Playing Through?

[mpbrockman]

Maybe slightly off topic: I can't remember whether it was the Compass or Second City at this point, but at the top of their first show after the JFK assassination, Del Close walked out and addressed the audience with something like, "We won't ask what you're doing here if you don't ask what we're doing here." Presumably their reasons weren't that different.

Lorne Michaels: "Can we be funny?"
Rudy Giuliani: "Why start now?"

SNL's first show after 9.11

[beardedlamb]

letterman's first appearance back after 911 was pretty awesome. i'm sure it's on youtube somewhere.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_CTW1sY68E[/youtube]

i haven't lost a loved one since i started doing improv, but i did feel a profound loss when michael jackson died and it was a couple days before that first hideout marathon. caitlin and i had gotten up very early friday morning in new york to travel to austin and we got to the hideout before anyone was there. we were exhausted so we laid down in the green room. i couldnt sleep, so i looked up his music videos on my phone and grieved my eyes out. then i did 40 hours of improv. so, certainly not as bad as losing someone i knew personally but i still felt that a great artist was gone and after such a tragic and tormented existence. it undoubtedly affected my performance that weekend.