The Thrilling Adventure and Supernatural Suspense Hour!

I'm sitting in front of the laptop, drinking a glass of milk and I really want to write this post, but I don't even know where to begin, the night was so epic! I'm usually not one who's at a loss for words, and those who know me will attest to that, but Oh My God!!!

Ella and I reached Largo at 6:30pm and waited in line, hoping for good seats. It was kind of cold, but under my oh-so-stylish sweater and jeans, I had thermals on, so I didn't feel the bite. Such a good thing. We got our seats (row E, because even though we were early, there were about 30 odd people ahead of us) and then wandered a bit and then went in. I said hello to Michael, who is the stage manager at Largo and was very kind to me and it was only because of him, that I got to hang with Paget backstage in July! I then got something to drink at the cafe and we (Ella and me) sat at a table and chatted.



Ella, who was facing the courtyard saw Jonathan Reilly, who is the official TTAASSH photographer. He and I were Twitter buddies so I went up to say hello. He was very sweet and it was lovely meeting him. He even scored some of Nathan Fillion's cookies from backstage for us :) That was cool!



Then I met Busy Philipps from Cougar Town! She is absolutely lovely in person and so sweet. She signed my card and took a picture with me. She was so funny on stage and I really do not understand how she is able to keep a straight face.



It was incredible to meet the Ben Acker and Ben Blacker, because they are show, all said and done. I got them to sign my poster and they are such an inspiration for comedic writers. I hope, that at some point in time, I will have an iota of their talent. They are both very nice and took time out to talk to me, even though they were so busy.

We also got to say hello to Hal Lublin, who is an brilliant voice actor. If he has done audio books, I want to know!!! He has that voice that is so freaking smooth! I feel like he should move to Bangalore and get on Radio Indigo there!!! Pronto!


(Hal, Ella and me)



I got to say hello to Samm Levine, whose work on Freaks and Geeks I have admired for a long time. He is such a great actor and was awesome on stage. Just before we went in, Paul F. Tompkins came out to say hello!! It was surprising, because I didn't know that he was going to be there! I was glad to see him in person there finally after all the tweeting and the video chat on Yowie.

We went inside for the show. The show itself was hysterically funny, with the usual bit with Sparks Nevada: Marshal On Mars and some other stuff including Captain Laser Beam (the funniest bit in my opinion - Captain Laserrrr Beammmm) and Jefferson Reid: Ace American. Since Paget Brewsterwas working and couldn't make it to the show, the Beyond Belief segment had to be dropped.

I don't know how much I can really say about the show because I don't have permission to review the actual show. What I can say is that, if you cannot go to the actual show in LA, listen to the podcast (itunes and non-itunes), because it is the best thing ever!

I got permission to tell you guys what the play is all about, kind of. Aaron Ginsburg, the director, basically told me that I didn't need permission :P So here gos my review!!

The show started off with Sparks Nevada: Marshal on Mars! It stars Marc Evan Jackson, Mark Gagliardi and Busy Philipps. This was so funny and it had Yvette Nicole Brown as the "troubleshooter". The episode was where Red, Busy's character, had broken up with Sparks Nevada (MEJ's character) and chose Croach instead. It seemed as if Sparks had created a simulation of the two of them, where Red told Croach that she had chosen wrong. Then, the simulations needed an upgrade, where they developed minds of their own after Sparks approved the upgrade. To shut them down, The Troubleshooter had to be called. After trading multiple jibes, they were finally shut down.

The next act was in my opinion, the funniest thing ever! This was the Adventures of Captain LaserBeam! This brought out the talent of John Ennis and Hal Lublin. Hal was hysterically funny with his drawl of "Captain LaserBeammm" and "Richarrrddd" (who was played by Matt Braugner). I laughed so much at this bit that I actually got a cramp in my tummy!

In this episode, Captain Laserbeam had to face-off with his third worst enemy King Mammalwith the spirit of the Adventurekateers egging him on and eventually saving him! This was when the King Mammal (played by Nick Kroll) stole the Platypus and another animal that I cannot remember from the zoo. The episode was brilliantly enacted and written!

The third and final act was Jefferson Reid: Ace American - starring Nathan Fillion as Jefferson Reid, Annie Savage as Agent Abby Adams and Samm Levine as Brownie Finn. In this episode, Brownie was kidnapped and changed into a monster by the evil, dirty Krauts. Then Jefferson Reid was called in, to save Brownie and Agent Adams. The best part about this act was the way Annie Savage said "Dirty Kraut" in this voice. It was laugh-out-loud funny. The other things were the expressions on Samm's face whenever they were talking about Brownie. Nathan Fillion pulled off a cool superhero expression, but it was somewhat reminiscent of Castle's expressions. I guess, it's more a Nathan thing, but he did look adorable!

The entire show had advertisements from the sponsors - WorkJuice Coffee and Patriot Brand Ciggarettes. These were little snippets and jingles. The show ended with the cast singing the WorkJuice Anthem, which I've had stuck in my head for the last three days. (I'm editing this on January 11th).

There is a segment with two cops that I cannot remember right now, but when I do, I will put it in!

After the show, we came out and stood near the stage door, waiting patiently for Nathan Fillion, like good little children. He came out and then ran upstairs, just smiling at us. It was like all the people collectively went "Whaaaa?" until we heard that he went up for an interview and would be back for pictures. Phew, right?

He came back after his interview and we took a picture and he signed my card for me. He was so sweet and stayed for quite a while signing things and taking pictures with various people. He's one of those people who you just know you're going to like and have fun hanging out with. He actually is a LOT like Rick Castle.



We said a quick hello to Yvette Nicole Brown from Community, who was sweet enough to take a quick picture with us. She also had such a fabulous hair-do and was awesome on stage! She told me she did it herself!



We also got to hang out with the very cool Annie Savage. She has an incredible voice and is just so lively that you feel so excited being around her!!! I also found a lucky penny (you all know how I am about those) while I was chatting with her which just ups her cool factor! She also had the cutest little hat on!




(Marc Evan Jackson and me)

Then we went to The Little Room where we hung out with the funny and talented Mark Gagliardi, Marc Evan Jackson (who IS Sparks Nevada) and Andy Paley who's orchestra does the music for the show. It was incredible getting to know these insanely talented people and truly humbling that they took the time to chat with me.

All in all, it was an amazing show and evening!! Now all I need is for them to bring the show to Bangalore! We have a really cool theatre culture if anyone who can make this happen is reading this! Until then, I shall blog about Thrilling podcasts! HA!

First ever live chat with Paul F. Tompkins

I was on Twitter this morning after my walk with Gypsy, just checking to see what people were saying. I saw Janie Haddad's tweet saying her husband Paul F. Tompkins (One of the funniest men I know) was going to do a live chat at 7pm. That meant, that this was going to happen at 7:30am my time. It was 6:45am then and I looked at the website and decided to go on for half an hour before I had to leave for work!

I registered or RSVP'd as they called it and got ready before 7:30am. I had no clue how this would work and the website kept asking me if my web cam was working and if I could hear! I said yes to both!

By the time I figured all this out, Paul had already come on and was answering questions. I saw the "Ask a question" tab and clicked on it. I asked my question and then tried once again to figure out how it worked and when my question would be answered. Suddenly, my web cam came on and a pop-up said that my question was voted to the top and that I had to get ready to answer it! Then I got a little nervous!

I mean, I was going to talk to one of the world's funniest people, and I certainly didn't want to sound idiotic! I rehearsed my question in my head and then my face filled the screen! Paul recognised me from Twitter (We've had our conversations!) and said "Ah, Romy Skye from Bangalore! How are you? It's good to finally see (or meet?) you!" (I have a somewhat eidetic memory) and I said "It's great to see you too" and then proceeded to blurt out my question, jumbling words (of course this would happen)!! Luckily Paul was kind enough to blame the great distance between us for static and I repeated the question slowly and he got it! My question was "What is your favourite worst food combination?" Mine is a jam, ketchup and cheese sandwich. He said something about a Philadelphia specialty with the leftovers of a hot dog and eggs.

At least that is what I think he said, since I am not American and I am a vegetarian and have limited knowledge of meat and eggs! He then said that Janie liked boiled peanuts and made fun of wet peanuts until I told him I loved them too!!! I died laughing at his pained what-is-the-world-coming-to expression!

For those of you who don't know, boiled peanuts is a VERY popular snack here! It's boiled in salt water and sometimes people put some lime, cut up some onions and tomatoes and eat it as a snack with beer!

I found out that you type a question, the other people online vote for it and if it's popular, you get lined up and get to ask Paul your question. I asked two more - "What is your favourite TV show right now?" and "Describe your first stand-up performance". My TV show thing was picked up and I asked him. He said that it was Mad Men and Breaking Bad on the drama side and The Colbert Report on the comedy side.

I have to say that I do not watch Mad Men or Breaking Bad - they don't air here (But I have watched Panel discussions with Janie Haddad! HA!) but I have watched The Colbert Report (YouTube) and that is just amazing!

As I was running out of time and a lot of the video chatters were asking multiple questions, I asked if I could ask another question and he said that I could. I asked about stand-up and he said that he didn't remember anything about the actual show, but he remembered everything before (feeling nervous/excited) and after - the exhilaration of having done it!

Then I had to leave as it was 7:57 and I had to be out the door at 8! The funny thing was that just as I was leaving, the website asked if I was ready to have my stand up question lined up!!! HA! I didn't feel bad cause I asked him two questions then!

It was such an amazing Thursday morning!!! Thanks so much Paul for doing this and I really hope you can come to India one day and thanks Janie for tweeting about it!!

Mission: Paul F tompkins in India.

Lets talk Paul F Tompkins! A lot of comedians are coming to Bangalore (FINALLY!). A couple of weeks ago, we had the guys from "Whose line was it anyway?" come in - Brad Sherwood and Colin Mochrie and we also had Russell Peters come. They both came back for a second time because the demand was so much!! So it's not like no one's going to see the show!

I really want Paul F Tompkins to come here! I spoke to a bunch of people at work and a lot of my friends and they have heard of him here and would definitely be interested to go for this! Paul told me that he wants to come here too. Now I wish it were that easy! A lot of event management has to go into this and I'm a green girl in this field! I've never done anything like this, I have no clue how to go about this or what to do.

I think it would be a hoot if he came. I've seen all possible videos of him on YouTube and now I'm looking at the stuff on funnyordie.com. He is a laugh riot and I got to see him live for the 3 minutes he performed at The Thrilling Adventure and Supernatural Suspense Hour, just before the show.

I just need to find an event management company who would be willing to, well, manage this event. It's just not as easy as it seems cause you need one of the bigger companies to handle this. I've spoken to some people who know some people in these companies, so let's see what happens. Cross your fingers and hope we get to see him here! It would be so awesome!