The party's on fire

By Leif M. Wright, Daniel Lapham, Jane Wilson, and Chrissy Lewis (Muskogee Phoenix) 07/28/2006

Fun is where and how you make it. Sort of

That's what we learned last weekend. From tattoos to skateboards to horse races to live bands to impromptu confessionals to a rather seedy strip club, the area was hopping with action - and we were there.

Weekend's crack team of reporters, photographers and an entourage worthy of a rap star swarmed all over Muskogee, Eufaula and Tulsa looking for ways to have a good time after dark, and the results were both mixed and unsurprising, but in the end, everyone had at least a little fun.

We purposely skipped bars - with two notable and excusable exceptions - because the goal was to find fun stuff to do other than going out to bars. Instead, we focused on things you could do for free or cheaply to beat the boredom of sitting around and working out a crossword puzzle on a Friday or Saturday night.

TULSA

Unscripted confession

We honestly didn't know what to expect when we read that Nightingale Theater, 1416 E. 4th Street, was hosting "Old Crow Confessions."

All we knew was that it was audience participation and unscripted.

We arrived to several tables set up around the stage with white tablecloths and candles burning.

Onstage was an upright piano and a spotlight. Atop the piano was a bottle of Old Crow.

When the confessions started, a woman walked into the spotlight, opened the bottle of Old Crow, took a swig and began confessing.

"I wrote a song about my boyfriend," she said. "He didn't know it was over, and I had just been letting him think everything was fine."

The audience leaned in. This was getting juicy.

"When I slept with another man, I didn't tell him," she said. "Instead, I wrote the song."

"SING IT," the crowd began shouting. Finally, she agreed, starting a capella until the piano player was able to pick out the key and play along with her. When she finished the song, the confession continued.

"I finished the song two weeks ago," she said. "He still doesn't know it's over."

And then she walked off the stage.

After the crowd stopped applauding, another man walked up into the spotlight. He apparently was a regular, because the crowd knew him.

"I got a little drunk," he said. "And when I passed out, my girlfriend painted my toenails. I must have a problem, because I woke up, looked down and wondered who the hot chick was before I realized it was my own feet."

The crowd laughed.

"When I woke up this morning, I did the same exact thing," he said. "And I have to confess I kind of liked it, so I left it."

"LET'S SEE," someone in the crowd shouted.

He removed his shoes and socks to reveal red-painted toenails as the crowd laughed.

Each person who came up to confess drank from the Old Crow bottle.

Some were funny, some were frighteningly disturbing and still others were clearly lies, though the only rule is that everything is supposed to be the truth.

One guy who got up three times to talk about sexual escapades was ruthlessly heckled by the crowd as his confessions grew grosser and clearly more fictional.

Others seemed genuine, fun and engaging, including one mother who confessed that she forced her kids into her obsession with Willy Wonka - the Gene Wilder version, not Johnny Depp, even though Depp is hot.

One woman disturbingly confessed to hideous things done in a friend's bathroom, and everyone the crowd gave her a wide berth when she was leaving.

One guy confessed to prank calling a religiously oriented dating service and pretending to be gay just to get their goats.

Another confessed to switching places with his brother after accidentally wetting the bed as a child, getting the brother in trouble.

Some confessed to being confused by their huge porn collections while others confessed to more mundane things such as stealing bicycles that were intended to be donated to a charity.

"You're going to hell," someone in the crowd laughed.

"I know," the guy on stage said. "But that's not the worst part."

To hear the worst part, you have one more chance Saturday night; Old Crow Confessions continue then.