Our first time in the District in well over a decade was a blast. We were lured outside by perfect weather, so we headed out from our Georgetown hotel and walked first to the Lincoln Memorial. (What schoolchild on the eastern seaboard doesn’t recall the first time he/she stood, awestruck at the foot of that giant Lincoln statue, finally inside the building depicted on a million pennies?) It impresses even more as an adult.
We then made our way to the Korean War Memorial, then to the World War II Memorial, then we strolled through the giant C-SPAN Book Fair on the Mall. We checked out the U.S. Botanical Gardens, after which we took in the Air and Space Museum. We headed back up Pennsylvania Avenue and got as close as we could to the White House.
On the way back to the hotel, we passed the Hotel Lombardy. That location was the jumping off point for this story from an earlier visit to Washington, back about twenty years or so, when The Male Half, John Mulrooney and Dave Kelly stopped by that hotel to pick up Rich Jeni for a memorable afternoon.
All in the space of about five hours. We calculated the distance walked at about six miles. It was great to do the touristy things while on the road. Sometimes it’s easy to get into a business-only rut and ignore the wonders and the splendors that some cities have to offer.
We were working at recently-opened Riot Act Comedy Club on 14th St. with Denver-based comic Frank Schuchat and we were graced, all too briefly, with the presence of D.C.-based Roger Mursick and Tony Woods.
As The Male Half exited the stage at the end of the first show Saturday, the applause was accompanied by a (live!) trumpet rendition of Call To The Post. Riot Act proprietor John Xereas explained that the horn player was none other than Faith Dane, who had stopped by the club midway through the show. Faith (she had her name changed to just “Faith”) has run for mayor of the District multiple times and, it would seem, is never without her horn. (She was featured in both the Broadway and film version of “Gypsy!”) She was a fixture on and off stage at the D.C. Improv when Xereas coordinated the talent for that venue. Her rendition of “Gotta Have A Gimmick” from the movie and musical is cited by Paul Reubens as the inspiration for the creation of his Pee Wee Herman character!
Faith’s number begins at about the 1:30 mark. Well worth the wait!