So the VIP ticket included a goody bag, a front row seat, and a 6 o'clock reception with Frank Warren of PostSecret, the Found guys and Brett Loudermilk, an 18 year old sideshow performer they picked up on the road. After grabbing some pizza I poured myself a glass of white wine. Just as I slammed the cork back home, someone else grabbed a glass. I started to push the bottle over and then thought the cork thing might be perceived as rudeness so I pulled it back out. The woman was holding her cup close by so I went ahead and poured her glass. Hmm...shes pretty cute.
The Found guys emcee'd. They were a riot. Man, that girl is cute. They introduced Brett who did some stand-up and a homoerotic audience participation trick. His bit was deliciously awkward due to the fact that there were just over a dozen quiet VIPs in a fairly big room. I really should talk to that girl. Then Frank came out and talked about PostSecret, did some Q&A, and showed us some unpublished secrets. One VIP told how a roommate's PostSecret was returned for lack of postage. She secretly added the postage and mailed it back but the secret she learned about her roommate was pretty outrageous. Stuffed full of wine and pizza, I went out to the lobby to wait my turn for the 9:30 show. I wonder if she's going to the later show as well.
At first I was a bit of a bummed at the prospect of downtime between the reception and the second show, but the goody bag had a Found magazine that kept me busy. Found is a magazine/website/project/community where people send in random notes they find. They might be love/hate letters, diary entries, receipts, posted signs...whatever. Some are funny, some are sad but they provide a window into something that was at one time important to someone you will never know, but can somehow relate to. I haven't followed Found too much (I don't relate to all of the stuff on the website) but I enjoyed the magazine.
After an hour or so Frank and Brett wandered into the lobby and had a conversation nearby. It was just the three of us there and, since both PostSecret and Found are both ultimately voyeuristic endeavors, I didn't particularly hide or feel bad about listening in. Brett grew up in "the business"...his parents were entertainers. He had lots of good stories involving David Copperfield, cleft pallets, Penn and Teller, sword swallowing, freak shows, billiard balls and more. He'd been a performer since he was 8. Good guy. I wouldn't be surprised to see him on TV one day.
Later that girl and her friend took a seat in the lobby with us and paged through their own Found magazines. They were going to the 9:30 show after all.! I noticed their magazines were a different issue than mine. Perhaps I could ask if they wanted to trade after they'd read theirs. Perfect! Soon the lobby became noisy with the incoming 9:30 folks and people started lining at the door. Since I had a reserved front row seat I stayed in my lobby chair for a bit and let the riff-raff fight over scraps. They filed in and I went to take a leak only to find out they started the show immediately. I had to grab a seat on the far edge of the auditorium. Then I noticed that my empty reserved seat was right next to her!
Brett was up first. He performed such feats as eating a light bulb, hammering a five inch spike all the way into his nostril (gross!), swallowing a twenty inch sword, snapping his tongue in a mousetrap and swallowing a two foot long inflated balloon. He also told some good jokes...his show was a lot of fun. As the Found guys were introducing Frank, I used the lull to claim my rightful seat next to her. Frank said that he gets a thousand secrets a week and posts just twenty. That's a tougher screen than the Ivy Leagues! He talked about the project and how much his readers have helped support a suicide hotline. He related some anecdotes that people have told him about how PostSecret gave them the courage to make changes in their lives. His own life was changed when, upon seeing how deeply people cared about PS, his father told him one of his own secrets. Of course he showed us plenty of postcards, too.
The Found guys went last. Davy, the main one, talked about the project and read some of his favorite found notes. He was clearly very passionate about conveying something universal in these discarded scraps of paper. He also seemed to be pretty much drunk which made the added jokes and commentary that much better. One of the early finds was a cassette tape with some low budget homemade rap songs. Davy's brother came out and played some songs inspired by the tape on his guitar. His soulful rendition of "The Booty Don't Stop" was a big crowd pleaser.
At the end of the show Davy reminded us that both Found and PostSecret couldn't exist without community participation and that we really should think of ourselves as a community. He told us to take a moment and introduce ourselves to the people sitting beside us.
Gulp!
As the nanoseconds raced by I scrambled to think of something, anything, interesting to say to her.
Me: "Hi."That's it. That's my game. I couldn't even manage "Hi, I'm Ed!", let alone "So, did you come here tonight for Found or PostSecret?" when the opportunity was delivered on a silver platter. In my defense she seemed mostly interested in talking to her friend on the other side, but I was mad at myself. I don't particularly care about being rejected but I get paralyzed by the thought of coming across as a creep. Sigh.
Her: "Hi."
(Video report on Found. Found on Letterman.)
2 comments:
I'm Glad you enjoyed my portion of the show, and my conversation with Frank!
Brett.
no guts no glory. gotta take those opportunities when they arise. You already know you have somethin' in common to talk about. At worst she doesn't go out with you, big whup, you're never seeing her again anyway.
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