Fringes and Risks and Moths and Gays AND A LIVE EPISODE OF MY SHOW!

Long time, no see!  Have you lost weight?  Whatever you’re doing, you look good.  Me?  I’ve been mega busy.  Where to start, where to start… Since I last touched base, I’ve been lucky enough to do huge Moth Mainstage shows in Boston and East Lansing, MI.  Always such a treat to be on the road with some of the warmest hearts in the nation.  And I got to work with one of my favorite people in storytelling… The absolutely adorable and mega-talented Tara Clancy.  (PS – her book comes out in October but you can preorder it now.  I suggest you all do that.)

I’m thrilled to report that Fringe went great… I won the Audience Choice Award at the Pittsburgh Fringe Festival for my one man show, How The Queen Found His Crown.  By the time that weekend was over, I was extremely thankful to put that show back into a cardboard box in my closet.  Talk about emotional exhaustion!  Putting myself and my life out there in that capacity was certainly rewardingbut taxing.  Huge thanks to everyone who came and saw it though – that was such a great turnout and such a supportive group of hearts.

I’ve gotten to try out some physical hosting duties which I admittedly was very nervous about, but wish I wasn’t, in hindsight.  First, The Moth asked me to host their monthly Storyslam here in Pittsburgh in April.  While I obviously love attention, and the idea of being onstage through the entirety of the show, it was a daunting task:  Their monthly host here, Alan Olifson, has been literally the only person to ever host it, for almost 5 years.  I figured they’d revolt!  But the audience was very receptive to my sense of humor and luckily, I didn’t have to riff off of too many suicide stories that night, so I’d file that one in the “success” drawer.  

Just a few weeks I was the guest host and monologist of Arcade Comedy Theater’s “Hootenanny” show, the annual Pride edition.  This is an Armando style show, so for all you non-nerds out there – basically someone
shouts out a word or phrase and I have to come up with some (hopefully entertaining) stories from my life based off of that word.  Then the improvisers (which included some of my local favorites – Missy Moreno, Jerome Fitzgerald, Kyle Longsdorf, Kristy Nolen, too much talent to name them all!) act out spur-of-the-moment scenes based off of the details of what I’ve just come up with.  They do scenes, I tell more stories, then scenes, then stories.  It was a fucking blast.  No words to describe how much fun that night was.

In mid June, I traveled to Philadelphia to perform a newly workshopped story for the Risk! podcast, which aired today.  I covered some deep stuff in it, but I (hopefully) managed to keep it light and funny.  Always fun to work out a new story in front of such a supportive audience.  And Kevin Allison, my absolute hero – such a gift to work with him every single time.

SPEAKING OF FUN!  If you’re in Pittsburgh, mark your calendars for July 29, at 8pm.  At Arcade Comedy Theater downtown, I am putting on a LIVE taping of an episode of my podcast, 2 Gays, No Girls, At A Pizza Place!  I won’t reveal too much, but there will be TONS of character improv work in this episode.  Nik Nemec will be back for this one, and I’ve secured the absolutely absurd Missy Moreno!  Tickets are only $10 but get them asap, as this is a small theater!  

I have less than 10 weeks before I move to Los Angeles.  Terrified?  Yes, sir.  Yes, I am.  Ready for the next chapter?  Without a doubt.  Thanks for being here for the ride so far.

 

All my love,

David