Onward, Patsy!

Through a happy stroke of luck (for me, anyway), my mother ended up with an extra ticket for Spamalot, and so invited me to see it with her. It was, I'm happy to say, absolutely awesome! I honestly can't remember when I last laughed so much. Beautiful singing, excellent choreography, some awesome audience participation in the end... If there was any drawback to the show, it's that some Monty Python lines have pretty much entered mainstream culture and so are repeated so often that the humourous effect gets lost somewhat when you hear the line said on stage (or when you're watching any number of Python productions, really.) There was little laughter for the "must be a king because he isn't covered in shit" line, since just about everybody expected it.

There was plenty of preventive laughter, though, when the audience realized which scenes were coming next, or for more visual jokes they knew were coming.

I think one of the most amusing lines was said while Arthur was looking for Jews to be in a Broadway musical (because Broadway musicals just won't succeed if you don't have any Jews, you know). No matter how hard he looked, he just couldn't find any. And then...

Patsy - Well, sire, I'm Jewish.
Arthur - You? .But, why didn't you tell me?!
Patsy - Well, it's not the sort of thing you say to a heavily-armed Christian.

There was such laughter from the audience that they had to wait for us to calm down before the next line could be delivered.

I was quite happy to run into Van and TL when the show was over, too. I figured they'd be there to see it, though I didn't figure I'd run into them because the theatre was so crowded. Turns out they were sitting a row behind us and a few seats over!

Speaking of the theatre being crowded, I got a wonderful faceful of my mother's rather narrow and contained worldview as we were waiting for the show to start. She expressed surprise that so many people were here, because this was going to be British humour and most Canadians don't understand British humour.

I had to fight not to facepalm. Seriously. I told her that Britcoms have enjoyed increasing North American popularity for, oh, around the last decade or so. (I remember being able to watch Red Dwarf and My Family when I was in high school, and Monty Python's Flying Circus was on TV for Rei's parents to watch when they were our age, so it's not like there's no exposure here.) Also, I pointed out that I was pretty sure most of the audience wouldn't even be here if this sort of thing wasn't to their taste. Saint John may not have a hugely strong geek community, but I personally recognized 4 people whom I know are rather geekly and into Monty Python despite the terrible crime of being Canadian, and that doesn't include myself. I'm British by blood, and mostly Canadian by culture, but I didn't get much exposure to British comedy until my later teens and early 20s, so it's not like you can say I was raised on the stuff. And yet I was there, knowing that I was going to see and expecting to enjoy it.

She has that kind of blind spot. So does my father. Now I admit that I love England, and find a good few things there to be more enjoyable than what I have here, but not quite to the extent that my parents do. My father insists that all British food is more satisfying that Canadian food so he has to eat less there to feel content (saying this, of course, while telling me that no, I don't want to live in England because there are too many problems there and I wouldn't fit in; he misses and loves it as much as I do, but just won't come out and say it), and my mother, well, insists that Canadians just won't get dry over-the-top humour.

Riiiight. I can think of half the Internet that I'd like to introduce her to!

But I'm not going to spoil my memories of such an awesome night. The show was spectacular, and I wish I had the money to see it again tonight, with Rei this time, because I know he'd love it too! Probably more than I did, since he was practically raised on Monthy Python!

But for today, I think I'll go and make myself a nice cup of tea, do some dishes, and then settle down with Pokemon SoulSilver for a little while. I ought to be letting alter-ego Sage grab more screenshots from Tactics Ogre: The Knight of Lodis, but I'm hesitant again to use my laptop for long periods of time since the cooling fan died and it can get rather hot. If Rei can't fix the fan, I'll have to be a little more frugal with my computer time until I can afford a new fan.

...Maybe I can ask for one for Christmas or something, if they aren't that expensive...

At least I have books to read that aren't e-books, and games to play that don't require my laptop to be on, so it's not like I'm totally deprived of things to keep myself busy. (Really, I should stop being such a slacker and do some more housework...)