The Eastside Scene, June 26, 2015

the E A S T S I D E

scene

Arts and Entertainment | July 2015

Summ er FFaalll in l inttoo

Our c heat Easts sheet t o the ide’s summ er fes

tivals Pg. 8

PLUS: 5th Avenue’s Grease | Andrew Rivers | Microsoft bets on Oculus Rift

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JULY

LAUGH | Nick Thune

<<

The Don’t-Miss List

Get ready to laugh until it hurts. This month, the Parlor Live Comedy Club in Bellevue presents Seattle-born Nick Thune.

The 35-year-old’s stand-up, a deadpan wit combined with the soothing lull of his guitar, has been featured on television shows like The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and Conan. As an actor, he’s starred as himself on Garfunkel and Oates, a musically suitor on Burning Love and Cam Gigandet’s anthropomorphized member in Bad Johnson.

When: July 23-25 Where: Third floor of Lincoln Square, 700 Bellevue Way NE. Ste 300, Bellevue

WATCH | Fourth of July fireworks

There are several firework shows around the Eastside — but some are really a star-spangled treat.

Make your way to Kirkland for a show over Lake Washington. The fireworks display, blasting from a barge in the lake offshore from Marina Park, will begin at 10:15 p.m. People will be able to see the show from many Kirkland locations. The boat launch area will open after the parade, around 1:30 p.m. and will remain open until midnight. As a reminder, personal fireworks may be illegal, like in Kirkland, in various Eastside cities.

When: July 4 Where: Marina Park, 25 Lakeshore Plaza Drive, Kirkland

LISTEN | Concerts at Marymoor

Grab your blanket, mosey down to Marymoor Park and enjoy another month listening to A-list musicians, as part of King County’s summer concert series.

Featuring Canadian rock and American rock bands, with a hint of indie folk rock, soul and pop, the July line up includes David Gray, Amos Lee, The Decemberists, Needtobreathe, Third Eye Blind, Dashboard Confessional, Ex Cops and Barenaked Ladies.

Concerts in the park continue through September.

When: Various dates July 13-Sept. 19. Full schedule: marymoorconcerts.com Where: Marymoor Park, 6046 West Lake Sammamish Pkwy N.E., Redmond

DO | Red, white and wine tasting

Take advantage of the wineries nestled in the beautiful Sammamish River Valley, just 30 minutes northeast of Seattle. Take the weekend to enjoy the more than 100 wineries located in the Woodinville Wine Country. Most of the Woodinville wineries grow their own grapes in Eastern Washington’s Columbia Valley.

When: Throughout July. Full schedule: woodinvillewinecountry.com/winery-events Where: Various locations in Woodinville. See full schedule.

the E A S T S I D E

Editor/Layout Daniel Nash Production Designer Diana Nelson Contributing Writers Megan Campbell Allison DeAngelis Carol Dearth Brian Miller

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A fresh take on Grease G rease — it’s the word, a staple in musical theaters, and the 5th Avenue Theatre’s latest production. It is in what Musical Director RJ Tancioco calls the royal family of musical theater, and has been performed by innumerable Broadway casts, international touring productions, high school drama clubs and live television.

With so many productions and such memorable songs, audiences more likely than not already know all of the songs, jokes and plot points. The show itself can seem almost as dated as the leather jackets and poodle skirts ubiquitous during the era.

Add in Tancioco, a Puget Sound-area theater veteran whose resume has become a list of the newest edgy musicals in theater. He just wrapped up production on the rock musical Jasper in Deadland, and has worked as the musical director for Carrie the Musical, Next to Normal and In the Heights at the 5th Avenue Theatre, the ACT, the Village Theatre and other venues.

“To me, that is the challenge — how do I put a fresh take on a traditional show?” he said. “I really did go into this thinking ‘How does someone who does a lot of fresh, edgier shows transition to something like Grease?’”

Tancioco and director Eric Ankrim have taken a magnifying glass to the show’s songs and lyrics, approaching the script and the original songbook as if they were brand new to bring greater emphasis to the characters and emotions.

“The thing that excites me is that, when the show was written, it was subversive and celebrated the kind of rebellion that is embodied in rock ‘n’ roll,” Ankrim said. “Over the years since the film came out, the musical has come to represent something a little different, a little more wholesome. For me, it’s really amazing to rediscover Grease as it was originally intended — it’s a little grittier, a little dirtier, and a little more dysfunctional than people imagine it to be.”

by Allison DeAngelis In some cases, the musical changes meant having the actors shift the focus on certain phrases and verses. In others, they have changed the placement of songs to better flesh out plot points or the characters’ motives.

Sandy’s forlorn solo ‘Hopelessly Devoted To You,’ which many remember Olivia Newton John singing during the film’s slumber party scene, will instead be sung after Sandy is abandoned by Danny at the school for Cha Cha. Later in the show, a rebellious (and possibly pregnant) Rizzo, played by Kirsten deLohr Helland, springs into ‘There Are Worse Things I Could Do’ after being pitied by Sandy at a party in Jan’s basement.

“Rizzo kind of turns around and has a ‘wait a minute, you don’t know me’ moment during the song,” Tancioco said. “It becomes a stronger song, and actually pushes Sandy to think, leading to the reprise of ‘Sandra Dee’ and her whole transformation.”

Local rockabilly band The Dusty 45s will also join Tancioco and a doo-wop ensemble onstage to bring a more authentic, full-bodied 1950s rock sound. “They really capture the spirit of the ‘50s. They have a musical sensibility that upgrades the score so that it feels authentic, but feels new,” Tancioco said.

Dusty 45s lead singer and trumpet player Billy Joe Huels will also act as bandleader for the production, setting the music and his trumpet on fire — the latter literally.

“A lot of the stuff is based on early rock ‘n’ roll roots.

We like the music, for sure, and it’s such a fun thing for us to play a different role as a musician,” said Huels.

The youthful cast of the 5th Avenue production, which features Bryan Gula as Danny, Solea Pfeiffer as Sandy, Saxton Jay as Kenickie, deLohr Helland as Rizzo, and Sarah Rose Davis as Frenchie, has embraced the challenge and changes, said Tancioco.

Saxton Jay as Kenicke and Kirsten deLohr Helland as Rizzo in 5th Avenue Theatre’s production of Grease.

“We hope the audience will watch it and see another view of Grease,” Musical Director RJ Tancioco said.

Photo credit: Mark Kitaoka

“At the end of the day, it is still Grease, you’ll still feel like you’re seeing a production of Grease,” Tancioco said. “But we hope the audience will watch it and see another view of Grease.”

Grease runs from July 9 to Aug. 2 at the 5th Avenue Theatre.

Tickets are now available online.

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Eating Well

Summer Grill It’s too hot to cook indoors! Let’s move to the patio and enjoy some great Northwest favorites, flavorful and fast.

Before you begin, a few rules to follow: 1. Be sure your grill is CLEAN; 2. Preheat the grill to the required temperature; 3. Bring food to room temperature before grilling; 4. Cook with the lid CLOSED, unless otherwise specified; 5. Transfer grilled food to clean platters to prevent cross-contamination.

Grilled Mussels with Spicy Rosemary Butter* • 2 pounds mussels, scrubbed and cleaned, debearded if necessary

• lemon juice • freshly minced parsley • Garlic toast

Preparation:

Preheat grill to high heat (450°F to 475°F). Arrange mussels on a grill tray, place over heat. Cover and grill 3 to 5 minutes, until shells open, about 6-8 minutes.

Discard any unopened shells. Squeeze lemon over, sprinkle with parsley and serve immediately with spicy rosemary butter and garlic toast.

Serves 8 as appetizer portion or 4 as main course.

Citrus Salmon What you’ll need: • • • • • • •

2-3 pound salmon fillet, skinned 1 large navel orange, thinly sliced 1 lemon, thinly sliced 4 tablespoons butter 2 tablespoons dark brown sugar salt & pepper to taste large sheet pan or heavy-duty aluminum foil

Preparation:

Heat grill to 425°F to 450°F. Add smoking chips if desired. Prepare a shallow sided pan of two thicknesses of heavy-duty aluminum foil. Lay salmon on prepared foil pan, skin side down. Lay alternating orange and lemon slices over salmon. Dot with butter; sprinkle with brown sugar, salt and pepper. Slide pan onto hot grill, cook 12-20 minutes, basting with pan juices regularly. Salmon is done when internal temperature reaches 150°F. Cut into serving size portions and serve, garnished with orange and lemon. Serves 8.

*Spicy Rosemary Butter What you’ll need:

• 8 tablespoons (1 stick) butter • 2 cloves garlic, minced

Preparation:

Melt butter; add remaining ingredients. Serve hot in a small ramekin or shallow bowl.

Grilled Peaches What you’ll need:

• 2 teaspoons sugar • 2 sprigs fresh thyme, just the leaves please • dash of cayenne pepper • 8 fresh ripe peaches, peeled, halved, stones removed • 3 tablespoons butter, melted • 2 slices crisp bacon, broken into chunks • 8 ounces burratta cheese or 8

scoops vanilla ice cream • 3 tablespoons honey • sea salt

Preparation:

Combine sugar, thyme and cayenne; set aside. Brush peach halves on both sides with the melted butter. Arrange stone side down on a vegetable or fish grid on a medium/hot grill (375°F to 400°F). Grill 3 minutes. Turn and grill on the other side for 2 to 3 minutes longer. Remove from grill and slice peaches into a large bowl. Sprinkle with the sugar mixture and toss with bacon. Spoon peaches on serving plates along with burratta or ice cream. Drizzle with honey; sprinkle with sea salt. Makes 8 servings.

About the author

ed by the International Association of Culinary Professionals. She is the author of Cooking Class and the co-host of KCTS Cooks on KCTS-9 Seattle. Dearth offers free recipes and tips at TheSizzleWorks. com/blog.

Carol Dearth is the owner of Sizzleworks cooking school in Bellevue.

A Le Cordon Bleu graduate, Dearth is a Certified Culinary Professional designat-

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What you’ll need:

Washington art safari

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by Brian Miller

hen people complain to me that museumgoing is wrong for summer, I always respond with the same argument: air conditioning. Which BAM has, true. But summer is also the time for road trips, and there are several arts destinations worth visiting during your statewide travels.

Here’s a primer: Bainbridge Island Museum of Art

Alexander Phimister Proctor’s 1915 bronze statue Buckaroo, on display in Tacoma Art Museum’s new Haub Family Collection.

Photo credit: Daniel Nash

Owned by Upper Skagit Indian Tribe

Appeal: BIMA is the new kid on the culture block, with a handsome design by Matthew Coates that debuted in 2013.

Smaller, eclectic shows often feature island artists like Caroline Cooley Browne and Horst Gottschalk.

Extra incentive to visit: The ferry ride itself.

White River Valley Museum Appeal: This is a folksy establishment, mostly dedicated to the farming and civic history of Auburn, like MOHAI but on a smaller, rural scale. But rotating through are some oddball exhibitions like Service Ink: Veterans’ Tattoos and Their Stories (opening June 24).

Extra incentive to visit: Strawberries, fruit stands, and nearby casino gambling for those inclined. (Don’t blame us if you wake up the next morning with a fresh tattoo).

Schack Art Center (Everett) Appeal: A very practical and Northwest orientation, currently including photos by James Arrabito, sculpture by Verena Schwippert, an exhibit of garden art, and a busy schedule of hands-on demos and activities (particularly in the hot shop).

Extra incentive to visit: It’s a relatively new (2011) and bustling space, part of the effort to revitalize Everett’s old downtown core.

Tacoma Art Museum Appeal: A fresh addition to the building by Tom Kundig, which includes the new Haub wing of Old West art; and the forthcoming (June 20) show by Seattle native Roger Shimomura, always a favorite. TAM’s small Andy Warhol’s Flowers for Tacoma show in 2012 also sparked the real possibility that the Tacoma Dome roof will be soon be festooned with a giant yellow daisy!

Extra incentive to visit: The Chihuly-filled Museum of Glass, the Washington State History Museum, and the LeMay-America’s Car Museum. Tacoma actually has an arts district more concentrated and convenient than Seattle’s.

Pilchuck Glass School Appeal: Although basically a school for glass artists, the annual open house (July 12, $20–$35) is a great reason to drive north, tour the grounds, watch demos, meet the artists, and enjoy live music and food. Without the 1971 institution (founded by Chihuly and the Haubergs), we wouldn’t have all the glassmaking up and down Puget Sound.

BEE GEES GOLD DANCE PARTY Starring John Acosta as Barry Gibb

Extra incentive to visit:

Featuring Bee Gees & Disco Classics

It makes a great art-loop itinerary stop between Everett and Bellingham.

July 25 at 8 pm

Whatcom Museum (Bellingham) Appeal: Regional focus, currently including owl and woodpecker photos by Seattle’s Paul Bannick; figurative art and landscapes by Bellingham’s Tom Sherwood; and a group show juried by Scott Lawrimore of the Jacob Lawrence Gallery.

Extra incentive to visit: Bellingham (especially Fairhaven) has some real charm—including the museum’s historic old 1892 city hall building—and an emerging gastropub scene.

Comedy Central & Showtime Comedian

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Maryhill Museum of Art Appeal: The bizarre history of the place (a failed Quaker community and concrete mansion built by Sam Hill), the remote setting, and some exhibits you won’t find elsewhere—currently including Indian art from Oklahoma’s National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum; glass from local Native American artist Raven Skyriver; and historical photos of the original Native inhabitants of The Dalles.

September 25 & 26 at 8 pm Buy Show Tickets Service Charge Free at the Casino Box Office WA 800-745-3000

Extra incentive to visit: The spectacular view into the Columbia River Gorge, nearby windsurfing, plus all the wineries. And the June 27 “What in the Sam Hill?” Maryhill gala party, with plenty more food and wine.

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A version of this story originally appeared in Seattle Weekly’s Summer Guide 2015.

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the eastside scene 7

l l Fa in t

o

Summer L

et’s face facts: Summer’s short. And you only have a few scant months to squeeze out every last drop of fun you can.

So without further ado, here’s our cheat sheet to the major community festivals on the Eastside.

by Daniel Nash

The Strawberry Festival The origins of the Eastside Heritage Center’s Strawberry Festival date all the way back to 1925, as a celebration of bountiful harvests funded on a whopping $40.

Today, the revived festival brings in 40,000 celebrants from around King County to enjoy carnival entertainment, an auto show and mountains of strawberry shortcake.

Where: Crossroads Park, Bellevue When: 10 a.m. - 8 p.m. June 27, 10 a.m. - 6 p.m. June 28

Summer Celebration The city of Mercer Island likes to pull out all the stops for its annual Summer Celebration. The festival kicks off with a kids’ bike ride and Grand Parade, plus fireworks, boat rides and more music than you can shake a tuning fork at.

This year, the pirates from Summer Celebration 2007 return to commandeer the Grand Parade, fire cannons and broker hourly sword fights (for when civilized parley breaks down).

Where: Mercerdale Park, various other Mercer Island locations (Full schedule at mercergov.org) When: 9 a.m. - 10:30 p.m. July 11, 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. July 12

8 the eastside scene

Concerts on the Green Starting in July and running through the rest of the summer, Issaquah Parks and Rec will bring fun, family friendly cover bands to Olde Town for weekly outdoor concerts. Who knows who you’ll see? Last year, Sasquatch made an appearance to film a tourism spot for ICTV 21.

Where: Issaquah Community Center on Rainier Boulevard South.

When: 7 p.m. Tuesdays in July and August

Admit it: You’re a little disappointed this isn’t how you’ll control the Oculus Rift.

Credit: The Lawnmower Man, Newline Cinema

Hillary Ann Dean’s OMG TMI FML: The TBI Blues, a written collage entry in the Brain Injury Art Show. | Photo credit: Daniel Nash

Finding peace of mind

T

he Brain Injury Alliance of Washington’s annual Brain Injury Art Show is a showcase of work done by artists with brain injuries. For some, like Allison Mollner, it was a road back to peace of mind. The show is held at the Mercer Island Community and Events Center through July 24.

Oculus X

by Daniel Nash emotional or social — aren’t widely understood. So for the past six summers, BIAWA has put on the Brain Injury Art Show as a venue for artists living with brain injuries to express themselves.

Before Allison went into nonprofit work, she was an artist and her husband built a studio after the injury to encourage her to pursue art again. But Allison’s headaches returned whenever she cracked open her art books, frustrating her attempts to relearn technique.

Then she participated in classes where she found that teaching technique allowed her to access her memories.

“Art is one of the things that is very peaceful to my mind,” she says. “It has a flow and it’s one of the only things that’s actually soothing.”

Allison has three works of art on display in this year’s show, including Sunrise, a mixed media painting that combines several of her old standby forms, including printmaking and watercolor. She says her natural inclination now is to work in several media at once.

“I had to stop being what I used to be ... and start embracing what I could do,” she says.

San Francisco-based VR company Oculus has announced it is partnering with Microsoft to optimize the Oculus Rift headset for Windows 10 and Xbox.

by Daniel Nash

D

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Five years ago, Allison Mollner took her dog for a walk. It was the middle of a hot August night. The dog took his time, sniffing and scratching outside the Cougar Ridge area home.

Then he heard the rustle.

He took off like a bolt in the direction of the animal. The leash yanked Allison’s arm — hard — and she careened forward, striking her head on a rock as she hit the ground.

“I don’t even know how many stitches they put in my head,” she says. “My husband told me it was something like 200. I don’t know, it just seems like so many.”

The doctors at Harborview diagnosed her with a concussion. But headaches and cognitive difficulties that persisted long after the blow led to a new diagnosis 10 months later: traumatic brain injury.

Allison’s story isn’t unusual. Out of every 100,000 people, more than 500 will experience a brain injury at some point, says Deborah Crawley, executive director of the Brain Injury Alliance of Washington.

“Most all of us will be impacted by a brain injury at some point, whether it happens to ourselves or someone we know,” Crawley says.

But the effects of injury — physical,

uring a special June event announcing the Q1 2016 release date for a consumer version of the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset (repeated later at E3), Oculus CEO Brendan Iribe was joined

by Xbox czar Phil Spencer to announce that the Kickstarter start-up turned multi-billion-dollar Facebook acquisition will partner with Redmond tech colossus Microsoft on the release.

A full rundown of the partnership can be found at Xbox.com’s news page but, in short, Microsoft will be integrating Oculus Rift into its Xbox and Windows 10 gaming platforms. Each headset will come with an Xbox One controller out-of-the-box, will feature the Xbox’s streaming functionality (a feature that currently only works with Windows 10 computers and tablets) and be fully integrated with Windows 10.

“We’re thrilled to be working closely with the team at Oculus,” Spencer said.

“Their groundbreaking work in virtual reality is inspiring, and the Oculus Rift delivers a truly next-generation VR experience. We at Xbox are passionate about giving gamers the opportunity to play when and where they want. I can’t wait to see the incredible games created for the Rift, and we are proud to be part of the experience.”

Oculus, as a company, has come a long way in a short time: It’s development kit prototype was funded by a 2012 Kickstarter campaign that took off like wildfire. Since then, it’s technology has gained huge buzz thanks to the (shockingly inexpensive) development kits that have allowed developers to create everything from VR-oriented firstperson games, to virtual tours to, ahem, “interactive adult experiences.”

The company seduced game technology legend John Carmack away from id Soft-

ware to become CTO in August 2013 and Facebook acquired Oculus for $2 billion in cash and stock seven months later.

A few interesting wrinkles here: First, though Oculus is playing up the news about Xbox One integration (in fact, Oculus’ website now refers to the One controller as “one of the best controllers in the world”) the company has also introduced its own controller, the Oculus Touch. The Touch is actually a pair of controllers, one for each hand, that appear to respond to free hand movement.

Second, one of the early adopters of Rift integration was Bellevue’s own Valve Corporation, creator of Half-Life and owner of online retail mega-giant Steam.

Valve incorporated Oculus Rift integration into a 2013 update of the Source engine’s Software Development Kit. However, Valve and HTC now have their own competing headset, the HTC Vive a.k.a. SteamVR. Valve CEO Gabe Newell, an exMicrosoft employee, was also a virulent critic of Windows following the release of Windows 8 and promised to move PC gamers toward Linux platforms.

So the fight for technology dominance in the emerging virtual reality market could prove to be a bloody tooth-and-nail battle.

But considering VR’s renewed potential to revolutionize how we interact with our computers, we at The Eastside Scene couldn’t be more excited about a future that more closely resembles Ernest Cline’s Ready Player One.

the eastside scene 9

Conversations with Funny People

Andrew Rivers A

ndrew Rivers, from North Bend, comes from a family of creatives as the son of a Seattle radio fixture and the brother of a filmmaker.

As a member of the Northwest comedy scene, Rivers is at a critical juncture in his career: Opening for popular headliners and making a living from any gig he can get, at home or on the road.

He’ll headline Laughs Comedy Spot July 2 and 3.

Rivers called The Eastside Scene from a stop in North Carolina to chat about life as an up-andcomer and the advice he’s gotten along the way.

Interview by Daniel Nash Hey Andrew, how’s Winston-Salem treating you?

I haven’t left the hotel room, to be honest.

I actually lived there for a few years as a kid.

Oh yeah? What do you recommend doing here?

Oh, boy, I hope you like period-correct Moravian historical attractions.

That’s perfect then, because that’s exactly what I look for whenever I travel. I haven’t been here before, but I’m performing at the Laughing Gas Comedy Club with Rich Vos. It’s a pretty new club, it just had its two year anniversary. But generally I don’t explore much when I’m on the road.

So how did this comedy thing start for you?

I gave a speech at my brother’s wedding about six or seven years ago and everyone thought it was funny. I had an interest in comedy but your high school guidance counselor doesn’t tell you that’s a job. Obviously, my dad (retired radio personality Bob Rivers -Ed.) was a huge influence. I grew up around other people who made fun of each other and themselves. Then I got laid off from a marketing job so I was just sitting around complaining about my life for a few months. Economy crashed, and I couldn’t get another job and I didn’t know what to do with myself. It was my dad who brought it up. He said ‘You were funny at the wedding, why don’t you do an open mic night?’ His thing was just, get up and go do something. So soon after that I did my first open mic at Giggles… you know, before it became a strip club.

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That’s right! Did that place become a comedy club again? Or is it on Jiggles, Part Two at this point?

It does seem like it’s gone back and forth, doesn’t it?

There were a lot of bad issues on that stage even before it was a strip club, so it’s funny that it’s gone in-between.

So, my dad, I told him I was going to do my first open mic. His first words were, ‘You have plenty of time to suck.’ Which was very true advice, for comedy or for anything else.

10 the eastside scene

Now you’re opening for guys like Vos, or Christopher Titus, or Mike Birbiglia. When did things start taking off?

Well I got a pretty fast start because I was laid off and I didn’t have anything else to do. Comedy’s interesting.

It’s, you know, the main ingredient is time. It’s something where you can’t really fake it. It’s just a skill that requires stage time, writing and performing, and because I didn’t have any other obligations I just did comedy for as many people as would let me. I did 300 shows my first year. A lot of those were open mics and Laughs was the first club to give me a weekend spot. I wound up moving up the road from Laughs and I told the owner I wanted to be on stage whenever he could fit me in. So he would call me and say, ‘I forgot to book anybody and I need a show.

Do you have plans? Call them to cancel and I’ll give you free ice cream.’ And that’s all it took to convince me. Free ice cream? I’m there!

Looking back, I was still terrible. I’m sure years from now I’ll look back and say I’m terrible now. Birbiglia talks about, that delusion that’s needed to keep things going when you have no business doing it.

But as far as becoming an opener for Titus goes, he was doing a radio interview with my dad and I had done, oh, two or three open mics at this point. I happened to be at my dad’s show and the producers, during the break they said you should tell Titus one of your jokes. So I told them during the break and it got a laugh, and they asked me to tell it on the air. But when you tell a joke a second time they’re not really going to laugh at it, and they didn’t, so then Titus made fun of me for telling a bad joke. But then he gave me a lot of good advice.

You have a recent article on the Connected Comedy blog that consisted of pages from a book you keep in which you ask comics to write down their advice to beginners. How did that start?

It was my first weekend hosting at Laughs Comedy Spot and I was being paid in ice cream and the headliner was Tom Simmons who lives in Greensboro, I think. So I talked with him a lot — just as a new comedian, brighteyed guy new to things — and we had talks and advice about different things and at the end of the weekend I thought, I should write this stuff down. Then I thought, they should write it down. That was the start of it and then, every weekend when I would work with a new comic, I’d have them write their advice, then sign it. It became more than it could be since when I started it.

What’s the strangest gig you’ve booked?

There’s a lot of strange gigs because when you make your living from shows, you’ll take anything. When I’m back in Seattle, I’ll be performing at a retirement party for a service dog. The dog knows 60 commands and I maybe know two. That dog is objectively more productive than me.

But the funniest gig, which actually wound up being canceled, was this one where I got booked at the prison in Walla-Walla, performing for prisoners. And it was this strange thing because at the time I’m still brand new and I don’t know how they’ll react. I just imagine getting heckled with shanks and shivs and I find myself wondering, what if there’s a riot? And then I don’t know what kind of people I’m performing for. Are they being let out soon? Is that good or bad for me, if my set goes badly?

I had no idea how that was supposed to happen, but I think the moral of that story is that for a few hundred dollars I’m willing to do just about anything.

Beth Billington For all your Real Estate Needs

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Beth Billington

Coldwell Banker Bain Previews Properties Specialist Top 1%, CRS, GRI 425.450.5208 beth@bethbillington.com

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the eastside scene 11

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