With what's left of my heart, I mourn the passing of my friend and co-star Kyle Spidle. He brought the character of Mac in Half-Share alive with truth and humor. He played a newcomer to Fire Island, shocked by his outrageous new housemates. Over the course of the film, our characters warm toward each other, but the warmth I felt toward Kyle, like so many others who knew him, was immediate.
I'll never forget having first seen him stand out in a play at the Cherry Lane Theatre, or the way he made a hectic location shoot on Fire Island so much smoother. He wasn't on the crew, but he helped lug film equipment from house to house. He was so easy-going, always smiling, and I remember him busting out laughing after nearly every take, having had to feign shock and horror while in character.
It's taken me a while to write about this beautiful soul, as it's difficult to comprehend how he passed in his prime, so suddenly, so unimaginably, to bacterial meningitis at 32. He couldn't have known that the symptoms which must have appeared as a terrible flu would turn fatal. Certainly in NYC, if you don't have insurance, who would have gone to the hospital? It could have happened to so many.
The longest lasting impression I will retain of Kyle is a lesson he taught me the last time saw him. Uptown, at the door of swanky Club 57, I was arguing with some clubkid who said I wasn't on the guest list. I was supposed to be on that list, or maybe I was only pretending to be on the list, but he was having none of it and said I had to pay a $20 cover charge. I was having none of him and spun around to leave. That's when I bumped into Kyle. Kyle and his big smile.
I told him I was headed back downtown because I wasn't about to pay that cover charge. Without a moment's hesitation and before I could decline, Kyle said "I got you." He grabbed my wrist, pulled me inside, paid cover for both of us and we spent the night dancing. Kyle sure wasn't going to let a stupid thing like $$ get in the way of enjoying life to its fullest. You never know when it might end.
It's devastating to acknowledge I will never spend another night dancing with him; to comprehend the incalculable loss of his pure human sunshine.
If you're able, please consider honoring Kyle's memory with a contribution to help his family pay for his funeral expenses.
Watch Kyle and I in Half-share: A hysterical new comedy short set in Fire Island!
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