Grantblings

Puppet Up Down Under 2014 – April 18, 2014 – Musk

I was up late last night talking to Brian and Dan so all I wanted to do this morning was sleep in. That, unfortunately, was not to be. I was up before 8:00 AM to the sound of rain on the window. Yes, it seems after yesterday’s amazing weather, Melbourne was going to give us a little rain. Not a problem though, I still love this city and I let the rain lull me back to sleep.

I got up around 10:30 AM, and Julianna was making plans to visit the Melbourne aquarium. I was actually not going to go but our time in Melbourne is running out and I want to see as much as I possibly can before we ship off to Brisbane.

Around 11:00 AM, I met with a local Melbourne puppeteer named Michael. He wanted to chat about puppetry and making a web series. I’m always interested in talking puppetry with people so I was happy to meet up and spend the time just chatting.

After meeting with Michael, I headed back to the hotel to answer some email and do some writing, I packed up Uncle Interloper and met Julianna, Colleen and Peggy in the lobby at 1:30 PM.

Melbourne must have known that we were going to walk to the aquarium because when we walked out of the hotel the sky was sunny. It was a lovely walk the few blocks to the aquarium. For part of the time we walked along the river nearby and it was very nice. Soon we were standing in front of the Melbourne aquarium.

Today is a national holiday in Australia. So it seems that the rest of the city of Melbourne had the same idea as we did and they were all at the aquarium. We waited in the line to get in and soon were surrounded by all different kinds of sea life. There were some really cool exhibits such as seahorses, turtles, a huge walk through shark tank that also had a manta rays, and an amazing penguin exhibit. We happened upon the penguin exhibit at just the right time. Feeding time. It was amazing to watch the Penguins scramble all over their enclosure to get fish that was thrown out by the keepers. I got some great Uncle Interloper footage as well. Stuff I can cut together as a Podcast once I get back.

After the aquarium, we walked back towards the hotel. We made a stop at a small convenience store where Peggy had seen a type of candy she thought I would get a kick out of. They were Lifesavers but the flavor was musk. Yes, you read that right musk. Here’s the picture.

These aren’t a joke candy. They were sold along with all the other lifesaver flavors. What do musk flavored Lifesavers taste like? They taste like the worst thing you could ever put in your mouth. That’s what Brian Clark said when I tricked him into eating one. To me they taste as if you’ve taken a handful of potpourri and shoved it into your mouth. Pretty gross.

After relaxing at the hotel for a bit, Alan, Julianna, Brian and myself all went out to get some dinner. We had dinner at a Chinese place, and then we walked up to the theater for tech call.

Tonight we got some work in on the choreography for my song improv. Patrick says that the song improv will debut in tomorrow night’s show. I’m nervous but I’m confident that even if it turns out horrible it will still be a lot of fun. And, it will only get better. Right?

Before we got dressed for the show, we met with two kids who are very interested in puppetry. Their parents had arranged for them to come see a little behind-the-scenes tour of Puppet Up. That was a lot of fun. And it was great to see how puppetry was really interesting to both of them.

Then it was showtime. What a great show tonight! The audience was really fantastic and their suggestions were great. The Hot Dogs prevented a nuclear meltdown, we played the game show called Cake or Death, the talent show featured synchronized contortion masturbation and the alien barbershop topic was sheering, as in sheep.

When I am shearing
I got in the sheep stalls
And I shear them clean
Until I can see their balls.

A great show, and a great time meeting the audience afterwards. After the show, I just went back to the hotel to write out this post. I want to try to get to sleep early tonight so that tomorrow morning I could go see the show again and I have wanted to go see at 10:00 AM. So I want to get a good nights sleep.

Sad there’s only a few days left in Melbourne, but I’ve had a world of fun.