Kathy Najimy\u2019s bed.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s where Steve Gunderson and Melinda Gilb \u2014 two musical thespians who both grew up in San Diego and have been working together on stages across the country for almost 35 years \u2014 first met. The duo brings their \u201cMelinda and Steve Show\u201d to Martinis Above Fourth | Table + Stage on Monday, Feb. 2, at 8 p.m.<\/p>\n
Najimy, best known for her roles in \u201cHocus Pocus,\u201d \u201cSister Act,\u201d and TV\u2019s \u201cVeronica\u2019s Closet,\u201d also grew up in San Diego.<\/p>\n \u201cSteve probably doesn\u2019t remember, but Kathy and I were doing a show together and she was having a party and everyone was on the bed,\u201d Gilb said. \u201cThen he walked in and that\u2019s how I met him.\u201d<\/p>\n Gunderson started acting at The Old Globe while still attending Crawford High School. He later studied theater in London, and in 1981, moved to New York City, union card in hand.<\/p>\n \u201cYou just couldn\u2019t make a living [in theater] back then in San Diego,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Gilb, a Granite Hills grad still in San Diego, soon followed, landing a play on Broadway and a three-week stint on Gunderson\u2019s couch. The two friends took in a few neighborhood cabaret shows, and after seeing aspects they didn\u2019t like, the seeds for \u201cMelinda and Steve\u201d were sewn.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen we created the show it was really a way to showcase ourselves \u2026 we wanted to give ourselves work,\u201d Gunderson said.<\/p>\n By then Najimy was also in New York, and she and Mo Gaffney, another San Diegan, had started their own off-Broadway show called \u201cThe Kathy & Mo Show.\u201d The lives of the four friends continued to intertwine as they traveled in the same circles, lived together on and off, and drew inspiration from one another. They all remain close today.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Melinda and Steve Show\u201d first opened at The Duplex in New York City.<\/p>\n \u201cWe sorta didn\u2019t like cabaret \u2014 it was autobiographical and full of old standards,\u201d Gunderson said. \u201cAnd I remember this article came out in the paper that said \u2018This is what a cabaret act should be …\u2019 So we decided to write our own show that was kind of anti-cabaret, and we basically wanted nothing to do with anything that came before it. In other words, to break all those rules.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMelinda and Steve,\u201d though it has morphed over the years as the pair has gotten older and wiser, is more than an hour\u2019s worth of singing, bit characters, comedy and expert musical arrangements.<\/p>\n \u201cSteve is like a prodigy,\u201d Gilb said. \u201cOne of the best vocal arrangers that I\u2019ve ever worked with. It is such a challenge because [his arrangements] are hard but once [singers] get it, it\u2019s like the funnest thing to sing; the most glorious to sing. He knows how to match voices and create harmonies. People always comment about how well our voices blend.\u201d<\/p>\n Since its early days on the New York cabaret circuit, the show has taken on many variations. Today, while some of the big high-note numbers and the exhaustive prop and costume changes are a thing of the past and characters and skits have come and gone, many have stayed the test of time.<\/p>\n Two that remain are \u201cKathy and Kevin,\u201d Melinda and Steve\u2019s ironical \u201ctalent challenged understudies.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThey became more popular than \u2018Melinda and Steve\u2019 so we let them have their own show,\u201d Gilb said.<\/p>\n A playful aspect of the act is Gunderson\u2019s presentation of popular songs in a different way than the audience has already heard, like the Beatles\u2019 \u201cTicket to Ride.\u201d Gunderson rearranged the song to Sonny and Cher\u2019s \u201cAnd the Beat Goes On,\u201d and in the skit, he is singing it bitterly to Gilb, harkening back to a time when she first left New York \u2014 and \u201cMelinda and Steve\u201d \u2014\u00a0for Los Angeles.<\/p>\n \u201cInstead of just singing it as well as I can, I\u2019m just completely distracted and angry with her,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n When they brought \u201cThe Melinda and Steve Show\u201d back to San Diego on the Martinis stage last summer, it sold out quickly, but they hadn\u2019t performed the act in over 10 years. Gunderson says the show is less \u201canti-cabaret\u201d than its early days, and now just more of what he and Gilb want it to be.<\/p>\n \u201cNow that we\u2019re old we don\u2019t sing like we did when we were in our 20s and 30s but we\u2019re better actors,\u201d Gilb said. \u201cSo I think there\u2019s a give and take.\u201d<\/p>\n Today Gunderson lives in Los Angeles with his husband Kaore and their dog Wilbur, while Gilb is back in San Diego, living with her mother and 11-year old son in San Carlos. Both still do a lot of local theater \u2014 together and independently \u2014 with Gunderson just finishing up a stint in The Old Globe\u2019s \u201cHow the Grinch Stole Christmas.\u201d Soon, a Gunderson-produced show based on the work of Harry Nilsson will take the stage at the San Diego Repertory Theatre.<\/p>\n \u201cI love San Diego,\u201d Gunderson said. \u201cI was a kid and I couldn\u2019t wait to get out of San Diego and now when I get to go there, it\u2019s a gift. They really have the best theater in San Diego; there is nothing like it in LA.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe Melinda and Steve Show\u201d will be performed at 8 p.m. on Monday, Feb. 2, at Martinis Above Fourth, located at 3940 Fourth Ave., in Hillcrest. Visit martinisabovefourth.com<\/a> for more information and tickets.<\/p>\n![\"Melinda](\"https:\/\/missiontimescourier.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/Melinda-and-Stevewebtop.jpg\")
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