“We’re knights of the Round Table, we dance whene’er we’re able. We do routines and chorus scenes with footwork impec-cable, We dine well here in Camelot, we eat ham and jam and Spam a lot!”
~ Knights of Camelot
This is the story of how I got to hear the above lines sung, in person, from a stage; and in the process, I learned that sometimes the Universe itself seems to know what you want even before you do.
You see, the more I recount my West Coast journey, the more I notice how opportunities came to me in waves. I would ride a wave of possibilities, pursuing the ones that interested me, and then experience a period of relative uneventfulness. This was very helpful because it allowed me to recharge for another wave of exploration. And my time in the Bay Area of California was no different.
I had just come off of a very long day of exploring San Francisco on foot (which included Coit Tower, Lombard Street, and Fort Point, among other things); and then, just a single day later, another incredible opportunity presented itself, the photographic proof of which is below.
But let’s rewind a few days back.
A “Blue Sky” Question
Out of the blue one day, my host asked me if I liked Monty Python. I told her Yes. I had enjoyed the Monty Python movies immensely, especially the first one “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” (which has now attained legendary status among most movie fans). And then my host told me something that made my eyes widen in excitement: she was going to a play called “Spamalot” that was based on “The Holy Grail” movie that I’d loved, and she had a couple extra tickets. Well, I couldn’t believe my luck, and I instantly knew that I had the Travel Magic once again.
Even though I hadn’t heard of Spamalot before, I gratefully accepted her generous offer. If it was anything like “Monty Python and the Holy Grail”, it would be hilarious.
So that night, the three of us (her, myself, and a friend of hers) drove over to the San Jose Theater. I hadn’t been there before, but I was struck at how ornate it was. Then, carefully, we shuffled into our seats and the lights soon went low.
Two Hours? What Two Hours?
For the next two hours, we proceeded to laugh until we cried. Even though Spamalot diverges quite a bit from the original movie’s plot, it diverges in the most hilarious ways. At one point, they even called for a volunteer from the audience who was taken up on stage and played a small role in the 3rd act!
Overall, the play was extremely clever and included songs that, thankfully, didn’t bring the plot to a screeching halt (which is usually my prime criticism of musicals). Oh, did I forget to mention that Spamalot is a musical? And probably in my top 3 favorite musicals of all time now.
And even though it is extremely challenging to photograph a play without a tripod (because of the dark environment), some of the photos turned out good enough that I’ve decided to share them below. (Just keep in mind that these are not taken in ideal circumstances or with an ideal camera. My better camera was still damaged at the time.) At any rate, I’ve included four of the photos below, each linking to the gallery if you’d like to see larger versions.
To sum up, it was an extremely enjoyable show, and it made two hours just fly by. If you have the chance to see it, I wholeheartedly recommend it.
The lesson? That day I realized that sometimes the Universe itself seems to know what you want even before you do, bringing you compatible opportunities to you in ways you can’t imagine. You just have to be open to it. 🙂
Photos
Continue the Journey
When was the last time you saw a thousand years in a single glance? Have you ever seen how a dying relic can bring new life? When I met the tallest species of trees in the world up close in a primeval redwood forest, I experienced both of these and much more:
All photos from this event are in the Monty Python’s Spamalot photo gallery. All photos in the Byteful Gallery are under a Creative Commons license. With so much free content on Byteful Travel, why not tell a friend?