A funny thing happened on the way to the theater!
You can’t perform for many years without a disaster or two and I would like to throw this idea out to my readers and if you have any funny stories to share, why not email them to me and we can combine some into future blogs.
I have had lots of confusion and disasters during my performing years and often they were a lot funnier looking back on them! They range from the minor to the seriously embarrassing. One of the simplest and easiest to happen was during a corporate after dinner show and it is here that I will begin.
I am a bit of a fanatic about arriving early to shows, on this occasion I arrived quite a bit ahead of my scheduled performance. Entering the banquet room, I asked around for the person in charge of the event. I was eventually introduced to a young lady who was the event planner. I explained to her that I would set my props and then be ready to perform when the deserts had been cleared and the coffee served.
Having set my props, I began my wait and a short while prior to when I anticipated my performance was due to begin, I left the rear of the banquet room to use the restroom. I always live by Billy McCombs words of wisdom, which were passed on to him by the Duke of Edinburgh, “Always go when you can go—because you never know when you will want to go and you can’t go!”
Returning from my restroom visit, I made my way through the communal corridor that opened onto the various banquet halls, I observed a highly agitated gentleman pacing back and forth practically wearing a hole in the carpet. As I passed him he practically grabbed me and said, “Thank God you finally arrived!” Thank God indeed.
Yes, I had carefully arrived early and then set up my props, and was about to begin a show for an entirely incorrect bunch of executives in totally the wrong room! I rushed into the room in which my props were set and quickly found the party planner and asked her if she was really expecting a show. “No” she said, “I was very surprised but I assumed the hotel had arranged it.”
I had my props re-packed and shifted to the correct room in double quick time. Curiously enough everything was re-set just about as the coffee cups were being placed on the tables, I was then introduced to the audience, by a still visibly flustered executive, the same man who had found me in the corridor ten minutes before.
As I began my show I made eye contact with him and adlibbed, “A funny thing happened to me on the way to the theater tonight.” I was pleased to see a brief smile flash across his face, and the show went on to be a great success. I always wondered how the other audience would have enjoyed me. However, I performed in the room with a check in it that had my name on it.
Needless to say, in the future, I was always very careful to check the name of the banquet room. I do like that check at the end of my show!
Got a funny story? Why not share it with us all by emailing me at nicklewin1@mac.com
REMARKABLE MAGIC 