Double Bill at the Princess Theatre – Kevin Callan (a.k.a. Ed Wynn)
The line-up of enthusiastic paddlers cornered the block at the Princess Twin Theatre last night. I was there giving a presentation for Adventure Guide’s Armchair Speaker Series. To be quite honest, I had no clue the crowd was for my show. It was 5:30 p.m. and my presentation didn’t start until 7:00 p.m. So as I walked towards the theatre I innocently asked the last person in line what movie was playing — thinking it was another showing of Avitar before it went to rental. She replied “It’s for Kevin Callan. My husband says he’s the Ed Wynn of the paddling community.”
Wow! First, I’ve never heard the comparison of me to the comedian genius, Ed Wynn (but I was once labelled the “Red Green of the canoe world” in Madison, Wisconsin a few years back); and second, I seriously didn’t think I would draw such a crowd.
Problem was, the theatre only seated 250 people, and by 6:30 p.m. there was well over 400 people. The manager of the theatre was quite concerned over the fire regulations and had to turn people away. So I came up with a plan. I organized two shows – one at 7:00 and one at 8:00. It was a tight fit. The theatre had a movie showing at 9:00. But like all true campers, the audience took on the challenge head on. Of course, it helped when I announced that Adventure Guide would give away some good door prices for the second showing (Thanks Mike) and that it was a good opportunity for everyone to head off for a pint while they were waiting for the second show — which, by the amount of extra laughing going on in the second bill, they did just that (way to go gang).
Don’t worry. All the attention definitely didn’t go to my head. Well, it did for a while. But my high came crashing down when I woke my five-year old daughter up for school this morning and told her the good news about how famous her dad was. Her reply — “Well I hope you had your fly up this time; mom said you didn’t during your last presentation.”
Yes, I’m definitely grounded. Thanks Kyla. And by the way, to anyone who was there last night for my first or second show — was my fly up?
