Typing in my underwear. By Mark Pitta ([info]mark_pitta) wrote,
@ 2008-02-12 01:30:00
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Something Wonderful Right Away
It's all a blur but here goes...when you do improv you are in the moment so when the moment is over and you're trying to remember what you said, the one liners flash into your brain randomly like memories from a blackout.

I had turned fifty the Sunday before...I can't believe I just wrote that...it's just a number...a large round number...but it gave me the excuse to have Robin Williams as my spiritual guru. From behind the curtain he was just a voice...

"You turned fifty, Mark?" he said.

"Yes."

"Knock, knock?"

"Who's there?"

"DEATH!"

I countered with, "Did you just call me Mark, or Mork?"

There was a long pause. Too long. I thought he had left. Then...

"Fuck you, Mark. I have an Oscar!"

He finally joined me on stage and I spotted a pregnant woman in the front row in her 10th month. Robin and I took our mikes and leaned into her stomach doing the first show her kid will ever hear.

"When you're old enough to see a show here, Mark Pitta will be seventy," Robin said to her belly.

I asked where she was having the baby and she said, "Marin General."

"Oh, no," I said. "In two months that's going to be a Whole Foods."

When we found out her last name was "Heinz," I came up with, "So, child birth is going to be you upside down with the doctors doing this..." Then I pretended to hit a Heinz Ketchup bottle from the bottom.

I'm sure Robin said some funny things too but this is all I can remember.



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ketchup bottle
(Anonymous)
2008-02-13 03:57 am UTC (link)
I especially remember that that was the thing that really cracked Robin up. He stepped back, out of character, and laughed. It's hard to make him laugh in mid-riff, but you did. I've seen Billy Crystal do it and it's always a joy because it takes a lot. It's no accident that you remember it, too. BTW, you played a GREAT straight man - well, not totally straight, you had your own stuff going - to Robin's stream of consciousness. Not an easy job, I'm sure, but you definitely held your own and inspired greatness from him. It was rare, authentic comedy. Very rich. You should probably tape everything just in case those gems need to be remembered. Still, it's situational. How often will you have a very pregnant woman in the front row willing to have you talk to her baby through her navel while her husband is sitting there loading his gun?
And burn that woman at the stake, the one with the cell phone trying to take pictures. We are on board with the no-pix-allowed rule so you can be yourselves and feel truly at home. Put a hex on her!
One more thing, who are you to diss American Idol, Mr. Star Search?! Good call on losing the 8-lb nose though.

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