> As a small child, around the age of nine, I often took advantage of my mother's age and boring lifestyle by begging her to let me stay up late on Saturday night to watch TV after she went to bed. Once, she asked what I watched that late at night. I told her a comedy show called Saturday Night Live. Of-course her thoughts were of Jackie Gleason’s “The Honeymooners” and “The Ed Sullivan Show”. Luckily for this nine-year-old, she never thought any different until I was going on thirteen. 

Growing through puberty, and watching the original SNL with all the greats like Belushi, Ackroyd and Radner as a kid has left me with an unfulfilled dream of traveling to New York and seeing SNL live. The closest I have ever come to seeing a live show that funny was “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” – that is, until a few weeks ago when I caught “Train Of Thought > Airport” at the historic University Theatre. 

To be honest, I didn’t know what to expect since the e-mail invite only mentioned they had a few skits related to religion that I might find comical. Since it has been about eight years since I have seen any kind of stage performance, and my girlfriend has never been to one, this sounded like the perfect way to start off a Saturday night – LIVE! 

With neither of us knowing where the University Theatre was, and no one in the U-District having a clue either, we were almost late for the show. Fortunately, we arrived within minutes of the opening act, and even found two empty seats on the front row. 

The idea behind “Train of Thought > Airport” may seem quite simple; yet, it’s brilliantly mastered by writer/director John Boyle. Each scene begins with the very attractive, and arousing at times, Missy Meyer coming to center stage and saying one word associated with Airports. From there on, Her, John Boyle, and the hysterical Ryan Miller produce a train of thought from that one word relating to an airport scenario. 

For instance: Meyer comes out and says “God,” the scene then has Boyle and Meyer come out with a clip board speaking to God about the future production of humans – trying to sell this idea to him to replace the dinosaurs. Another witty example is when Meyer comes out and says “heaven,” Boyle then comes out and plays a small child named Billy traveling on the airplane asking God questions. The side-splitter to this scene is when God’s secretary answers his call with John Ashcroft’s office. The scene continues with God telling Billy he knows all, and he’s watching us all the time to make every one of us safe; scary, somewhat true, and hilarious all at once. 

Their word selection covers at least thirty other topics, with every idea possible from terror and security to delays and bankruptcy. One scene with Miller playing a KGB spy was simply painful from the intense laughter, not to mention the skit where he plays an alien is hilarious as well. Boyle and Miller also act out two airline pilots trying to out-wit each others sexual remarks about a stewardess, which become more comical than the out takes from “Grumpy Old Men”. 

Every scene was very well written, continuously hysterical, deeply intelligent, and how the train of thought behind every skit tied in to another somewhere down the line was remarkable. This cast is much more than professional, I’d say simply genius describes them best. And, If any show in town deserved a standing ovation – this one deserved three. 

I started this piece with my love for the original cast of SNL; a group of comedians and actors that I thought could never be matched. Then, with tears in my eyes and spasm like pains ripping through my body from laughter, I felt like I had witnessed the very first SNL as Boyle, Meyer and Miller left the stage.

I was truly saddened, and disappointed to see the curtain close and the lights come on. I’m even more saddened to say the last show date was the 21st of June. However, on the bright side, there may be more shows to come. The flyer I received gave www.trainofthought.info for a mailing list of future shows, so I suggest you log on and check it out. Maybe this is what Seattle needs to pull it through these bleak times – a good laugh.