The Fringe 2005 Ping Pong Ball Awards

The "Forget the Pizza, Is there Any of that Beer Left?" Award

Goes Straight From Uranus

er, goes to the producing team known as Straight From Uranus, with the ever popular show title

TBD

otherwise known as "45 minutes written comedy show followed by 15 minutes of improv"

Which would have put them in the running for the first show to run into overtime in this year's Fringe, if they made it onto the schedule.

Unfortunately, the "is there any beer left?" comment was penned by me because these folks had the misfortune of being the very last ping pong ball pulled out of the Fringe lottery's spinning cage.

They had the unenviable experience of sitting and watching every other show get pulled for the 140 or so slots on the schedule, and then another 93 shows get pulled out of the cage ahead of them for a spot on the wait list.

That can't have been pretty. My only hope is that perhaps they were spared and just found out the next day because they couldn't attend the lottery itself.

I had the advantage of being one of the few folks in the audience not waiting to hear the fate of my show, since I didn't have a show in the running this year. Still, I felt for them. And wanted to offer them a beer, if only I knew who they were. (Assuming of course they were of legal drinking age - but since they were in the Teen category, odds for that aren't good either).

[To see the rest of the Ping Pong Ball Awards, click here.]

(For more of my writing - plays, past blog entries and more - visit www.matthewaeverett.com)