Back in the Spotlight!

Performances


This evening yielded two separate performance opportunities, the first of which was The Spotlight with Sean Taylor and the second, The Made-Up Musical!

Both productions took place at my old stomping ground, the Magnet Theater. I arrived to the theater just in time to change into my clothes (incidentally the same dress I had worn to my audition the other day) and get set for the first of the shows.

In "The Spotlight" I serve as the commercial jingle girl and musical guest. Before the show we ask the audience to write in suggestions of song titles and products such as "Tide" or "Spam" and then when called upon by the host, the bandleader and I improvise a short and sa-weet 30-second commercial break.

Tonight's commercial suggestions were "chicken nuggets" and "Under Your Bed, Bed and Breakfast." The second of the two I sang in my Shakira voice at the request of host Sean Taylor. For the big finish, we used a final audience suggestion of a made-up song title: "Check That Mystery Guest" which ended up being a bouncy 50s-esque tune. Admittedly, not my best spot song ever, but it elicited enough laughs from the audience to make me feel satisfied.

Overall "The Spotlight" had a really successful night, flowing spotlessly from interview to improv to commercial break and back again. The interviews and improv were hilarious and the audience was with us all the way.

After taking an hour long break between shows, I returned to the Magnet for "The Made-Up Musical." We had a pretty full cast this evening, and unfortunately not quite as full an audience. The seven of us on stage came close to outnumbering our audience members.

Nonetheless, those in attendance were treated to a really strong and funny show thanks to great players and a fun suggestion from a French Canadian woman ex-rodeo star who used to live in a small town near mile zero of the Alaskan Highway.

As always, doing the TMUM was great fun and hopefully the few newcomers will be back and bring some more of their friends along with them. Overall feedback was really glowing: one audience member told me that I was amazing. (...Okay, it was my boyfriend - but he's only a little bit biased.)