I wasn't going to come to New York this year, I really wasn't. I had a good time last year but I just remember being so tired, and a bit cold, and thinking, "ten years is enough; next October: Mexico." But then the New Yorker Festival line up enticed me with something almost too good to be true... and even then I hesitated; but I went online the morning of the ticket sales and I told myself getting a ticket to that enticing event was going to be a long-shot, but I might as well try, and the next thing I knew I had three tickets to three wonderful-sounding events, including the one that changed my mind about the whole deal -- so here I am, in Brooklyn.
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| Nick's apartment in Brooklyn |
No festival events tonight, but I got in early enough to drop my stuff at this really nice apartment, meet Nick, my host, and take the subway to Chelsea for an 8 o'clock show at the Upright Citizens Brigade. The show was Rumpletaser: Musical Improv, and it was described as a group of improvisers making up a musical on the spot. At the top of the show they asked for audience suggestions of "anything," and if the premise is to be believed and the guy who yelled out "celery" hadn't been planted there by the cast (and I don't think he was), then what they did was pretty impressive. For one hour, a piano player banged out numbers and the cast created a story, complete with songs, in front of the audience; the first number was "We Work in a Juice Bar," and it went from there. 'Celery, the Musical' isn't going to hit Broadway any time soon but it was fun and silly, and for 5-bucks a ticket, a good way to spend a Thursday night in New York.
