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

Read you Like A Book Last Day & Goodbye

SATURDAY, JULY 30, 2005 "Read You Like a Book" Day Thirteen:

Call Time: 5:30am

The only saving grace of having the French Hotel Berkeley nearby is the fact that I can sleep in. At this point one actor is out of town and is letting me stay in his room while he stays with his family and friends in SF...and I am still taking BART back and forth. Got to the hotel at around 9:30pm the niight prior. Got some juice, tuned the radio to KFOG, watched the Daily Show and read the San Francisco Bay Guardian "Best of the Bay."

This year there was no category for Best Improv Ensemble. No category for Best Comedy Show. Just best comedian and Best Theater. ACT (as always) got it. The closest any comedy group got to any recognition was the 18 Mountain Warriors guys for Best Sketch Writers.

Head over to the set in the morn. The scene is Tony (Dante) being found on the ground by me, Karen Black and Ricardo Gil. It is tense. I don't really know what is going on. All I know is it is tense on the set. At one point there is a tense moment with Bob and Tony...and I just look around and finally say Well, I'm running away, and go outside to have a smoke.

I do my last and final line: Looks like you got the shit kicked out of you. I'm the only character in this entire movie who swears. I think I gave the movie it's rating.

It is a looking down shot of Dante: POV from Dante. They have stuck me in the middle of this shot and I'm a pretty tall person compared to Karen Black and Ricardo (who happens to be a Dwarf).

They tell me to bend down some. I do. They shoot it. Then they finally put me down on one knee on the same level as Karen and Ricardo. The floor is hard tile. I ask for something to put under my knees, because I'm wearing a dress. They get me a knee pad. We walk into the scene and Ricardo accidentally runs into it. Bob goes Can we get that out of there??

Karen gets peeved SHE NEEDS SOMETHING FOR HER KNEES!! she says as she has her blanket under her. She looks at me and says Good god. Like you don't deserve kneepads for your stockings!! It was incredibly super sweet of her...but at that point I just wanted the scene done. I said Thank you Karen...but lets just do this.

Four takes later and it is done. Other takes of picking Tony up off the floor later...there is the scene with Gina, Tony and Karen. Lord knows why they asked Ricardo and I to stay in there...but they wanted background of us fixing the place up. Fine. I don't remember how many takes we did...between tense stuff going on...and some store guy in the back talking really loud and walking into the camera shot, trying to set up the store for the real customers for 10am...but it was what it was.

Ricardo and I are let off the set but held to see if we are needed. I knew we were done. We have lunch...they go back in...I lay down on the bed. It is 12:30. I fall asleep.

Around 3:15 I wake up. I ask what is going on.

They tell me I'm released.

Really? When did this happen?

Around 1:00pm.

...why didn't anyone wake me up?

You looked so comfortable.

I put on my regular clothes and chill some more. The wrap party is at four. I get all my original stuff from Marianna packed up (my remaining makeup, my earrings, a leather wristband, my buckle shoes)...and I donate to Marianna my mesh shirt, which is now just ripped to shit. She gives me the lace top that I wore to match the dress she gave me a few weeks ago. Sweet! A new Oui Be Negroes outfit.

I head out to find Ricardo at Cesar's Restaurant but alas, he is already gone, so I walk up to Bob's house for the wrap party. Ricardo is just pulling up in his car with his wife.

We are the first ones there.

Lots of food and a crap load of wine. Everyone shows up. I hang out with Sophia and the tech crew a lot. I get an Angel of luck from Barbara to bring more money into my pocket. I drink a lot of wine. I joke around. One of the grip guys worked with Jello Biafra from The Dead Kennedy's and a lot of the punk bands here in San Francisco. I'm a huge Punk Fan. He is pretty damn choice and we hung with him a lot. We were talking about hitting Zeitgeist, but I started getting tired.

Bob does a speech and kind of comes off...well...not particularly nice when he speaks in public. He is the kind of guy, where you look at the person sitting next to you and say Wow...he really thought that was funny? But people were appreciative.

The party starts breaking up and Judi gives me a ride home. Before I go...I find Karen Black.

Karen. I never do this. I really don't. But like I said, I have been watching you perform for years. May I have your autograph? She seems really happy about this and is super sweet, grabbing a pen. I get out a paper party plate and have her sign the back:

Shaun -

Best Wishes to a wonderful talent

   -Karen Black

It is now pinned to my corkboard. Next to my Two SAG pins*.

Judi and I end up side tracking to my favorite dump bar in the SOMA, Rich's. We have a nightcap and talk about everything girl and love and film. She is a great lady. I head home and lay down. I got to get up early to be in Santa Cruz for an improv show with ComedySportz.

Before I left the party I told Tony Amendola I'll see you around. He is such a nice, dear sweet man. We both know we will probably never see each other again. At least until preview.

Later at home, I'm laying down. I turn on Seinfeld. It is the episode where Elaine is in the sauna and trips and lands into Jerry's current girlfriend's breasts. It is also the episode where Kramer thinks the guy in the sauna is Rushdie. His name is Sal Bass. I have watched this episode a million times. This time I sit upright from the couch.

Great god. Sal Bass is Tony Amendola. I guess I will see him more than what he thinks.

This film was possibly one of the most incredible experiences of my life. It might be the worse thing I have ever done in my life caught on film...but the process of making it was a wonderful one and something I will always remember.

AFTERMATH:

The movie showed at The Mill Valley Film Festival and it was received well. It never went into mass distribution. As many films go...it went direct to Netflix. Mixed online reviews abound for it. I, to this day, still use the scene with Danny Glover in my acting reel. It was one of the best moments of my life, that day.

*After the film was done I get a call from SAG in Los Angeles. I was informed I still owed some sort of "Extra money" that came out to exactly $1.15. Could I give them a credit card? Could I send them four quarters a dime and a nickel? No. I had to write a check. This time they were nice. I did not have to run out and get a cashier's check.

The check, envelope and stamp cost more than the actual price on the check to send to Los Angeles from San Francisco. A week later, they sent me another package. In it, was ANOTHER SAG PIN.

I have two SAG Pins on my board next to a faded paper party plate of Karen Black's Autograph. I'm reminded of this movie every time I look up from my office desk.

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