Grantblings

Puppet Up Down Under 2014 – March 26, 2014 – Gala

Woke up early and hit the gym first thing. I’m really focusing on getting up and working out on his trip. After working out I got word from Julianna that her and Patrick were headed to a place down the street from our hotel called The Pancake Parlor.

I discovered the pancake parlor on the second day of the tour. It is, apparently, a chain of stores that sells pancakes. But not just pancakes but pancakes with different toppings like, oh, ice cream! Yes, a scoop of ice cream on a stack of pancakes. And chocolate. Or caramel. Yeah, it is crazy.

Anyway, when they said they were going I joined. I did not get crazy though. I had the ‘traditional’ breakfast. Two pancakes, bacon and a scrambled egg. It was good, but not spectacular. I’m looking forward to going back and trying one of the crazy pancakes.

After breakfast I hopped back to the hotel before we had to leave to do some press. This was the press we were supposed to do the other day when the puppets hadn’t arrived. So with the puppets were here, Colleen, Ted and I got driven over to Luna Park for a photo shoot.

Luna Park is Melbourne’s amusement park. A throwback tribute to Coney Island. The park was closed but they opened it for us to do the shoot. It was fun time and we are looking forward to going back there once we are back in Melbourne after Sydney.

Tech went really smooth, the people running the theatre and the show were just awesome. The show was being filmed for television so it was run like clockwork.

We left the theatre for a few hours relaxing back at the hotel before we had to head back to the theatre for the show. As I’ve said, I always love when we perform in theaters where acts I love have performed. This was an even cooler experience because we performed on the same show of two acts I think are hilarious. The Umbilical Brothers are just amazing. If you haven’t seen them, YouTube their stuff. Amazing physical comedy. The second was Seán Cullen who I’ve admired since his days in Corky & The Juice Pigs. His comedy and delivery kill be and he’s one of the few comedians who can really make me belly laugh. So much fun to actually share the stage with them.

After the Gala we went to the opening night VIP party. It was a lot of fun and I don’t usually enjoy these types of gatherings. It was fun to meet people who have various jobs related to the festival. Made a lot of new friends. Maybe I’ll try this socializing stuff a bit more.

After much too much fun at the party, we headed back to the hotel and I wrote this entry before bed. Tomorrow our first, full fledged, show. I can’t wait.