Even after an exhausting day at Disneyland, it is hard to sleep in very late when your body’s time is three hours ahead of the real time. So despite the exhaustion, on the morning of Sunday, March 28, 2010, my eyes still open at about 6:30am in my friend Jimmy’s guest room in San Pedro, California. I tinkered around with my email and Facebook (having brought my laptop along with me on this trip), then slowly got ready for the day. It would be a long one…and it would be about 33 hours before my head would hit another pillow – in a country far, far away.
My friend Rick Greene had come through once again in securing reservations at the Magic Castle in Hollywood. Whereas our reservations for our previous Castle visits in 2005 and 2007 had been for dinner, this one was at 11am for brunch. Big Jimmy, Kris, and Ellen met us at Jimmy’s house and we all headed out for another great visit to the Castle. We got there around 10:30, met up with Rick and his son Anthony, and waited outside for our table to be ready.
Me and Rick getting ready to enter the Magic Castle for my third visit. (Anthony waits on the bench)
I must say that the brunch was the greatest I have ever had. It had an omelet chef, and roast beef and turkey carver, every breakfast delicacy one could imagine, lunch meats and cheese, and free mimosas. There was no question that I was going to leave this brunch absolutely stuffed. And I was not wrong.
After the brutal stuffing, we headed to the main theater (as we always do following the meal), known as the Palace of Mystery. We were nearly the first ones here, so we were able to sit in the provided chairs and wait for the theater to open at 12:45. The weekend brunches are the only time that the Castle permits children to visit, so the show was more kid-friendly than the typical evening shows. We were also asked to allow the children to sit in the first couple of rows.
I’ve seen better acts in the Palace of Mystery, but his one was decent. It was a combo act of Chris Mitchell, who performed mostly as a comedian -while throwing in some magic, and then Mystina, who performed a more traditional Las Vegas style magic act in her skimpy outfit. You may recall that I had seen Mystina the last time at the Castle, and she had accidentally knocked out her two front (false) teeth during the performance.
Rick and Anthony took off after the main show and the rest of us lined up for the last Close-Up Gallery show at 2:00. Apparently, they decided to add some extra close-up shows because they let us in early – to a different gallery than the one I had twice visited before. Here we saw a 15-year old magician named Shawn South. He was quite adept for his age, performing mostly slight-of-hand card tricks. Ellen was chosen to be an assistant for one trick (which I figured out). We were done with the show and in the lobby by 2:00, where we posed for our traditional group photo.
Big Jimmy, Kris, Ellen, Jimmy, and me in the Magic Castle lobby
We then went back to Jimmy’s for a bit where we visited for a couple of hours or so and then I gathered up my stuff and Jimmy took me to LAX. I checked my bag and met up with Bob in the terminal. Unfortunately, we didn’t have any big celebrity encounters like we did the last time we departed American soil out of LAX. We grabbed some food at Chili’s in the airport, but after the huge brunch, I went very light just getting some soup.
The first meal of the trip for Bob and me – a quick nosh at Chili’s in the LAX airport
The American Airlines flight for London departed at 7:50pm. The A.C.T. tour group we were traveling with actually had two flights to London, this being the only that was direct (which had cost an extra $100). We would be losing nine hours between California and England. The flight was nine and a half hours, but with the time that we lost, we didn’t arrive until 2:15pm London time on March 29. Bob had given me one of his effective sleeping pills, so I did manage to sleep fairly well on the flight, not even waking up for the meals, drinks, and snacks.
We met up with our tour guide Steen at the London Heathrow airport and caught a shuttle to our hotel, the Central Park on Queensborough Terrace, off Bayswater Road across from the Kensington Gardens, arriving about 4pm We checked in, I shelled out for wireless internet for the week, and we headed to our room. Although nice for British standards, the room paled in comparison to what we had had in Guatemala. It basically consisted of two beds with a few feet between, a decent sized space with no furniture, a desk, a TV mounted high on the wall, and a bathroom.
Our decidedly British accomodations for the week
Bob and I rested for a bit and then ventured out into London. We had expected rainy weather, but I didn’t expect it to be so cold. I completely missed the mark on what I packed, so you will see basically only two sweatshirts in these London postings, many times doubled-up. We stopped at a currency exchange to get some British Pounds. The exchange rate sucked. We got about 65 pounds to $100. Also, they all drove on the wrong side of the street.
Transportation in London was amazing. They had a reliable bus system and an equally reliable Tube underground rail system. Bob had been to London twice before, so it didn’t take us long to get it down pretty well. The object of the evening was to get from our hotel to Piccadilly Circus, a famous city square (actually circle – which is where the Circus came from) on London’s West End, adjacent to the theatre district. It was about a 45 minute bus ride when all of the stops between were factored into the equation.
Bob on our London bus
In Piccadilly Circus, with the Shaftesbury Monument Memorial Fountain, topped with the statue of Eros, erected in 1892
We went to a discount ticket counter to see what plays might be available that evening. It was hard to get around on foot at first because there was some sort of premier of the film Clash of the Titans going on. We didn’t see in any celebrities around though…at least not yet. We didn’t end up getting any tickets here, but instead headed over to the Novello, an historical theatre built in 1905 – and was christened as such in 2005 after actor Hitchcockian actor Ivor Novello, who lived in a flat above the theatre for 38 years.
The historic Novello Theatre, which lived most of its active life as the Strand Theatre
The historic Novello loo
Here we were able to purchase two discount tickets to see Cat on a Hot Tin Roof with an all African American cast. The leads were Adrian Lester (Brick) and Sanaa Lathan (Maggie). The supporting roles of Big Daddy and Big Mama were significantly bigger names James Earl Jones and Phylicia Raschad. I had never seen the play before and enjoyed it very much, even though my eyes were having trouble remaining open and focused. The performances of all four leads were incredible. After the show we were able to go to the stage door entrance and meet some of the cast. (See more by clicking the famous names above).
Ready to see Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
With the play’s lead Adrian Lester. He hasn’t had extensive film work yet, but can be seen in The Day After Tomorrow and Starting Out in the Evening
It was close to 11:30pm by the time we had finished the two-act play, met the principle performers, and were walking back to our bus stop. I was pretty hungry by this point, so we swung into a McDonalds to grab something to sustain ourselves. It was 12:30am by the time we got back to our hotel. Bob would not be pleased with the amount of time I would be spending clicking away on Facebook while he tried to sleep. And I would soon find that as enjoyable as the trip would be, sitting down to meals, getting a good night’s rest, or staying warm would be luxuries that would be few and far between.
Some of England’s finest cuisine
But I was in London, England for the first time in my life – so I was happy and anxious to find out what the week would hold.
The England trip will continue…
Bypass the London trip and continue with 2010…
Adrian Lester is fantastic and one of my favorite actors. You mentioned some of his work, but he is perhaps best known for the BBC series “Hustle” which is a must see. You’ve met him (and I hope and assume you also got him to sign), but you owe it to yourself to see him in “Hustle,” if you haven’t already.
Peter
May 16th, 2010