I am appearing in The Catastrophic Theatre’s production of Life is Happy and Sad, director Jason Nodler’s follow-up to his previous Daniel Johnston-based rock opera Speeding Motorcycle. Believe me, my participation is not meant to be a selling point; I’m onstage for maybe seven minutes total and out of the three things I do in the play I’m still fucking up two of them with only a couple more rehearsals to go (no worries, I’m sure 48 hours is long enough to learn how to play the piano). Synergistic conflict of interest or not, I wanted to share a few things here on 29-95 about my experiences so far with this play.

Last year, during Speeding Motorcycle’s run at Austin’s Zachary Scott Theatre, Nodler was given an audio cassette by David Thornberry, one of Johnston’s closest friends. The tape was a piece of correspondence from twenty-five years ago; Johnston taped himself in a practice space at the University of Texas talking to his friend, ruminating on art and loneliness and playing songs. The tape became the basis of Life is Happy and Sad. I’ve been a humongous Daniel Johnston fan since high school, and when I finally got my hands on the recording I tore into it. It’s a complete revelation, an uncensored look into the thought process of a legendary artist early in his career, but besides being a fascinating historical document it provides a compelling (and surprisingly cohesive) narrative that anyone who’s ever painted a picture, written a story or recorded a song could relate to. It’s been amazing to watch it brought to life.

When I heard last summer that Matt Brownlie was going to play Daniel Johnston I was thrilled. Brownlie is the frontman for Bring Back the Guns (and their previous incarnation, The Groceries), one of the first bands to get me excited about local music. The way Matt captures Johnston’s earnest intensity and nervousness I could swear he’s been acting for years, but this is the first play he’s ever done. Considering the first half of the play is just him alone onstage, talking and singing and playing piano, I’d have to say he’s got more guts than almost anyone I’ve ever met. After years of loving his music I only got over being intimidated by him earlier this year; now I’ve got another reason.

Casting three-fifths of local glam rock act Roky Moon and Bolt in a play was a stroke of genius. I don’t know if Mike, Aaron and Jeoaf have ever acted before, but they’re natural vaudevillians, and some the nicest guys you’ll ever meet to boot. The other day Mike asked if I wanted to see “something crazy” and held up his phone to show me a video. Usually when I’m in this situation I end up being shown something awful like Two Girls One Cup or Mr. Hands, but it was the opening credits of Jabberjaw, the old Hanna Barbera cartoon about a shark who drums for a pop band and sounds like Curly from the Three Stooges. I couldn’t tell exactly what it was about the clip he found so compelling (besides the fact that that is a really stupid premise for a show, even a cartoon for children from several decades ago), but I’ll be damned if it didn’t make my day.

As far as my duties in the show go, I pretty much lucked out. As with almost every play I’ve ever been in I have to wear a stupid and uncomfortable hat, but it is at least a really cool-looking hat. Adding insult to haberdashery, I was sort of tricked into being a mime; I didn’t sign up for it but there I am, wordlessly gesticulating onstage and tripping on things (the tripping isn’t part of the mime thing; I’m just clumsy). But mostly I spend rehearsals watching Matt channel one of my favorite musicians and wishing I knew the intricacies of rawking the fuck out as well as RM & Bolt (besides acting, the boys play a couple of songs, and yes, they play them loud as hell). Not a bad gig.

While I'm usually careful not to abuse whatever platform I have here, I have no qualms that I might be throwing all integrity to the wind. Come out and see this show. It opens Thursday at Diverseworks and it is great. I’m not saying that because I’m in it (if anything it’s great despite having me in it); I’m saying that because it’s great. Granted, I’m essentially the target audience for a play about Daniel Johnston, but at this point I’m almost wishing I wasn’t even in the show so I could just watch it. Of course, if that were the case I wouldn’t get to wear such a stupid hat. Never mind, things are fine the way they are.