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Tag Archives: He Laughed Himself to Death

What Kind of Post? It’s a Mystery!

This is a Post-Rehearsal Post, a Throwback Thursday Post, and still under the heading of All He Laughed Himself to Death All The Time.  Hey, that makes this a Non-Sequitur Thursday Post as well!  Or am I spreading myself too thin?  Oh yeah, like I could ever be thin!  Maybe if I go back on the South Beach Diet for a LONG time!  But never mind that, on with the post!

We had an excellent rehearsal for He Laughed Himself to Death, the murder mystery we are putting on to benefit the Herkimer County Historical Society in a mere two days.  I think it will be a lot of fun.

A suspicious bunch, to say the least!

Since I once again neglected to take any pictures at tonight’s rehearsal, I thought I would pep up the post with a picture from a previous murder mystery.  This was the cast of A G.R.A.V.E. Murder, which we presented a few years ago, also to benefit the historical society.  You see, this is where Throwback Thursday comes in.

A dramatic moment, captured on film.

Here is a rehearsal shot from another murder mystery, whose title escapes me.  How embarrassing.  All I can really think about, though, is how much better I liked my hair in that ultra-short ‘do (I am the one on the far left).

Be all that as it may, I repeat for the benefit of local readers that He Laughed Himself to Death will be presented Saturday, Nov. 5, at the Herkimer Elks Club, 124 Mary St., Herkimer, NY.  Doors open at 5:30 p.m.  Tickets are $35 and are available at the Herkimer County Historical Society, 315-866-6413.

 

Rehearsal Was a Laugh

Last night I meant to take pictures of our rehearsal for He Laughed Himself to Death, the murder mystery we are putting on to benefit the Herkimer County Historical Society this Saturday.  Alas, I was so busy acting, I forgot.

I think it is time for this blog to become All He Laughed Himself to Death All The Time.  After all, it is only three days (Yikes!) till performance.

Hey, it’s a graphic.

This pretty much tells you all you need to know.  The mystery is a pretty silly story.  I guess most of mine are.  This one concerns a novelty joke company called Gorman’s Gotchas.  We are at a stockholders meeting to discuss a proposed merger with a much larger entity called Consolidated Realignment Associated Products.  Norman Gorman, founder and president of the company is late.  We do hope nothing untoward has happened to him.

Rehearsals are going well.  I have a good cast, and we are all excited for the show.  If you live nearby, I hope you will consider coming to see us!

 

Will I Have the Last Laugh?

I meant to make a post using more pictures taken on a recent walk, but those pictures are on my phone and here I am on my Tablet.  Still, the phone is on the coffee table.  I could pick it up and look…

Or not.  My only purpose now is to make a Post-Rehearsal Post.  And I might even eat an ice cream cone out of the freezer before I do so.

It is not actually chocolate running down this head.

I put in an unrelated picture to show the passage of time while I ate ice cream.  I do not remember if I actually used this picture to give a shout-out to Yettys Pizza and Pasta of Herkimer, NY.  I must look at my past posts and make sure I have done so.

Did somebody say murder mystery?

I scrolled through my Media Library till I found a picture of a murder mystery, because the rehearsal I was at was for a murder mystery: He Laughed Himself to Death.  It will be presented on Saturday, Nov. 5, at Herkimer Elks Lodge, to benefit Herkimer County Historical Society.

I just now copied this from Facebook.

Now I have given a proper shout-out to the murder mystery.   I am going to bill this as a Non-Sequitur Thursday Post,  because I have been a little all over the place.  If only I could think of a sufficiently random headline, my life would be perfect.

 

I Haven’t Murdered Anybody in a While

Who knew I would be doing a Post-Rehearsal Post again so soon (and don’t bother saying YOU knew, because I will not believe you) (you know who you are, and that’s all you know) (but I digress).  It is not a full-on play, like Love’s Labour’s Lost, but an interactive murder mystery, such as I love to write and perform.

Full disclosure: it is a previously performed script.  We have less lead time than usual, so the best I could do was revive one previously done for another venue.  I had some re-writing to do, though, because we have two fewer actors to work with.  This accomplished, some excellent actors recruited, and we are on our way.

The mystery is He Laughed Himself to Death, which we originally presented in 2017.  Goodness, that was five years ago.  How the time flies.  Anyways, we had our first meeting tonight.  We read through the script, talked about characters and clues, and set the rest of our rehearsals.  Alas, I did not take any pictures.

I feel like poo when I don’t have any pictures!

I found a previous illustration of some fake poo used in the original production.  I still have it and, surprisingly enough, know where it is, so it will make a repeat appearance.  The bigger poo was also featured in Donate to Murder, to great comic effect (I do not exaggerate; it was very funny).

He Laughed Himself to Death will be presented to benefit the Herkimer County Historical Society on Saturday,  Nov. 1, 5:30 p.m. at Herkimer Elks Lodge.  For more information,  contact the society at 315-866-6413.

 

 

One Murder Down, One to Go!

I am feeling a combination of the satisfaction from participating in a well-received performance and post-play letdown.  Mostly satisfaction right now, the letdown will kick in more fully tomorrow.  You’ll have that.  After all, if we feared letdown, we would never experience anything good.  That is as philosophical as I will get today.

Members of Ilion Little Theatre performed He Laughed Himself to Death at Morning Star Methodist Church this evening, while they served a delicious roast pork dinner.  Cast members got fed after the performance, for which I was extremely grateful.  I was also grateful that the cast did a superb job, and the audience seemed to really enjoy it.  One of the best aspects of live theatre is the presence of the audience.  In these murder mysteries, we enjoy direct interaction and that is wonderful fun.  I can’t wait to do it again.

And I get to do it again soon!  I will alleviate my post-play letdown by jumping right into working on another murder mystery, which I have mentioned several times already:  Who Shot JS? This one will benefit the Herkimer County Historical Society and be performed at the Herkimer Elks Lodge April 22.  I will have a lot more to say about that one soon.

In the meantime, I am tired.  Solving theatrical murders is hard work!  I did not do a whole heck of a lot earlier today, because I was recruiting my energies.  Perhaps I will do something blogworthy tomorrow.  Or it will be another Wrist to Forehead Sunday.  I don’t care; the applause is still ringing in my years and I am feeling satisfied from the roast pork.  And the church wants us to do another murder mystery next year.  Goody!

 

I Want My Lame Post Friday

Once again, here is the lame, late Mohawk Valley Girl.  Doesn’t that sound macabre, calling myself the Late Mohawk Valley Girl.  Like I’m posting from beyond grave.  We all know I have kind of a Halloween fixation.

I have recently returned from the final rehearsal for He Laughed Himself to Death, the murder mystery I was talking about yesterday.  It went very well.  We are also full of plans for Who Shot JS? the next murder mystery planned.  However, I have many other plans for my life.  Will I implement them?  That, as they say, is the question (another question is who “they” are, but everybody asks that question; it does not interest me).

I want to clean and organize my house.  I want to finish writing my novel, or rather one of the many novels I have started.  Or maybe start a new one and finish that one.  I want to finish the Banana Play, of which I have a nearly complete, fairly coherent rough draft.  And that other play I had almost finished (the first draft anyways) for which I do not have a title (incidentally the Banana Play is not really the title of that one).

And what about my garden?  We are going to eventually have real spring around here, and perhaps even summer.  I want to grow tomatoes and peppers and lettuce and herbs and flowers… I want a container garden on my deck and a regular garden in my yard.  And maybe even some lawn ornaments to look cool.

Additionally, I want to start making better blog posts.  I want to attend more cultural events, patronize more distinctive local businesses, and visit more destinations of all kinds.  Then I want to write about them.  Regarding today, of course, it is Lame Post Friday. For now this will have to do.

 

About that Fake Poo…

I thought I would use today’s post to plug He Laughed Himself to Death, the murder mystery dinner theatre Ilion Little Theatre is presenting at Morning Star Methodist Church in Ilion April 1.  For one reason, deadline for reservations is Thursday, and local readers may like to go.   Of course I do not want to say too much about the plot, because I don’t want to spoil anything.  Perhaps it would jazz things up if I included a couple of pictures of the props Kim and I purchased last Saturday.

Big dog, little dog?

I said in Saturday’s post that I was disappointed in the quality of the fake poo, but it isn’t so bad once you get it out of the package.  I had some better fake poo that I got at a Mom and Pop operation called The Party Store in Potsdam, NY, roughly a hundred years ago.  And that makes me an authentic old person, carping about how things used to be so much better in the old days.  Well, that’s a whole other blog post.  Let’s get back to the silly pictures.

Something bugs me about this picture (sorry, I couldn’t resist).

I guess my insect picture has kind of a shadow, but I don’t have time to set up a better shot.  The cockroach has wheels to you can make it zip across the floor or table.  Tee hee.  Who wouldn’t love a cockroach on wheels?

 

Just looking at it makes me thirsty!

I put the ice cubes with flies in a wine glass with water, then added the bottle of wine to make the picture more interesting.  Domhnall vineyards is located in Herkimer, NY.  I love their Baco Noir.

Steven came home while I was taking the ice cubes out of the package.  He was startled by the bugs on the table and the poo on the floor.  Tee hee.  I gathered up my jokey props and took them to rehearsal, where my fellow cast-members were equally amused.

He Laughed Himself to Death will be presented at Morning Star Methodist Church, 36 Second St., Ilion, NY, Saturday, April 1 at 5 p.m.  A roast pork dinner will be served.  Tickets are $20. Reservations are required by Thursday, March 30 by calling the church office at 315-894-4520.

 

Fake Poo and Leftovers on Scattered Saturday

It is time I made my Scattered Saturday post for the week.  Or some sort of Saturday post.  Because, you know, it is Saturday (even if my WordPress page says differently; I can’t fix these technological glitches).  Only I am tired and would prefer to get on with my couch-sitting, crocheting, watching television portion of the day.  What a bum!  In my defense, I did a few things today.

I went running around with my friend, Kim.  We were seeking props for He Laughed Himself to Death, the murder mystery at Morning Star Methodist Church April 1.  We had some good luck. I was a little disappointed in the quality of fake poo we found, but I was pleased with the flies in ice cubes and the joy buzzers.  Oh dear, I hope I haven’t given too much away.  I do like my audience to be surprised.

Returning to Ilion, we had a nice lunch at Sorrento’s, just to give a shout-out to a local business. I have leftovers I can enjoy later.  Yum.  Later on, I went running (actual running, not just running around like earlier).  I pretty much knew I would not make a Running Commentary post.  I did not think I was setting a very good example, for one reason.  For another reason, most people do not want to hear about my sports bras (please do NOT tell me “TMI,” I HATE that expression!).  Around six, Kim picked me up again, and we went to a tasting of Coyote Moon Winery at Valley Wine and Liquors in Herkimer.  Then we met Steven at work and brought him to the tasting.

I heated up leftovers for supper when Steven and I got home (not the ones from today’s lunch).  I thought that was better than some other plans I had, one of which involved the telephone and a credit card.  The food tasted good, it was easy to fix, and we got that little frisson of virtue that the leftovers did not go to waste.

That brings us up to date.  It was a fun day, although I’m afraid this is kind of a dull post.  But what are you going to do on a Saturday? I hope to see you all on Wrist to Forehead Sunday.

 

Never Give Up! Never Surrender!

Earlier this evening, I wrote the following two paragraphs:

Is this Writer’s Block or a panic attack?

OK, I just wrote that, so it isn’t Writer’s Block, although maybe you could call it Write Anything Good Block.  I have to leave soon for rehearsal for He Laughed Himself to Death, the murder mystery to be presented at Morning Star Methodist Church April 1, and I’m afraid I am letting myself become overwhelmed with what-all I have to do.   How self-dramatizing of me.  Then again, with all the theatre I’m involved in, how can you blame me for being dramatic?  I know, I know, a time and a place.

Then I went to rehearsal, after deciding to get a grip on myself.  In my defense, it has been rather a dreadful week, and it seems to be taking forever.  However, I have plenty of blessing to count, and I must not discount them.  I have a daunting amount of things to get done, but I feel certain that if I can make the right plan, I can get most or all of them done.

As you see, I am in a better mood now.

Rehearsal went very well.  I think He Laughed Himself to Death is going to be a great success.  As we left rehearsal, Charity, the actress playing my daughter, called her father, Jerry, for a ride.  Jerry has agreed to be in Who Shot JS?, the murder mystery benefit for Herkimer County Historical Society April 22. Charity asked me to wait till her father got there, because he had to ask me something.  I thought it must be about rehearsals or rides or something.  When Jerry arrived, he got out of the car carrying a beautiful bouquet.  He thought I could use a little pick me up.

Do I have the sweetest friends or what?

So here is my reminder to myself to not surrender to these little panic attacks.  Just take a deep breath and go to rehearsal.  You just never know when a wonderful friend is going to give you a lovely surprise.  Thank you, Jerry.  And happy Thursday, readers.

I put them in water right away.