Another small audience last night, but bigger than opening night.

The audience consisted of Cynthia, Kelly's husband, Omar's 16-year-old daughter and the usher. Oddly, these tiny houses don't bother me a smidge, because the show is so good that I just enjoy watching it every night, and because I know that Broadway shows are closing due to small houses, what makes me think that it would be different for Off-Off Broadway?

Omar's daughter was adorable. He is barely old enough to have fathered a 16-year-old, and since he looks about ten years younger than he is, the whole thing is inconceivable. They look alot alike, but maybe he's her older cousin, not her dad, for Chrissakes.

She was sweetly thrilled to meet the cast and me, and was shocked that I remembered that she had played the lead in her high school production of Little Shop. I told her that the reason that I remembered was because Omar was about having a stroke, he was so nervous for her, and she thought that was pretty funny.

It was another excellent show, but for the beginning, which was a giant pile of poo.

Omar is, to put it mildly, a racehorse, which is what I call an actor that is nervy and startles easily and needs to be coddled a bit, and usually racehorses aren't worth it, but we all know by now how I think that Omar is the Greatest Actor in All the Land and things, so he's very worth it, but put him in a role where he has to start the show with a long monologue that he says directly to the audience and sit his daughter in the front row staring at him, and you get what I got last night, which is him turning his lines into the biggest load of bollocks you ever did hear.

I was mostly watching Kelly, but then I sort of tuned into him and realized that he had left the script to such an extent that he was barely speaking English. He never stopped, though, he just kept talking and talking, trying to get back round to an actual line, until he finally did. I told Kelly afterwards that I was thinking that I hoped she got the furniture all moved in time, because he might have cut to the end at any minute, and she assured me that she was ready to dive into the bed at any moment.

After that, the rest of the play went absolutely fine, and none of his other monologues left the planet earth, but later on, when Kelly said to him, "Tell me a story!" and he answered, "I don't know any stories," I did mutter to myself in the booth, "You're fucking right you don't!"

Or, as Cynthia put it later, you could tell that he was somewhat insane during the first monologue, but later on he came out in his underwear and all was forgiven. All of us Callahans and Semi-Callahans are very pro-Omar getting undressed onstage.

The rest of the show went very well, it was all uphill from the first monologue, thank God, and our small but appreciative house seemed to enjoy it muchly. I usually don't care when shows close, but I can tell already that I will miss this one terribly.

Today's horoscope:
Although the usual office politics can really irritate you, a cool, detached attitude serves you best.

One year ago today:
Five months of wearing sandals, you lose your socks!

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Last Updated Fri 28 September 18:39:09 2001