Idol thoughts

Since this is the week that Constantine was booted off American Idol, I thought now would be a good time to mention this little Benari fun fact.

Fresh out of college, I did a little corporate comedy theatre with a Boston-based group to help pay the bills. Yeah, it's unglamorous, demeaning, and sould crushing, but a little Murder Mystery and corporate entertainment never hurt anyone. Much. The people were great and the gigs were a nice diversion while I fgured out what I wanted to do when I grew up. I'm still working on that part...

Anyway.

I played a number of parts and did a bunch of shows, all across the great Commonwealth of Massachusetts. One of the regular shows I did during the summer of '99 was a Mississippi Riverboat Murder Mystery cruise around Boston Harbor, wherein I played the brooding Cowboy gambler. Pretty easy gig. I wore a 10-gallon hat and cowboy boots, played poker the entire night, and dropped a few red-herring clues over the course of 2-3 hours. Not a bad way to earn some extra bucks. Of course, then I joined the Army (Reserve)and shipped off to Basic Training in February of 2000 ... leaving Comedy Theatre Productions with a role to fill for the upcoming summer cruise.

My replacement? That's right.

Constantine Maroulis.

And now you know...the rest of the story.

Good DAY.