Atlanta and South Carolina and Bears Oh My!

I was gone from 5.24.06-5.31.06 and wasn’t able to update the site because I couldn’t get my hands on the internet. Well, let me reassure you that I rarely leave NYC, so I will be able to update the site regularly from now till eternity.

Tobey Maguire - “Ben, where were you?”

Well Tobey, I was with the UCB Touring Company touring around Atlanta and South Carolina.

Tobey Maguire - “Sounds cool Bman. Could you tell me what the trip was like through pictures?”

For Spiderman…of course.

On Friday, 5.24.06, we flew down to Atlanta to do some improv shows at the Atlanta Improv Festival over at Dad’s Garage. I usually help book and tech the shows but this time I got to sit in and perform with the Touring Company for a couple of shows.


“With our powers combined, I am Captain Planet!”

Tobey, feel free to click on the pictures to see larger, clearer versions of them.

The show went great and I had a lot of fun. Tobey, it was almost as much fun as the time you found out you had spider-like superpowers and used them to glide above the streets of Manhattan.

Tobey - “That was so much fun!!!”

Tell me about it, you were sending me text messages for weeks about it afterwards…anyway, after the first night of shows, the Touring Company went to a lesbian karaoke bar (lesbaoke) and got drunk. Tobey, I know you are going to think that I’m kidding but we did in fact go to this bar. My first time in Atlanta…of course I’m going to say yes when someone asks if I want to go to a lesbian karaoke bar. After watching some singing, I was lucky enough to spot the amazing Dicktini a world famous penis sword swallower.


His urethra can be used to open beer bottles.

Tobey - “Wow that is amazing. Almost as amazing as that time I got sucked into the perfect sitcom world of Pleasantville!”

Ha, yeah that was pretty zany…with this experience under my belt, I felt like I really got a good taste of Atlanta and was ready for the next leg of our tour. Some of us drove to South Carolina early because the UCB Theatre was bringing out some other shows (Rode Hard and Put Away Wet, Charlie Sanders’ one person show, Horatio Sanz and the Kings of Improv and We Used to Go Out) and we had to pitch in teching and such.

Tobey - “Talking about pitching in, you know I pitched in on the movie The Wizard…I was uncredited as Lucas’ goon at video armageddon. I actually think you wrote a post about the Wizard earlier on this website.”

Yeah, I did do a post on the movie the Wizard, I had no clue you were in it! Golly! OK Tobey, back to the story, now usually when the Touring Company goes out we stay in tiny hotel rooms but because we had so many people staying with us and this was kind of our “end of the year” celebration, we rented a beautiful beach house. It was amazing and right on the beach, here is the view from one of our two incredible balconies.


Find a minority and win a prize!

Tobey - “That looks incredible!!! Almost as incredible as when Seabiscuit earned Horse of the Year honors in 1938.”

Almost! We grilled and went to the beach every day and partied just about every night, it was awesome. After about a day of staying in South Carolina, we realized everyone was wearing pastel shirts, so after lunch one day Charlie, Horatio and I went hunting for the ugliest pastel shirts we could find. Mission Accomplished.


This is what it looks like when a rainbow throws up.

The Touring Company had a handful of sold out shows over at Theatre 99 in Charleston and I got to sit in again.


Are we performing and using the chairs…or are the chairs performing and using us? Consider your mind blown.

The entire trip was amazing, I had an incredible time. Thank you to everyone who helped make it so perfect. Before I left, we took a family photo of everyone that was performing for the first week of the tour.


This game of musical chairs never ended as there were far more chairs than people.

Tobey - “BSpot, it sounds like you had a great time. I love the pics! I know this sounds like a weird request but do you have any pictures of you, Bobby and Eugene pretending to be cartoon fish?”

For Spiderman…of course.


Why do I wear this tuxedo and glasses combo when no other fish is dressed? Because I can bitch!