So if you want to know how I got started, check out After the History of Slapstick. I was an actress who did a lot of slapstick / messy stuff in a "documentary" about the History of Slapstick. But when the censors decided a little too much of me was going to be showing on TV during our second season, they cancelled us. So now I do personal appearances, because there were a hell of a lot of guys who seem to have loved watching me get messed up. Often just I take a pie in the face and then leave with my check, but sometimes I get a little crazy.
So there was a launch party for some new computer game, and they wanted me to appear. Seemed pretty normal, but the guy running things said he wanted me to dive into a pool of jello. OK, I've done that before, even wrestled in it, but when someone starts saying "dive" and "pool" even my self-preservation kicks in. OK, he promised it was a big kiddie pool and he didn't really mean dive, though he did want me to jump off a diving board he had. Believe it or not, it's a living.
But the day of the party, I'm running super late. There was this whole thing with my car not starting and then I got it jumped, but it died about halfway there. Thank whoever for Uber, but I was still running over an hour late. We were losing the sun, and his party goers were all crowded around the pool cheering for me to be the jello shot. I looked down in the pool and sure enough, he had one of those eight foot long about two foot high kiddie pools at the bottom of an empty swimming pool. The jello was firm - like the whole thing, smooth as glass on top. I asked him how he did it - got solid jello in LA. He just smiled and said, "Lots and lots of ice".
Well, OK, I climbed up on the board, and the jello looked pretty far down. I know it was less than eight feet, but, well, I was a bit nervous. Stupid me, I had rushed up onto the board trying not to be even later, and I didn't check everything out. Well, the mob had closed off the end of the board so I was going to jump or be thrown, so I figured, I'd belly flop - safest way to distribute my mass, right. (What, you think I'm completely stupid? I'm just warped, not dumb.)
OK, maybe I'm a little dumb. Leaping off the board, I was most concerned I was going to just bounce off the huge jello mold. But that wasn't the case. Things went as planned. I belly flopped the middle of the pool. Head, feet, everything lined up pretty good - nothing slamming into concrete. I felt the jello sink down, and I was preparing myself to try and land on my feet if I got thrown upwards on my gelatin trampoline. Then I felt it change.
Yeah - This wasn't a solid piece of jello. It wasn't even solid jello mixed up, which I was familiar with. No, this was a layer of solid jello floating on top of a very liquidy mass of completely unsolid jello. My body sort of mashed against the firmness, but I felt my face pass through the solid layer. Jello can be fun! It felt jiggly and slick as my face cut through it. But then I was into the sugar water below. Since I had been expecting to get my feet under me after bouncing, I was completely unprepared to get fully dunked into jello water. Worse yet, he had used lots of ice; it was absolutely freezing. As I passed into the slippery mess, the cold shock was the first thing I felt, then the runny chill surrounding every part of my body at once and invading all those places you shouldn't have jello. I felt frozen outside and inside.
I had to struggle to my feet because huge pieces of solid jello were trying to hold me down. I fought my up as the crowd went nuts. Look, they were just there to see me messed up, and this was one of the biggest messed ups I had ever done (since leaving the TV show). Andy, the guy who hired me, was hurrying down the pool ladder apologizing as he came. Normally I would have done a little "ta-da", but I was a bit woozy from the shock factor of being dunked.
Andy helped me back up out of the pool as I tried to regain my senses. I looked down at myself - I was drenched. A huge wake of red slime was trailing behind me. OK, I crack myself up at all the wrong times, and probably shouldn't have been chuckling that I was now a huge snail. He just kept apologizing and leading me inside. Many thoughts were running through my mind, but the lead thought - How the hell was I going to get home? Uber was no longer my friend when I looked like this.
We paused in the mud room and I could see the gears churning in his head. He didn't want me in his house while I was dripping jello. I looked at him and in a strangely calm voice said, "Dude, I need to shower." Guess it's crazy what you can get used to.
"Yeah, I'll put you in my room and ask my Mom for some clothes for you to wear." The fact that he lived with his Mom did not go by unnoticed.
"Andy, you're a nice guy and all, but I'm not showering when I'm at risk from all your friends."
"Oh, no! Don't worry about that at all. My Dad doesn't allow my friends in his house." OK, so that said a lot. Though looking at him, I could tell he wasn't lying. Probably the safest shower I was ever going to get.
So I let him lead me into his bedroom (yep, the basement). Don't get me wrong, the house was gorgeous. Even his little basement apartment was far better than how I was living. I tried not to drip so much but that really wasn't my decision at this point. He ushered me into the bathroom and closed the door, locking himself out.
Well, nothing to do but do it. I stripped out of my strawberry colored clothes and stepped into the shower. As I was turning on the water I stuck my tongue out to taste the jello. Ehck! Clearly they had bought every flavor of red jello and mixed them together. Somehow I was far more horrified now than I was before.
I wasn't quick, but I wasn't luxuriating in there either. OK, maybe a little, the pressure from the shower felt as good as the warmth. When I heard the door open. I freaked a little and I think I let out a bit of a scream. "It's just me", called a female voice. "I'm Andy's Mom. He asked me to get you some clothes, but I don't know what size you are." I peeked just to make sure this was "Mom" and not some weird Norman Bates thing.
Yeah - "Mom". Apparently not his actual birth Mom. One look at her and it all fell into place. Dad must have been absolutely loaded, if he could afford a trophy wife like this in LA. I mean shit - She was stacked. She was in yoga pants and a sweat shirt and she looked better than most models in the Victoria Secret catalog. I think I was gawking with my mouth open a little too long, because she said, "I'm really sorry to come in here on you, but you didn't hear me through the door."
OK, so warped or not, there were logistics to be handled here. I needed clothes. I needed to dry off, and she was probably going to make both of those things happen. I turned off the water and told her my size. (No, I'm not telling you pervs!) Needless to say, the new Mrs. Andy's Mom was smaller than I am. So, I'm standing there dripping in the shower and getting a bit cold as we try to figure this out. I see the lightbulb go on in her head, and she heads out to find something for me to wear.
Logistics - I grab a towel and start to dry off, and yes, I opened the shower curtain like any normal person would do. So when Mom came back I'm butt up, bent over, dying my legs, towel saving the decency of my ankles and that's about it. When you're as warped as I am, you don't even bother to cover up at that point. It's too late!
I just shook my head and waved her in before junior came to see how we were doing. She was embarrassed for me, which was really cute. She had gotten me one of her husband's golf shirts, which she knew would be too big, and some of Andy's gym shorts, which embarrassingly enough were not.
As I finished drying off, she was working up the courage to ask me something. You know how I can be - subtle. So I said to her, "Out with it. What are you dying to ask me?"
"Why do you do it?" I raised an eyebrow at her like I didn't understand, despite the fact that I get this question all the time. "I mean why do you do all this silly stuff with food?"
"Did you watch my show?" I asked her.
"No, at least not when it was on. But Andy got me watching it the other night when he was trying to explain who you were. He has all of your messiest scenes cut together into this long montage. He's really a big fan."