My Kind of Town

My Kind of Town

I went back to Chicago two weekends ago to perform at the Chicago Really Short Film Festival. I was super pumped to go back and see the city that I love. I am beginning to like L.A. more and more, but this city cannot compare to Chi-town.

I took the Blue line from O’Hare to meet my friend Patel at her place so that we could rehearse. Even though I haven’t seen her in a couple of months, we got right back into the groove of creating together. Since we have performed almost all of the sketches numerous times, we really didn’t have to rehearse that long. We did include one brand new sketch that we had to go over and I can’t describe the feeling when you are with someone that makes everything you say better and you never feel quite as good performing as you do when you are with her.

After rehearsal I went back to my sister’s place. I got to see her new ride and she took my by the place that she is buying. I am really proud of her. She is so much more grown-up than I am. She has a steady, relatively high-paying job, and she is about to buy her first place. Not bad for a 27 year old. We always have a pretty good time together, except that we can drive each other crazy in no time flat. We hung out and then went to bed. She had to work in the morning, so I had nothing to do all day. Let me tell you, it was great. I slept really late and then just watched TV. She has cable so there were plenty of movies to watch. She came home and the plan was that we were going to go to a nice restaurant for dinner. Right when she got home, she got a call from her friend that lives down the street from her. He had locked himself out of his apartment again, and needed her to drive him to where his landlord was so he could get a spare key. The landlord was way up on the North side, so we had to sit in traffic, get the key, then sit in traffic on the way home. We didn’t get to the restaurant until close to 8:30, and then for some reason we didn’t get seated right away. I am positive that the way I dress has an impact on how I get treated. Maybe it is my imagination, but it seems like when we go to fancy places I kind of get the cold shoulder. I might just be paranoid, or the whole world is against me. We had a nice dinner and then went back home to sleep.

I got up on Friday and took the train to my former roommate, Elvis’s place. The red line goes right by Wrigley Field and it was really cool to see it again. Elvis was in work mode since she is one of the creators and organizers of the Film Festival. She had a ton of stuff to do, but I jumped in and helped her out. It was awesome to see her and her cat Presley. We had a fun time together and it made the work go by quickly.

Friday night, I went to see my friends perform a show called the Dollar Store. It is a really neat concept created by Patel’s boyfriend, Buchanan. He goes to a Dollar Store and buys some crap for a dollar and then gives it to artists to create a piece inspired by the item they were given. The piece could be anything at all. A story, a performance piece, a song, a character monologue, anything. The place was packed and it was a really great show. I was kind of jealous that my friends were doing cool things without me since I moved, but I knew that was going to happen.

We met up with two guys that are moving to L.A. this summer and we all discussed our plans on performing when they get here. Then we all went up to Improv Olympic where I was going to be performing with a team called Rattlesnake High School that all of my friends are on. My sister brought a bunch of friends to watch the show then we all went out to a bar afterwards. I love going back because it is so easy to just go get a beer with a bunch of friends and hang out and not worry about anything.

Saturday was the big day. I got up early and helped Elvis with some last minute things. Then I went to Patel’s and we got one last rehearsal in before we left for the theater. We were not sure exactly where we needed to go when we got off of the train, but me being a guy said “I know the way, follow me” and then I proceeded to take us in the exact opposite direction the we needed to go, and didn’t discover that we were going the wrong way until 15 minutes later. Patel is never going to let me live this down.

We got to the theater and set about getting the stage and all of our props together for the show. There was this techie chick that was in charge of all of the sound and lights for the evening. She was all business and didn’t seem to like us at all. She had to get the stage ready for two bands plus our sketch show and didn’t seem like she wanted to give us much help. For some reason I decided to start joking around with her, and then it was like a light went off and she was really, really nice to us. She made all sorts of modifications to the stage, watched us rehearse and made lighting suggestions to make the show better. When Patel and I were done we went to get something to eat in the Irish bar right next door. They had excellent food! Patel said something to me that made me feel really good. She said

“I know you are going to make it because you are so charming when you want to be, without even making it seem like you are doing it on purpose. Did you see the way you charmed the techie? She wasn’t going to help us at all until you started joking with her”

That made me feel really confident about my abilities, since I always have doubts about them.

The festival started and they had a fantastic crowd. I was really proud of Elvis, she had worked really, really hard and it paid off. My other friend, the Ricker also did a fantastic job, but he MC’s the event, so everyone knows him. I wanted to give some credit to someone that many people may not know about.

I always get incredible nervous before I perform. Patel always has to calm me down before we go out on stage. But, once I set foot on the stage I am fine. We had a great show and the crowd really seemed to like what we did. We had a lot of people come up to us afterwards and tell us how much they liked our stuff. Including a really drunk girl, who told me she was going to be in L.A. in a couple of months and wanted my phone number. She was very demanding and wouldn’t take no, for an answer. Even when I wrote down the website where she can get in touch with me, that wasn’t enough. So I had that going for me, which is nice.

I drove Patel home in Elvis’s car with she and her boyfriend in the back seat. It is always sad when I say good-bye to Patel because I have a really good time with her. I could tell that she felt the same way, because when she leaned over to hug me good-bye she punched me in the face. She really got me right in my eye and it started tearing up and I couldn’t see very well. She said it was an accident, but I am sure it was some payback for me moving to L.A. without her.

I drove us home and got about 2 hours of sleep before I had to be at the airport. Elvis drove me and we said good-bye.

I slept all of the way to L.A. and because it was Mother’s Day, there was no one available to pick me up from the airport. So I took the crappy L.A. train system and it took me over two hours to get back to my apartment.

I love being in Chicago, but I need to get back to work here.