***NOTE*** - This entry was originally posted December 3, 2006 on one of my former blog sites. I felt it was worthy of a second glace. Enjoy!
The last time that I stood in front of a bunch of people and spoke was back in May for the SHSU Eubie Awards. I was the MC for the night's festivities, and I actually had some decent material. But I had to ditch the gags after my very first joke was followed by the sound of crickets. The strange thing was, I was just being myself back then, but my peers were trying so hard to not seem entertained that they held in their reaction and I looked the fool. So ever since then, I've been a little skiddish when it comes to letting my personality flow. On most days I can talk up a storm and people are kicking me from under the table to get me to shut up. Then there are those days when I don't say much, and I'm a wallflower.
But thank goodness I was my usual outgoing self last night.
For those of you outside of CC, the Harbor Lights Festival is the holiday highlight on the Bayfront, complete with music, the lighting of the big tree and the classic visit by Santa. It's a pretty big thing for the kids and the show's been popular considering it's been around for 25 years.
Well, since Action 10 KZTV was one of the primary sponsors, it was fitting that a pair of our own talent would emcee the night event. However, one of my coworkers who was scheduled to be part of the show called me up, and I couldn't even recognize her voice. She had been fighting some throat illness and it seemed as if it had taken over. She lost her voice, and she was asking me to fill in for her. Did I mention that this was around 2:00 pm Saturday, four hours before showtime?
I graciously accepted, not just because I'm all about helping out the team and plug the station, but I felt this was an opportunity for me to put the name out there a little bit and get some exposure for myself. I'll admit it, I'm a bit selfish. So, with that pressure added, I prepped for the show.
Looking at the script, it read like a recycled 'Donnie and Marie' give-and-take. In addition to the corny language, the script was also very tight, and open to a lot of ad-libbing. Not the best situation with it being my first Harbor Lights and only having less than three hours to prepare.
Well, 6:00 rolls around and the ceremonies are off and running. Right alongside me is Lauren, and she's about as nervous as I was. But to add to that, she was absolutely freezing with the 38 degree windgusts coming off the bay. I was shaking myself. But we started off by introducing ourselves and talking a little bit about ourselves and our fondest holiday memory, I thought it was going to sound cheesy, but somehow we pulled it off.
Right after the first entertainment act, Lauren and I jump back on stage and we start going through the script once again. Unfortunately, there might have been some miscommunication behind the scenes, because the timing was off and the entertainment coordinator starts making appearances over my shoulder and whispering to stretch the material. The second act of the night was 20 minutes late, and Santa wasn't due onto the stage for another 8. So Lauren and I ran through the sponsers again and try to ad-lib some more. After that didn't work, we just went to the ol' faithful: holiday ambiance music while we waited for Santa's motorcade to make it to the stage.
During all of this, I'm holding a 17-page script in one hand and a microphone in the other. Right behind that, was a list of all the sponsors and event coordinators that I had to mention, those were on separate sheets. And whoever wrote and printed the script didn't put the page breaks in the appropriate places, so I repeatedly was having to stop and negotiate with the mic and flipping to the next page. And don't forget about the long pauses of me laughing at myself during the process. It was embarrassing.
Allright! Santa finally makes it to the stage, and the kids in the crowd are going nuts. There's a lot of good energy coming over the stage at this point, so I thought I would run with. I certainly had the blessing of the event coordinator, though, because she wanted Lauren and I to milk the Santa segment for all it was worth. So I broke into an impromptu news interview with Santa Claus. It took about three to four minutes, and I was asking him questions like "How's Corpus treating you?" and "Are the kids in South Texas naughty or nice?" Y'know, kiddie stuff.
Lauren went the extra mile and scooted down to the crowd to where the children were and got a few questions from them to relay to Santa. So her segment knocked out about three more minutes.
Eureka! We had actually filled a 7 1/2 minute hole in the program just by being ourselves and with a little bit of clever and quick thinking.
It was also in this segment where I ran through the list of sponsors again. When I came down the list to Whataburger, here's what I said...
"And you can't talk about Corpus Christi without bringing up Whataburger. They're an institution here, and you pretty much can't throw a rock in this town without hitting one."
When that last bit came out of my mouth, I froze. I couldn't believe that I said it, not to mention into a microphone in front of a couple thousand people. What was even more surprising that I actually heard a lot of laughs from the crowd. I really couldn't see who all was laughing because of the lights. But I definately heard them. I was so shocked that the bit actually worked, I started to crack up and laugh a bit under my breath. Just before I composed myself and was going to read through the rest of the list, I heard a voice shout from the left side of the crowd.
"That was good!"
Again, shocked from the positive response, I chuckled again. Only this time I turned towards the direction the voice came from and replied: "Thank you" as only I would in an embarrassing situation.
So the show went on. The second act finally showed up and did a good job. I then went back on stage and tossed it to a couple of radio personalities as they introduced the laser light show. Again, groovy time.
Then we finally lit the 75-foot Christmas tree. And that was impressive. Pretty cool that Lauren and I were on stage for that one. Then I introduced the headliner band, a kid named JW Cudd. After that was over, we finally wrapped it up and got outta there. Lauren had to get back to work, and I was at the end of a workday that started at 7:30 that morning.
All in all, it was fun. I'm not sure how much I acted the fool on that stage. I'm also not sure how the people responded to me. There were a lot of hiccups in the program and plenty of times where I might have come off as foolish, but I think everything was okay in the long run. The coordinators said that we did a great job, and that they were in awe that we could talk to no end and pad the show. Good deal, I guess.
But the great thing was, I was just being myself. I didn't come off as stiff and I was able to laugh at myself when things were going wrong. Not exactly sure how many people were watching, because I was blinded by the lights, but another coworker told me afterward that close to 10,000 people usually make it downtown for the Christmas tree lighting. Jeezum Crow! 10,000???? Maybe it was a good thing that I couldn't see those people.
Amazing how in just a few months I could go from small town MC who couldn't get a laugh out of small town crowd, to performing in front of a huge audience. I hope that can be considered a skill.
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