PLACES (please...)

I've been in a few plays in my life, a few musicals even, but last weekend was a bit different: I was in a play I helped write a little... The Father 'Hood, perspectives on being a Dad, from different angles... And I'm happy to say (RELIEVED really!) that it turned out OK! Better than OK for the audience, but for me, I (whew) just survived it. It was the top 5 most nerve-wracking things I've done, or how to say it, I was the most nervous of anything I've done in a long while...

It was something wonderful... we had many rehearsals, a solid director, changes at the last minute, and a full house, that sounds good right? But when the 5 minute call happened (that's right before someone yells "Places...") I had to go for a run down the street to get my blood pumping and get the nerves off of me... such that one of my compatriots in the show, had to yell, "where's Steve going?" Something new in a pre-show ritual, that's for sure...

Sometimes, as a comic, you tear apart cliches to try to find something funny, and most of us have heard that "whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger..." I'm not sure that a full impact car crash, where all the air bags deploy, and you end up in traction for 6 months, a hitch with crutches, and rehab, is what they're talking about... Instead, maybe it's the wisdom of surviving falling through cracked ice on a lake, you're stronger 'cause you don't walk out on iced lakes anymore, BUT... I'm only slightly confident THAT when we do it again... (AND we're doing it again...) THAT I'll be less nervous!

I have survived it once with my new never done material, and my 'first time' story in front of anyone, and people connected, and FELT, and laughed at both parts I thought they would and parts they found for themselves that I didn't know they would... it was a journey of discovery for them and myself at the same time..., and yes it was fun, (Not capitalized, just small case for me...)

Survival, whether it makes you stronger or smarter or more easily able to try things that really scare you, ain't a bad friend to be aware of, to make, and to appreciate... And you can run down the street away from it if you want, as long as you run back (preferable not across ice covered lakes) before the show begins and you hear "Places..."