After winding through the streets of Austin, looking at the dust collectors and having more “festival food” than is probably healthy, the first show Saturday evening at the Alamo Drafthouse (the original) was a piece that was some kind of a take-off of some TV program I’ve never seen. Nor am I likely to waste too much time trying to get the references to a TV program called “The Apprentice.” I thought it was either sitcom or some kind of drama series.
So after paying full admission, the Aquarius manger came back, sought us out to return our dollars. This was to be a free movie. Or thing. Or event.
Call it what you want, it was both fun and, in a weird way, instructive.
The Alamo manager had two “teams” from the University where each team planned and executed an Alamo Event. The winning team got half the profit, and the losing team was supposed to do the dishes.
They filmed it all, the meetings, the teams doing strategy and planning, and all the material that went with it. One team drank. A lot. The other team had a better strategy, plan and implementation, but the drinking team won.
Oddly enough, I’d heard about both of the events, probably through the usual circles, one was a “South Park” sing-a-long, and the other was a Comedy documentary film plus the comics themselves live.
The drinking team won, but not without some underhanded tactics. Like handing out free food right before the other team’s event (part of the profit was to be whatver the gross sales were for food & beverage).
As we were leaving, at the end of the show, I had to ask that darling Aquarius, “Like, we’re the only folks here who didn’t have anything to do with this, right?”
“Totally.”
Little, independent businesses with a quirky side? Local places that are “like no other”? That’s why. Oddities. Weirdness. And even though I wasn’t even remotely involved with any of the material, I rather enjoyed it. A lot. Even though, I might have been the only outsider there.
“Totally.”
