I've Fallen, And I Can't Get Up...So I'll Just Crawl...

Well, just when I thought I had recovered from the excitement of Cardinal Nation, things went all haywire in my show life. Woke up Thursday morning with a pretty raspy-scratchy voice. I did the show that day, 2 times, but I'm going to be diplomatic and say that neither were quite my best shows. But I got through them and that's great. But as the day went on, I could hear my voice just GOING. My parents flew in on Thursday evening, about 5pm, and by the time I picked them up at the airport and we went to dinner, I was pretty much in NO VOICE LAND -
wondering how I was going to do 3 shows on Friday. (PLEASE NOTE: For those of you sitting there thinking I went to the game and yelled and screamed too much...WRONG! I was the one telling Chris and Tara that we needed to be careful since we had like 7 more shows during the week. I SWEAR it wasn't the cheering at the game...so stop thinking it. NOW!) A side note to this all: I don't want you all thinking that I just skimmed past the arrival of Mel and Priscilla to the St. Louis area! They got in on Thursday night, their plane was delayed by like 15 minutes, so I was sitting there, waiting with my camera for their arrival, and at about 4:59pm, knowing they were landing at 5:04pm, I started to get up to move to the departure doors, and there they were...walking towards me and the luggage carousel I was seated near. SOOOOO - there are no ARRIVAL PICTURES of the parentals. I am a failure...and I'm sorry.
Back to my voce dilemma. Heading into Thursday night, I'm losing my voice and fast. And since there is no miracle to report, you'll love knowing that waking up on Friday morning, it was even worse than the day before. So we got to the theater, and like a professional, Elisa got everyone together and we figured out how we could make the changes that we needed to to make the show still go on. Basically, if you want the fast version, we CUT the song that Augustus does with his mom and then everything that I sing, someone else sang. I still did all the speaking - but it was GRUFF...and pretty much EVERY character that I do voice ends up having the same sound. I'm going to be real honest, it was kind of depressing. And couple that with the fact that my parents flew across the country to see the show. They caught 2 of our 3 shows on Friday - and although they really enjoyed the show, I was still a bit bummed that they didn't get to see it with me at full-force. But there is no quick-fix for it, so no amount of complaining will change anything. I drank all different kinds of tea, I gargled salt water, I stood in the shower inhaling steam, I drowned myself with Vitamin-C...I did all the things I could find on the internet and everywhere else. And my cast...people...my cast has been the GREATEST group of friends through this whole thing. Everyone has helped out not only with cures, but stepping up and taking over things in the show to make it flow...without any complaining. It's made a tough weekend a lot easier because of each of them...or each of you (if you are a cast member reading this.....)
Anyway - back to our shows. So let's talk about Friday night. So already I had like 10 strikes against me, because I was dealing with the voice-thing. But for some reason, Friday night, all of the forces of the universe were working against me. How? Let me tell you. We get to the Fizzly Lifting Drink Room part of the show...which is where we have 2 bubble machines above the stage that turn on and blow bubbles down. So something was going on with these machines - the bubbles were still falling, but there was also more bubble-juice falling than normal. So we get to the point where we set up the nut room. After I do my part with the set up, I simply walk to stage right and exit the stage to get my squirrel. Easy, right? It always has been before. But not today. Because, as previously stated, the forces of nature are conspiring against me, and so today, when I am ONE step away from being OFF STAGE, I step in a puddle of the bubble juice...and WHAM! BAM! SPLAT! It was 'CARTOON FALL' time for Matt. I don't even know how to describe it, except to say that BOTH feet came off the ground, and I'm pretty sure I was laying horizontal. I hit the ground, hard (because all other things equal, bigger people fall harder), and for some reason...which I don't think I will ever think be able to explain...I decided to DRAG MYSELF OFF STAGE. And it turns out to look like a dog who can't move his 2 back legs...as I pull myself to 'safety'. And finally, after a split second, i get up on all fours, and just crawl off stage. Now keep in mind, while reading this, that this all took place in like 4.7 seconds of time. And once I was off stage, I lay there on the ground, laughing with everyone and wondering if, after the voice-debacle and this, I have any shreds of dignity left.
Friday after the show, I went to eat with my parents and then headed back to the hotel to crash - and hopefully sleep off the voice-loss.
Saturday I woke up sounding better, but still struggling with things...so we decided to do the 'altered' show we did on Friday. It was nice to just have one show on Saturday - and it was even nicer to have one show at 2pm. We all got to sleep in and take the morning slow. The show today went off pretty normal, and I spent the rest of the day with my parents. You'll be happy to know that tonight, my parents, Elisa, Eric and I went to Texas Longhorn, a steakhouse here in Florissant, and I found a NEW cheesecake to report all to you. It was the Cookie Dough Cheesecake. Check below for the picture and rating - and don't kill yourself running out to find yourself a slice.
So that's it...besides the show, it's been a low-key past few days. Trying to lay low, entertain the folks and somehow get my voice back. Thanks, again, to Mom Sizemore...I am trying another fix/solution...with the Prilosec...and hope that it will do the magic for me to get back to performing tomorrow.
Monday we head north to Crystal Lake, IL - outside of Chicago! And it will be nice to have a couple of days off. Elisa, Eric and I bought tickets to see WICKED in Chicago on Tuesday night - staring Ana Gasteyer, of SNL Fame. So that's exciting.
Another HUGE shout out, and a deeply humble THANK YOU to the cast and crew of Willy Wonka for their patience during the Voice Drama of 2005. SERIOUSLY - you guys have made a tough situation a lot more bearable and I will be forever in your debt because of it! This little fat German boy appreciates it more than you know! DANKE!
You kids are the best....
G


Me and the parentals backstage in Florissant. The parentals and the cast (sans Sizemore..WHERE DID YOU GO, CHRIS?), also backstage.
This was the night after THE FALL.


Jackie reacts to the treats that Mom Anderson brought for the cast. These nuggets are aptly called 'Golfballs.' Jackie likey.


The Cookie Dough Cheesecake from Texas Longhorn. It DID come with a chocolate chip cookie - which I'm pretty sure was burnt. The cheesecake itself was a bit of a letdown. After much thought, I would award this dessert a low 6 on the M.A.S.E. A great idea - poorly executed. And the asparagus at this place was bad, too.

SO - the next few pics are just a collection of shots I took on Friday. Since I couldn't sing, I decided to snap pictures of everyone as we were practicing the finale during mic check. It turned out to be a lot of fun - and some of the pictures are great. Pay SPECIAL attention to Jackie working it with the kick in the air - and all of the pictures with Tara 'in motion'. This is good photography, people!