Sam and I planned to atten a performance Saturday night at the
Improv Asylum. Before we got there, though, we had to get there.
We had tickets for the eight o'clock show. The Red Sox played at 3:45PM. Plenty of time, I thought, even with the average Sox/Yanks game lasting 3.5 hours.
Around about the fourth inning it started raining outside the apartment, the rain headed into the city of Boston, no doubt, the torrent certain to cause a delay unless they wrapped up the next three innings in ten pitches or so (not going to happen with Youk, Drew, Pedroia, Manny...)(ok, with that lineup, it's not going to happen unless Lugo bats nine times in a row).
The rain holds off, until the eighth, just as they call Papelbon in for a four out save. Downpour - out comes the tarp.
We can't stay for the end of the game and still make the improv show, so we head to the train, and I call some people to make sure I get updates on the Fenway situation throughout the night.
As we arrive at the train station I calculate that we have exactly enough time to get on the train, ride to Haymarket, and pick up our tickets.
What I forgot to factor in was the shuttle bus running in place of the train on the Orange Line (every weekend from here to the end of time, it seems).
Luckily, for us, the herky-jerky bus trip didn't delay us overmuch, and the Improv show started nearer 8:05PM, so we had no trouble grabbing some drinks and finding our seats.
The show was hilarious.
-AND- they totally used one of my suggestions for a bit!
Ok, so the crowd was a bit...lackluster. The majority of folks were attached to a tame bachelorette party (who knew beforehand that the Improv players were going to call up the bride-to-be for an embarassing skit, which seemed to be the only part of the show they were really into), and there were also some elderly grandmother types (one who couldn't stop herself grooving to the hip-hop beat laid down by the DJ between sketches).
There was also a family celebrating their son's fourteenth birthday who gets nominated for "Line of the Night" with his response to the Improv actress asking why he hadn't been calling her: "Well, I've been kinda busy, it's tax time." The kid's quick on his feet.
Anyway, as they came back from intermission they called out to the audience to suggest a location that would fit on the stage. I yelled out (so as not to be drowned out by the non-existent participation from the rest of the audience) "Pirate ship!" and the MC turned and was all "YES! Your shit is totally on top of it tonight! Awesome!"
The skit highlighted a be-hooked unlucky-in-love pirate captain named One-Eyed Frank.
So that was pretty cool.
On the
train bus home Samantha and I sat next to a drunk baseball fan. How'd we know he was a baseball fan? As he blearily eyed the passengers on the bus, he raised his fist in solidarity with an older woman in a Yankee warm-up jacket. "You're a Yankee fan?" he slurred, "We're outnumbered here."
He then went on to describe to the man sitting opposite that he had grown up next door to Manny Ramirez in New York, and Manny used to hang out with him as a kid. And play baseball with him. And...fell asleep.
Go Sox.
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