Jamespeak: From the Nosedive Archives: "I Like Weed"

Continuing with posting archived footage from Nosedive's past, here's another one from the archives: a brief clip from our February 2003 play, Two Parties. The handsome fellow in this scene is Patrick Shearer.

In this scene, he plays Scooter, a drug dealer who likes to party with kids several years younger than him. He's basically the creepy college dropout that would show up at your high school parties because one of the girls in your class was banging him.

I think this clip requires a bit more explanation than most. I actually haven't seen the video for this production, and although had a lot of fun at the time, haven't given it much thought to this show since. Watching this clip again, I'm reminded why. This is far from my best work.

Two Parties, a play about a bunch of young folks throwing an impromptu party while the host's parents are gone, is a really awkward and heavy-handed script, which recycles a lot of (heavy-handed) ideas I'd already played around with in earlier scripts.

So yes, watching this clip for the first time (thus seeing a piece of this show for the first time) in seven years, I winced during most of it. No offense to Mr. Shearer here (or the rest of the cast), I think he and the rest of the cast does a fine job with what they've been given to work with. I'm just thinking of my dunderheaded and amateurish writing.

The show, which enjoyed a month-long run at the 78th Street Theatre Lab, ended up being one of our more profitable shows. Yes, it made money. Go figure.

Despite its awkwardness, it's still fun (for me, anyway) to watch a (substantially younger) Piddimus engaging in the silliness I typed up. And watching it again, I did enjoy being reminded of the "kids in the clubhouse getting away with murder" vibe that Nosedive had back then.

Anyway, see for yourself.