Thanks to Shy La Buff, I found myself as part of a Vaudeville act at Theater Downtown. The lobby of Theater Downtown felt like a large cluttered living room. There was a pool table in the corner and a small piano in front of a makeshift stage. Theater posters and large photos littered the walls. I didn’t see any theatrical sketches. I planted myself in a comfortable leather seat. Actresses arrived one at a time, listening to iPods and swinging their hips.
There was a rehearsal wrapping up on the main stage so, Ruby Darling started blocking out the Circus act of which I was a part. Cory Violence stood in the center of the red carpet and began reciting “Live Circus” by Tom Waits. He had to read the lines off his iPhone at first but soon he was off script.
Every actress in the room was soon recruited to be in the act. Ruby herself became One Eyed Myra, the queen of the galley. Cherry Bob-omb took the role of Horse Face Ethel and her ‘Marvellous Pigs In Satin’. She wore a dark beard and moved with a dancers grace. A-manda Lorian had a petite frame draped in an over sized mans outfit. The floppy hat was a size too large and it always kept half her face hidden in shadow. She swayed and staggered like a drunk sailor. She reminded me of a feminine version of Charlie Chaplin. Siber Digit was Yodeling Elaine the Queen of the air. She moved with languid and heavy depression having lassoed and lost another tipsy sailor. Shy La Buff was on target as Poodle Murphy. She held her arms high and arched her back so I could sketch. Chan Sterling as Funeral Wells stood prepared to throw his hardware. He tested the sharpness of the blade with his thumb.
I only had five minutes to do the sketch on my digital tablet hooked up to a projector. I had to plan everything out in advance so I could finish in time. Each knife was on its own layer in Sketchbook Pro, so when Violence shouted, “Leave the bum!” I could flick a knife layer on and it would appear on the sketch. No physical knives were thrown only digital hardware.