2/18/09 Quail Run's First Talent Show

WOW! I never knew we had so much talent in this park! We had 9 acts for this first talent show and with some minor hitches the show went very well.

We packed the house with tables down both sides of the room and the middle filled with chairs. We sold tickets for a dessert of peach cobbler ala mode in advance and those ticket holders got the table seats. We had set up about 40 chairs for the middle of the room but we quickly realized that chairs had to be added.

Right on time at 7 p.m. I took to the stage to get the show on the road. Since I had a captive audience I made announcements about upcoming shows and cutoff dates to get tickets.

I asked everyone to put their hands together to welcome in the first act and their enthusiasm was commendable. But nothing happened. No one came through the door. So I asked them to put their hands together again to see if we couldn't coax the first act in,,,known as the Poetry Diva. I looked out towards the door and hallway and Jeannie ran out into the hall to see if she could see anyone out there. Oh Jeannie, I gotcha girlfriend! I knew there was no one out in the hall. I put my hands up in the air to quiet everyone and announced, "OH, I forgot, I'M the first act! I got the laugh I was after and the look from Jeannie that told me that she knew she had been had.

I recited read two poems about old age mature adults. I had to read my act because heaven knows I didn't have time to memorize anything! I got some good laughs and a kinda, sorta, standing ovation when I was done. You see I had a moment to introduce my second poem as one that Julie Andrews did on her 69th birthday in which she got a 22 minute standing ovation. Of course, I explained, I certainly didn't expect a 22 minute ovation but that I would surely appreciate a quick stand up and sit down. And the winter residents came through.

The second act was booked just by chance the day before. A newcomer to the park asked if she could use the Carnaval Room so that she could load yarn onto her loom or some such thing. I told her yes she could but that tables and chairs were being set up for the Talent Show. She showed some interest in that and I found out that she and her husband and two local guys, friends of theirs, played together. I repeated that of course she could use the room in exchange for a couple of songs during the talent show. She agreed and thus Music Weavers aka Sunland Gin and Tonic was added to the roster of performers. They were awesome! She did the singing and the guys played their musical instruments. I am so glad she needed the Carnaval Room otherwise they wouldn't have been part of the show.

The third act was Bill Turner, solo. Many in the park are familiar with his songs and we enjoyed them all again. We never tire of hearing him sing and play his guitar.

The fourth act. Well, let me tell you about the fourth act. On the sign up sheet that each act had to fill out, one of the sections was: Special Needs:___________ This act wrote in the space.... An understanding or deaf audience. It gave me great pleasure to introduce "The Plucker and the Sucker".

Guitar player, Wilf, was the plucker of course and Don aka "The Peacock" is known as the "sucker". Wilf has written a song about Don that has a line that goes "Don blows but most of the time he really sucks". I'll have to get all the words for you because it really is quite funny. Both sang and thoroughly entertained us.

Next in line was Act 5 and let me tell you right here and now they brought the house down!

The only thing I had to say was, "And now, the next act." From there, Jeannie took over. Looks like Jeannie didn't have time to memorize her lines either, doesn't it?

She pulled out her Walkie Talkie and told the maintenance team to get to the Carnaval Room immediately. And with that, the act started. From the house speaker system the Village People's Macho Man started blaring and then one by one they came through the door and down the aisle.

Up on the stage they started (ahem) dancing.

Little did the audience know they were wearing tear-away pants!

This just had everyone rolling in the aisles!

It didn't take long and soon they were being treated like Chippendales with dollar bills stuffed in their shorts. Here's Dona tucking in a dollar bill.

He is just having too much fun! Yep, that's Dona again getting ready to place a dollar.

I think Dona is the one having too much fun here!

Things were just getting out of hand, half naked men on stage, Dona not being able to keep her hands from their shorts, people rolling in the aisles with laughter, it was just too much. Jeannie then did the only thing she could do. She called in Security! None other than the man we know as ....Swamp!

The absurdity of all was just too much because the next thing we know Swamp is dancing too! And yes, that's Dona trying to place yet another dollar.

Then it all came to abrupt halt! The wives showed up! Here they are being led off the stage. Some by the hand,,,,,

,,,,,and some held tightly by the ear!

This caused the laughter to get much, much louder as you can well imagine.

That was a fun act! I laughed so hard.

In fact, when I got back up on stage to introduce the next act, I couldn't. Have you ever started laughing and couldn't stop? That was me. I finally was able to get "Where's Howard?" out. That was my way announcing Howard as the next act. Its all I could get out.

Here's where we had a bit of trouble. We couldn't get Howard's music to play. Being the trooper he is he filled in with some funny jokes and then sang beautifully to John Denver's Take Me Home.

All the while the Activities Team on duty is in the kitchen preparing peach cobbler.

After Howard, our Chaplain, Mitch, came up on stage and told a story about a farmer talking with the Lord. It was a nice, thoughtful story and the audience showed their appreciation very nicely.

Act 8 was Bill Turner back again with his lovely wife Pat and Arlee Waring.

This trio entertained us with several songs and again, one or two, that Bill had written. These three play very well together and I could just listen for hours (and have) to them.

Last but not least, we had "Mugsy" MaGuire play and sing for us. Frank played professionally for years and certainly has not lost his touch on that keyboard! Oh how he can tickle those ivories!

The show ran longer than we thought it would with the setting up between acts and plugging in of equipment, but hey, it was our first one and a learning experience and we know what to do differently next year. Yes, next year we'll have another talent show. This one was so well received and everyone just had a blast!

The peach cobbler was just yummy!