And the lock is on the old stage door

[austin_dern]

The Cinematic Titanic show was in the same venue as the last one I went to, the one where I was supposed to see it with the brother who's now in Boston (was then, too) and which ended up being with a bunch of his friends when he cancelled. I invited him to this one, although I didn't expect he'd accept and he didn't. This made it easier to find tickets; by the time I actually bought one the available tickets were in scattered individual seats or way in the back. I got one at the rear of the middle section instead. Someone near me smelled like the way hair smells when it's been in the show but not shampooed; I don't imagine that I missed a rainstorm, but then how to explain that scent?

I must admit I felt less anxious about the show this time; I suppose the third attendance of anything will feel less surprising and new than the first. The basic structure was like that of the ones before, with nerd music filling up the time before the scheduled start of show, and then individual performances from the Titans as their own warm-up. There was not enough Mary Jo Pehl this time around --- no bit such as her scrapbooking --- but she did a fantastic bit of awkwardly reading an introduction to Dave ``Gruber'' Allen. This makes no sense described as such but she makes it work. I'm still surprised Allen's only used in the warming up, too; I can't imagine the audiences would resist his voice during the riffing.

TV's Frank did a bit I modestly like, historical tweets, and also a bunch of Chris Christie Is Fat jokes that I don't. I don't want to be oversensitive to weight jokes; I just don't think self-consciously bad fat jokes are different in substance to bad fat jokes, even if he tosses in light politics. Trace Beaulieu read a few more of his cute little rhymes, and Joel Hodgson did the newspaper-tearing illusion that may be nearly the first thing you learn in stage magic school but still tricks my eye every time. And J Elvis Weinstein sang; it's startling that there really weren't musical bits on Mystery Science Theater 3000 his years on the show, considering how good it is hearing him.

After the show I realized I hadn't had dinner, or much of anything for the day, so I got a hot pretzel from a street stand. According to the Wii, I still gained a pound over the day. I don't pretend to understand this or imagine it to be possible.

Trivia: Until 1948, ABC television in New York City had no assigned channel; it produced programs and aired them on the DuMont station, WABD, paying $625 for each half-hour of leased time. Source: Please Stand By: A Prehistory Of Television, Michael Ritchie.

Currently Reading: The Return Of The Black Widowers, Isaac Asimov.

Comments

[orv.livejournal.com]

It's good to hear they're getting some new opening material. I saw them twice, a year apart, and the opening bits were nearly identical. They were good, mind you, it's just that I'd seen it all already.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

It's kind of startling that you can see a six-minute bit in a live show, once, never see it repeated on DVD or streamed online or whatnot, and then a year later see it again and recognize it. And this in a fandom audience, which will watch Hobgoblins until every awkward edit is memorized, too, and be happy about it.

Fans are weird people.