I just remembered about last Winter when Ric (host of Real Encounters) came down for his first round of stand-ups for Real Encounters. Calvin didn't want to go to Grand Haven because there had been a pretty bad snow storm a few nights before. So we told Ric that we were going to shoot the cemetery scenes in one of the Muskegon cemeteries. Ric was like, “Awww, come on guys! Let’s just go to Grand Haven. We'll see how bad it is when we get there.”
So we drove Ric's jeep to Grand Haven and made it into the cemetery. If I remember right, the city had the roads in the cemetery somewhat plowed. So we park next to what is obviously the stairway to hell, except you can’t see it. It's just all white snow. And just by looking at it, you know it's deep. So we got out and got all of Ric's gear ready. Calvin and I got our dinky ass cameras ready and we just walked up to the foot of the hill and looked up. Ric was looking at the script going, “Yeah man, if we can make it up that hill, that'd be great.”
So Calvin goes ( you have to imagine his accent now…Calvin has a nice southern drawl…lol). "I'll go up there and let you know if ya'll can film.” So here goes Calvin, trying to walk though seven feet of snow!
The stairway to hell is made out of rocks and railroad ties, so aside from any snow and ice, once you hit the ground, you never knew until you've tripped, if you were actually on a step. So Ric and I are watching Calvin for a bit struggle up the hill with his Dr. Pepper in hand. Eventually we got back to talking about the script and when we looked up, Calvin was gone. Well at least he made it all the way to the top.
After about five minutes or so, Calvin appears at the top of the stairway as: The White Man! Half of his body was covered in snow as he kind of ran/slid back down the stairway saying something to the effect of, “Ya'll ain’t gonna be able to film up there. His grave is buried!” So with that, I decided we had to go up there anyways. We walked up in Calvin’s footprints.
What was so funny, and hadn't occurred to me at the time I first saw Calvin, was that he had tripped and sank into the snow while trying to get to Ferry's grave. I figured it out when we were halfway to the Ferry plot and there was a large indent in the middle of the snow, where Calvin’s footprints ended. And also there was his Dr. Pepper, spilled all over the snow bank where he had taken a dive!
LOL. Good times!!
Meet Steve & Calvin in this funny short on Real Encounters.
One Year of Real Encounters
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Written by Steven Mayes