WOW! Wednesday night I had the distinct honor of being on the FIRST Trailer Trash Talent Revue at Balboa RV Park, as curated and hosted by my ladycrush and now friend Dawn Brodey, and it was a FREEEEEGGIN’ HOOT. Here’s how my day and night shook out.
I left the house at 1:30pm to have a late lunch with my pal Les at Astroburger and for the first time since my adulty stomach acid issues, I ate a shit-ton of crap (i.e. cheeseburger, chili cheese fries, 2 Cherry Cokes, yeah!). And I made it out ok without heartburn, so I’m doing something right. Like, not eating crap for another week or so. Boo hoo.
We sat at our outside table for over an hour, but for the last fifteen minutes our eyes were reluctantly, involuntarily tilted upward at the television, upon which was a programme on – you guessed it – the upcoming US presidential election. Earlier in our lunch, Les wanted to vent his frustrations about Trump, but I honestly don’t even have the energy for that these days. I mean, I feel his – to put it mildly – shortcomings are so obvious that talking about it is wasting breath on the wrong thing. So we sat there in silence and let the man himself talk and talk, making hopefully more than half of the nation disgusted in him enough to vote for the other guy/lady.
Neither of us wanted to move because it was so hot and we were in the lovely shade and we didn’t have to think because our eyes were glued to a TV. But Les had a nap to take and I had a show to get to! So a little after 3pm, I departed for Van Nuys for a 6pm call. Why? Because at this point, it would take me only 40-ish minutes to get there instead of 2+hours if I waited another 30 minutes. *I am one with the traffic. OMMMMMM*
I arrived at the Balboa RV Park a little after 4pm after driving down Balboa Blvd for the first time since my visits to a boyfriend that lived there during my college years! While cruising past the big park there, I did try to see if I could guess which bench we fucked on. I couldn’t.
Dawn said I could crash on one of the couches in “the clubhouse,” AKA the rec room of the RV park, AKA the theater! I found it immediately and found it empty and air-conditioned and found a couch upon which to get a little disco nap. I awoke to the jingle of keys and the question, “oh, are you the sleeping performer?”
“Yeah, dude, I’m rehearsing, if you could give me a minute, please.”
I shared a laugh with Steve, the proprietor and manager of the Balboa RV Park. What a sweetheart! He was the one that saw Dawn perform at the Comedy Store and then suggested she host a show at the RV park. And so here we are. Through our conversation, we found out we were born in the same hospital! Pretty cool.
By 6pm Dawn had us set up at a couple of picnic tables on the side of the building, with a vintage Airstream trailer blocking us in our “green room.” She unloaded a bag of “trashy” treats for us to snack on (sugar wafers! juice boxes! hot chili cheese puffs!) until the delicious homemade burritos, beer and wine arrived.
One by one the performers rolled up and I was pleasantly surprised to see a few familiar faces (all of them! Max! Kirsten! Erin! Andrea!) in the improv troupe Lady Parade! Here’s how weird real life is: Erin did a scene in which she proposed to the other character… and then later in the show, Erin’s real-life boyfriend Caleb sang a couple of songs and PROPOSED TO HER for real. I’ve never seen a real-life proposal! It was sweaty and nerve-wracking, but she said yes.
One of the gentlemen performing that night (with a band) was John Sommers, who wrote “Thank God I’m A Country Boy” for John Denver. John and I had a nice conversation about the banjo because he also plays! He also hosts a bluegrass jam every Tuesday night at the RV Park! And I just got next Tuesday night off, so…
Kat Perkins, one of the top 5 finalists on Season 6 of The Voice, was there with her partner Eric Warner, and they did a couple of covers and rocked the roof of the sucka, of course. There were a handful of other talents as well. I can tell you the next one is going to be awesome! I hope this becomes a cult hit of Weird LA.
I played “One Week” and “If You Ain’t Gonna Tap It,” my two newest jokes (Chris Maddock calls his funny songs “jokes” – I like it). Halfway through the minute-and-a-half “One Week,” I commented on how there were already a lot of cocked eyebrows and this was one of my cleanest songs! Got a laugh, which is the point, of course.
I chose these two songs because Dawn had asked for a more “family-friendly” set. This is a request I have received quite a few times. My challenge is always: do I write more “family-friendly” stuff so that I can play more places? Because I risk watering down my material and the message, which is that sex isn’t dirty, or okay, it IS, but that isn’t a bad thing. Luckily I have somewhat of a handle on metaphor so a lot of this stuff goes right over the kids’ heads.
Sitting in the front row were 3 pre-teen girls. I love pre-teen girls. Probably because I’m not their mother, but there’s something I really want to get close to there, like a mother, auntie, or maybe just the “cool older lady.” But older ladies are rarely cool to pre-teens unless they’re famous. Anyway, these ladies were sitting there and I made eye contact with them a couple of times as I sang about chlamydia and not being able to have sex for a week as their mom got more and more angry with me and the questions she knew she would have to answer later kept coming as I sang. I don’t actually know that their mother was angry with me. I don’t even know if she was there. I did, however, offer my ear if any of them wanted to talk to me about having their periods. From the stage. Into the mic. “Hey ladies, if any of you need to talk to me about your period, I am here for you.” I am really proud of my attempted embarrassment of these poor girls for some reason. I did apologize to them after the show, and luckily, they were actually very amused by the whole thing and seemed to enjoy my songs. Maybe I am the cool older lady after all!!
The room was packed, Dawn kicked ass as a host, and everyone was really nice and grateful for the show. I had a wonderful time and I look forward to the next one!
xoxoxo Court.
Courtney McClean 