i wanted to be johnny utah

Here it is, another weekend. Big plans? If you don't have any, I strongly urge you to check out Point Break LIVE at Charlie O's in the Alexandria Hotel. I blogged about it the other week and then Jim, Shannon, and I went last Saturday night and laughed our asses off.

This past Sunday afternoon I got a call from a friend who went to see Point Break LIVE on Friday, their opening night. She wanted to get my take on things since she thought the volunteer from the audience who played the role of Johnny Utah was a plant. I was baking brownies in the kitchen, so I was a little distracted.

Phone balanced on my shoulder, I crack some eggs into a bowl and try to be helpful, "I don't think our guy on Saturday was a plant. He was this short Indian guy. Dots, not feathers."

"Okay, that doesn't sound like a plant."

"No, he was there with what looked like a bunch of his 'SC frat brothers. He was cute, though."

"They were 45 minutes late in starting on Friday. It was crazy. I got there and they were still hanging lights. Gary Leonard was pissed."

I remembered what I was thinking about while waiting for the show to start, "Did it freak you out a little to look up and see the brick ceiling, about to fall apart, and the only thing keeping us from being buried in the rubble was chicken wire? Maybe it was just my CERT training kicking in."

"But did you like it? My friend who went with me was laughing his ass off, but I didn't think it was that funny. Maybe it's this stupid diet I'm on that just makes me cranky and hate everything."

I stop licking the spatula, remnants of brownie mix ring my mouth, "What stupid diet are you on?"

"Master cleanse. So I haven't had any solid food in like, eight days."

"Jesus God, why are you doing that?"

"To detox." I hear her breathing heavily.

"Where are you right now and why are you panting?"

"Dude, I'm at the gym. I show up an hour before they close. They turn of the machines a half hour before close so I have an excuse for only working out for 30 minutes. The guy who played Gary Busey's part in the show was good."

"I don't think you're supposed to work out while you're on the master cleanse diet. The surfers were hilarious. They kept sucking up to Kathryn Bigelow."

"Kathryn Bigelow was there? The real Kathryn Bigelow?"

"Yeah, she sat in a booth behind me and Jim. She looked like she was enjoying the show. You know, for a minute, when people from the audience went up onstage to 'audition' for the role of Johnny Utah, I almost went up on stage. Because what's funnier than some short fat Asian chick playing Keanu? Nothing, that's what."

"Why didn't you?"

"I don't know."

"whoa, i'm surfing"

I blogged about it back in April, but that was in New York. Now the madness has spread to Los Angeles, specifically, downtown Los Angeles at 5th and Spring. I can't believe our luck, but Point Break LIVE!, the absurdist stage adaptation of the 1991 Keanu Reeves/Patrick Swayze extreme-sports blockbuster, Point Break, will be playing every Friday and Saturday night this month at Charlie O's in the Alexandria Hotel. And I've got a pair of tickets to give away for this Saturday's performance.

I mentioned in my earlier post that... well, they said it best:

Best of all, each night the starring role of Keanu will be played by a lucky individual selected from the audience. In a method that captures the raw essence of a classic Keanu Reeves performance, the lead will read all his/her lines off of cue-cards held by a diligent PA. The play will be filmed via the "Keanu Kam," and at the end of the night, the "volunteer Keanu" will receive a VHS tape of his/her performance!

After sold-out, extended runs in Seattle, Minneapolis, Brooklyn and Manhattan, Point Break LIVE! finally returns to its roots: Los Angeles, the “bank robbery capital of the world” where “the air got dirty, and the sex got clean.”

OPENS: Friday, October 12th and runs through…?

VENUE: Charlie O's at The Alexandria Hotel
501 S. Spring Street (the corner of 5th & Spring)
Los Angeles, CA 90013

PARKING: Valet parking under the hotel is $6 (and for chrissake, tip the valet parking guys!)

PERFORMANCES: Every Friday & Saturday at 8 PM

TICKETS: $20 at TheaterMania.com

HOW TO WIN TICKETS:
Be the first person to email me with "Johnny Utah" in the subject line and the correct answers to these two questions and you could win a pair of tickets for Point Break LIVE! this Saturday, October 13, 2007.

1. For what team did Johnny Utah play football?

2. Johnny's football career was ruined due to an injury to what body part during what game?

So Jim and I are going this Saturday, our lucky winner and their +1 will go this Saturday - any other downtown bloggers and readers want to go and make a night of it? Picture Charlie O's, filled with downtown bloggers, with the possibility of one playing Johnny Utah. You'd want to go to that, right?