Day 3
I slept in since I went to bed pretty late the night before. When I had woken up (Around 11am), a friend of mine in another comedy group from My City which were all in Chicago for the festival had texted me to let me know that he and the others were going for breakfast and I was welcomed to join them.
I left the hotel and walked all the way to the apartment they were staying at by Navy Pier.
Once inside, they were rehearsing their show for the night. It was hilarious and funny!
We ended up at a famous hot dog joint for breakfast/lunch. They were pretty damn good hot dogs. Inside, there was all this old memorabilia. A car, a Tommy gun, and even Roosevelt's Badge. The craziest thing about the place had to of been the milkshake my friend ordered. It was apparently cake flavored. In reality, it ended up being an actual piece of cake dumped into the milkshake. It wasn't stirred up or anything...
I had two options. I could have gone on my own and gone to a museum or something like that or walk around with my friends and do something very similar to what I had done the day before. However, knowing that they had arrived to Chicago only the night before and did not have a lot of time to do too much site seeing, I joined them and became a tour guide of sorts.
We went back to the John Hancock Observatory. According to my tour guide, in 1981 (the year I was born!) a guy by the name of "Spider Man Dan" climber up the side of the building. In a Spiderman Suit. Using suction cups. Apparently, the Chicago Fire Department tried to get him down but hosing him down with water!. Needless to say, he made it to the top.
After the Observatory, we walked along the water. It was really nice outside and the water looked so peaceful.
Around 3:30pm, I had to jet back to my hotel, grab my stuff and get a ride to the venue our show was being held at. The venue was in a mall all the way in the suburb of Shaumberg (about 40 minutes drive away).
I got to meet the regular performers at the club and they were awesoem people. This one hilarious guy looked like the love child of Will Ferrall and Seth Rogen.
We had two shows that night. The first one was ok but we just needed to get a feeling for our surroundings. The second show rocked! We were all on top and totally killed the show and got a lot of laughs. It was such a great feeling after travelling all this way.
After the show, a fellow improvisor and myself hitched a ride over to this theatre called IO for their weekly Improv Jam. It was basically a drunken free for all! I jumped up a few times and had a blast performing with total strangers.
We finished up there by 1:30am and walked on over to the Annoyance Theatre for one of the official after parties of the festival but again, I just missed out as the place was shutting down. I was really looking forward to meeting a lot of people at the parties but so far I missed out every night I was there.
Day 4
Slept in again. Met up with a fellow improvisor and grabbed a quick bite before I went to a workshop I had signed up for in advance. It as really interesting and long (4 hours!) except the leaders style was to swear every second. It was fucking intense.
By the time the workshop ended, it was dinner time, so I met up with the guys I had breakfast the night before, and the leader of my improv group came to join us as well.
After dinner, my leader and I really wanted to catch another show, so we headed to Clark street to find a bus to the venue. We kept walking but couldn't find any stops. It was so weird, there were buses on the other side of the street, so why no bus stops on this side?? Four blocks later, I realized the street was a one way street going the opposite direction...
This led to probably one of the coolest random things of the trip. We decide to go down the next cross street to the street one block East. As we're walking down, my leader turns and says "I don't know if you would care or not but that building next to you it where they filmed the last scene in the Blue Brothers movie".
The Blue Brothers movie is my all time favorite movie and Ira and I joked about the fact that the movie took place in Chicago and how I would probably find familiar places in the movie. And I did! So I took a picture right before the guard came and told us it was illegal to take pictures because it was a government building.
We finally made it to the bus stop but got on the wrong bus. The bus we got on did not go to where we wanted to but the bus driver told us the one ahead of us did. Just as I was about to get off he says not to worry, he'll "Catch up to" the other bus.
We followed the other bus for about 8 blocks before it got away, ha ha. So, off we went and shortly after came the right but and we got to our show just in time.
At the venue, as we waited for the show to begin, there was really good music playing. They had on Naked Eyes by Luscious Jackson, which I hadn't of heard since high school! Another good song was about to play, but they skipped it and I said out loud "Aw! that's a good song!". Then the person next to me said something in agreement. I turn to look over and it's this really cute girl. We ended up chatting for a few minutes before the show.
The show was great. Hallway through, I glanced to my left and noticed an arm around the really cute girl. When the light came on at then end of the show, I realized that arm belonged to another girl. This would not be the first time I flirted with a lesbian and had no idea...
The show ended just in time to head over to the final official after party of the festival. Finally, I got to make it to one!
I ended up chatting to tons of poeple from all over. I wasn't making an effort to really talk to any girls specifically. I knew I had to get up super early the next day and couldnt' stay out that late to begin with. However, the most itneresting part of the night had to of been when I pssed by a girl and a much older guy adn she said to me "does he look like he could eb y husband?" or somethign weird like that. She was pretty drunk and the guy, who ended up being one of the organizers, had explained to me that he passed by that girl who was being hit on by a sleazy guy and she grabbed the organizer guy and pretended he was her husband.
Then this happened:
The organizer guy: "so are we going to go have sex now?" (being completely serious.)
Cute Girl (to me): "this is how we roll in Chicago" (as if saying it's a big joke since I could tell she was not interested at all)
Elwood: "It's ok, we roll a certain way in My City a well"
Cute Girl: "Oh? Whats that?"
Elwood: "Threesomes" (it's true)
Her response was a gasp and she pushed me (playfully, I think) into a stool, and she stormed off (to the bathroom I think).
Not much more exciting went down that night and off to bed I went.
Day 5
Got up early, grabbed a flight home and that was the end of Chicago.
I definitely had a great time and I definitely needed it to stop worrying about all the shit I've been worrying about recently. Besides spring is here and summer is just around the corner! I have a feeling this well be The Summer of Elwood.
No comments:
Post a Comment