don’t be a jerk

 
I think this is from the Monday edition of the Han-guk Ilbo. They’re apparently happy that there’s a Korean actor in the production. My dad called me, totally excited that I was in the paper. Eddie (who I’m now pretty much moved in with, more on that later) says that gives me leeway for about a year and a half to do whatever the hell I want. Apparently, K-parents love seeing their kids in the paper. It’s like scoring 1500+ on the SAT. God, it looks like I have no chin.
 
***
 
My dad called me yesterday, which was opening night, so I told him to tell me to “Break a leg”, and I spent the next three minutes trying to get him to do it correctly.
 
“No not, ‘rake a light’, Dad. It’s ‘break a leg’.”
 
The best I was able to manage was to get him to say “Break your leg.” I took it. Then he immediately said, “Good luck!” at which point I had to back him up and have him do it again, correctly.
 
***
 
As you can see, I was being superstitious. And I was being superstitious because I was nervous. I wasn’t the only one. Even Dom Magwili, who plays “Robert” in the play, and is the senior member of our cast, was a bit antsy. Poor Joanne, who plays “Claire” was literally wringing her hands.
 
Apparently, East West Players just received a huge grant from the Taper Foundation, so not only was there all the opening night hoopla, there were 3 speakers intro-ing the show to talk about the grant. It made a big event seem bigger.
 
George Takei even said a few words. When he started speaking, people started to titter but stopped once they realized that he wasn’t joking and that he really does talk like that. At the after party, one of the board members told me that Sulu liked my performance. Rock on.
 
***
 
Surprisingly, I didn’t have a sweating problem. Thank fuggin god.
 
***
 
After party was cool, but weird. I’m not used to that much attention. I’ve spent my whole life looking for attention, and I’ve never known what to do with myself during the few times I actually get it. I don’t like schmoozing. I was introduced to the vice president of current programming at CBS and made a slight ass of myself.
 
John Cho came up and complimented me on my performance. I said, “Hey, you’re Kerri’s boyfriend, right?” (Kerri Higuchi being the understudy for Catherine.) What a weird way to refer to John Cho. I guess it’s better than screaming “You’re that MILF guy from ‘Harold and Kumar’, right?”
 
One of the East West Players’ board members is also named David Lee. We seriously filled the next full five minutes with stupid jokes about that.
 
I had 2 beers on an empty stomach, so I was a little drunk, and some comm student from UCLA wanted to do a video interview with me for some website. I babbled. A lot. They’re going to have a helluvatime editing the good stuff out of that interview. I didn’t care. She was cute and I felt like flirting. I did my best to ignore the fact that I might possibly be 10-12 years older than her.
 
***
 
So I’m almost completely moved into the new place with Eddie now. The place is looking kinda phat, if I do say so myself. We even have a 32 inch TV in its own nook purely dedicated to Halo. Eddie and I are going to either take over the world this year, or completely ruin each others’ lives.