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The following is an excerpt from H. Jon Benjamins new memoir,Failure Is an Option,out today.
Not everything in my career has been successful.
But sometimes failed endeavors hold the best memories.
Its what makes it special.
Its a piece of personal history.
Back in the early 2000s, I was in a bit of a rut.
It was a bitPee-wees Playhouseish, in that it completely ripped offPee-wees Playhouse.
We had a house band and three guests.
One of the guests was a character called Pit Stain.
The problem was that the parents were not children and understood very clearly the context.
So it was a bit of a moral conundrum.
We would still bring out fake guests with different comedy concepts and kept the improvisational nature of the show.
I think we all thought at the time that we were on the cusp of something.
At the onset, the show was exciting to do, despite audiences that topped off at about ten.
When there are more people in the cast than in the audience, it makes for an odd dynamic.
We initially performed the show at midnight at the original UCB Theatre in New York City.
The daughter, who played drums, was around eight.
Fortunately, he never ran out and grabbed her.
I guess even on acid, he was respectful of boundaries.
That theater had about one hundred seats and had taken over the space from a small repertory theater.
Although there were parallel Freudian themes.
As we kept doing the show, our audience didnt exactly swell.
It more just smoldered.
But this wasnt exactly unfamiliar territory.
Literally, only my very Jewish aunt Marion, sitting at a frontrow table basically touching the stage.
The rest of the room was empty.
After the show, she said stolidly, in her very Jewish voice, I liked the comedian.
So yes: Id had some experience with dismally attended shows.
I just happened to be lazy enough to not get out of it.
Basically, I hung around long enough.
It was like theProducersscheme except everybody, including us, would lose money.
The show went well.
We had Matt Walsh back as Wyatt Trash.
It was a bit of a mess, but it was a creative, ambitious mess.
We couldnt wait to get to editing the footage we had.
Apparently, he was as excited as I was to get this show together.
Bill did all the videos forMidnight Pajama Jam.
I got there and sat down at his desk in his small bed room, where he edited.
He looked a bit sheepish, as if something was wrong.
I asked if he was all right.
He gestured to the monitor and said that I should see for myself.
He said, It is up.
On the whole thing?
No, not the whole thing.
Oh, thank God.
The sound kicks in at the very end.
At the very end of all the footage?!
I think the sound guy forgot to press record until the very end of the show.
We were poor but happy.
Well, not exactly happy.
Copyright 2018 by Hosenfef, Inc.
