I would not say Benefit

Posted February 8th, 2005 by Sean Williams

Last night, Jordana Mac and I, in other words, the entire staff of Gideon Productions, went to a benefit for The Play Company. We are big supporters of the play company, if “not giving a single dollar to the organization but still go and see every play” counts as big supporters. Mostly, we support their mission and their execution. Whenever we talk about The Play Company, there is some debate about which of the plays they’ve produced is the best, but every single play they have done has been incredible.

There was a moment last night when the director of the play “Trust” said, “no company has done so much with so little,” and, despite the fact that their budgets are $98,000 more than any show I’ve produced, I think I agree with them. We’ve always aimed our bow and arrow across the yard and more or less hit the target, these guys might have a handgun, but they’re hitting targets on the moon.

I have a horrible sense of being out of place when I get shoved in a room for a show or a benefit that I don’t actually feel a great deal of passion about, and I’ve often thought that maybe I was just a little shy. But last night I realized that I should just stick to gatherings where I can honestly be passionate about the organization, or I should learn to be more passionate about more things before I go to too many of these things.

One should always bring Mac along on things like this. “I’m starting a trend,” Mac said as he eschewed eating utensils of any kind, favoring the shovel-then-lick-fingers-clean method. Jordana looked across the room, saw a woman wearing a jeweled top complete with a large fake parrot on her shoulder and said, “I should be friends with that lady,” and within twenty minutes, they were perched on two chairs talking like old immigrants from the same country.

I made the rounds, marvelled at some of the celebrities, became incensed with the fact that a sprinkle of charm in a handsome black man is often mistaken for talent, and ate tons of *amazing* food. When Lindsay introduced me to one of the producers at Spike TV, the dude said he was looking for a brand new channel, something not yet done, and I said, “We need a channel that’s mostly good looking girls doing really stupid shit in bikinis, marathons of 1970s James Bond movies and then basketball done with inset trampoulines… Can we do that?” Fortunately, he laughed, since that is a distillation of what SpikeTV is.

I didn’t really care about any of the theater or movie celebrities, but when I saw Tyler Florence, I nearly tackled him. He must have only stayed a minute, probably because he saw the look in my eye, that “you’re the best thing on TV” look. Seriously, I’ve watched the food channel, and this guys is a gold mine. Great looking, really smart, seat of his pants cooking chef, the guy is brilliant. “Food 911” if you haven’t watched it, is Tyler going into average people’s kitchens to teach them how to cook the stuff they really want to, using their kitchens and their dishes. It’s so awesome.

The highlight of the evening is when Dana showed up with Capt. Jack Bowen, who is the most beautiful baby I have ever seen. I said “Hi Jack!” and he reached out and grabbed my finger and wouldn’t let go. It was amazing.