Monday, November 14, 2016

The Room road trip



I LIVED TO tell about a road trip with Greg Ellery, which must be worth something. We headed to Michigan and then to Chicago over the weekend, and ended up at the Chicago Comedy Film Festival. Greg, as you all know, had a role in the legendary cult film The Room, and he appeared in a mockumentary about The Room. He's the guy in the upper right hand corner. So he's, you know, famous.

"Wait a second ... I recognize you. You were in The Room!" Yes, this sentence was actually uttered a couple of times. On Sunday we stopped in Macomb and my daughter, Emily, said, "WHAT? You were IN The Room?" Fame has its price, I guess.

The mockumentary was very good. There were another 10 films or so, all excellent. Then there was a Q&A at the end, and Greg was in the same line as Jane Lynch, among others. She's actually taller in real life. It was awesome.

As usual, the educational aspects of the adventure were the best parts. I learned that it costs about $10 to use the Chicago Skyway. Whoever Dan Ryan was, I bet he was congested, because the Dan Ryan Expressway is frighteningly congested. Rogers Park is very cool, as is the Flatts & Sharpes music store, located across from the theater. Walking is en vogue around Loyola University, and it's easy to get lost at midnight looking for Lakeshore Drive.

And you can always, ALWAYS, get stuck in traffic on I-55. Especially when it's a few miles north of Joliet, and it's 1 in the morning, and there are guys jack-hammering concrete all over the place, and traffic is reduced to one lane. Hey! Why just have traffic jams during the day when you can make life interesting at night?

So it was a blast, and I will do it again someday, if and when Greg stars in another movie and gains even more cult status.

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