HELLO FROM EAU CLAIRE, WISCONSIN:

HELLO FROM EAU CLAIRE, WISCONSIN - merchants slogan: "We don't have it but we can get it for you."

Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Old Haunts, Fond Memories, Nothing Lasts Forever

I really do appreciate getting feedback on the blog and I just got some recently on the blog I did on popovers -- it was a thank you for my recipe and a remembrance of the great popovers served at Stafne's Sunset Inn, which along with Austin's White House just up the road and across the street, were definitely the two spots to be for the very best!

Sadly, Stafne's is no longer a restaurant and some years ago they tore Austin's White House down and built a (gasp) Boston's Pizza.

I have such fond memories of both those supper clubs as they served really great midwest cuisine in an intimate atmosphere. I tended to hang out more at The White House simply because that's where the "theatre people" would gather after an opening night to celebrate getting through the first night of a show without suddenly giving someone the wrong cue and jumping into the third act from the first act. Don't laugh. I saw it happen once!

You had better believe there was a lot of panic in the dressing rooms during intermission trying to rewrite a script to get us back on track.

Austin's White House was also the site of one of my favorite summer theatre stories.

A critic came down from the Minneapolis Tribune to cover our opening night of the summer season (I know, I know -- hard to believe. Must have been a really slow news week in the entertainment world!) and music director Jack Pingle, one of the wildest, incredibly funny men I have ever had the privilege to know, took the guy out to Austin's and treated him to an early dinner before the show. Truth is, I don't think Jack let him get out of the bar, bought him round after round of highballs, and finally left the miserably inebriated man sitting on the john, pants around his ankles, head on his chest, passed out.

After all, Jack had an orchestra to lead and the show must go on.

Jack , of course, related the story with great relish to the entire cast before the overture began and the curtain went up so we did a really relaxed, no pressure show.

Next morning, at rehearsal, we were all dying to see what kind of "review" we got from a man who hadn't even seen the show. As you can probably guess, he loved the show he never saw.

An aside: My favortie item on The White House Menu: "English Mixed Grill", a pork chop, a lamb chop, great lyonaisse potatoes and all introduced by those popovers, hot out of the oven, still in their muffin tins, and forked on your group's collective plates by the very professional waitresses, wearing the required oven mitt.

These were not college girls working their way through school.

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I am pretty excited about getting another gig in October. I will be doing a short set of comedy after dinner on thursday, October 11 at the Avalon (formerly Arizona's, for an appreciation banquet of two combined hospital staffs -- Sacred Heart of Eau Claire and St. Joseph's of Chippewa Falls.

I can always use more "work" because hey! to me, this isn't work, it is pure joy and fun to get people to laugh and get outside themselves. And these days we need laughter more in our lives than ever!

Earlier today I stopped in a jewelry store at the mall to replace my worn out leather watch band and the young woman who waited on me didn't know she knew me (she said "you've changed" --translation: God, you've aged! -- until I wrote the check. turns out she had been at a Christmas-House-Pizza Party I did some years ago, and then again at a hair stylists Christmas party (sans the pizza) a year later.

She asked if I am still working and doing the pizza parties. The answer is definitely YES! To my way of thinking, the pizza party is a really unique way to celebrate almost anything that family or company want to celebrate in-home.

I have done a lot of them (wish I had kept count) and invariably have been told that it is the most fun party they have ever had. Check out what people have had to say about them on my web site. I have traveled quite a ways to do some of them: Minneapolis, Wausau, Rice Lake to name a few.

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A big old Chevrolet SUV passed me out on 53 south this evening sporting his Bush/Cheney '06 bumper sticker. Wouldn't you be totally mortified to have that thing on your car at this point, even if you believed his bullshit last election time??? I did my best to catch up with him so he could see my "Bush Is A War Criminal" sticker.

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Trying to decide if I should take my aging laptop with me on my short jaunt to NYC next week. Might be kinda fun to blog from the big city -- Gotham.

This is not a good time for me to be going out there. Not much cash on hand and credit cards getting out of control and the restaurants in New York City are totally stupifying. Block after block after block of the best of any nationality cuisine you could ask for. Pretty dazzling to an old country boy from Downsville.

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Have you ever traveled to a far away spot only to bump into someone who knows you? It is just the weirdest! It's happened tgthen stopped and pointed and called out each other's name.

The other two times were on a single trip. I am walking through Seatac (Seattle, Washington international airport and this guy walks past me and says matter of factly: "Hi, Larry." -- and keeps on walking!

I turn and say: "Wait a minute! How the heck do you know me???" He tells me he is from Downsville, just heading back to Wisconsin from a salmon fishing trip.

Two days later we are on the ferry to Vancouver and some guy says: "Aren't you Larry Heagle?" This really freaks me! Turns out he has caught my show in Wausau more than once over the years.

More tomorrow. I am currently working on a writing project and I have cat boxes to clean! Drop me a note if you have time. Love to hear from you.

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