Sweet sixteen for this bad boy. (The blog. Not me. It’s been a good ten years since I was sixteen…) Anyway, let’s get down to business: April. Brace yourself: this is a long one. (Giggity.)
The first weekend in April, I headed over for DPW’s 3 Years Old show. (This was my second weekend on-the-trot flying over for a show; the previous one I had worked for SSW, in Scotland.) I should’ve gotten a better sleep the night before, but I stupidly decided to start watching My Soul to Take (the Wes Craven horror film) and ended up finishing it, and only getting a few hours’ rest. I’m a silly, stupid, foolish man, so I am!
Though DPW’s show was in Pontefract, and I usually fly into Leeds for them, flight costs were fairly high that weekend, so I flew into Manchester, instead. I was out at the Airport around 5am, which was as fun as it sounds, and got my flight at 6:30… I had a few hours to kill before I could check into the Travelodge near the Airport, so got a bit of breakfast, read the Irish Independent newspaper cover-to-cover, and watched a few episodes of Extras on the portable DVD. (Including the Sir Ian McKellen one, which is superb.) Around 12 noon, I got to check into the Travelodge.
Though they call it “Travelodge Manchester Airport”, it’s really not that close to the Airport. The one near Leeds Bradford Airport is literally within walking distance; this one, however, was a 5-10 minute drive away, so it involved getting Travelodge’s £5 “airport shuttle”. (A taxi with a surly prick for a driver.) Staff at the hotel were unhelpful and didn’t give a fuck - particularly when I tried to arrange a “shuttle” back to the Airport for early the following morning. The room was adequate, and did the job, though, I guess, and I at least got to spend about 90 minutes in it before I had to leave again to head on to the show.
Like SSW the week before, the journey involved an almost-labrynthine series of connecting trains to get to my final destination. I headed from Manchester Airport to Huddersfield, from Huddersfield to Wakefield Kirkgate, and from Wakefield Kirkgate to Pontefract Monkhill, then walked to the venue- Pontefract Town Hall- which took a little while to find. That said, I arrived with about an hour and a half before doors, and whiled away the remaining time until the show began.
I was in a tag match—the tag title tournament finals, actually—teaming with El Ligero to face Martin Kirby and Mad Man Manson. It came off very nicely, and was received very well by the fans in attendance—well, most, apart from these two fucktards in the front row; y’know, the typical “smart marks” who try to get themselves over by starting “witty” chants? Them. Them aside, anyhow, the match was a nice blend of comedy—which I wouldn’t be completely au fait with, as I wouldn’t do comedic spots very often; a welcome change, actually, doing them—and fast-paced (or slow motion, in some cases) action! It was a fun match, and Ligero, Manson and Kirby were excellent, as always, and cool to work with.
Like SSW the previous week, again, I had to leave pretty much straight after the match, to catch my train back to Manchester Airport. Ricc the ref, who did a great job in our match again, very kindly gave me a lift to Leeds train station, and I made the train in good time. This time around, it was Leeds to Manchester Piccadilly, and Manchester Piccadilly to Manchester Airport. The adrenaline from the match wore off during the final leg of the journey, and I crashed! Pretty knackered at that stage. I headed back to my room at the Travelodge, had a well-needed shower, and got a few hours’ sleep before heading back to the Airport for my flight home to Dublin, the following morning.
The next weekend saw the launch of the DCW Training School, in Dublin. Though I’ve had seminars for the likes of DPW, SPWA and WrestleZone (amongst others) in the last few years, it had been about two-and-a-half years since I’d been a full-time trainer, when the IWW School wrapped up in the autumn of 2008. I was looking forward to getting back into it. I took the opening class of the launch weekend, and was impressed by the effort put in by the trainees there. I’ve since taken about two or three classes; attendance has not been overwhelming for my own classes thus far, but I hope it’ll be onwards and upwards from here. We’ll see… It’s nice to be back training, anyway, and to have my friends Bam Katraz, The Ballymun Bruiser and Vic Viper, as co-Trainers, in the School. If you want more info on the School, see the Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/#!/profile.php?id=100002234918108 (Shameless plug!)
On a partially wrestling-related note, I completed another acting/drama course in mid-April. Beginning in February, I had ten weeks with the Abbey School of Drama, doing their Scene Study course, which involved going over acting and improvisation techniques, and learning the lines for a scene which would be performed publicly at the end of the course. Due to an odd number of people in the course, someone had to do two scenes on the night, and that person was your humble narrator. I had to learn the lines for the two scenes—as there would be no scripts on the night—and arrange to meet both of my ‘scene partners’ over the course of the… well, of the course- heh heh- to go over the scenes, and get the rhythm and timing perfected, as much as possible. Initially, I was a little overwhelmed at the idea of having to learn two sets of lines, but I got them down, thanks to some help from The Ballymun Bruiser, Seán South, my work mate Ger, and ‘the missus’, who all ran the lines with me at some point.
The performance night was on Monday, the 18th. I headed to the theatre straight from work, went over the scenes a few times with my partners again, and before I knew it, the “house was open”, as they say, and the public had been let in. (The public were, mainly, friends and family of the “players”.) The night was set out as a sort of anthology, in a way, in that four different scenes were being played out. I was on second, and fourth/last. I rarely get nervous before matches anymore, but I was absolutely bricking it, as it were, before my first scene! I’d learned the lines and gotten them down, but I kept thinking I was just gonna blank out there, and forget everything. The first scene ended, though, and it was time for me to be “Ray” in our version of Joe Penhall’s Some Voices.
Once I got out there, my memory recall kicked in, and I just felt the lines flowing; the scene came off nicely. Sabrina, my Italian scene partner- playing the part of Laura- did a great job too. We finished, took our bow, and headed backstage, where I had to hastily change from a tracksuit (Ray was a bit of a working-class scumbag) into a suit, for my second scene. Revisiting a character I’d played in my last Scene Study course, I was playing Vinnie in Sam Shepard’s Simpatico. The third scene wrapped up, then I was out with my other partner, Cassandra, to perform the Simpatico scene. Having had the chance to warm up with Some Voices, I felt very comfortable with Simpatico, and was happy with how it turned out. Where my first scene with Sabrina was semi-comedic in tone, this one was bristling with tension and drama, and was a nice contrast. (For anyone who cares enough to look up the scenes performed, they were Act 1, Scene Six of Some Voices, by Joe Penhall, and Act 3, Scene One of Simpatico by Sam Shepard.) After a short interval, the second half of the show focused on improvisation, and was a lot of fun, just going on-the-fly, and acting out scenarios that were completely off-the-cuff. The course was great fun again, and I think the experience of doing acting, however small-scale, has managed to add another dimension to my wrestling performance, in a way. A very rewarding experience.
My mate- and fellow Irishman- Seán South recently asked me the interesting question of whether I preferred travelling alone or with people to foreign shows. He & I both head abroad a fair bit, so we occasionally swap stories, experiences and so forth. In actuality, travelling with folk hasn’t been an issue for a while—the last time I headed abroad to a show with anyone was April 2009, when I headed to Osnabrueck, in Germany, with JC Williams. (I also headed home from a show with Southy, himself, a little over a year ago, when we both wrestled for PBW, in Barrhead.) It’s been a while, anyway, is the crux of the matter! In a way, I’ve gotten used to the regimented nature of the travel. I neither like nor hate it. It is what it is, and I’m completely neutral to it. I usually bring enough stuff to entertain myself, be it an iPod, portable DVD, book, or what have you, so it’s fine. I’ve gotten used to travelling on my own, and really don’t mind it. For my final show of April, though, I would have some company, in the form of Brother Skelly.
Skelly & I go back about five years. I helped train the young maestro over the course of his time in Irish Whip and was- and am- very proud of how he’s developed, and the work he’s put in. At the Zero Gravity show in January 2007, he & I had a match, in the quarter finals of the tournament; it was his first high-profile singles match, to my recollection, and was my first singles match with someone I’d trained. I was really happy with it and, from a sentimental point of view, is one of the matches I look back most fondly on. We’ve had matches since then that I’ve enjoyed very much, as well, and tagged once a few years ago. Coincidentally, we both ended up on the same show for TAW at the end of April, so we elected to travel over together. For the sake of ease and so forth, as I live about ten minutes from the Airport, he stayed over in my place the night before—my Castillo de la Muerte, as it were. (Roughly translated as “castle of the dead”; a somewhat inaccurate title for the premises. It’s more of a duplex than a castle.)
(Me vs Skelly, from 2007)
The whole journey was, genuinely, more enjoyable with someone to head over with, and kill time with, and I was glad for the company, however much I tortured poor Skelly with my bad jokes. (“What’s a shih tzu? …….. A zoo with no animals.”) I pushed him for a high five for it until he eventually provided it just to shut me up (and hopefully put an end to the awful jokes!) If you’re reading this, man, my sincerest apologies…
TAW’s Samson very kindly met us at Luton Airport, picked us up, and we all headed to his training place. Along with catching up with him on the way, I caught up with Blue Lightning (who I teamed with last time—see Blog IX) and Sam Steel, and after a while, Lewis Cooper showed up. I’d become mates with Lewis since the last time I was over, and he, Skelly and I hung out in the MK Centre for a while “having de craic”, as it were. Lewis mocked/paid homage to our Irishness—it’s a fine line!—but he was outnumbered on this occasion! (Well, until Sam Steel, and Lewis’ mate Brendan showed up…) Skelly & I DID manage to teach him a bit of Irish, though: An Capall Dubh (“On cop-al dove”), and An Cloigín Gorm (“On cligeen gur-um”). Both of these are stops on the Irish LUAS tram system which runs through Dublin. An Capall Dubh is “Black Horse”, and An Cloigín Gorm is “Bluebell.”
The show—TAW No Limits—was on in Dunstable Leisure Centre, and the backstage area was terrific, in a very spacious and comfortable dance studio. I was teaming with Skelly to take on Shane Summers and Jet Valentine (who I faced last time when I teamed with Blue Lightning.) Having seen the match back since, I have to say I was very happy with how it turned out, and the flow of it. The only lacking element was the crowd, who were quite subdued, despite my best efforts to get chants for Skelly going while he was in peril! Shane and Jet were great to work with again (and took my unusual signature moves fantastically) and it was a lot of fun teaming with Skelly.
The show- and the TAW experience, in general- was, once again, very enjoyable. Really nice bunch of lads, and very easy to get on with. Always cool when people make you feel welcome, and put you at ease. If any of ye are reading this, lads, thanks. Post-show, Skelly headed off with family to London, and I stayed with Samson who, very nicely, put me up in his place again, and dropped me back to the Airport in Luton for my early flight home to Dublin. Gentleman.
At the time of him asking, I told Southy that I preferred travelling on my own. I’m not certain now. I guess it depends who’s with you, but it was nice having a bit of company for the TAW trip.
And, in the “random stuff from April” section…. I saw- and loved- Scream 4. Definitely worth the wait. As a fan of the series, I thought it was an excellent film. It was a little bit lacking in characterisation, but that aside, I thought it was a very clever movie, suitably tense, and just fun. So good, I saw it three times, and it’s very rare I’d go to see the same film more than once… There were a load of kids on the flight Skelly & I got to Luton and yet, amazingly, there wasn’t a peep out of them. They were really well-behaved, and didn’t cause any disruption. I was very impressed, especially in an age where I’ve become used to seeing lazy parents letting their kids run around restaurants disturbing other diners. That’s one of my pet peeves... I set up a Formspring account recently, so if any of ye have any questions, please feel free to post them. I believe you can post anonymously. http://www.formspring.me/BingoBallance
This is truly a blog of Michael Bay proportions—akin to Transformers 2, which was WAY too long, and could’ve done with a good working over with the editing scissors—so I shall wrap here. Thanks for reading, guys. Until next time, take care.
Ballance
No comments:
Post a Comment