Sunday, January 20, 2008

Cruise #5: Unlike Yul Brenner, I Have Fun Breathing Through a Plastic Tube

Back to the 9-day run, hitting Samana, Tortola, Antigua, Barbados and St. Lucia. The highlight was definitely snorkeling in Tortola, in the British Virgin Islands. I'd never been snorkeling before, and it was amazing. Of course, my camera batteries died the minute I stepped onto the ferry, but, aside from that, it was awesome.

Floatin' Joe, our music director, knew of a little out of the way beach on an island not far from Tortola. We took a twenty-minute cab ride to a free ferry, then rode that to a small resort island called Marina Cay. They had a great little bar, a place that rented snorkel and scuba gear, and the best part was that it was almost totally deserted. It was also my first chance to get into the Caribbean water.

First of all, the water. The Caribbean is like God's bathtub. Warm, buoyant, crystal clear. Totally amazing. Getting in for the first time was beautiful. Come to think of it, it might be the first time I've actually been swimming since I was in college.

The first time I put on the mask and went underwater was mindblowing. The minute you get your head down, you realize that there are millions of tiny, iridescent fish surrounding you. The beach sits on the edge of a large reef, so you can swim out over the top of it, and, once you get to the other side, there are a million fish all over the place. Simply amazing. I'm picking up disposable underwater cameras next time I'm in Miami, so I'll be able to put up pictures.

Winters & Montelione: In no way Goth


Sam and I celebrate the death of the Stock Market

Clemson Fans in the Caribbean. Start playing "Dueling Banjos" on a steel drum


We're about a third of the way through our contract, so this is as good a time as any to meet the cast.


Jen Winters: Jen was the only person I knew when I started this gig. She's another grad from the Second City LA Training Center, and performed with the Group on Wednesday nights when I was performing with Welsh Poets on Tuesdays. She's originally from Walla Walla, Washington, and has worked as a masseuse and a Yoga teacher when she wasn't doing improv. Jen and I can fall into the role of the parents of the group, partly because we're older than the others, and partly because neither of us show much affinity for standing on a bar and playing to win in a beer drinking contest.

Joe Latessa: AKA Uncle Joe AKA Floatin' Joe. Joe's the music director, and has worked on the Pearl for the last eight months and on ships for the past two years. He's originally from Detroit, and worked as a music director for TourCo and at IO in Chicago, among other places. Joe and I are roommates, and will be for the next couple weeks. Joe's a wi-fi-seeking missile, and can tell you where to find free internet access more than a dozen countries. He also possesses an invaluable knowledge of all the ports and of all thing's ship-life. His book "Floatin' Joe Speaks Boat" will be out this fall on the Scribner imprint.

Sam Richardson: AKA Colossal Sam. Originally from Detroit as well, Sam's spent the last few years teaching at the Detroit training center. Sam was the first guy in the cast I met, and we wound up having a ridiculously fun evening with my brother and a bunch of old Carolina hands. Sam's great claim to fame is that he can eat his weight in food, double his weight, then eat that weight in food. Sam's our most ubiquitous cast member. Everybody seems to know him, and that's only partially attributable to his spending every waking hour in the ship's disco. He did the Ship'n'Males strip show on this cruise, which I didn't go to. That absence saved our friendship.

Kevin Sciretta: Kev's originally from New York, but has lived in Chicago for the past several years. He comes to the Pearl from the venerable Cupid Players, the big musical sketch-show at IO Chicago. He was also on Bullet Lounge, one of the Harold teams there. Kevin holds the world record for most times fired at Navy Pier. He's also disturbingly reminiscent of my friend 40 from college. We will actually get to hang out the minute football season ends.


Eileen Montelione: Another Chicago hand. She worked in the office at Second City before landing this job. She's a training center graduate, and can sleep for over 120 hours at a time, if the situation calls for it. Eileen is a fantastic singer, and regularly saves everybody's ass during Blues Jam in our Stardust show. She's also obsessed with "The Room", a bizarre cult film that's been playing regularly in Los Angeles for the last five years. It's astounding that I stared at the billboard for it every day in LA, but finally saw it somewhere between Barbados and St. Lucia in the middle of the ocean.

Anyway, the rest of the cruise was a blast. I met a bunch of very cool people, and got to hit a few of the ports I hadn't really explored yet.

The last, lonely tender out of Samana


Beach Volleyball with the crew of the NCL Pearl


The Boatyard: Where you can swim, surf, and be run over by a sailboat