Let's Petitioning!

As some of you know, I'm a performer at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre here in New York City, and lately there's been some buzzbuzzbuzz about opening a second stage in the East Village (just one tiny block away from my old tiny apartment... damn it, why did I ever move to Astoria? Oh, right, because I pay half my old rent and have enough space for a piano, a drum set, and a gerbil cage).

Anyway, opening a second stage is contingent upon securing a beer and wine license. And what better way to convince the board to grant one than to present them with a petition full of local signatures that says yes, the neighborhood would enjoy a theatre that sells beer and wine.

So this weekend a number of intrepid volunteers braved the freezing weather and trooped for signatures. I was one of them.

Even though such an activity isn't my cup of tea (strangers scare me!), it went pretty well. I got to work alongside an old compadre of mine, and most people who stopped to listen were very friendly and open to the idea of a new theater (incidentally, we'd be moving into the old Pioneer Theatre, which showed a lot of great, weird movies... some of which featured friends of mine) rather than another Starbucks.

Then at the end (we were all pretty frozen after two short hours) I was like, "I'm gonna thaw out by karaoke. Do you want to come?" And the remaining two volunteers (whom I had just met) were like, "YES," which I found amazing and awesome (because what kind of person says yes to a stranger's request for karaoke? An awesome person, that's who.).

And whoa mama, that was a fun time. I love karaoke, especially on an early Sunday evening, when the drinks are ludicrously cheap and the place is empty so the only people singing are in your group (and the bartender).

Anyway, the real point of this entry is to say that if you live in the East Village or Lower East Side, you can still sign the petition online. And although I think I got the 100 people in my neck of the world who'll do it, I might have missed some folks.

So if you live in the neighborhood, please sign! We can do karaoke!