The babes were awoken, yet again, by a rapping on the door – another 4.15 start. Staggered out and down the street with Arjan to the same breakfast at Jack In The Box, then on to the depot. We were assigned to a 6 man crew to deliver leaflets in the downtown area – a good job since there were plenty of apartment blocks + hotels which would take a lot of leaflets at one time. In fact, one got quite pissed off when one had to give them out in ones or twos. Val was assigned to partner Arjan, and my partner was Steve, a 40 year old midget. Fortunately, he was pretty lazy, so despite my inexperience I was able to give out my fair share of papers. We stopped at lunchtime, and ate in one big group, more or less, at a cheapish restaurant – it was very welcome. Resumed in the afternoon, and finished at about 4.15 – quite a long day, but nonetheless fairly enjoyable – it was good to find your bag unloading so quickly, and much more interesting to be in the city than pounding some suburban street – I even gave 10 leaflets to the Western Hotel, where we’d been staying. Were dropped off in town, which saved us a walk, and then Val showered, I bathed, and then it was tea-time. Unfortunately, the tea-room was very crowded, and we couldn’t sit down, but at least the food was better – croissants. We read for a short time after this, and then I went down to the Spaghetti factory, while Val went to bed. The course was being taken by Chris Someone, a guy we’d met the Saturday before, and who’d appeared in N T of the D (and had been quite superb – he was the poet.) It was a good class, + Chris obviously knew a good deal about his craft. We started with warm-up stretches + noises, moved onto animals, and then developed a particular character each, before using them in scenes (mine was a thick Cockney skinhead.) I had to leave before it was finished because it was getting late, and so I caught the bus. Unfortunately, tho’, I missed the stop, and had to catch another bus back, and then walk. Finally staggered into bed, very tired, about 11.30.
Clearly, my commitment to comedy was greater than Val’s, but hers was probably the more sensible choice, with more street-pounding the following day. But I reckoned this was an opportunity, to do, watch and learn, that I would be unlikely to have fall in my lap again.
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