Breaking the Ice: The Webcomic of Comedian John M. Keating

Me, Cameron, America, Karen, Jamie, Chance, Raleigh

“In the end? Nothing ends…nothing ever ends” – Dr. Manhattan; Watchmen

I’ve never been good with endings. It doesn’t matter if it was a good book or just a good time spent with friends, I always hated when it ended. I think it goes back to summers down Cape Cod when I was a little kid.  My grandparents had a motor home in a seasonal campground and my sister and I would spend a large portion of time between June and September there.  There were a group of kids that I would hang out with who also spent most of, if not all of, the summer there as well.  I only got to see them during the summer because they lived in exotic, far off places named Brockton or Milford.  In reality, their homes were only 40 minutes at most from where I lived but when you’re a kid without a driver’s license they might as well have lived on Mars.  We’d all hang out, chase girls, go to the beach or play video games at the “rec hall”.  Every year I looked forward to the summer at the same time I feared it’s ending.  I hated the Jerry Lewis telethon because it signaled the end of the summer for me and having to say goodbye to my friends for another year.

I felt very similar to that on Sunday night when She Wrights wrapped up it’s three week run at the Secret Rose Theater in North Hollywood. I was a part of a four-person ensemble, one act play entitled Let’s Have a Baby.  The play was written by Jamie Lou Moniz and directed by America Young. I’ve been friends with America ever since we shot the Retroland pilot together.  We hit it off and have often talked about doing some projects together.  When she asked me if I’d be interested in this, just the fact that she was involved had me 95% convinced.

What I wasn’t expecting was how awesome the other actors were going to be.  Raleigh Jones plays my wife and Cameron Bender and Karen Forman act as a sort of Greek Chorus, playing multiple parts as well as fantasy sequences of what is happening in Raleigh’s head.  All of this is accompanied by improvised guitar and keyboards by Chance Villegas.  It was truly an ensemble in every sense of the word as removing one person would cause the entire house of cards to crumble.  I think the whole play lasts 20 minutes and in that time there are about 11 scenes, light cues, sound effect cues and a countless number of props.  It was kind of a beast.

The gang with our stage manager Melissa Gilleece

We had about two rehearsals before the dress rehearsal.  The dress rehearsal was the first time we would have the props, light/sound cues, music and be performing in that theater.  To say it was a debacle is an understatement.  Afterwards, the entire cast looked like we had just opened up the big box on Christmas morning to find a complete set of underwear and socks.  This was not going to go well.

But it did.  Dress rehearsal and opening night were light years apart and we all pulled it off.  That began four weeks of some of the most fun I’ve had as an actor, yet.  The shows were great with even the worst of them still getting plenty of laughs.  What really stood out to me, though, were the people.  All seven of us really bonded and I’m thrilled to have all of them as good friends now and to have shared this experience.  It was so much fun being on stage with them, amid all of the hectic changes and cues and just having a blast.  I knew if I screwed up I just had to look at Raleigh, Karen or Cam and we’d be back in the game.  Even when things did go wrong (like a burping baby sound cue resulting in the baby flushing a toilet, playing a song, flushing the toilet again before eventually getting to the burp) it didn’t matter.  We made the most of it and were just having a great time performing.  The audiences seemed to really pick up on that.  I’ve wanted to find a group to create stuff with for quite awhile now and I think this is the beginning of such a group.  We just all worked really well together and lucked into a great chemistry.

I didn’t write this, though, to say how great we all are (even though everyone I mentioned IS great).  I wrote it to more or less to set up one point:

I’m really going to miss them.

I know we’ll keep in touch and I’m pretty confident all of us will be working on various projects together.  But it won’t be this project, in this way.  It’s not a bad thing, it’s just a thing but I wanted to mark it’s passing.  I’m going to miss our Lollipop Guild dance as we got ready to go out.  I’m going to miss the myriad of inside and running gags we had between us.  I’m just going to miss hanging out with them on a weekly basis.

I feel really fortunate to have worked with every one.  They are just good people, simple as that.  One of the reasons I wanted to get into acting is that collaboration and feeling of belonging that you get during a play or on set.  This show was exactly that.  I’m looking forward to beginning many new endings with all of them.

We have a winner!