did you happen to catch my one-person show?

What did you think? Honest feedback is appreciated, since I'm still working on it for future performances. Also, any support drummed up here may bring in more people for this weekend's shows.

Time to put on your critic's cap. What did you like? What didn't you like? What did you want more or less of?

Are my parents going to be proud of me?

-- Anonymous, July 12, 1999

Answers

Unfortunately I'm going to have to wait for it to come out on video.

-- Anonymous, July 12, 1999

Hey, Pamie, if I can get a babysitter and coerce Paul to come to your show this weekend, and if I can somehow walk up to you after the show and say, "Hi, Pamie! It's me, Deb, another Austin online journaller(ist)!" will you look at me like I'm an idiot and say, "Whatever. I got a poker game to go to"? or will you say, "Wow, cool! Nice to meet you! Now I've got a poker game to go to"?

-- Anonymous, July 12, 1999

Deb--

Most likely the latter. but hopefully we'll get to chat for a minute or two before they turn off all the lights around the theatre.

let me know if you're coming.

Let this be a call to the journallers. maybe we could rope off a section for you guys or something, if you all want to meet and get together...

-- Anonymous, July 12, 1999

Your One Woman Touring Show is coming to Chicago next, right?

Right??

-- Anonymous, July 12, 1999

I want to go next weekend too! I think all the journal writers should sit in a corner and at a predetermined moment we can all chant "pa-mie's-pan-ties" ... okay, we would never do that, don't worry.

But I was planning to go next weekend, and it would be cool to meet other journal people then, and politely say hello. I just need to get my act together and call Hyde Park and all that. Geez. Advanced preparations. It's all so complicated.

-- Anonymous, July 12, 1999

Oh my god, I'm the first person here who's seen your show. Oh jeez, the pressure. What if I offend thee?

Well, the truth is, I won't have to because I had a really great time. My girlfriend and I were among the soggy Saturday crowd, and I thought it went fantastically.

Some of the stuff I'd heard before (on Squishy) translated amazingly well on stage. The birds and the bees talk and the car horn stories both were even better on stage than on the page (though they didn't rhyme as well as this sentence just did).

The ending was excellent, but a little abrupt. I was waiting for this kind of monster laugh-out-loud ending, and instead it was a bit serious (oh crap -- I think I should have put a SPOILERS! message at the beginning).

It was really great. Honestly and critically. Rebecca and I laughed a lot and I had a great time. And Matt's show was excellent too.

I think the show could have been about 15 minutes longer and been just as effective -- as it was, it felt a bit short (which says a lot about the performance -- sometimes you get tired of seeing the same person on stage for too long, but that wasn't the case here.) It didn't drag, and even seeing at 11:30 p.m. after we'd been awake since 6:30 in the morning (long story) didn't make us sleepy.

I'm going to try to get some more people to go this weekend and I think a bunch of the LCP crew will be there Saturday. Break a leg (another one)!

omar

-- Anonymous, July 12, 1999

Well... when are you going to bring your show to Rhode Island? You could perform at Lupo's Heartbreak Hotel in Providence... (Just kidding, that's a rock venue...) well maybe someplace in Providence... or in Newport? or get away from brightlights/bigcity and do it at the URI campus?

-- Anonymous, July 13, 1999

My fiance and I saw your show on Saturday the 17th and thought you were great. We were invited to come along with Matt Sturges and depite the fact that I suspected that the show would be mediocre at best, I was pleasantly proven wrong. I admire your perseverance in the field of acting. I myself was a child actor in Houston, doing a myriad of musical theatre, commercials and print. I stopped in high school because I had worked with struggling actors and had decided at the age of 13 that I would rather be a doctor or lawyer.

I have somewhat come back around in the fact that I work in the film industry at present ( behind the camera), but it is always nice to see a good actor doing the thing he or she loves no matter what.

I felt a certian kinship to you. I have wanted to do a documentary about the ladies room for quite some time but I don't think legally it would fly.

I think you parents should be very proud of you and if anyone I know needs a female lead I will be giving you a call.

-- Anonymous, July 19, 1999

"...depite the fact that I suspected that the show would be mediocre at best, I was pleasantly proven wrong."

I bet you just love this fan mail, Pamie. Such gushing praise!

(why would you go to a show if you expect it to be mediocre at best?)

-- Anonymous, July 19, 1999

I would love to have Allison as a doctor. "Well Jason, I expected you to die but it looks like we just have to remove half your brain insead. Isn't that good news?" On the other hand, it sounds like she is leaning towards a career in entertainment(behind the camera you know) and from my dealings with the industry she will fit right in. Damn, did I wake up on the wrong side of the bed or what?

-- Anonymous, July 19, 1999

Welllll ... I work for a TV company, and all the media darlings I encounter on a daily basis are gushing and overexcited about virtually everything! I guess Allison is playing it cool - you know, not showing all her cards straight away.

Let's see how just how badly this Pamie girl wants to succeed.

You got big dreams? You want fame? Well fame costs! And right here's where you start paying ... in sweat.

-- Anonymous, July 19, 1999

Your show was fabulous! I was really looking forward to hearing some of your journal stories, and they were hysterical. Your timing and delivery are - - - - well, I just think that show is going to go far. I will be in the audience for any new Austin performances of yours, and I have no doubts that audience size will continue to grow, because you are so talented. Good luck!

-- Anonymous, July 19, 1999

Hey, if you went to the show and were thinking, "Where's Eric? I want to see Eric!" He was in the light booth. He was the one who flashed the lights during the curtain call. you may have heard him laughing.

Other people have been e-mailing me their opinions on the show. Here are some clips:

************* "We loved it! My friends and I were all VERY impressed with your show, and [We} have been laughing about it all day. [She] loved the stuff about dumb girls.

I personally was impressed with the way that you brought the Taboo buzzer on stage in a very natural way, and then used it to such great effect with the story about the horn.

Great energy. Good show! Good show!"

**********

"I definitely enjoyed the performance. Some parts had me laughing all over the place...Although I must admit that one of the things that added to the amusement was a mental picture of you rehearsing particular scenes with the cats as your audience. At first I was worried that it would be one of those -- well, most of the one-person plays and small-theater plays I've seen start with animal crawling and candle lighting and the sort of thing you mocked at the beginning, but I ended up being pleasantly entertained by both you and Matt..."

**************

"I just wanted to tell you again how great your show was. I was so proud of you, up there all by yourself and all - how scary. But you KICKED BUTT! And in case you are interested, I wanted to tell you that I think you should keep in that seatbelt-"Hello Nurse" bit. I was laughing so hard I was afraid I would distract from the story about the car horn!"

***********

I'm also looking for any sort of parts that you felt dragged, or what parts engaged you the most. Since I'm now in the re-write process, I need to know what was the most engaging and what really worked for the audience...

thanks guys. I couldn't have done this show without you. If you didn't get to see it, just know that I thanked all of the Squishy readers in the program.

-- Anonymous, July 19, 1999

ok so I saw the show a long time ago ... and I'm just sending in a review now. I suck
I thought it was great.
What I liked the best was the way almost all the stories/entries flowed naturally from one to the next
There werent many times when you felt like "OK now she's going to tell a joke" it was very natural - it was like you were just a friend talking to us (as opposed to acting FOR us)
The only suggestion i have is making the bathroom/stupid girl stuff a little shorter.
It was really funny; but it was the only part that kinda' seemed like a skit. a good skit, but not as personal as the rest
I loved the Taboo game at the beginning and how you incorporated the buzzer later in the show.
Also, I really liked the ending. It smoothly tied up everything beforehand and ended the show on a really nice note (if that makes any sense ....)
Anyway, I agree with that allison chick in that your family should be very proud of ya. It takes allot of guts to get up and talk about anything in front of people, much less things directly about yourself.
The fact that someone can do that at all is pretty good, that someone can do it and make it enjoyable for both people who do and don't know them is damn impressive.
remember us little people when you're chilling on the Daily Show ...

-- Anonymous, July 19, 1999

Woah. You guys are sure being hard on Allison. I think she just meant that she wasn't expecting a lot because some one person shows really can be boring. There's a lot of experimental theatre in Austin and it's not all great, you know?

I think what she meant was she was happy that she wasn't disappointed in the whole thing.

(And she felt that kinship, which is nice)

In any event, I think she was trying for a compliment there. Kind of like when you go and see a film that your friend recommends that you kind of think you won't like just because of the kind of film that it is but then it turns out that your friends were right and you did like it.

-- Anonymous, July 19, 1999

Hey! I liked the whole bathroom/girl stuff bit and I hope you keep it in there, Pamie. The birds-and-bees bit was even funnier aloud than when I read it. The only thing that seemed a little abrupt was the transition to the car stuff. Suddenly, whoa! we were on cars. But that was pretty minor. I also think you should have stripped down to your sports bra and some shorts at the end and then launched into a killer Tae-Bo routine. Really! You could have made us all join in with you, just like you were Billy Blanks. Okay, maybe for the next show.

-- Anonymous, July 19, 1999

What chicken story? Was it funny? Did it have a point? Because if it did, it could have been someone else. But anyway, it was wonderful. Courtney and I were talking about both shows for the rest of the night-Courtney about how much she loved the stuff about stupid girls, and me about how I'm jealous and now I want to do one. I did especially love your reaction to your dad's gesture of "penetration". I'll try to be more expressive later, but it was perfect.

-- Anonymous, July 20, 1999

'Woah. You guys are sure being hard on Allison.'

Oops. Maybe you're right. Sorry Allison (it just struck me as an odd way to phrase it, kind of like saying 'I thought you'd suck'. I wouldn't ever really want to know that anybody thought I was going to suck. If I did suck and they told me after the event, then fine - but I wouldn't want to know that people had sucky expectations.)

-- Anonymous, July 20, 1999

Pamie,
I had a friend at work who really wanted to see the show (she reads Squishy), but had to miss it. What's the plan now? Are you going to do it again anytime this year? Any chance of doing the show at Frontera? BS5? Some stand up nights?

Give the poor girl some hope - she needs to know she didn't miss seeing your show forever.

-- Anonymous, July 20, 1999

Let me flog this dead Allison horse for a bit. The reason she said she wasn't expecting much is because she had no idea who Pamie was when I dragged her and her fiance to the show. So when she said it, it wasn't like "I think Pamie is mediocre, but her show was good." It was more like "Experimental one-woman show at midnight by someone I've never heard of? Where do I sign up?!" and then realizing what a treat Pamie is.

To be honest, it's my fault. I usually have really bad taste, so no one believed that I could actually recommend something good .

Matt

-- Anonymous, July 22, 1999

So ... I missed the one-woman show. Damn.

But I got to see Monks Night Out. Which was major coolness. I laughed my butt off.

Then, of course, afterward -- Diane makes a remark to y'all about how it's too bad the audience was filled with sex-obsessed idiots who contribute suggestions like -- well, you know, sex-crazed idiot suggestions.

And realizing that not only did I contribute, "Because she won't let him wear her wonder-bra," everyone at my table (Diane, Tony and Jette) KNEW I contributed, "Because she won't let him wear her wonder- bra ..."

I slunk away into the night.

Great meeting you.

Your newest sex-crazed idiot fan.

-- Anonymous, October 11, 1999