KCRF Fourth Weekend: The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly

The Good:

  • The Show. It’s evolving slightly, changing a bit at a time as we drop stuff that isn’t working or that we’re bored with, and experiment with new stuff. Quite the change from scenario/court, where we slogged through the same stuff day after day, regardless of how the audience responded. Being able to tailor a show to the audience as it is happening is exhilirating, and I’m blessed to be working with performers who are talented enough to do that without a second thought.
  • Friends coming to see the show. It’s always great to have people you know in the audience, whether they are Festival Performers or Patrons. This weekend we performed for some of Red’s Girls, Friends that we comp ticketed, Co-workers, and even a friend of mine from High School that I haven’t seen in at least a decade. Seeing the moment on their faces when you transform from “Somebody They Know” to “Funny Show” is a wonderful experience to have.
  • Quotes that I will carry with me: “That’s what happened! She became a whore through osmosis!”, among others.
  • Wonderful dinner with friends after the show on both days. Especially Sunday night, where we filled a Chinese restaurant with laughter.

The Bad:

  • Aside from the usual (temperature, humidity and my physical infirmities), I honestly cannot think of anything bad from this weekend. At least nothing that rose to the level of being noteworthy.
  • EDIT: Actually, an email that I just had to send to the management reminded me of two:
  • While our 11:30 show was moved from Merlin’s Berm to the Crown & Rose (yay!), our name and scheduled perfomance did NOT appear on the stage sign, on either Saturday or Sunday, despite staff being alerted.
  • A patron pointed out to me at our last show on Sunday that none of our shows in the schedule were given the “Not For Little Ears” asterix, as they had been on the first 3 weekends. Given the nature of our show (and, hell, our performers!) that’s a problem….and might explain why we had so many kids showing up at shows this weekend.

The Ugly:

  • Spoke at length with a couple of the wine wenches, and found out that the reason we were given for the after-hours pub being cancelled was bullshit (surprise, surprise). Honestly, do these stupid motherfuckers really think that we don’t talk to people outside of our own discrete little groups? Despite the fact that WE were told that THEY didn’t want to have to pay people to be there after closing, THEY were told by the front office that ALL alcohol sales must stop by 6:30, because “management is concerned about the liability of people leaving the festival drunk.” Which, of course, is a laughable legal position….and yet another example of a decision made for church reasons by church people. Congrats, kids….apparently we work for the Kansas City Jesus Freak Festival. We’re on our way from “tits and beer” to none of either.

5 Replies to “KCRF Fourth Weekend: The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly”

  1. My dear, actually, dram shop liability is truly a scary, scary problem for businesses which sell alcohol (I watched a couple of those cases go down in my time at Applebee’s). They are absolutely right to be scared, but closing down the afterpub was a ludicrous way to do it, especially as all the people at afterpub were limited to a 2 drink maximium, and no one there could have been, by contract, drinking prior to the cannon going off.

    Interestingly, they have also tried to pass it off that the 6:30 limit is imposed by their “liquor license”…meaning, when I suggested that our friends with Gorilla – the pub just up from Ladyhawk’s be the afterpub, when my friend Luby went to ask about it he was told directly by Carla that “their liquor license will not allow any alcohol sales for 30 minutes prior to the venue closing to the public. I know this is bullshit under Kansas Liquor Law, as they hold a caterer’s permit, which only limits sales between 2:00 A.M. and 6:00 A.M., but I have not yet had opportunity to get a look at Bonner Springs regulations (as those people do hate Mr. P with a passion and I would not have put it past them to actually enact more restrictive regs on the Festival specifically).

    However, this information casts a light on what is probably the truth of it. Wankers.

    D.

  2. I was going to say I’m confused, but why bother? There have been so many different explanations for the afterpub and cast party disappearences that I doubt even they know (or care) anymore. The right hand doesn’t know who the left hand is doing.

  3. I’m seriously tempted to raise my hand during the morning meeting and nail him down about the cast party. In public, and on the record.

  4. I’m sure he’d come up with something to say … if The Office has done nothing else this season, they’ve definitely come up with more explanations for their actions than Dubya for Iraq.

  5. Or a combination of both? They need/want to limit the cost of running the alcohol booths and going past 6:30 might have kicked them into some overtime???

    And do they think we are all dumb as dirt that we can’t put two and two together? Oh wait a minute, we do keep coming back to work there…….. :).

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.