Don't skimp on the Foreplay

Twenty years ago this month, I was a student at Fresno State, with a double major in Geography and Radio-TV Broadcasting (no, I was in no hurry to graduate, and no, I've never really done anything with either one, career-wise). I was also having fun as a DJ at KFSR, the campus radio station.

My old high school buddy Don- along with some scary Malaysian friend of his who was one of those morning Jazz DJs that we late night Alternative DJs didn't mingle with much- had an idea to get a group together and do a live weekly sketch comedy show. They managed to get four guys together, so they decided to call it Fourplay. Get it?!?!?

I wasn't a part of the first show. Or the second one. But I listened to them, and thought, "I wish they'd call me. I want to do it too! It sounds like fun!"

The call came before the third show. Ron was going to be out of town- so would I come in and help that week? They let me stick around, and the name spelling got changed to Foreplay.

What started as semi-adlibbed live shows with pre-recorded bits eventually morphed into fully produced recorded shows. The quality of writing, performance, and production could be....inconsistent. Along the way, many talented people- often whoever we could grab in the hallway of the Speech Arts building- contributed to the 13 episodes of tarnished splendor that were Foreplay.

It's not overstating it to say that the experience changed my life. That scary Malaysian is almost solely responsible for getting me into theatre. Everything my life is now, for better or worse, can be directly traced back to that moment in time. And yes, to this day, I still enjoy telling people that I met Marcel while doing foreplay together.

The other night, we had a twenty-year reunion. I think it was Don's idea. Good idea, Don.

Marcel's blog here gives a far better take on this than I ever could. In the meantime, enjoy the dulcet tones of one of our hit songs blaring from my profile page.