When I arrived at the club at call time (approximately an hour before the first show), I found that I had pulled into a parking spot next to my colleague Garr Van Orden. It had been a while since I had seen or performed with Garr, though this is not the unusual part of the story. The unusual part is that I have a personalized license plate that reads "LDSJEDI," while his is "STRWARS" - and here we were, parked side by side. People passing by must have thought there was a geek convention going on.
Halfway through the evening's first show, the next unusual event occurred when singer Harry Connick Jr. walked into the club. We are used to seeing Utah celebrities at ComedySportz but never anyone of HCJ's fame.
Semi-disguised in a baseball cap, he was nevertheless quickly recognized by several members of the audience, and politely he agreed to pose for pictures with a handful of them during our halftime intermission. Apparently, our club owner Tonia, who was present for all this, told me that HCJ's daughter lives in Provo, and he was there to take her to the show.The third unusual event of the evening occurred during the night's second show, when one of our players accidentally dropped the F-bomb in his dialogue on stage. I say "accidentally" because (1) he's a rather recently returned missionary, (2) he's not the kind of person who would use this kind of language at anytime, and (3) we don't use swear words in our shows - ever. (At least, not on purpose.) Rather needless to say, he was brown bagged for this infraction.
I'm keeping his identity secret because he's a friend and also because he was somewhat embarrassed by this and apologized profusely both to the other players and to the audience. Still, in more than six years of performing Improv semi-professionally, it was definitely a first and an unusual occurrence.
Driving home, I couldn't help but think, "This is why I do Improv." Like Forrest Gump's box of chocolates, you never know what you're gonna get.
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