June 19, 2009 Part 2

“Portland”

When we knew we were coming through Portland we contacted our friends Bob and Stacey, who moved from Chicago a while back and started a theater. They offered to let us stay with them and since we were going to be there during the weekend we were invited to perform as well.

We got there Friday evening despite an un-Portland-like downpour that tried its best to blow us off the interstate. We told them the story of the grave and headed to the theater. Bob excitedly prefaced our entrance with a brief description and by stating that he was interested to see our faces when we saw it. The theater was amazing. Built from an old factory, it had high ceilings and on one side a cantilevered balcony over the bar and kitchen. The stage was in the opposite corner and a large section of the 3000 or so square feet were dedicated to cabaret seating. The front and side were made of glass and covered, on the inside, with giant dark curtains.

We played a fun two act show with Stacey and Bob and a handful of other performer who we met that night. The show that happened after ward takes a bit of explaining. So there’s Air Guitar where people pretend to be playing guitar to a song. There’s national championships and people get really into it. It has really caught on. So much so that it has spawned Air Sex competitions, where people pretend to have sex to songs. How this is different from striptease with clothes on is unclear or unimportant. Anyhow this Air Sex tournament was visiting Portland. So in honor of that, the Curious Comedy Theater presented the Air Walking-In-On-Someone-Cheating-On-You contest. Real fun.

Late night at a cool little diner called Stepping Stone with the cast and then bed time on the futon. We planned on biking downtown the next day.