KCRF Awards Ceremony (aka “Rennie Prom”)

Ah yes, teenagers and early-twentysomethings in bad formalwear in a high-school auditorium. Reeks of class, that does.

Anyway, to sum up: Usual self-congratulatory wank-fest that pretty much everybody except the inner circle expected.

Nice slide shows, actually.

Funny bit: They couldn’t get the frickin’ slides started. Staring at a blank screen for minutes. Chuy yells out: “is that a picture of our crowd from the first two weekends?” Oops.

So, and I, who had been asked by the Powers-That-Be to do a Random Announcement during the program (yes, you read that right…a scheduled random announcement), decided (with prompting from and others) to jump up on the stage while they wrestled with the slides and do the damn thing right then and there. A *true* random announcement, hijacking the little farce.

Naturally, the crowd goes apeshit. We were quite pleased.

From there it went downhill. The expected assortment of obvious-from-the-beginning awards (Best New Stage Act: The Limeybirds, as predicted….although I was suprised that Bard’s Bouts got nominated as one of the finalists), and obvious fudging (Oh look, a 3-way tie for best scenario character). The obvious fudging made the expected awards even more annoying (speaking personally — Bard’s Bouts was the only local group of the three nominees for Best New Stage Act, and hence the only one in attendance. Would it have killed ya to fudge a tie there?).

A Lifetime Achievement Award for Alana, making her the youngest recipient of that honor. Well deserved, and it was great to see the pictures of the Ficklebitches. I have fond memories of being an official Ficklebitch-approved “Good Toy” during 93, when I was at front gate and they’d come up at closing, stand on a bench behind me and play with my hair as I waved patrons through the Exit Gate.

Another bit of interest: Official public confirmation from Stamberger that “it has been decided that the Royal Court will be changing next season”, and so giving Ron and Karen a final send off as King and Queen. Spoke to Ron later….he’s coming up with a lane act, so he’ll still be out there, which is great.

Spirit Award to the “soft-sculpture kitchen witches” (as calls them) — The Highgates (Marge and Dick Troeh). Definitely a sense of farewell there, too. I think they won last year as well.

All in all, the whole thing confirmed my opinion that Independence, MO is the last place I want to be on a Wednesday Night. Nice to see some folks, as always.