Popination Characterization

a series of unhinged personal essays disguised as pub reviews. Today: Odd13 Brewery. Also, the TCL.

The vibe at 1pm on a Sunday afternoon was supernally mellow and the place was mostly empty. It’s built like most breweries I’ve described before: the cement floors, open picnic-table-like seating with steel stools, and both brick and ceiling exposed. And a menu written on a chalkboard (the beer names being all postmodernist references or pop culture puns). The difference today was that I was in Lafayette. That’s almost as far away from where I live now as my old hometown of Boulder, and indeed it’s widely considered a Boulder suburb of sorts, or at least the collection of Boulderite dregs that can no longer afford rent there. 

Because of this distance, I haven’t been out to Odd13 for a long time—I guess maybe it’s been almost two years now, the last time I came out to see my holiday-themed one act produced across the street. Let me explain.

TCL, OMG!

The Theatre Company of Lafayette is a community theatre group that I first got connected to when my husband at the time got cast as Sherlock Holmes in a mystery play, and I was cast as a different pivotal character. We were obsessed with the BBC Sherlock TV series at the time, as well as addicted to the Jeremy Brett series (as I had been since teen-hood), and so I broke my vow of theatrical chastity to be a part of it.

What’s ‘theatrical chastity?’ It was a promise I’d made to myself a few years before that (the Sherlock play was in 2011 or -12, I believe), that I would no longer audition for anything. Exceptions were possible, but it would need to offer a lot of either money, or dream role cred, to get me to do it. Sherlock Holmes fell into that category at that time. After that, though, I was flattered (read: suckered) in to a sizeable role in a musical, which ended up being a terrible experience, and my marriage was getting more and more toxic by the nanosecond through its process as well. Then I went back to my theatrical chastity, but came back to the TCL to choreograph the fights for a play about Shakespeare’s theatre troupe being attacked by zombies. Yep. So that was super fun. But then my marriage splintered and shattered, and so my time at TCL came to a shuddering halt. I became a regular presenter at Denver Comic Con at this time too, which is where the beers of Odd13 first came into my purview.

Odd13’s brand is centered around all things geek and nerd: its beer names are mostly nerd themed and the designs for the labels are beautiful panels of comic book style art. Because Denver is such a central hub of the craft beer scene, hosting the Great American Beer Festival each year, the connection of geek chic and artisanal beer is a natural one. Odd13 has joined in the fun of crafting a new beer specifically for Denver Comic Con, complete with punny name and delicious craftsmanship, through the peak years of the event.*

*Since DCC has become the much more exploitative, less nerd-friendly Fan Expo instead of a Comic Con, this delightful practice of pairing beer with nerds has fallen by the wayside. Colorado nerds have largely stopped going to that big convention after the shift, too, opting instead for the smaller indie cons like (the now also defunct) StarFest, or Nan Desu Kan. But Odd13 is still letting its geek flag fly, thankfully, and its brews are all odd and tasty.

Odd13 Brewery is on a quaint little corner in a residential area of Lafayette just kitty-corner to the historic downtown area of Lafayette and directly across the street from the Mary Miller theatre, a wonky old ex-church which is where the TCL produces all their shows. So, since that’s the case, and since this cute little corner of Lafayette is such a schlep for me, I thought I’d make an afternoon of it, to make the long trip worth it. I sipped on the darkest most caramelly-cocoa-y barrel aged stout I’d ever tasted, listened to the bartender wax rhapsodic about it and many more of the beers on offer that afternoon, then trotted across the street to the matinee of the TCL’s holiday show. 

Lots of nice natural light, huh.

Holidazed & Confused

In recent years, excepting during lockdown times when all live theatre was shut down, the TCL has produced an annual one-act play festival for the holiday season, called Holidazed and Confused. They gather a handful of freshly written one-acts from local writers and produce the show in December, giving a portion of their proceeds to a charity called Sister Carmen. It’s a lovely holiday tradition that I got involved with both from my history with the TCL, and with a long-defunct 24-hour theatre festival that I used to write quick plays for too. And this holiday version works similarly, though they take a normal community theatre amount of time to rehearse and produce, way more than 24 hours: they send each playwright the resumes and headshots of the actors who’ll appear in your play, and you write with them in mind, along with the required holiday theme, of course.

The first year I wrote for Holidazed & Confused, I composed a one act called ‘Snow Date’ that literally took the lyrics from controversial holiday song ‘Baby, It’s Cold Outside’ and made it into a scene of flirtation and consent. The next year I wrote a silly tale of how the Grinch was visited by three ghosts: the ghost of Xmas Past, Present, and Future (and then, spoilers! He’s visited by Santa last). 

“What’s your theory, Detective Snow?” “I’ll explain, Officer Krampus.”

This year, my play for Holidazed & Confused was called ‘A Very Crime Scene Christmas,’ and was a police procedural where two police officers, Detective Snow and Officer Krampus, are investigating a hit-and-run involving a drug kingpin nicknamed Santa and a grandma getting run over by… well, you get the idea. It revolves around two particular holiday song lyrics, and is basically just one long ten-minute joke, leading up to it. My friend Don who played my detective, informed me before the show that in last night’s crowd, a few people actually got angry. Which fills me with glee and delight. That’s how you know I wrote it right.

Then, instead of waiting for a long Uber home crammed into the tiny angles of the theatre lobby, I decided to go back across the street for another pint instead.

Geeks Who Drink

As I chatted with a lovely young nerd named Pierce who I’d just met, his lovely young wife Nina and lovely nervous dog (whose name I forget) walked in and joined us. That’s the other thing that strikes me about Odd13: it’s a place where the regulars are absolutely at home—a rich and familiar 3rd place. Pierce was one, clearly: hearing the bartenders asking how his vacation went, asking where his dog is, etc. and knowing everybody’s name. But then, they made everyone feel that way–they made me feel like a warmly welcomed regular even though I barely go there once a year. 

I guess that means I definitely will be going there once a year.

This scrumptious comestible is called the Cosmic Chalice. It’s a whiskey barrel aged stout that tastes like the most luxurious dark chocolate you’ve ever indulged in, and it’s 14.1% ABV!!! So like, yeah. Hence the beautiful and tiny tulip glass.