Great Moments in Year of Yes #1: Let's Moving!

Yesterday I helped move some garbage out of what will eventually become the UCB Theatre's second stage. As I was carrying one of many heavy trash bags out to the dumpster, it reminded me of an incident from my past, and a particular Great Moment in Year of Yes...

January, 2003. I had just moved to New York City and was working nights as a financial proofreader. Thus, I had my days free to explore the city, and explore I did, since I had practically no friends and was half-mad with loneliness and lunacy.

One particular day I passed by a building where a group of people were carrying out odd things, including a podium adorned with skulls.

I stood and gawped for a moment, since they had a number of interesting and unusual theatrical props, and then someone asked me to hold a door for them, so I did, and then I ended up being given a box of something or other to put in the moving truck, and so I did, and before I knew it, I was helping these strangers move out.

(This has happened to me more than once, but I'll save those stories for later.)

This might seem odd, I know, but look, I had nothing to do with my day except walk around in the winter getting used to the city. This was... interesting and probably not dangerous, and as mentioned before, I take a mild pleasure in moving boxes back and forth, so this was no big deal to me.

For several hours I worked alongside these people, until finally someone asked me what I was doing there. I explained I was just some guy who got sucked in from the street. And, naturally, no one believed me. They thought it was a joke. As well it should be - this being a comedy theatre, wouldn't it be ABSOLUTELY HILARIOUS to pretend to be some random guy?

Except I really was.

Everyone took this very well, surprisingly. They offered me soda and pizza, I remember now. And one person was really impressed, and he insisted that I take a free round of "classes" from this school. My memory is very hazy by this point, and it's hard to separate truth from fantasy from idealized remembrance, but I remember being like, "Uh, no thanks. What is this, a cult or a scam? I don't need no free classes."

And they laughed and said it was kind of like a cult or a scam, but I should sign up, what harm could it do? And since I didn't have to give a credit card number or anything, I figured, "Yeah... I've dealt with riskier situations before." (Again, a story for another time.)

So I signed up. The person recommended I take a Level One class with a Betsy or Ari, and Ari's Saturday afternoon class complemented my graveyard shift lifestyle, so I signed up.

And five years later, I'm still here... and performing regularly with Ari and Betsy.

It was a weird and exciting day, my first little adventure in the city, but one which definitely changed my life quite a bit. If I hadn't held that door, who knows where I'd be now? I'm glad I said yes.

There are a precious handful of moments in my life where I realized later there was a choice to be made and that the result would really, really, really affect my future. When the mood takes me, I'll blog about them. But carrying those garbage bags yesterday, it really brought me back to that cold January afternoon not so long ago.