My CT Live Experience! Now with Sodium!!

[Skyroniter]

I know this isn't really worthy of its own thread. If anyone else cares to share their experience here, feel free.

Friday morning I was like a kid at Christmas. I woke up at least thirty minutes before the alarm went off. So after waiting around that additional thirty minutes I was off to pick up Raja. From his home it was just a hop, skip and a short six hour jump to DC. After greatly enjoying the amusement ride that is trying to drive in city traffic, we arrived at our big city hotel. I was really pleased to find out that $38 was the cost for the night until I found that that was the price for the car to spend the night. But the hotel was nice and centrally located. I hope the car enjoyed its stay because we didn't use it again until we left to head home.

After getting settled, we were off to explore the city. Raja brought his nice camera and we documented the trip by taking a half dozen pictures. I think they thoroughly show the grittiness of the city and the history of our great country.





Me with the National Missile Defense System in the background.




Me again. I'm the star! Posing in front of the Franklin Institute Science Museum. I tried to crack a smile. Really.


We took about three hours to walk the city. I expected to see CT shirts all around but I was the only one. This was only other photo-worthy thing we found:




It's not every day that you see an albino squirrel!


After three hours or so of walking around we were sure we'd seen all there was to see in this beautiful city. So we headed to Lisner Auditorium to be first in line for the show. Turns out we weren't first but we were in the top twenty. Right outside the auditorium we ran into Truck Farmer and his bro. Truck is an old pro at these things as this was his fourth show.

While we killed time near the entrance I heard a familiar voice. It was Trace! I walked over to him and shook his hand. I told him I'd been a fan for almost twenty years. I'm sure he had never heard that before. He was polite. Unfortunately my cameraman failed to document the moment. Trace then took a picture with a cute young lady. Posing with me would have been so much more fun for him. His loss.

More milling about the lobby ensued. Whilst milling, Truck Farmer introduced me to RAD. I think getting to meet him and talk with him turned out to be more exciting than the albino squirrel and almost rivaled the show. He is absolutely a first class gentleman. I want to thank him for all the kindness he showed us. And I will.




Our first seats.


Finally it is time to enter the theater. Its an older one and seated maybe 900 to 1,000? I know I could google it but I'm too lazy. I'm guessing the place was 85-90% full. Not sure I could google that. We'll just say it was pretty darn full, OK?

RAD came over and joined us before the show began and we talked CT with him and some of the folks around us. The preshow consisted of Dave "Gruber" Allen. It also included a bit of J. Elvis, Mary Jo and RAD himself. Very funny stuff. I'm not sure but I think it went on about 10 minutes longer than usual.

After ten minutes was finally up, Joel came out on the stage. He asked how many were MST fans and the house roared. To say this crowd was enthusiastic would be an understatement. We were all ready. He introduced the performers and it was finally time. Oh, and as the show started we were able to make our way to even better seats. We were truly in the perfect spot.

The movie for the night was a poorly dubbed Japanese flick called War of the Insects. I enjoy a bad movie now and again but had never heard of this one before. It is amazing awful fun. The riffing was spot on, perfectly timed and totally hilarious from start to finish. I couldn't have imagined it any better than it actually was. Outstanding, dare I say perfect? I dare!

After the show I'm guessing a couple hundred or so fans lined up to meet the performers and get autographs. Raja and I stood and watched the procession and thought we would slip in near the end and say hello.




Our vantage point just prior to the autograph procession.


The line wrapped through the interior of the theater. I think the session took about an hour. RAD came over and kept us company during most of it. About halfway through Truck Farmer joined us. While Raja and I were discussing getting in line they closed off the line behind the last fan. So much for that. We continued for a few more minutes with RAD and the Farmer. When it was over Josh walked by and I thanked him. RAD went to Mary Jo and brought her over to say hello to us. She was very gracious but I think she looked very tired. It might have been just my tired eyes. We were brief and it was over.

Just in case anyone makes it this far, here are my final thoughts and my only negative. I'm not boring you further with the trip home. We survived with only a few pedestrian fatalities to show for it.

First the negative. No tee shirts for sale. They did have DVDs and a couple posters but that's it. I was prepared to buy at least two shirts. I would think their sales would be robust. I couldn't have been the only person wanting some.

I watched Alien Factor again last night to compare the DVD vs. live experience. As much as I enjoy the DVDs there is no comparison at all. If you can make a live show by all means you must go. I will get to another one. And if you get to one please search out RAD and introduce yourself to him if he's there. I know he doesn't make them all. There have been many nice things written about him on this board over the years. Raja and I both appreciated how he treated us. So here we go...

Thank you RAD!

[callipygias]

That's about the best write-up yet, Sky. Cracked me up a few times. Glad you and Raja had such a good time. Also, good to hear that they showed something you'd never seen before, satisfying your more-than-a-little-disturbing taste in movies.

[Truck Farmer]

Obamanable Snowjob Johnson is right!!

[Double 007]

Nice one Sky.

Did you smuggle a mini video camera inside? Will dubs be available from MST3KVideos.com?

[Skyroniter]

Oct 17, 2010 16:58:20 GMT -5 Double 007 said:

Nice one Sky.

Did you smuggle a mini video camera inside? Will dubs be available from MST3KVideos.com?

Only thing I smuggled in was a bottle of water. Actually the water was allowed.

I've never seen a theater cam video much less tried to make one. I can't imagine trying to watch one. But I'm buying this the very day CT releases it on DVD. And I know you'll buy two.

[crowschmo]

Weird. Every time I come on this thread, the photos get cut off about half way. I can't see the albino squirrel!!! (I can see his ear).

Sounds like you had fun.

I didn't see the D.C. show, but I went to the one the next night at URI. They showed "Sampson and the Seven Miracles" (I think that was the name). I didn't see any flippin' miracles. Lots of dull drawn out scenes, though.

Had fun. The Titans were funny, great show. There was a scene where people were running around madly and they all yelled, "We got Movie Siignn!!!" which got a huge response.

I'll definitely be getting this one when it comes out on DVD. (I wish that show was the one they taped so I could see the one I went to, but I think it's fairly new so they'll probably be doing that one a few more times before they tape it).

I wish I could remember more of the jokes, maybe I will later on.

I didn't walk around D.C., but I walked around Newport, RI for hours before I had to be at the show. And on a very windy day.

Beautiful, quaint, very cute little town. Very expensive, though. It cost me $17.50 just to GO there, like there was an entrance fee or something. When you drive over one of the bridges to get there, the toll is FOUR freakin' dollars! BOTH WAYS! (So I had to pay the same going back to the University). The rest was for parking. Sheesh.

Didn't see any albino animals, but saw a GORGEOUS sunset - unfortunately I was driving when it was at it's best, the lighted bridge, the fiery reds on the clouds, the harbor in the background - wish I'd had a camera mounted to my car.

Anyway, the show was really good, I just wish I could remember specific jokes.

(My computer is really slow so I can't put pictures up, they never go through).

Oh, there was one moment where Joel started singing, "I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas" as one of the characters, just the slow pacing of the scene, and the background music, I don't know what made him think of it (the clothes the woman was wearing, too, maybe, because at one point she did look like a Christmas tree), anyway it got a good reaction, and Frank said, "Oh, sure, THAT gets laughs?" (Perhaps you had to be there).

I was mad because I had forgotten I was going to save some cash for the show to buy a DVD or poster or something and any money spent in Newport I was going to use a credit card. I didn't do that, and didn't have enough cash to get anything. Grr.
Guess I'll just buy more stuff online.

Anyway, good show.

[Skyroniter]

How big was the crowd, werecrowschmo? I had heard that sales were not so good there.

[crowschmo]

There was no one in the balcony at all, most of the other seats were full but there was a good chunk on one side (left side of the stage) that was empty. Good, loud crowd though. Too bad. They were even doing that buy one get one free thing. I was surprised. I thought, even if a bunch of college kids didn't know much about the show, they would check it out just for something to do on a Saturday night. They should have filled the rest of the seats for free with students; (the venue, I mean) maybe they would've generated more fans for CT.

[crowschmo]

How could I forget - A man proposed to his fiancee at the show. Joel called them to the stage saying they had won prizes for having travelled the farthest to see the show (Tennessee). Then, instead of handing them DVD's or something, the man got on his knee and asked her to marry him. Awwww.

Poor saps.

[lavilian]

So I went to the show on Saturday and as I expected it was incredible. The theater was completely packed (fans and students) and it was great being around MST3K fans.

The movie they riffed was Samson And The Seven Miracles and it was just hilarious. Also, a guy actually proposed to his girlfriend before the show! Joel basically asked these two people to come up and out of nowhere he popped the big question to her.

I went a little crazy and got my 17" Macbook Pro and MST3K Episode Guide autographed. Mary Jo basically said when she saw the Macbook "Are you serious?" and Frank said "Is that the new iPhone 4? It's a lot bigger when you see it in person.". Trace said something about Windows 7 but I couldn't make it out entirely because of the noise in the room.

[Mighty Jack]

I'm so glad you finally got to make it to one of their shows. Fun, aint they.

Has their been any news (or has anyone asked at the shows) about when they will be recording the next batch for DVD release?

[Skyroniter]

Oct 19, 2010 0:24:11 GMT -5 Mighty Jack said:

I'm so glad you finally got to make it to one of their shows. Fun, aint they.

Has their been any news (or has anyone asked at the shows) about when they will be recording the next batch for DVD release?

Great fun for sure. Recognize the shirt? Its the one you sent me.
I didn't hear anything about the next batch of DVDs. I did hear that there's still discussion about live versus studio.

[Blue Raja]

I still can't believe Sky just assumed nobody wanted to hear about our trip back home. I mean, how could he leave out that one time we missed that exit and had to go an ALTERNATE ROUTE to get back to the interstate, or even when we stopped at that Burger King in Virginia to get a drink and everything happened pretty much as mundanely as expected? I mean, really.

Anyway, despite that glaring omission, he pretty much summed up all my thoughts regarding the trip in that awesome recap.

Just some minor stuff:

- In my defense, neither Sky or Trace ever actually turned to me to request a picture when they were interacting, and I'm not exactly the type to photograph people who aren't facing me or requesting it. Unless the people in question are albino squirrels. Then all bets are off.

- It was VERY interesting to hear Josh's pre-show segment on today's society and its lack of attention span when it comes to entertainment. Sky and I were talking about just that during our 6-hour ride up there (being 6 hours and all, it was an inevitible conversation topic), about how more people may enjoy comedic commentary more then they may think (with popularity of shows like "The Soup" and "Tosh.0," etc.), but only seem to enjoy them in short, quick 30-minute-total rapid-fire doses.

Well, I thought it was an interesting coincidence, anyway. But my main point is, I agree with what Josh had to say about it.

- I agree with Sky in that this was arguably one of the funniest and most consistant shows that they've ever done. Hardly a dry spot to be found. It's hard to say whether or not the thrill of being there in person made it funnier, or if the script/delivery really was that much more solid, but the result still remains. Can't wait for it to come out on DVD.

There were a bunch (obviously) that made me laugh hard, but these are two random riffs that I remember really liking for unknown reasons:

- Japanese wife complains to Japanese husband about not liking his job dealing with insects.

Riffer (can't remember who): "Hey, those INSECTS put raw fish on the table!"

- Good guy doctor reveals some inside knowledge about what the heck is going on with the strange behavior of the honeybees.

Riffer (as doctor): "We've got a bee on the inside."

For that last joke, it didn't get a necessarily HUGE laugh from the crowd, but for whatever bizarre reason, it did from me. The more I thought about the idea of a person actually having an undercover honeybee working for him, the more I couldn't stop laughing. And I think Sky had a delayed laugh-reaction on it based on my reaction, but you'd have to ask him to be certain of that. Anyway, it was strangely nice to be the loudest laugher in the crowd on a particular joke.

(Thinking back, my reaction may have had something to do with us earlier that day seeing the beehive exhibit at the Smithsonian Natural History Museum's insect zoo section. I can't confirm that, though)

- Sky is also 100.1% correct about the awesomeness of Mr. RAD. My big thanks go out to him (or "you," if he's reading). Particularly appreciated was his keeping us company by regaling us with juicy details about the inner workings of CT and riffing in general while we watched the autograph line go by, naively assuming that we could slip in at the end. I guess he kinda felt sorry for us when we got our presumptuous selves blocked off, so he did what he could by introducing Mary Jo to us. Apparantly the other 4 CT'ers don't even care who RAD wants THEM to meet.

(I kid, I kid!)

So, yeah - he's awesome. Meet him if you're not creepy and able to.

Aaaaaand....that's all I can think of to say for now. If in doubt about my view on something, assume Sky's statements above as that opinion unless you're told otherwise. Long story short - great show, great experience, hope to do it again sometime.

[Beautiful Mind]

I LOVE show write-ups! If I don't see a thread dedicated to write ups of a show I attended then I always make one. I didn't know it wasn't appropriate!