First ticketed pop-up event for The Sudden Loneliness Gift delivers on great company, food, drinks, and a large side of WTF.

Experienced: July 15, 2017
Location: Undisclosed
Address: North Hollywood, CA
Price: $30
Audience Size: About 14
Runtime: 120 minutes
More Information: Sudden Loneliness Gift, Instagram

Going into this I knew a few things: dinner party, Thai food, drinks, and a few characters from The Sudden Loneliness Gift (TSLG).

Coming out of this I learned one thing: Kevin is dead.

Kevin, the real life husband of Jason, had not been talked about much since TSLG started. He seemingly disappeared and there had been references to Jason being sad. I had always assumed it was related to a breakup with Kevin but never once did I think Kevin had died.

Just a few months earlier in March I met Kevin at the birthday party dinner scene in the Have You Seen Jake? finale in Idyllwild, CA. He is (was?) one of “The Organizers” and well known within the Jake community since he played himself as well as Mr. S (a character based on “shame”).

The dinner was located in the backyard of a nice home in North Hollywood. Jason had recently moved here from his place in Orange County. The reasons for the move were a bit cryptic and sometimes glossed over but he said he wanted (or needed) a change of scenery. The tables were beautifully decorated with name tags and papers that looked like menus or poems in Thai. There was an assortment of beers, rum punch, tea, and water before the food came out.

The evening played out like a relaxing get together amongst friends save for a couple of suspicious characters that would roam about wreaking havoc on unsuspecting guests eating the fantastic Thai dinner. One man in an orange jumpsuit and orange ski mask would go around the table tormenting us one at a time (going around the table) while a woman with sunglasses only spoke to people in German. Some people were taken back to a guest house for unknown reasons.

Most of us tried to ignore these two but Jason and his friends Chelsea, Finch, Angie, and Buoy (who I didn’t see maybe she wasn’t there that night) were visibly disturbed throughout the evening. When someone would acknowledge their existence we were told “just ignore them.”

The night came to an abrupt end when the man in orange grabbed Jason and put him in sort of a head lock. There was a tense struggle and everyone was watching when Jason finally blurted out “What more do you want from me?? You’ve already taken everything!” He felt compelled in the moment to tell us all something I assume he hadn’t told anyone outside of his inner circle of friends “You know Kevin? My husband Kevin? He’s dead! Not in the immersive theater sense.. He’s dead!” He started to break down.

Jason’s close friends consoled him and told the man in orange to go away to leave. The news hit me hard. I was shocked and thoroughly confused. The key phrase “not in the immersive theater sense” made this seem like it wasn’t just a story beat. But that can’t be possible right? There’s no way Jason and company would write a story about a real life actual death of someone who most of know of within the last few months.. Would they?

We were told it would probably be best if we left right now that they were sorry for the abrupt end to the evening. We all left speechless.

When leaving the dinner there was a small part of me that thought that Kevin might have died and this is Jason’s way of mourning. After researching a bit I have come to the fortunate conclusion that Kevin is probably not dead. Going under that assumption I can safely say I enjoyed this show a lot. It had chance to breathe, had fantastic food & drinks, and there were many opportunities to speak to some of the characters we have interacted with or heard about via Slack. If my assumption is incorrect I am so very sorry Jason.