Dan asked me to blog my Don't Spit the Water experience from this weekend and heck if I won't.

After Don't Spit went on hiatus over the holidays, Steve asked me to challenge myself and set aside my tried-and-reasonably-true character Dr. Baron Ludwig von Evilschlager and come up with some new characters. Now, I've written before about my temptations to just improvise everything. So I decided to really challenge myself and not just come up with a new character or two but to brainstorm at least three new characters* and at least outline all of the pieces they'd need to do a DSTW show**.

Erica and I have been watching a fair amount of Yo Gabba Gabba and I thought it might be fun, and rather in the DSTW sense of humor, to play a children's TV host who sings really repetitive songs. So I came up with David, the host of Sing-a-Ding-Ding***, "Minnesota Public Television's highest rated show for children between the ages of two and two-and-a-half".

Now, having said I prepared ahead of time doesn't mean I actually assembled my costume nor created backing tracks for the songs until Saturday afternoon. But I'm happy to report that Garage Band is as easy as people say and that a vest, a kickball t-shirt, and a stocking cap make a great children's show host outfit. (I also, ironically, prepped a new Dr. Baron bit that afternoon for a midnight show that same night.)

Andrew DeWitt and Jim Fath were also debuting new characters that night, so, let's be honest, the whole show could have tanked. But, in fact, it rocked. Interestingly, just a few weeks ago Erica and Steve did a workshop with some new DSTW comedians and she had been telling them that the spits don't really matter -- what matters is if the audience is entertained. This show was a perfect example of that. We got zero spits (Steve got two during hosting bits, but that doesn't count for us comedians). But the audience had a great time and really enjoyed the show.

(And Dr. Baron went really well with the later audience as well. All in all, a good night.)

* I ended up creating four.
** Three one-minute bits, a two-minute bit, and some 10-second bits for the finale.
*** Props to Erica for that name. And for taking photos all night.