So I’m sitting here at work on paper day, sick again, but I guess I can’t get away with another column about being sick so I’ll try my best.
Well first, I just have to say that I woke up shivering, with a sore throat, and as I sit here trying my hardest to think up a column idea, all I can hear in my head are vague chirping noises...and possibly the sound of a fly buzzing around. Let’s just say I’m not feeling very inspired today.
I went to a karaoke party recently, and I’m thinking I might have picked this bug up from the microphone (A.K.A. the bacteria sponge of doom!). It was the kind of microphone with the soft, foamy cover, which was quite moist by the end of the night. Anyway, I don’t want to think about it.
I’ll move on from that unpleasant topic now.
I just bought tickets to go see Brent Butt do standup at the casino in Regina, and I’m really looking forward to that. I also just went to see Spamalot (Monty Python musical) which was great, and I’m going to see Sarah McLachlan in a few months as well.
I went several years without going to a single show, and now I guess I’m making up for it because I’d forgotten how much fun it was to just sit back and relax as talented people do their best to entertain you.
After ‘acting’ in a play here in Grenfell, I have gained a whole new respect for people who get up on a regular basis in front of all those people and try to entertain them. I was only in four performances, and it took years off my life. It was tons of fun, mind you, but just imagining all the things that could go wrong was enough to keep me up at night...my palms are sweating just thinking about it!
And that was a good natured community play - I can’t imagine being a professional, with people scrutinizing your every move, just waiting for you to mess up.
Personally, I think stand-up comedians are some of the bravest people in the whole world. No matter how talented a comedian might be, they always risk being heckled, having things thrown at them and of course the worst thing that could possibly happen - complete silence, occasionally broken up by uncomfortable pity laughter.
Then there’s singers. People do admire them, but I think they get more than their fair share of criticism as well. A singer could dazzle audiences with 92 flawless performances in a row and mess up once, and that mistake will be the one thing that stands out in people’s minds. Take Susan Boyle, that nice lady from Britain’s Got Talent. Everyone was blown away by her wonderful voice, and she’s been doing really well, but she recently messed up a song on ‘The View’ and was just pummelled by the media.
I hope that was at least a little better than a whole column about how gross I feel - and I really hope I stop getting sick on paper day!
