DON'T PANIC!

Hey folks, we're still alive. You can stop your worrying.

So, it's been like a week and a half since our last update. Sorry about that! We've been busy!

Let's see.... We have now performed our show 32 times for roughly 7,345 students (but who's counting?).

Last Saturday, we went to a Charlotte Bobcats vs Chicago Bulls game. The game was enjoyable, though obviously Dan was more into it than I was.

Oooh, pretty colors!

We were seated next to this girl who kept talking to us (despite the glowering guy she was with). Near the end of the game, some cheer dudes came up to our section carrying t-shirts to throw to people who cheered loudly. They led cheers of "DE-FENCE, DE-FENCE!" and "LET'S GO CATS! LET'S GO CATS!" Well, the girl really wanted a shirt, so she, Dan, and I all began chanting, "T-SHIRTS!, T-SHIRTS!" and "WE WANT SHIRTS! WE WANT SHIRTS!" Totally worked. We got her the shirt. Huzzah! Dan²: Crusading for Happiness (1 T-shirt at a Time).

After the game, we were meeting up with some of our fellow NTC actors to go see a play--Hedwig and the Angry Inch. We had a bit of time to kill before heading to the theatre, so Dan and I wandered around downtown Charlotte. We walked into a bar, looked at the dance floor, looked at each other, shrugged, and got our dance on... by which I mean, we left because Dan² are many things, but we are not really dancers (at least not when we'd be the only ones on the dance floor).

Having left the bar, we wandered around the area and found, well, Waldo.

Indeed, a plethora of Waldo!

Apparently, there was a Waldo bar crawl going on. It was pretty fantastic... except for this one female Waldo who said to a male Waldo, (and I quote here verbatim): "Ugh! I feel like my inner-thighs are really hairy tonight!" That was disturbing. TMI!!! Feeling quite accomplished with our finding of Waldo (except the hairy one), we walked the several blocks to the theatre through the frosty Charlotte night.

Unfortunately for us, Hedwig at 11pm is apparently very popular and was sold out. So... We turned around and trucked our way back to the car and turned in for the night.

Now, jumping ahead a bit... Monday afternoon we went to see the movie Lone Survivor, which was pretty well-done, appropriately intense and depressing. Guns were shot, things blew up, guys swore, Taliban were not nice. Not too much to report on it.

Then, Tuesday afternoon, we had our second show of the day cancelled due to weather so we went to see the appropriately named Frozen, which was very adorable and a lot of fun. We agree that it definitely lends itself to being adapted for the stage and suspect the Broadway version will be really cool--so much room for awesome effects! NYC road trip anyone??? A solid, uplifting film. It warmed my heart (ba dum che)!

Okay. So, at this point in this post, I have some very unfortunate news to report. A terrible tragedy has come upon us during our adventures. I... I... This is hard. Just a moment.

*deep breath*

Gollum has walked out on us. Despite the love and open arms we offered him, he apparently decided that he had better things to do than hang out with us for another couple months. He told us that it was him and not us... Kept muttering something about "precious"... not sure what that's all about. But Dan and I are brokenhearted at his departure. Our travels certainly have a grim shadow over them due to this terrible loss. I suspect we shall be grieving for many days to come.

We miss you so much, buddy!

Alrighty. That's all for now.

NEXT STOP: CHERRYVILLE, NC
Kowabunga, dudes!

Auditions. VLOG.

So yesterday, Saturday the 18th, we attended the Institute of Outdoor Drama Auditions. Now, if you know anything about auditions, you probably know that preparing for them is a lot of work.

As such, we thought we'd share with you a short video of some of our preparation process.

Also, for anyone wondering, we auditioned for 7 companies. I got 2 callbacks using a monologue I'd never done before this week, which I'm quite happy about.

But I've gotta give it to Dan. He got a whopping 6 callbacks! Very impressive! I'm glad I'm working with an all-star!

Okay. That's the last nice thing I'm going to say about Dan for a while. Ugh, I hate that guy....

Next stop: CHARLOTTE, NC... which is basically where we are for the next several weeks.
Kowabunga, dudes!

So... Dan's an interesting fella...

Hello everybody!

It's been a few days and we have much to tell! We escaped the frigid wasteland of Minneapolis and have been enjoying the warm weather in Charlotte, NC for the last few days.

We have already performed for roughly 2900 students, and our show seems to be a hit! Today, we even had a teacher put away her iPad games so she could watch! Success!

In other news, Dan has done what I thought impossible. He has IMPRESSED me. You read that right. Let me tell you a brief story.

We had just finished our first set of performances Monday, and we were both quite thirsty. We stopped at a gas station. Well, Dan decided to just fill his water bottle instead of buying a drink. I, however, bought an excellent Strawberry Kiwi juice drink. As I approached the counter to pay, the woman behind the counter raised an eyebrow. She says to me, "You with that other fella who was wanderin' about in here?"

I wasn't sure where she was going with this, but I responded, "Uh. Yeah."

"Well, you tell him the water's not free--50 cents a cup. But I'll give it to him this time, because he was walkin' with confidence."

There you have it, folks. Dan's confidence got him free water. I'm totes jealous of his mad skills.

So confident. Even Gollum thinks so.

We also took our trio to go see the movie Her, which we all agreed was FANTASTIC. Really well done. Highly recommended. Gollum snuck in some cheap candy for us... Don't ask where he hid it...

Aren't we just the prettiest trio you've ever seen?

I photo-bombed Gollum!

Now, there's one more interesting development that has occurred. When we went into our first school Monday, we were signing in and had a slight problem. You see, Dan's name got a red flag in the computer for sexual predators. That's right, Dan has been flagged as a potential pedophile. Um. Awkward. He no longer impresses me at all...

But no, actually it's because some jerk named Daniel Snott or Daniel Otter or Ottoman or maybe it was Snotterman was flagged and apparently criminals are dumb and often use abbreviated forms of their names when they change their names. So, I'm hoping Dan isn't secretly a  Snotterman...

Aww, he's too cute to be a Snotterman

There you have it folks!

Next stop: OUTDOOR DRAMA AUDITIONS!
Kowabunga, dudes!

Gollum of America

Howdy doody folkys!

We are gearing up to head out into the wild blue yonder tomorrow and leave this frozen wasteland in the dust. (Just kidding, Minneapolis, we love you. Even though you froze our boogers.)

The other day, we ventured out into the frozen tundra to visit the Mall of America in all its commercialized glory. Mr. Gollum snuck into Daniel's pants unbeknownst to him and hitched a ride. Don't ask questions, no one wants to know what happened there.

But he came with us so let's get to the pictures because I'm like a proud mama with a new Nikon at her son's first oboe recital.

Gollum felt right at home at Legoland!

He liked the Minotaur the bestsies.

Gollum encourages you to treat life like he does and just think happy.

Look at that smile!

Guys!

There's a store in the mall where you buy things to say you were buying things at stores in the mall!

Daniel got a wee bit too excited about the Discover the Dinosaurs store.

He discovered them all right... yes he did.

Gollum loves booty!

...also treasure.

HISTORY LESSON!!

This is the original home plate when the Mall of America was the home of the Twins. They sealed it in silver when the mall took over and they charge 2 dollars to step on it and give your best Mickey Mantel impression. True story! (I'm a dirty liar)

So there you have it! Proof we actually did more than sit in our hotel room watching HBO and eating jelly packets from breakfast. We also discovered Gollum made friendship bracelets with the housekeeping staff. Yes, the whole staff.

NEXT STOP: South Side Family Charter School(preview performance!)

Kowabunga dudes!

Dan² VS. Nature

Well folks, due to popular demand and since we have the immense pleasure of being in Minneapolis when it's -16 degrees, we decided to put science to the test. See?

Wittle Sweepy Baby

I caught Daniel SLIPPIN!

Even his dreams are ads for NTC!

He doesn't know I posted this and he's still snoring like porky pig with a sinus infection at this moment so I don't know how much longer this will stay up. He might be a poopy-face and delete it when he awakes.

TEEHEE I'M HILARIOUS!

So long TN!

Greetings from Minneapolis, where it's colder than a witch's tit in a brass bra.

But seriously.

The temperature is supposed be in the teens at the highest all week. BRRRR!!!

So, we know you're all dying to know just how we got to this frozen winter wonderland! First thing's first: as you remember from our last post, we recently made a new friend named Gollum. He turned out to be such an affable little dude, we decided to bring him with us on tour! We're nicknaming him Danny, so we can now be "Dan³." JK. He's just Gollum.

Gollum may have traveled a decent amount in Middle Earth, but today was his first time traveling via planes!

He got really excited about the wintery rock display in the Knoxville airport! He felt right at home.

It reminded him of that other journey he went on that one time...

During our flights, Gollum kept jumping up and down on the windowsill. Try as we might, we couldn't calm him down.

"Look at the viewses!"

Gollum tried to steal Dan's orange juice....

Silly Gollum! Orange juice is for Dans.

Well, we're going to our first meeting in just a bit and we start rehearsals tomorrow. Hopefully, they don't fire us after realizing just what sort of people they've hired....

Next stop: NTC HEADQUARTERS.
Kowabunga, dudes!