July’s show was great. Thanks to each of you for coming, bringing food, and sharing your friends and stories. The performances were lively and strong. A theme of childhood narrow escapes was bright through the night, with recountings of schoolyard fights, political revolution, international rescue and emergence from a confession booth. Other stories held themes of trusting oneself and listening to instinct, and the good things that came of that.
I am sitting on the quiet couch on the secret floor between levels 3 and 4 in the Second City compound in between teaching classes, counting votes from last night and giggling. This vote-counting business is usually the least enjoyable part of the show for me, as it means focusing till my neck aches on mile-long strings of numbers. I usually survive this part by singing the numbers into my calculator like little songs, which helps me remember them and also not develop numerically-induced catatonia. But today counting the votes is fun because of people’s vote sheets. Here are some of the names signed on the signature lines: “Kottyn (pronounced cotton)”, “Gloria: The Batman”, Jewel, Animal, Broad Shoulders, Buns, Rort, and Athanaeum Moisiter. Okay that last one is probably just me misreading some handwriting. But all these made me smile. There are some great drawings too, and the attribution of “50-million” points to a few tellers (which doesn’t get your vote counted BTdubs…), and some great notes like these: “Jocelyn- funny, great imagery and emotion! evolving storyteller; great promise!” and “Dave- great! polished, captivated me, would LOVE to hear more,” and “Isabel-TONS of stage presence-incredibly cool to do this in another city,” and “Lily BE- hanging on every word, funny, such amazing description,” and “James- fantastic teller, captivating voice modulating!” My favorite note though, was “I don’t know how this paper got so dirty… sorry.” Thanks y’all, for making me smile.
And speaking of votes, this can now officially be known as The Summer of Lily’s Be’s Family at Here, Chicago. After her son Xavier Retana won Audience Favorite in May, and her best friend Clarence Browley won Audience Favorite in June, Lily Be herself just swept the ballots for July! And lest you think I am tinkering with the numbers in favor of a particular clan, I assure you I am not. It is purely your votes, my friends. Art and skill apparently sometimes run in families. At your request, Lily will graciously be returning to feature for you on August 3rd! We are so happy.
Many thanks to all of our tellers, Christie Grace, Nnamdi Ngwe, Erin Johnson, Megan Dieger and Tim Hazen of River Rising, Clarence Browley, James Gordon, Jocelyn Pinkerton, Dave Santori, Isabel Zacharias, and Lily BE for gracing our stage. You all are great raconteurs, and we thank you for your careful work and generosity. Many thanks also to Brandie Madrid and Xavier Retana for helping set up. And to Lauren Yarborough and Luke Babb for handling tickets last night. You both were graceful with it, and so gracious to do it.
Thanks to everyone also who brought beautiful and generous dishes for the night! We give free admission to folks who take as much care in preparing a dish to share as our tellers take in preparing their stories. The show is a chance to share something good with each other, and so many of you do that.
Below are pretty photos of the night taken by Brandie Madrid, who was kindly filling in as staff photographer for Matthew-Out-Of-Town. Enjoy them and the memories! (Sadly, we are unable to podcast July’s show, as both of our sound technicians were unavailable.)
Many thanks to my dapper and intrepid co-host for the evening Erin Kahoa. It was a pleasure to play with him, and a great feeling to have such a capable and graceful collaborator.
See you all on August 3rd, when an already fantastic line-up of features awaits.
<3
Here, Chicago on August 3rd
Stage 773, 1225 W. Belmont
7:30 potluck, 8pm show
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