Hey there!

So as many of you know I won that trip to New York to see Avenue Q and meet the cast an maybe be in it. I went for an extra 5 days (total 7) so we could see New York for as long as possible. It was amazing! I saw 8 shows in 7 days. I saw Doubt, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (with Norbert Leo Butz and Jonathon Pryce), the adult AND normal version of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (which was unbelievable BOTH times!!), Chicago , Measure for Pleasure (with Wayne Knight who played Newman in 'Seinfeld'), the mind blowing revival of Sweeney Todd (with Patti LaPone and Michael Cerveris - who creeped the hell out of me! I met Michael too!) and Avenue Q!

On top of all of that, I got my BROADWAY DEBUT in Avenue Q!!!!! My puppet, Maurice, and I both got to go onstage in the March 10th performance and appear in Avenue Q with the cast! It was the best time I have EVER had! I (with Maurice in hand) played a bartender in the 'Around the Clock Cafe' scene and sang the opening number with the cast back stage and got a bow. The best part, however, was being backstage to see the madness that ensues. Christian Anderson (who plays Nicky, Trekkie Monster and Bad Idea Bear 1) and I made fast friends! He and other cast member Jennifer Barnhardt were so great to hang out with. Jennifer, who is a professionally trained puppeteer and the only of 2 original cast members from the 2003 Tony award winning show still in it, taught me a short puppetry 'workshop' with Maurice and I got to play with their amazingly built puppets from the show. I'm still remembering hilarious moments that will stay with me forever!

Thank you so much for your support and votes! I know some of you posted my story on your Blogs! Please pass my well wishes on to your readers! Thank you so much for helping a fellow puppet lover have the best night of his life to date! I owe you all so much!

Below is a link to an article at BroadwayWorld.com that has pictures of me and Maurice onstage with the cast and the other 2 trip winners who did not make their debuts.

http://www.broadwayworld.com/viewcolumn.cfm?colid=8175


Also, when I get my computer at home working well enough to download my pictures, I'll be posting them on my blog eventuallyclever.blogspot.com


Thank you all so much, again!


ANDREW MACDONALD-SMITH & MAURICE TIPO