Shot of the Day #268: Mr. Combs Sat Here

Shot with iphone, click to enlarge.

Tonight was going to be a real treat. We had heard that Stuart Gordon and Jeffrey Combs were going to be going back to the live theater (that's where both had started their illustrious careers) for a one-man show about Edgar Allen Poe, which sounded like a project you can just tell would be special in it's own dark way. Thankfully, the limited engagement at the Steve Allen Theater proved to successful that they extended it....and then extend again...and again. Now the show is set to continue well into October, but when we all found a night to hit up the S.A.T., it was time for some NEVERMORE...

This is the chair that sat under a dim blue (moon)light on the quaint stage before us, and as the theater filled, we all sat there in anticipation of a master actor of both stage and screen grace us with a fully fleshed Poe, retelling his famous poems and short stories as well as, between swigs of Rye Whiskey, lament on his final days of woe and poverty, pining for his lost loved ones, before finally fading away himself. Being that close to Combs in his Zone, tearing through the words of the famed Macabre author as if playing to the cheap seats (which all of these were, at only 10 bucks...WHAT A DEAL!), was such an experience, and even if I was fighting a numb ass (yeah, they WERE cheap seats!) and having only slept about an hour the night before, his presence was captivating. THIS is acting, diving into a character head first, to the point where I actually believed Combs as Poe was truly drunk on-stage as he almost dives off it to chase a ghost. Being such a huge fan of his since RE-ANIMATOR & FROM BEYOND, and later in THE FRIGHTENERS amongst other genre films and TV he's done, it felt like we were watching history being made, or just that...he was playing, right to me. At one point I swore he looked me right in the eye when he read from The Tell Tale Heart, and it sent a shiver down my spine, an electricity of creative spark connecting us for that moment. Sparse yet spellbinding, Nevermore was the best way to spend a Friday night for any genre fan.


I beg you all, before it's gone and if you're in Los Angeles, you NEED to hear the raven quote...NEVERMORE...

Joe