Lesbian Dancing After The Show: An Improviser's Non Improvised Life

Wandering Minstrel Eyes Part III: A Hollywood State of Mind

We are wandering minstrels.

There was a moment in my life where I was standing back to back to my husband signing autographs in Austin, Texas at a huge sold out show at The Big Stinkin Improv Festival where I turned around to him and said What the hell is happening??

Oui Be Negroes was in demand all over the place. We were traveling and performing. I was teaching classes. We were being asked to do The College Circuit. "MadTV"came out and saw us. "Whose Line Is It Anyway" folks were all up in our grills.

Everyone was wondering who we were. Everyone.

It was when I went out to Los Angeles to meet with some muckity muck who wanted me to audition for a show that everything got strange. Weird meeting that went nowhere. Promises of big things and no outcome. A lot of sushi dinners I ended up eating in Los Angeles only to hear from a guy, You are not SAG Yet. It made no sense to me at all.

Then again even living here now...It still doesn't make much sense. When you go to audition for only two lines and there are 150 actors they have seen before you?

None of it makes much sense.

The current cast of Oui Be Negroes also had the wandering eye. All of this attention was giving everyone a Hollywood State of Mind.

Everyone wanted to move to Los Angeles. I have been wanting to live in San Francisco since 1989. In my mind, I figured Los Angeles was the closest I was ever going to get to The Bay Area.

So we made plans with Oui Be Negroes to move west. Both mine and Hans' Day Job had us squared away to move us to L.A. We were both working at the same place at a real estate company. I was doing computer design and accounting. Hans was in Distribution.

Then it happened. We got a call from Stanford University. They had asked us to come to perform and teach. BATS Improv also asked if we would like to perform with them and True Fiction Magazine.

It became a world wind San Francisco Tour. We stayed on the Stanford grounds then moved to stay with friends from the SF improv community.

I had more fun in San Francisco than I could ever have imagined. It was Black History Month of 2000. We were planning on moving to Los Angeles. Hans was finally in San Francisco and saw what I had been talking about for decades.

We got back to Chicago. We were planning on moving to Los Angeles.

Me: I would really like to live in San Francisco instead.

Hans: I think I do too.

So, we informed everyone in Oui Be Negroes that we were going to move to San Francisco instead of Los Angeles and would commute back and forth for shows. We had our jobs change our plans from their Los Angeles Office. They transferred Hans to Oakland and moved me to the Bush Offices in San Francisco. I had a friend find us an apartment and we paid the deposit from Chicago, sight unseen.

I had to start my job earlier than Hans. So I packed a massive green body bag like duffle to live in San Francisco by myself for a month before Hans drove down with all of our belongings.

Oui Be Negroes had a show at The WNEP Space the night before I had to be on a plane. It was part of The Chicago Improv Festival's all night Improv Show. I begged Jonathan Pitts to let us go up close to first and he obliged. Every ensemble had fifteen minutes. Because I didn't want the lights to go out, we timed our show in rehearsal to an exact 14:20.

On that Stage, April 30th 2000 I stood on that stage and said: We are Oui Be Negroes. Thank you Chicago! I'm moving to San Francisco tomorrow!

Don Hall (who did our lights) hugged me and said: It was like you dropped the mic and walked off the stage!

I agreed. I did drop that imaginary mic on the stage. We just dropped the mic on Chicago and screamed WE OUT.

That morning, May Day of 2000, I got in my friend Duane Sharp's car with a body bag of my things. My hopes and dreams.

I went to the airport to check them in, finally going to live in the place I always wanted to live.

I was on a new adventure. I was heading to San Francisco.

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