Carrie Fisher's "Wishful Drinking"

Tonight I had the distinct pleasure of being in the same room, not to mention up close and very personal, with my first ever celebrity crush. I was four or five when I started wishing it was me Princess Leia was kissing "for luck." Of course, I was also wishing I was kissing Luke Sykwalker. And this has always been a moment of reference in my life as the first bisexual feelings I can remember having. So when Carrie Fisher in her new one-woman show, Wishful Drinking, talks about how many men she has turned gay -- maybe she had that affect on me as well.

Fisher might not hang out all of the dirty laundry in Wishful Drinking, but she hangs out enough to shock and thoroughly entertain with her consistently sardonic wit and self-deprecating humor. For those of you who don't know, Fisher has become quite the prolific writer since the hair buns, penning hilarious novels like Surrender the Pink and screenplays like the semi-autobiographical Postcards from the Edge. She has a way with words that is uniquely her own, very tongue in cheek and always big on the sarcasm. No wonder the gays love her!

Star Wars fans will be happy with the stage that sets her amongst the stars in a galaxy far, far away. She even dons the buns at one point and gives a few of her most famous speeches from the trilogy. But these are by no means the highlights of Wishful Drinking. Her anecdotes regarding her marriage to Paul Simon, her alcoholism, addiction, mental illness and family tree (for which she employs the use of a blackboard to chart) are somehow more hilarious than heartbreaking. "It's funny NOW!" she'll randomly throw out several times during the evening.

The only true heart wrenching and humorless moment of the show is when she details her battle with manic depression. She specifically cites sexual promiscuity, self indulgence and having a plethora of well intentioned projects that never get past begun as what she calls the many "gifts" this can bring and therefore Wishful Drinking must be quite a triumph to have made it to the stage, much less an extended run. She explained that when the tide is in, there is no better feeling in the world where no one could possibly be better than you or more confident, but that when the tide is out, it becomes that which dare not speak its name because if you talk about it, you're scared shitless you may in fact lose your mind.

But, true to Fisher style, she picks up with a jab at herself and a song at her side as she works numbers like "Happy Days Are Here Again" and "The Man I Love" into the act.

My friend Sean Lewis (see my MySpace top 24) was kind enough to get us fourth row center seats and I sat next to Robert Osbourne, the face of Turner Classic Movies. I, of course, being the total nerd that I am who stays home on Fridays and Saturday nights to watch Turner Classic Movies, immediately recognized him as the host who comes on before each film and gives a great bit of background and "did you know" trivia. Sometimes he has a "wrap up" post movie classic as well. "I am always so disappointed when you don't come back after the movie," I told him. He was extra kind and during the intermission kept involving me in conversation with his "lady friend." We talked about how much we love Fisher's dry, intelligent sense of humor and how much we adore the film Postcards from the Edge, his favorite scene being Shirley MacLaine pouring the alcohol into her morning fruit blend. "It's the kind of movie you can see on television at any time and not be able to turn away from it," he said. We both agreed that was much in part due to Fisher's script... which is much in part due to her life.

Wishful Drinking is currently in an extension of its debut run at The Geffen Theater in Los Angeles. Go see it in its final week before it closes and keep an eye out for a possible tour near you.