XRBOT is a wise-cracking robot, Slim's friend and sidekick. In Musical Health Show, he's on a joke kick, and interjects every once in a while with an endearing witticism that help move the show along. In Lighten Up!, he's a researcher who connects everything the kids learn back to our mission of health (and sends it to our protagonist, 10 year-old JJ).
He's also inflatable. And therein lies the rub.
Today's 8:45am already seemed to be showing signs of XRBOT's fatigue. After a chilly night in the trunk, he was a little deflated. No matter, I thought, and I dutifully blew him up. And he was OK, for about the first 10 minutes. Mid-heart section, however, I looked over, and realized that XRBOT had slumped significantly. By the time I was at the Bone Rap, XRBOT's head was hanging off of his table, his arms had collapsed and he looked like he'd been punched in the stomach. I quickly found a way to squirrel him offstage and tried to inflate him without being too obvious, but it was no good. We rode out the rest of the show together and, after the kids exited the space, I took a look at my poor, addled 'bot. Turned out, a patch job from earlier had loosened itself too much, causing the slumping and the leakage. Back at the car, I grabbed one of the spare robots, fitted it with XRBOT's accessories, and started driving to my next show, sure this one would not be troubled by robo-shrinkage.
When I turned around to ask XRBOT about his elephant-brain joke (the punchline is, "You've got a lot on your mind"), I was greeted by a puddle of flashing plastic. Today, it seemed, was not a good day for Ethan and inflatables.
So, at my Radisson in Scranton, the robots got a bath:
With patches on their leaks (and new batteries, just to be safe), my XRBOTs are ready for action. And they've both promised to behave. I'm holding them to that.
Call tomorrow: 6am, Radisson in Scranton, PA. Two shows, then back to Brooklyn.
Kid quote of the day: "How many push-ups can you do?" "A hundred and... a lot."
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