Reinventing the wheel

I love the colors in this picture! Mmm! Anyhow, yes, that is Jill Bernard. She's an improviser from Minneapolis who does a lot of improv, including her famous "Drum Machine" act. Basically, she goes out by herself and does a one woman improvised MUSICAL. Yes, that's right. Not only is she alone onstage making everything up of the top of her head, but she does full length songs that rhyme and everything. It's incredible. I took her workshop this morning (the workshops are part of the festival) and Dan Izzo's class in the afternoon. Both were superb, but I feel like I'm starting to come down with a cold and I was really flagging by the end of Dan's class. Nothing a little Starbucks with Jen couldn't cure, however. (it's pumpkin spice latte season, woo hoo!) From coffee we had just enough time to go to her sister's house, change clothing, and head back to Union Station for night 2 of national weekend. I ushered again today, which is pretty fun, actually. In fact, a couple guys walked in, I handed them their program, then one of them stopped and did a double take. "Were you in that two girl group at Thunderdome last week?" "Fluffer Nutter? Yes!" "Oh!.....Oh, you guys were amazing! I voted for you!" "Really? No way, thanks a lot!" "Yeah, oh, man, your humor was so intelligent!" (It was? Score!) He was literally gushing. I've NEVER had anyone gush over me. Wow. Weird but cool. The shows were just incredible, everyone took what they had done last night and dialed it up about 15 degrees. Just amazing. At the end Der Monkenpickle did a special sketch about Harry Houdini that was brilliant! We all headed to Bar Natasha for the afterparty, and somehow I ended up sitting on a couch next to Jill Bernard. We talked for a bit about this and that. It was really great. I ended up coming home early due to not feeling well and having an early morning tomorrow. I get to have a break for a few days now, then next friday is LOCAL weekend. Meaning it's my turn to do some performing. Yay!