“One drink for everybody!” hollered Jonathan Ames. He was standing center stage at the Brooklyn Inn to administer last rites for his show, Bored To Death.
In the wake of the series’ cancellation by HBO, Mr. Ames headed to Twitter to tell “fans of @boredtodeath: come to the brooklyn inn tomorrow night at 10pm & i’ll buy you a drink!”
Deeply saddened by the news, The Observer headed there early. Not early enough apparently, as it was already at capacity. Lucky for us then that when the writer turned up at 10pm sharp, he spoke to the masses who had gathered outside. In a speech lasting around 20 minutes he “exploited” various New York based actors who had turned out for him. He thanked everybody involved in the show, then he started drinking.
“I’m actually in a good space. I just needed closure,” he told The Observer. “I’m going to lose a lot of money tonight. You know, I would have like this for the premiere, something backwards is going on here.”
Earlier in the day, Mr. Ames tweeted again: “i had some beautiful ideas for a new season of @boredtodeathwhich i can tell you about at the bk inn.” So? What were they, we wondered?
“I know I shouldn’t have tweeted that today, I can’t say what was going to happen—I could make a movie out of it or something….They were all going to get in a lot of trouble.”
While we were speaking with him, the cinematographer of How To Make It In America, Tim Ives, approached. “Jonathan I just wanted to offer my condolences,” he said. “It was a beautiful show. Cheers.”
How To Make It In America had also been cancelled.
It was a bizarre event, but one befitting of the show. Its spirit, everyone agreed, would surely live on. “A lot of great shows remain great shows when they are cut short,” said one fan, who bore a striking resemblance to Jason Schwartzman (actually almost everybody there bore that resemblance).
“Thank you and I’m sorry,” Ames said penitently, as we took our leave.
hkrempels@observer.com
