Rebecca Herbst & Natalia Livingston Rivercenter Comedy Club, San Antonio, Texas May 20, 2006   I made Hubby drive me to San Antonio for this one.  It was a nice break for him.  I also took the Da Vinci Code with me so that I could read it before I go see the movie because I know that I will never read it if I see the movie first.  I am happy to say that I finished it on the trip and now I actually understand the theme to Nancy’s party last year!  Imagine that!   More siteseeing this trip so bear with me Hubby & I went to the Alamo on Saturday morning.

Ornate artwork around the back door of the main building at Alamo plaza.

Emily Morgan hotel near Alamo Plaza

The Spirit of Sacrifice Cenotaph by Pompeo Coppini Monument erected in Alamo Plaza in 1939 to the memory of those who sacrificed their lives at the Alamo on March 6, 1836 in defense of Texas.

Close up of the figures on the Alamo Cenotaph. The female facing left represents the state of Texas   Hubby took a nap and I read more on my book before the show and I lost track of time and didn’t arrive when I meant to.  I was pretty far down the line but luckily for me, I didn’t make plans to sit with anyone and there was one empty seat left on the tables along the stage so I got a really great seat anyway.    An emcee came out before the show to introduce the ladies.  She joked a little bit about GH and laughed that we needed to give Emily some advice on how to handle Sonny.  “That girl just can’t handle all that, but I could!”  LOL.  “ummm..hmmm gotta get me some of that Sonny.”

She introduced the ladies, then they went to the back for the VIP session, which was kind of backwards to me.  We did the autograph/Photo session first at this one.

I was supposed to go up with the second group but somehow got missed so I got to go up by myself before the third table group.  I told Natalia how much I was enjoying her story with Sonny and she hugged me.  My accent must have come out because she asked me where I was from.  It usually doesn’t do that unless I get nervous or excited, or if I’m talking to another southerner, so maybe that was it.  I had a pic of Liz & Lucky at the NYE masquerade ball for Becky to sign and she called her husband Michael over to look at it.

For Becky – Is something coming up with Liz & Patrick/Jason(T)? Natalia interjected that she thought that would be a good story with Liz & Patrick Becky – I don’t know.  Jason & I work well together but as far as the intentions of the writers I don’t know. They laughed about how confusing it was with Jason playing Patrick and Steve playing Jason.

For Natalia – Do you think that Emily can help Sonny with his bipolar disorder? Natalia – I don’t know how it’s going to turn out.  You’re getting to see Sonny like you’ve never seen him before.  This story is very close to Maurice’s heart.  Hopefully it will help get rid of some of the stigmas associated with mental illness.

For Natalia – How about that Maserati?  Wow! Natalia – Did you see my hair after I got out of the car?  LOL.  I told them to muss it up a little but whoah Becky – Wait a minute!  Em’s doing it in cars now?  That bipolar thing’s really working out for you, isn’t it?  I think I need to start watching the show.  LOL.

For Natalia – Did you really whack Becky up side the head in the tequila scene?  Was it an accident or were you supposed to do that?  (There were lots of cheers and laughter over the bar scene at Jake’s). Becky – Yes and yes.  She did it in the rehearsals too!  Both of them. Natalia – we actually filmed that scene at 8:30 am.  We tried to have them move it to later in the day because it just felt too early for that! Becky – There’s another scene like that coming up. Several comments came from the audience about how they enjoyed that scene and that it was something that a lot of us could relate too, winding down with a drink after a long day at work.

For both – What’s your work schedule like and do you get breaks? Becky – It kind of depends on your storyline.  We get our scripts 5 days in advance.  I’ve been working 5 days a week lately.  It’s being in the hub that is the nurse’s station, I’m in little scenes with everybody.  Natalia likened it to getting “Ric’d”  Sometimes the days are 12 hour days and sometimes they’re 2-3 hours and your done.

Comment from one of the gentlemen in the audience - Manny is a great bad guy!  I love him.  Are his tattoos real? Natalia – Yes, they’re real Becky – He’s really very nice in person, and a little shy. Natalia – Tell them about the Emmy story Becky – Oh, yes, we always get these invites to the after party but noone ever actually brings it with them and neither did he.  But the security wouldn’t let him through, they were patting him down and stuff.  Poor guy!

For Natalia – Nikolas and Emily had such a great love story.  I know that you and Tyler are dating, do you think that Nikolas & Emily will get back together? Natalia – I don’t know.  There’s always that chance. Becky asked who Tyler was working with now and there were some comments about Maxie. Becky – Maxie?  Really?  Should I be worried about her?  LOL.  I really do need to start watching the show.

For Becky – Your name is Herbst and Rick Hearst changed his name from Herbst, they say that if you have the same last name you’re related somewhere along the line, have you two looked into it at all?  Becky - Uh, we try not to go there.  LOL. But both our family’s are from the New York area.  There was some discussion about the meaning of Herbst which is German for Autumn.

For both – I don’t have a question but we’d like you to say “Lick it, slam it, suck it” “No!”  LOL. There was some discussion about how much they used the word “bang” in that scene.  Becky said that there’s a rule about how many times you can actually say that word in a scene before we get in trouble.

For both – What happened with the red Emmy dress that Becky made Natalia? (there were some comments about all the dresses she made and compliments on them) Becky – I had taken on so much this year that I asked someone else to do the final alterations on it.  She was very experienced (worked in the costume dept. I believe she said), but it ended up messed up.  Natalia - When we went on Soaptalk, I was literally taped into the dress and it was gaping in all sorts of strange places. Becky – I tried to fix it but it just wasn't fixable.  It was 3 am before the Emmy’s when I decided we just needed to do something else.  The fabric store closed at 4:30 and so we rushed down there to pick out some material.  I told Natalia just to grab one but Natalia – I have horrible taste, so I picked up something and Becky would throw it back on the shelf and keep going to the next LOL Becky – She likes the tackiest things.  So I finally found the material that we went with and mom & I whipped something up at the last minute for her.

Michael helped out with the raffles.   For Both – How do you like working with Steve Burton? Becky – I love it! Even more so now than 7 years ago because we have so much more in common now with our spouses and kids.  I’m friendly with Sherree and he’s friendly with Michael. Natalia – I love working with Steve.  He’s a really funny guy. Becky – Before a scene he always has the crew laughing but then he just turns and he’s suddenly very professional when we start working.   For Becky – What did your kids think when you told them you were coming to Texas? Becky – Ethan wanted me to bring him a picture back of us roping a horse.  LOL.

For Natalia – A girl from the ABC messageboards and a member of a group of Sonny & Emily fans wanted to know if they can expect more Sonny & Emily?  Natalia – There’s lots more coming for the summer.  Sonny is really going to be delving into the manic and depressive parts of the illness.

For Becky – Would you encourage your kids to go into acting? Becky – not purposely.  I want them to have a “normal” childhood but it’s probably inevitable with Ethan, he’s already a little showman.

For Natalia – Did the scene where Sonny flipped the table make you nervous? Becky interjected that things like that always made her nervous. Natalia – Normally I would agree with that but Maurice was joking around the set before the scene, then he went directly into it so I think his mood at the time lightened getting through the scene.  Hopefully, I looked afraid as Emily. You did. Natalia made a comment about the scene where Jason had thrown Sonny up against the wall.  I was pulling on his arm in the scene and it wasn’t budging, nothing happened.  LOL.

For both – Will you tell us what an average day in your life is like?  From when you get up in the morning to home at night? Natalia – Well, if I have like a 7:00 am call the next morning then I’ll get up and go into the studio.  (She later commented that sometimes they don’t know their schedule until the day before).  It takes about an hour and a half to get through makeup and dressed and I’ll be up on the set at about 8:30.  We go through a rehearsal while the crew gets the lighting arranged.  Then the producers will go up to the booth and we’ll go through another rehearsal then we just do it.  We try to get the scene in 1-2 takes but sometimes it will take 6 or 7.  You can usually tell when we get strained in a scene to finish it because there’s so much dialogue to learn.  Then when I get out of work, I always have countless errands to run.  Sometimes like 4 in a day and they just pile up.  I try to do them during the week so I don’t have to do them on the weekend but it never works out that way!  Michael made a comment about Nat’s dogs Becky – Natty has these little ankle biter dogs. Michael – Aren’t they trained yet? Natalia – about 85% trained.   So I really appreciate the candles you send me.  LOL. Becky – We’re night owls.  Michael and I will stay up til 2-3 am and the kids stay up til midnite.  Then we sleep really late in the mornings.  Its kind of nice because if I have to get up and go to work early or even work late, they’re still up when I get home and I can still spend time with them before bed.  That will probably change when Ethan goes to school.

(Michael helped the emcee pull the raffle tickets)   For Becky – I heard that you used to date Ingo, how was that?  Becky – hmmmm .yes, I did.  He’s really nice, a great guy, but it just didn’t work out between us.  Then I met Michael.   For both – Do you have stand-ins or photo doubles?  No.  Natalia went on to comment that Tyler had one when he was playing dual roles but no, usually they don’t have stand-ins.

For both – Are there any scenes that make you self-conscious? Becky – playing the whole drunk thing was a little new to me, but for Natty it’s the sex scenes.  Kim & I were telling her to do things like run her finger along the pool table and walk sexy and she just wasn’t doing it right.  LOL.

(They ended up auctioning off 2 of these GH jackets for $1000 each.  Becky & Natty offered to get it signed by requests).   Comment from the audience about the Max/Carly fantasies and how much they enjoyed them.  Is the guy who plays Max normally quiet? Natalia – No, Derk is not quiet. Becky – he’s really funny, quite the jokester. He’s Tyler’s cousin, isn’t he? Natalia – yes.

For both – How do you stay in shape? Natalia – I just started this thing called cardiobar.  It’s like ballet but only with the bar exercises.  I do it, ummmm ..once every 3 weeks, she winced a little. Becky – Ummm I chase around after my kids. So they don’t do any formal exercise.  That makes me sick!  LOL.

For both – What do you think of Texas? Becky – Well, we’ve only been here 7 hours.  But we saw some really beautiful historic homes on the way from the airport.  It’s like what I pictured.   For Becky – Would you rather Liz be a painter or nurse? Becky – Painting was Elizabeth’s passion, I’d like to see her continue with it in some form, but at the same time I understand making sacrifices and doing what you have to do to take care of your kids.  I admire that.       I counted about 60 people in the VIP event but the lights went down after that so I wasn't able to do a headcount when the rest joined us.  One of the girls next to me said that the one of the club guys told her there was about 100 tickets sold.  The emcee took a tally of where everyone was from and they were mostly local (San Antonio, Houston, Austin, Dallas) or Texas rather with a group from Pittsburgh and one lady from Florida.  Most of the people I talked to were offliners except for a couple of ladies I see every year at FCW, AND it was great to finally put a face with a name, Dianna, my email buddy and Jasam fan!   This was a good time!  I'm glad I made hubby drive me there!  LOL.

San Antonio Botanical Gardens Yes, hubby & I did some more site-seeing before going home on Sunday.  We stayed at the Rivercenter Marriott...very expensive but sometimes you get what you pay for...   This is the Rose Garden.

Is it rose season?  I'm not familiar with growing roses.  Their plants looked very young so I imagine this must be a new exhibit.

There was a good exhibit beyond the Rose Garden called Watersaver Lane.  They had miniature houses set up with mini-landscaped lawns showing which plants, grasses, shrubs and trees were good to plant here for water conservation.  I really needed to take notes on this section because I'm high-maintenance, my yard shouldn't be...

Desert Rose I'll try to name the plants if I know them.  I forgot to bring my notebook to write them down.  If I get them wrong, garden lovers, email me and cuss me out!  and maybe I'll fix them.

Brain Cactus

Bowl of living stones mixed in with real rocks.  Can you tell the difference?

Not a clue on this one.  The stem looks like a desert rose but the leaves and the flower...ya got me...

Allium???

Waterlily

Flowering airplant.  They had a whole greenhouse of different types of these as well as palms, ferns, cacti & succulents.  Each one had their own house.

I love the color on this canna.

Gladiola

I wanted to jump in this near the end.  It was really hot and humid but beautiful this weekend.  What a great time to tour a garden!