this was a part of an email conversation...
if i was going to (emulate?) immitate a spinal tap person, id hope that i would choose david st.hubbins....
i dunno, nigel's insane. i read an interview with him in a guitar magazine once, in which he claimed that the two most important aspects of your guitar's tone are the weight of the pickup mounting screws and how much of your hair dangles in the strings.
i liked "whose line is it anyway?" better when it was still in England, but its pretty good here too.
oh, that show rocked so much (the english version). when i was at gsp i was in an improv comedy group and we idolized the guys on that show... we had a game called O2-deprivation: there's five people, a theme, and a bucket of water on the stage. one person sticks his head all the way under the water and the scene starts. he can't take his head out of the bucket until somebody tags him. whoever leaves to tag him must first make a decent excuse, and then take the buckethead's place. the buckethead guy must explain where he's been and why he's wet. since the buckethead must be tagged, there's a personnel rotation every minute or so. oh, so chaotic. when we performed it on stage in front of people, the theme was monster movie. i went into the bucket twice. when i came back the first time, i yelled "everybody, run! they're after me!" "who?" "the ants!" "the ants?" "the *piss* ants!" okay, so it was cheap, but the room full of high school juniors erupted. oh, it was great. keep in mind that four of the five of us had thick and long or longish hair --- the wooden stage was completely soaked after just three bucketheads... anyway, the scene ended while i was in the bucket the second time. they forgot about me. i was in there for a minute and a half, and had been out of breath anyway, and couldn't hear that they had quit. i started waving my arms... jodi tagged me, and i pulled my head out real fast to get some air... my friend susan just happened to snap a picture right at that moment. it's really blurry, but you definately can see the water from my hair flying thirty feet straight up into the air. very cool picture. very funny day.
the next best was an earlier performace of freeze frame --- two people on the stage, starting with an idea from the crowd. it goes until somebody in the crowd yells "freeze!" at which point both actors freeze, and one gets replaced with somebody from the bench, who assumes a new position, then somebody yells "go!" and you start up a new scene. it's often very funny. i was out on the floor with jodi a few times. my favorite was when she and another girl had been stopped while pretending to mudwrestle. i came in and just stood in front of her all haughty and proud. when we came back, she started clawing at my legs and i was dragging her around the stage. she pleaded and pleaded with me, but i didn't say a word. finally (after like 30 seconds), i said, "frankly, my dear, i don't give a damn." (*freeze!*) i felt really cool, 'cause i'd been the first one to swear in the auditorium with all the (for lack of a better word) teachers watching, and it just slipped out. they were smiling. it was funny. it was funnier because of the way everyone reacted to it. but the very funniest was just moments later when thomas kidd, not to be outdone, took jodi's place with his arms tucked into his shirt (only elbows sticking out), looking like a bird. at the word "go" he looked me dead in the eye and said, "will you zip my fly?" and i looked down and damned if his motherfucking fly wasn't wide open, with his shirttail sticking out. daaaamn!!!
if you've ever seen the audience on "def comedy jam", you can imagine the pandemonium that ensued...
Fri Mar 12 20:51:32 EST 1999
addendum --- i got an email from the mysteriously missing thomas kidd (who i haven't actually seen since december of '92) out of the clear blue in late march. very cool. since i'd just written this up a few days before, i passed a copy to him, and here's what he had to say:
Date: Fri, 2 Apr 1999 02:45:08 EST
I believe the exact quote was: (Please factor in the Haughty British Accent) "Pardon me Sir, but could you zip my fly?" To be honest I had forgotten that until just now.
Thu Apr 8 00:35:19 EDT 1999