Spamalot!

So what do you do when you meet famous people whose work you actually, well, respect and admire?
If you're me, you turn into a mumbling (and a bumbling) idiot.
Thankfully, I did not do a Sir Robin impression and soil myself.

I did, however, get off the stage and, perhaps too loudly, voice my sympathy for whomever had to clean up the bucketsful of confetti strewn about the theater. If any of the cast heard me, yes, they probably thought I was a bit off (true, I am, but people usually don't find this out until much later).

Of course, once I recovered sufficiently (about 20 minutes later as I was walking down 5th Ave towards the Village), I thought of all the Really Insightful or Humorous Things to Say and Intelligent Questions to Ask but Was Too Shy/Agog/Phobic to Say So at the Time (RIHTSIQAWTS/A/PSST):

1. (on being thanked for making the donation to Broadway Cares):
   Should have said, "It's wonderful for you to do this as an incentive."
   Said: (mumble) "thank you."

Wait a second, I'm reading this and I'm not that insightful or humorous. Probably better I did shut up. Kind of the way certain animals play dead to avoid becoming part of the food chain.

Well, I still wish I could have thanked each of them for what they do. Acting is often ridiculed as a "fluffy" field-- not that influential or important, but convincingly emulating emotions on cue is damned difficult. Comedy's even harder because it's much more dependent on timing and delivery.

I wish I had the chance to tell, for instance, Hank Azaria that his Agador brought a lot of needed laughter into a friend's life. As she was dealing again and again with cancer and recurrence, I'd call her on the phone and sing "She Work[s] Hard for the Money" or just carry on a conversation with her in my best Agador voice, and she'd laugh so hard she'd cry (and possibly do a Sir Robin impersonation, but I never did ask her as it was a bit more personal than I wished to be and we were, you understand, only talking on the phone). I wish I'd said to David Hyde Pierce how much I loved and related to his deadpan delivery (how can anyone keep a straight face?). I don't think I needed to say anything to Tim Curry. Gi was probably giving off such a strong aura of total devotion his chakras will be realigned for months to come.

I really wish I could have voiced to everyone in the cast--and I do mean everyone from those in the above photo to everyone in the ensemble--that thanks to them and their work, I was kind of able to escape what can be a pretty shitty reality, even if it was for only two hours.

Was it worth a week's pay for the opportunity? You betcha.