Home!!!

Right now I am sitting with blankets tucked around me on the couch at home in Minneapolis! What a change from palm trees, sand, fine as flour, and warm, beneficent air. Oh well, I am still feeling immersed in the moist and warm experience, though such a long hurtling drive north does sober a person. As we drove, Alice Browne and I worked on a show to share as our return celebration at Walker Church, the epicenter of our worlds in South Minneapolis. We created it as a way to relate just some of our stories from the tour through our characters, Ollie McNutt, old and well used, and Doctah Chakra who came into being just this past week to share the art of Sound Healing.

Doctah Chakra’s first appearance was at our campsite at Tomoka State Park, on the Atlantic side of Florida. The Doctor applied her tuning-in skills and sound vibration to real ailments of audience members. Alice is a dedicated and inspired sound healer who wants to share the benefits of it with any and all people who are open to its healing potential, and the idea of bringing it on the road and into performance is very exciting. Who knows where this might lead, but Ollie McNutt is perfectly willing to be the entertainment to gather the audience for the Medicine Show! Things to come!

Ollie McNutt has been in his element of creating silliness along with sentiment. He has a sweetness that disarms, and people let down their reserve with him because he is so earnest? Silly? Strange? I am not sure why, I love playing him. I also figure that people are seeing a character unlike anything they are likely to ever see again, and that is worth a gander!

That makes me realize, too, that I have been on an odyssey where everything was new and ever-changing terrain. Being home I am seeing little scenes of my life that I have known so well that I quit seeing them. I see the cement path leading to the back door, and dear Peter, who kept the home fires burning! I am home!!!

A few stories or highlights that I have not related….

One evening after a show at our campsite, the family next to us who had missed our show due to an extended stay at the beach invited us to share their campfire. I took Jack the Dog over to perform a bit. A most unusual turn of events with a burning marshmallow led to Jack’s nose catching on fire. He was a beacon of light before I blew him out! He has sustained no lasting injury, but he feels burnished and ready for new material!

A show of contrasts! We ended up collaborating with the Kiwanas who put on their annual Easter Egg Hunt at Georgia Veterans Memorial State Park. I guess many state parks in Florida and Georgia are starting to be run by private groups, and I noticed on my credit card statement that I had paid for camping to the Blackshear Baptist Church. I was wondering about how a state park was sponsoring an Easter event. The other contrast was that tanks, fighter planes and artillary guns were the backdrop for the egg hunt and our show! We did a pre and post show to an excited crowd. Ollie got big running hugs from many children and had his photo taken with the Easter Bunny!