Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Teaser video for Thank You, Dan Rather

Just finished this 2 minute teaser for the show.

About a week ago, Dan did us a favor and said some unflattering things about CBS News and Katie Couric. That news was all over the Internet and cable TV so we decided to hurry up and finish the "teaser" and put out a press release while it was still news. Once again, thank you, Dan.

Watch it several times. There are hidden messages everywhere. Tell your friends to go to YouTube and watch and rate it. Rate it HIGH!

Enjoy. (Just kidding about the hidden messages.) ;)

(Next Post)

Friday, June 8, 2007

We Find A Theater

I finally got up the nerve to perform the show for Naomi and Stu. Kinda like doing a stand-up comedy routine for two people. But they loved it. What a relief. Up till then I was the only one who knew anything about it and I had already spent months memorizing it.

They had a few really good suggestions. Got rid of the second song and replaced it. Actually, recorded a new version of my tribute to 9/11 called "Epilogue" but after I got it done and started rehearsing with it I felt it didn't work. So I searched through the trunk and found an old song I had written for the movie, "The Return Of The Killer Tomatoes". It's called, "Touch Me There". (You can hear it and all the other songs from the show on iTunes.)

For the last few weeks we've been looking for small theaters anywhere between Miami and Boca. Not such an easy task. There are plenty of bigger theaters but only a handful of smaller ones. Another thing we found out was that in order to get reviewers down to see the show we need to be eligible for the Carbonell Awards. They're the local theater awards. And one of the requirements was to have at least twelve performances in three weeks. You also need to pay everyone who you hire. And since we're funding this first run it means more money going out than we expected. So a small theater was vital. The other really important thing was to get the theater in an area that was easily accessible for a large portion of south Florida.

And here's the pimple on the head of the problem: even if we find a perfect theater, we need the right dates available or no one might show up. The big Jewish holidays are in September, Thanksgiving is in November. And Christmas is bringing up the rear. That leaves only a few three week periods we could use. If they're available.

It was beginning to look like we might be doing it in a barn. (We couldn't find any barns either). But then we hit a bright spot. We found a wonderful lady named Meredith Lasher. She's the Prez of the Theatre League of South Florida (of which I happen to be a new member). She was full of information that lead us down the righteous path. She also happened to be running a small theater that just opened for business right in downtown Fort Lauderdale. Great location. Well equipped. And here's the kicker - there were exactly three weeks open right after the Jewish holidays!

The price was right. The people were all really nice and helpful. (Nothing worse than working with asses when you need all the help you can get.) We jumped for it. We took the dates. I don't want to say this theater is small, but you have to go out in the hallway to change your mind (ba-doom)! All kidding aside, this is exactly what we needed. I'll be posting the name of the theater and the dates in the next post.

So now's the easy part. All we have to do is fill the theater with people, reviewers and investors. And we've got three and a half months. Piece o' cake! Right?

Neal

(Next Post)