Vacations, in my experience, are never what you want them to be. We front-load these brief respites from our working lives with so many expectations that they could never possibly meet them all. “Mistakes Were Made” storyteller Brad Campbell’s “The Real Dill” is an expertly told tale of just such a vacation, complete with rental car shaming, nude sunbathing, suspicious highway patrolmen and what happens when your dream trip up the California coastline just happens to take place while the California coastline is, for the most part, on fire.
If I can break the fourth wall for a moment: Sara and I never know, exactly, what we’re going to get from a storyteller. We’ve had storytellers take the stage and wilt under the lights, unable to tell their story. Others have taken unexpected left turns, telling completely different stories than what we’d expected to hear. In the case of Brad Campbell, Sara and I stood to stage right at the Bossier Arts Council’s East Bank Theatre and exchanged several loaded glances as a natural born storyteller held the entire audience in the palm of his hand. “The Real Dill” is the real deal.
So, pack a bag. You’re going to California in a rented muscle car. You’re going to look so sexy.
Don’t forget: Tickets are now on sale for All Y’all: “Under the Influence,” coming up Saturday, Sept. 13 at Marjorie Lyons Playhouse on the campus of Centenary College of Louisiana. This fundraiser edition of All Y’all will feature stories of addiction, recovery, peer pressure, mystery drugs, the power of love and the loss – and recovery – of control. This event will sell out. Please purchase tickets in advance.
