No Shame was on Saturday, following the last show of "The Bernstein Brothers' Christmas Spectacular." True to last year there were a number of people who were not there because of it being so close to the holidays, but it was a much bigger house then last year in general, with a huge number of virgins (which surprised me). It was also fun because my friend Adam Kampouris was there, who was also a No Shame virgin. He had a blast and did practically everything one could do. He sat on the front row, was in two pieces, one of of which was written specifically for him.
The song was done by the cast of the "Bernstein Brothers'," performing their Act 1 finale "All I Want For Christmas (Is A Couple A' Ho's)." As in the show it was hilarious, and a perfect way to start the show. In the "Bernstein Brothers'" there is a door set piece (used in a gag in "All I Want For Christmas") which was left up for No Shame, which just about everyone used to their advantage. My piece "Red Tape and Writing" was one of the earlier pieces and it went over great. The piece is about Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer writing a smutty novel and asking Santa to publish it. I got Darren to play Santa, which was exciting because I did not precast him and usually you have to in order to have someone as popular as he is in your piece. It was also fun because it was the first time Darren had done one of my scripts.
There were a lot of great pieces that night, making for a well rounded evening. Some of my favorites included "XXXmas" by Jason Williams, and also another excerpt from "Rock Saber" by Julian the Vorus. "Rock Saber" is a play that started as a stand alone No Shame skit, and the play is going to be produced in its entirety at the Asheville Fringe Festival by Chall Gray. I am looking forward to seeing it, make sure you go and check it out.
My second piece of the evening was called "Post Tragic Shakespeare Disorder." This sketch was born out of two ideas. One came to me at Steph's holiday party, and that was to write some thing for Adam Kamouris, Trinity Smith, and I to perform at No Shame. The second went all the way back to playing Mardian in "Antony and Cleopatra." Mardian is the one member of Cleopatra's inner court that is supposedly still alive at the end of the play. Trinity jokingly told me that he went to a bar with Benvolio, since Benvolio shares a similar fate in "Romeo and Juliet." Well it can be quite dangerous to joke with me, because I end up writing plays. And that is precisly what I did here. In the play, Mardian (Me), Benvolio (Trinity), and Horatio (Adam) all go to a bar for Christmas and commiserate over their fates. It all ends in a group hug. The scene went great. I loved performing with the two of them and I felt like the audience enjoyed it. I wanted to have the scene bookended by "Eleanor Rigby" by The Beatles, but the CD didn't work. C'est la vie.
Mondy Carter and Karen Stobbe took No Shame 2008 out with, appropriately enough, the improv game "Next." I thought it was a fitting end to the year until I realized with horror that I have the very first No Shame piece of 2009, when I do the song in January.
Yours daunted,
Nathan H. Adams
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