The time has come – tonight ladies and gents I will be disembarking to Thailand!
I can’t wait!
Woooo..
At 21:35 this evening my flight will be departing Heathrow Airport and heading for Bangkok International!
Yay me!
I have shaved my head in preparation of my finding my inner Buddha and fingers crossed I’ll come back a changed man!
See you in two weeks I guess.
Afternoon all,
At last my work internet has allowed me to bypass the firewall and I can access my blog again! Wooo!
Anywhoo – moving on…(to my plays)
Middle performance of Alone last night – it was… ok. Everyone else said it was better than the first night but me.. well I disagree a bit. I didnt walk off very happy with my performance. I dunno why – it just took me a while to find the character, y’know? Couldnt find the centre.. :o/
I got there eventually – but it really felt forced for me. Not natural.
Admittedly the character I play is a complete loon and I can get away with a fair bit physically.. but vocally I didnt think I sounded like him y’know? Oh I dunno.. so yeah – everyone said it was cool. So I’m just gonna have to take their word on it I guess… and then kick the crap out of it on Saturday night! :o)
Tonight however is the final showing of Mum’s Legs.
Every night its gone down REALLY well with the crowds and I’m hoping tonight will not be any different. Jim and I are gonna go for the big laughs so fingers crossed it’ll be awesome.
I’m sure I’ll tell you about it later.
Right – its gone midnight and I’m shattered.
Tonight was the first of the two ‘middle performances’ and if I dont mind saying so myself – it went brilliantly. Remember how I said the first night was hard because we got all that laughter? Well tonight we were ready for it..
BUT – in doing that – I became very aware of how funny some of the lines actually are.. and TWICE I very nearly corpsed.. I didnt.. but I nearly did.
So yeah – Jim and I got the lion’s share of the laughs tonight – we’re really nailing it timing wise now.. Hehehe..
Ooo… Let me explain ‘middle performances’ – basically:
On the First Night: Everyone’s excited and nervous, the energy is high and everyone want so to get it right. Everryone wants to succeed! So they turn that nervous energy into passion and they blitz it. Wonderful.
On the Last Night: Everyone’s excited and thrilled because ITS THE LAST NIGHT! ..and everyone wants to make it the best ever and the excitement and the energy are almost unbearable.. but the same thing happens – the energy gets used on stage and you end up with some smashing performances.
BUT – the nights in between.. the “Middle Nights” – they’re always tough.
You’ve done it once, it went well.. you’re confident.. you can do it again.. you’ll be fine. Complacency sneaks in through the back door and the next thing you know you’re fluffing lines left right and centre and the whole thing falls apart..
FORTUNATELY! That didnt happen tonight – everyone was so nervous BECAUSE it was a ‘middle night’ – that they didnt get over confident and they didnt get complacent and it all went spectacularly well!
So yeah.. there you go – Tomorrow I’m doing the ‘middle performance’ of Alone and then Friday is the final Mum’s Legs.. Saturday is the final Alone and then after THAT – I think we’re all going for a big Curry!
Which should be interesting considering I’m detoxing at the moment! Ah well…
On that note actually I’d like to mention that today I used the next hole along in my belt!
Wooo! The weight is just falling off!
I really must hit the sack now because I am knackered.
Night all – chat tomorrow no doubt.
( less than a week to go til Thailand! )
First Night (Take Two)
Today was tough at work – started at 7am and had to have my work complete by 2pm.
DAMMIT!
BUT – I did manage to get out of work ON time and I made it to The Cornerhouse in time for tonight’s premiere of ‘Alone’.
It went really really well, my mate Louisa came to see it and she said it was cool… and that’s all I’m gonna say really –
Basically I got a LOT of compliments tonight about my play and also my range..
Alone is a completely different style of play than Mums Legs and everyone was really impressed.. but as I said – I’m NOT going to go on about it!
I’m taking my vidjo camera with me tomorrow and hopefully get some good footage that I might post on YouTube or something.. So yeah!
I’ll let you know!
Ooo.. one more thing:
ONE WEEK ‘TIL THAILAND BABY YEAH!
Well – first night all done!
(and I’m STILL detoxing! I had some Almonds earlier – NICE )
Anywhooo…!
Mum’s Legs had its Premiere this evening at the Cornerhouse in Surbiton.
It went down very well indeed! We (Jim and I) easily got the most laughs of the evening!
In fact – it actually threw us at one point! We werent expecting them – I mean we knew we’d get them at some point but not straight off the bat and also – y’know, you dont get that in rehearsal.. so yeah – when the first laugh came – I nearly cracked myself!
Thank God I didnt.. but I nearly did.. I felt it y’know? But then – once we’d settled into the rhythm of the piece we managed to milk it a bit more.. trying to keep the whole thing as deadpan as possible y’know? ..and some of it really worked!
The writer of the piece was there tonight too – he was very complimentary. .. Our Director was chuffed with it too.
So yeah – it wasn’t perfect – I think it’ll be better on Wednesday night and then fantastic on Friday night.
But! Mustn’t think about that now! I’ve got to open Alone tomorrow night! Oooer! Should be good – I’m quite lookin forward to it actually.. its a bit bleak and nowhere near as funny.. but its still equally as challenging as an actor.. y’know? So yeah – got that to come..
OO ooo! While I remember –
So I’m standing there chatting away to the Director and this woman comes up to me and says –
“Where did you get the legs?” (we have to prosthetic legs on stage with us the whole time)
I begin to explain and then Andy (the Director), butts in, carries on the story and then says:
“Yeah.. they belong to a bloke called Dave, he’s coming on Wednesday night and he’s bringing some friend from his amputee group…”
WHAT?!
Brilliant.. Got THAT to look forward to! Hopefully they won’t be offended by any of it!
____
Anyway – must get to bed now – gotta be at work bright and early to keep things sweet with the boss. We had words today.. I think we understand each other – things are just a bit tender between us at the moment y’know?
So yeah – must dash – need bed.
Speak soon.
Today I have NO PLANS.
Which is fab.
I’m shattered though. Been working my balls off all week at work during the day and then in the evenings going straight to rehearsals!
Checkout www.thecornerhouse.org and you’ll see what I’m involved in.. I’m starring in ‘Mum’s Legs’ and ‘Alone’ – they’re going really well and I can’t wait to get them over and done with.
The first show is Monday. Last night we tech’ed for Mum’s Legs and on Sunday night we’re tech’ing Alone. I’m really excited about it.
Thing is though – the last show is on Saturday 13th May. Then I’ve got Sunday to chillout. Monday/Tuesday at work and THEN Tuesday night I fly to Thailand!
WOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
So yeah..
I nearly quit my job today.
I got REALLY fed up with my boss taking me for granted. I was so close to just telling him to stick it.
I really surprised myself actually.
I’m really not that kind of person at all but for some reason today he really got to me Dammit!
Basically, the first week of every month we sort out the accounts for the previous month. It takes five days (at best). We’re given four and a half.
So this week, not only have we lost a day due to the Bank Holiday but also when I turn up to work Tuesday morning my boss doesn’t even give me a chance to tackle my monthlies.
He’s like: “James, I’ve got two jobs that need doing. One to be done for tonight and one for tomorrow…”
Needless to say, I’m STILL working on these two jobs and I’m yet to even start my monthlies! I mean.. what’s that about?!
And the most annoying thing is – he expects me/us (the other folk in the office) to work earlier/later to get it done.
No.
He doesnt expect..
He takes it for granted that that is what we will do.
And THAT hacks me off…
So yeah – I didnt quit. But I’m not enjoying work at the moment…
Think I might start looking around again.. or failing that – what’s to stop me staying in Thailand?
I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t thought about it…
I woke up at 5am.
I’m going to be on the 6:38 train.
Workin from 7:30 through til 18.00.
18.38 catch the train to Kingston.
19:30 start rehearsals.
Dudes.
I’m knackered.
Hey, how you doing?
I’m flying to Koh Samui, Thailand in two weeks time for a seven day ‘Clean-Me-Out’ detox sesh…
See here: The Spa Samui
16th – 28th of May I’ll be there and today is day one of my two week ‘Pre-Cleanse’, which they advise you do before you arrive at the Spa. The first part of this involves something known as a ‘Liver Flush Drink’
Nice huh? …Jeez – man this is gonna be HARD.
whatleydude (WP) 