roblathan.com

Christmas came early this year in the Lathan household. A few weeks ago I finally got exactly what I always wanted: a pair of shiny, new, red stilts. They have a little insignia on the side that says “Crazy Legs”. Getting my “Crazy Legs” in the mail was basically the equivalent of the little boy in “A Christmas Story” getting his “Red Rider” BB Gun. I needed ‘em for a few comedy projects I’m working on. I mean what comedian working today doesn’t use stilts in his or her act? I’ve actually already used them twice. The first was for a Channel 102 pilot I worked on with Terry Jinn and company. The pilot “required” me to be up on stilts for the entire shoot. It was a lot of fun, and I actually didn’t injure myself too badly the whole entire time. I can’t wait to see how it turns out.

My second performance on stilts was last Thursady at the comedy show called Variety Underground. It was an interesting experience. I believe there were a few factors that I should have taken into account before I hit the stage on my stilts. First and foremost, the audience couldn’t see the upper half of my body since the stage was elevated and I was up on stilts. So the whole time, my head was up by the ceiling and the audience just heard various shouting while staring at my legs. Another factor was that the audience was probably a little worried for me since at any moment I was close to crashing into the front row and breaking at least one major bone. For the whole set I had to pace back and forth across the stage to balance myself. And I kept shaking and wobbling and sweating profusely, determined to stay up while I did my act. This may have been a little jarring and distracting to the audience who were trying to hear what the punchline was from some voice up in the ceiling.

The next morning I could barely walk since my feet were so sore from balancing on the stilts. Still though, it was worth it. From here on out, I’m gonna work on honing my act as the “stilt comedian”. Gotta love those Crazy Legs!

(Stay tuned for pictures of the Crazy Legs.)

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 27th, 2005 at 2:15 pm and is filed under Uncategorized.