Fresno Famous

FYI, this is a lot about me ...

First off: The Tower District was HOPPING this weekend. I had to park five blocks away on a residential street and walk myself to dinner Saturday night. I should have just walked from home. But it was awesome sitting inside Palamino's and seeing so many familiar faces walk past the front window.

That's a good sign that things were/are in full swing for the Rogue Festival. We had a sell-out (or close to it) for our show opener Saturday night and a full (ish) house Sunday evening. And talk seemed like all the other venues/performers were all doing well, as well.

Opening night, 5:30 p.m., Feb. 28 : There were nerves and heat, both of which were fixed by the following night. The show went really well. I missed a chord or two, and felt my voice quaver a couple of times, but that's live theater. The lights were baking-hot and by the end I was sweaty and gross and totally ready to be done. Doing musical theater is much harder than doing theater or music separately. But there were lots of friendly faces in the audience (thank you all) and it seemed like we got a good reception, some laughs and a couple ofnice reviews from that show.

Show two, 5:30 p.m., March 1: This was just one of those shows, where it seemed like things were working against us. Not that it was bad ... but ... to start, I broke a string on one of the guitars while tuning. This was minutes before show time. I was freaked. But Jamie, being cool and calm, came up with a swimming solution and put me (mostly) at ease. During the finale, Young Josh (as opposed to me) somehow cut his ankle and had to hop out for curtain call. There was a quick-change issue, and I flubbed a chord or two. But, for the most part, the show ran smoothly and I felt like we played/sang the songs better than the night before. The audience seemed to totally buy into our silliness, even sang along at the end (yes, there is a sing along). Out front, after the show, I even heard someone singing the finale. I took that as a compliment.

We still have three shows left. They are:

Wednesday, March 4, 8:30 p.m.
Thursday, March 5, 5:30 p.m. (come on down right after work)
Friday, March 6, 8:30 p.m.