kevin_standlee | Thanks for Playing

Lisa and I had tickets for Saturday night's performance of Thanks for Playing the Game Show Show at the Retrodome, so we skipped Saturday night of BayCon and instead headed out to see the play. As many of you know, I was one of the on-stage contestants (five audience members participate in the play as contestants) in an early "preview" performance of the show. I was interested in seeing what adjustments they'd made to the play. Lisa was interested in seeing it for the first time, but her severe tinnitus makes her terrified of anything that makes noise, because anything can set off her ear and make things worse. She enjoyed some of the play, but indeed the sound was just enormously bad for her and basically she had to hold her hands over her ears much of the play to muffle it just enough to keep from being driven mad with sound overload. Within that severe restriction, she liked what parts she could hear. I had a good time as well, aside from my worry over Lisa's hearing.

I didn't realize that they use different Match Game-style questions for each performance, as they asked the contestants different questions than the ones I had during my turn on stage.

After the show, I was able to make up for missing my photo opportunity from my previous appearance, as Lisa, trying to recover her hearing, was able to snap this photo.

Here I am with Ric Iverson as "Tripp" MacMurray, the host of the Match Game-style game in Act 2 (and the announcer in Act 1) and Lee Ann Payne as "Helen Hart," the hostess in Act 1 but the show sponsor in Act 2. "Tripp" left in a comment in my LJ after my previous appearance at the show. No need to resort to trying to make the Droid work, as we'd brought my real Sony camera, and Lisa was able to get this shot using available light.

Lisa, her ears vaguely returning to what passes for normal with her, took the opportunity as we left to thank the technical crew for their work making the magic happen, which in this case included co-Producer Scott Guggenheim. She did express her continued worry about our ECM-51A microphone, including the fact that the cord had tied itself in a knot during this performance. Although it's only used as a prop during this show, it is of course an important functional part of our own Match Game SF shows (which we expect to return in 2013 in Sacramento at least) and we want it to return in working order.

It's very sad that Lisa's hearing makes it really difficult or impossible for her to really enjoy these shows as much as she would like to do. We both appreciated the acting and hard work that went into making this show a fun evening for all concerned. Lead Sharon Guggenheim said at the end of the show that next weekend's performance is the last of what they're calling the "workshop" stage, and that they intend to retool it and bring it back for another run later this year. I look forward to seeing it a third time, which will make only the second stage production I've seen more than twice live on stage. (The other is 1776.)