Weird opening night: I MD'd the premiere performance at Portland's swank Brunish Hall in the equally swank Center for the Performing Arts. Anyway, it was three cabaret artists, including Susannah, whom I was MDing for (the two others had other people, damn them, damn them all to hell). Anyway, they had asked me to play a little "seating" jazz, and Susannah and I had a funny "bit" about cell phones worked out (more about that in a mo). So's, anyway, there I am playing some "cocktail piano" getting ready for our "bit", when one of the other singers pokes her head out from the wings and does one of those hilarious stage whispers that she thinks no one can hear, but of course everyone can. It turns out her pianist had forgotten his music at the hotel and they needed me to "vamp" until he returned. So of course I'm pulling tunes out of the vast recesses of my increasingly addled brain until I get the "OK" sign from them several minutes later.
Which brings us to the "cell phone bit." Susannah thought it would be hilarious (as did I) if I set my cell phone on the piano during my "Seating Music," and she would then call me from her cell phone from the green room, interrupting my playing. She would have her mic on, and would start "yakking" at me whilst I protested that I was trying to play, and we would get the "turn cell phones off" message delivered in a clever way.
Well, it was a brilliant idea save for one fatal error:
Susannah forgot to turn her mic on.
So, I'm playing, the phone rings, Susannah starts talking in my phone, but I can of course hear that her voice is not going out to the house. So there I am, to kind of quote Comden & Green, "Talking to Myself," and trying, ever so subtly, to let Susannah know to turn on her friggin' mic.
The show went much better than the pre-show.
