Memoir
The Time I Ran Away to Join The Circus
You are the Lizard King. And I will follow you anywhere.
I stared up at him in awe.
Standing on the table, his wild mane of brown hair cascading around his shoulders, he threw his head back with a vanquisher’s flair embodying the ghost of Morrison himself and bellowed, “I am the Lizard King!”
Yes. You are the Lizard King. And I will follow you anywhere.
Albany, New York—1993
I was 23 years old. At that age, I had thrust myself into adulthood far too early; I had boxed myself into situations and a relationship that made me feel suffocated and imprisoned. I wasn’t. That was how my immature self coped and processed these feelings. You know — everything was everyone else’s fault but my own. In hindsight, I left a lot of wreckage in my wake.
Needless to say, I was unhappy in my relationship and desperate to find myself again. My friend Chris also wanted to help me find myself again and asked if I would join her to audition for a production of The Merchant of Venice at a local college. I hadn’t done any theatre in a couple of years as it always sort of led to trouble on my part. In those days, it was pretty much either a relationship with a person or a relationship with the theatre. I…
