It’s no wonder that people get enchanted with New Mexico. What with all the chocolate, Japanese hot tubs, crazy circus farms in the hills and lovely funny people, that this fine state has provided this visitor…enchanted is too dull a word. It all started with my visit to my dear friend Amanda Crocket’s (and her wife Sarah-Jane Moody WHO it turns out wrote and sings one of my favorite songs that I got on a mix one day-she’s from the Dolly Ranchers). My shows were well performed and received at the Wise Fool Studio and because I started adding “come tell me where else I should perform” to my little curtain speech (thank you, Jessica Cerullo) I might have a gig in New York City and an extra one in New Orleans. Then, THEN the decadence started! Amanda, Sarah-Jane and I ate at a greasy spoon counter, and I had the yummiest huevos rancheros this side of the border (go Christmas!) (New Mexico speak).
And I sat next to this guy who reminded me of an oil baron, ‘cept he was ‘minin’ for natural gases that came out of the landfill.’ And he wasn’t gettin’ rich, “cause he was sharing all the profits.” And then onto the chocolate. The historic, ten different kinds of drinking chocolate and the crazy coconut truffle that the tall guy (it’s run by a short guy and a tall guy-which certainly adds to the charm) dropped off at our table. I got SO high drinking that chocolate, so high that I hardly noticed it when I slipped off my kimono and slipped into the tub up at Ten Thousand Waves. We spent maybe 4 hours there, soaking, sauna-ing, lounging, soaking and cold plunging.
And now? Now I’m up at this cool (somewhat Fellini-like) circus theatre in Peñasco, a teeny town outside of Taos, just doin’ nothin’ really. Ooh La LA! And in between nothing and nothing, I’m rehearsing in the theatre and getting some great feedback from aerialists, eating at the Sugar Nymphs Café (run by one of the women who started the famous “Greens Restaurant” in San Fran), working on my uke, sleeping in a van and eating greens from the garden. What a life! Did I mention that I’m enchanted?
POSTSCRIPT (on performing in Peñasco)
HOLEY MOLEY. What a ride. Kinda like riding a Bull. Imagine the Adobe theater with high ceiling and trapeze stuff dangling, the seats, old theatre seats from the 20's (Definately Fellini- imagine the trumpets towards the end of this clip ARE the theatre), and me waiting outside for my entrance (my Clown is warming up on a trampoline by walking around on it- a sensation I'm going to keep part of his walk) and the Septic Tanker guy shows up...he and my technician, the woman who runs the theatre get into a seemingly intense discussion about poop. It's getting later and later (8:15 by now). So I decide to walk around the theatre to tell the door guy to stall the crowd. I forget about the fence and in the dark, split my lip on it. I then use the blood on my mouth to go back and distract them from thier poop discussion and we start the show.
The beginning of my show is intentionally...well...bad. I'm trying to ellicite that "Ohmygod, WHAT have I gotten myself INTO" feeling in the theater. This feeling, combined with the vibe in this bizarre place and the sound that the poop truck is now making (VERY LOUD. VERY INSISTANT- as the poop is "hard as a rock"), sends ME over the edge of comfort. I feel like I want to jump out of my skin. Just leave the shell of me there to take the embarrasment bravely and vacantly. But then...well, I don't really remember particulars (I said something about the 'poop truck'), soon I was back in my body hanging on and letting my body metaphysically flop all over the place. The mishaps, luckily, kept coming- gifts from the Clown Gods-as Sue Morrison would say. The kids that were supposed to be outside with the babysitter that I'd hired (isn't that SMART? make it a Family event by setting up Childcare!), were all of a sudden in the theater, which I discovered quite suddenly as they were the first thing I saw as I popped out of my garment bag. I attempted a joke about my being 'squarepants sponge-guy' it flopped. But was funny. It got to the point were Everything was SO Funny that I had to shut everyone up. SHUT UP! was my creative exclamation...
The rest of the show was like this, a bucking bronco, with me hanging on for dear life, everything going wrong around me, the audience eating it up.
Hmm...wonder what the lesson here is?�
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