Puppet Up Spring 2014 Tour – March 14, 2014 – Travel Day
Strap yourselves in. This one is going to be short and sweet. And probably boring. May not even promote it on it’s release it is going to be so dull. At any rate, here we go.
Today was a travel day. We left Springfield, Ohio at around 11 PM and got in to Kalamazoo, Michigan at about 5:30 PM or so.
The journey was quite uneventful. Traveling by ‘rock ‘n’ roll’ tour bus really is the way to go. There’s enough space for everyone to kind of do their own thing. Pretty amazing when you consider there are ten of us traveling on that bus. And that’s not including the driver. The bus the size of ours has just enough room that everyone has their own space, and that’s even when people aren’t in the individual bunks.
I pretty much all of the trip in my bunk, answering some e-mails, doing a little reading and tapping around on my iPad. Also made a few phone calls to touch base with some folks back West.
We made one stop in Ohio to grab some lunch. Most of us went to Waffle House as they are rare on the West coast. I had a pecan waffle and a bowl of grits in as tribute to my good friend Carla Ulbrich. I did not go for the ‘All Star Special’ as I did the first night Carla took me to Waffle House. While I ate I, was sure to play some Oak Ridge Boys on the juke box to keep me company as I dined.
Upon arrival at the hotel I adjourned to my room and watched The History of Future Folk. I highly recommend it as a fun film to watch. It’s on NetFlix. If you like comedy music you should check it out. First comedy music I’ve heard in awhile that’s inspired me to try and write a little more. We’ll see if that happens.
I then watched the new Cosmos on hulu. It was really great. My only complaint is that Neil has to tone down the hand gestures a little. It’s a little distracting. But I thought the content was really good.
Other than that, there ain’t no news, as the old bit goes. Tomorrow a show in Kalamazoo and then an after show buss trip to Madison and our last show of this tour.
Puppet Up Spring 2014 Tour – March 13, 2014 – Springfield, OH
I wish I could tell you of some exciting adventures in Springfield, Ohio that took place before our show but there weren’t. Not because there isn’t much to do but because I slept in until noon and our call was two. So I basically just hung out in my room before going to the venue.
Once we were over to the venue, our crew was busy with the local crew getting things set up for the show. The local crew at the Kuss Auditorium were on the ball, they also had really positive attitudes. Love people who work hard yet can have fun. Having a few days off, the cast ran through some choreography just to refresh themselves on the moves for the opening and closing. Then we dove into tech rehearsal.
Tech went great, our fearless tech leader Greg was on top of things as always and we finished in time to have our venue provided dinner. Dinner was fantastic, all vegetarian. Fried eggplant, spaghetti squash, mushrooms and zucchini and a fantastic pear dessert that was a throwback to desserts of my youth.
Soon the house was open and it was time to go. A really fun show tonight with some wild suggestions from the audience. Sean told the story of The Shameful Penguin using the Henson Digital Puppetry System. Peggy rocked out the Bond opening number for the film, The Revenge of the Sasquatch. Vanessa pulled a, spot on, Woody Woodpecker impression out of nowhere. Tim’s old man during an Understudies scene was hilarious. And Victor want a great Alien Barbershop on the wacky suggestion: Volcano Taco. The audience loved he show and gave us a standing ovation at the close of in. We were very honored.
The adulation continued to the hotel where we ran into some audience folks who who had seen the show and bought some of us drinks (or a water in my case). It was a fun day and we are now ready to make our way to Kalamazoo, MI for our show there!
Truly lucky I get to do this and get paid for it.
Puppet Up Spring 2014 Tour – March 12, 2014 – Pittsburgh No Show
This morning we awoke to the news that, for various reasons, we would not be performing our show in Pittsburgh. We always make the best of things so we used it to explore Pittsburgh.
I met up with Rob Johnston who was super gracious and drove me all around Pittsburgh. We had a great time talking about Vine, Muppets, everything. He took me to have a Primanti Brother’s sandwhich. Wow. That is a sandwich. I had hot sausage. To that they add French fries, coleslaw and tomatoes. I opted out having egg on it. It was great.
After lunch we went and filmed a few vines that, if you follow Rob and Uncle Interloper, you’ll see in the future. I can’t thank Rob enough for his help in promoting the Pittsburgh show and his hospitality of driving me a round. Rob’s a great guy and if we lived closer there’d be some crazy creative fun coming from us.
Around 3:00 PM, our tour bus arrived and it was time to hit the road. As is tradition we made a short stop to get groceries. We only needed enough for a four hour drive but, as you can see from the picture, we got enough to feed a family of four for four weeks. I was sure to put a few googly eyes in the store.
Then we were on the road. Someone purchased the DVD of Men In Black at the store to watch on route. Why? Because Tim Blaney plays Frank The Pug! So as the moving played, Tim did. a puppeteer’s commentary! After Men In Black ended, Short Circuit began. Tim was the puppeteer and voice of Johnny Five. So the Blaney Movie Marathon continued.
I spent most of the journey in my bunk. I really like it because it’s your own little space and after awhile you forget you are on a bus. I highly recommend it. Unless you are tall. They a rent that long. I have a ritual bunk I always sleep in and was lucky enough to snag it again this trip.
We arrived in Springfield around 9:00 PM and had an amazing dinner at a place called Seasons Bar & Grille. It was so good. I had a cup of African Peanut Soup. Best soup with peanuts in it I’ve ever had. It was a place where every item on the menu sounded incredible and it was difficult to decide what to have. People are already talking about going back tomorrow. I thanked them with some googly eyes to remember us by.
After dinner we got our luggage from the bus and then checked into the hotel for the night. They issued earplugs when we checked in. Not sure if that bodes well for the evening ahead. Hopefully it’ll be fine.
Super excited for our show tomorrow. There were posters all over the town and even in the hotel. Looks like Springfield, OH is ready for some puppet fun! I have a good feeling tomorrow’s show will be one for the record books. Everyone is ready to Puppet Up!
Puppet Up Spring 2014 Tour – March 11, 2014 – Travel Day
The Puppet Up crew enjoyed our show and our day off in Park City and as much as we would have liked to stay, it was time to move this crazy puppet party East.
At 7:15 AM we were standing in the freshly fallen snow waiting for our shuttle back to the Salt Lake City Airport and the plane that would take us to Pittsburgh, PA.
The ride was painless as was getting through security and soon we were at the gate.
One thing I’ve started doing to pass the time at airports is let Uncle Interloper take phone calls from anyone who wants to call him. It’s a little trick I picked up from “Weird Al” Yankovic. I find one of the few pay phones remaining in the country and see if it can accept incoming calls. If it can, I test it out to make sure it rings. Then, I make a Vine of Uncle Interloper in front of the pay phone and send it out with the number and invite anyone to call and say hello.
The great thing is, it actually works! People call to say hi! Usually Uncle Interloper has a little joke or two for them for calling. There’s a little bit of chatting and then he hangs up and waits for the next call. The most calls he has ever gotten was 6, but even today at the Salt Lake City airport he got three, which was fun.
After about 15 minutes of that I went back to sit with everyone else and Uncle Interloper was talking to the rest of the cast. After a few minutes this little boy walked up with his stuffed monkey and ‘Monkey George’ and Uncle Interloper had a big old conversation. It was really fun. After Monkey George and his fried left, a little girl who was sitting behind us popped her unicorn ‘Angel’ over the back of the seat and her and Uncle Interloper had a big conversation. It was a lot of fun.
Not too long after we were on our way to Cincinnati and after a brief layover and a 39 minute flight, we had safely landed in Pittsburgh.
Our group split up here and while some went to the hotel, Julianna, Peggy, Sean and I went to TV Station WPIX, the NBC affiliate and recorded an interview with Rob Johnston. Rob is a great guy I met through Vine and he really hooked us up with some great promo time at WPIX. When the footage is online, I’ll post it for sure. Rob is a huge Jim Henson fan and I really relate to him and his sense of humor and his ethic of keeping things kid friendly. He’s a great guy.
After that, it was back to the hotel to drop off our bags and then out for a meal. Others went on to do other things, but I retired early to write these words and make sure I’m well rested for tomorrow and my first turn at hosting this tour.
Here we go!
