I will
be back next year to premiere the
sequel."
Gulp. After a year
of acute depression in 2002 I decided to release
a DVD of "The Trintitrons" and have a party/show
in Columbus. I did two shows and it was so well
received that I just kinda blurted it out. Then I
turned off the TVs and thought "...fuck." Because as
I said, it just could not help my career any more
than "The Trinitrons" and I certainly wasn't making
money off of it. But I needed to feel it again.
I needed to feel that Columbus crowd of
friends and family support the show and I simply did
not care about my career. I did it for me. For the
absolute joy of doing it.
There
are so many little things about this show
I just love. The live fast-forward
makes me grin ear-to-ear and the set-up to
Spencer's "I was thinking of you!" line
was so effortless. This was such a joy to
write, perform and watch for me because
I truly love these characters as
completely seperate entities.
The
meat of this show is decidedly
dirtier than the first one and I
have to admit it's a bit "wincing" for me
watching now. It was completely true to
the characters though, and I held no
punches. I love that I even attempted
"Sleep, Baby Sleep" in a show like this
and of course "Lock The Taskbar" worked
perfectly. I really branched out this time
visually and it was a huge
challenge.
The
ending of course is 100% inside and if you
don't know "Jesus Christ Superstar"
completely meaningless. If this was a show
for my career, this would never have seen
the light of day. I personally, love
how it all comes together - the morph to
the outside shots and then ending with the
"classy" bit? Incredibly fun and
creative show for me. It was such a "bar
raiser" in terms of what I could pull off
and it was so nice to not have to worry
specifically about what the industry would
think.
It was received
well, but of course - I only performed it what, 4
times? It had no place for me career-wise whatsoever.
I made the 2nd DVD (as intricate as humanly
possible)... I mean just look at the covers of
the 2 discs:
I killed myself to
make these as professional as humanly possible. I gave
a few to potential managers and a publicist in 2003
and was so disheartened by the reactions it just
stunted me. "I don't manage stand-ups." It's
like, really? You don't see this as a bit more than a
stand-up routine? (sigh). I had no idea what to
do with these DVDs, but I always kill myself to
make top-notch shit, so I was glad the people
that did buy them ('round 35 a piece) enjoyed
that.
More than anything
this was the beginning of that fire inside me where
I was able to look at the material and
unabashedly say: "This is wayyyyy too good to not be
seen". I mean, I had that with T1, but the stuff
with Charlotte erased my self-worth to an extreme
degree. I would often watch these 2 shows back to back
and just shake my head - it was so overwhelmingly
clear to me that this concept, these characters, and
my ability to do every single facet
HAD A PLACE. I just had to keep
"falling up the stairs" and I would find that
place...
...and incredibly -
the next show's DVD is what made everything else
possible a couple years later. It's incredible story
how everything played a part...
