Wham!

Today began my first day with the other (and, by the look of my schedule, more popular) show, Musical Health Show. This one plays great with the little ones, and not-so-great with the older kids. Luckily, today, the max level I'd be seeing was second grade.

I was groggy when I woke up, and, after a quick drive to the first school (and an even quicker nap in the parking lot), I checked in, set up, changed and prepared for my room full of first graders. The contact was clearly very happy to have me there. Everything was going great! As I opened the curtain to reveal the set, the kids ooh-ed and ah-ed. When I first appeared in the costume, they laughed and pointed. As I started the opening number, they clapped along. It was starting out as a DREAM show.

Until the handstand.

In rehearsal, Michael asked me to come up with something impressive and funny for the end of the opening number. The lyrics -- "A body of wondrous possibilities / A body of numerous capabilities" -- seem to warrant something showy. After a few tries, we settled on a handstand into a round-off as my "super-capable" body demonstration. However, as I prepped the handstand, I started to sense something was awry. The stage was a bit narrower than I had originally noticed, so I backed myself up all the way to my drop and readied myself. Next thing I knew, I was face-down on the stage, with the entire backdrop (and frame!) on top of me. After crawling out from under the drop, I caught a glimpse of the audience: the kids howled and clapped; the teachers looked confused and nervous; the contact covered her face.

Once I regained my senses, I stopped my recorded track and asked for a few teachers to help me put my stage back together. I got the kids to do some interactive stuff as I assessed the damage. Seemed that a peg atop the frame had snapped, and there was nothing to do for this show to get the backdrop fully up. I rigged the drop so it would stay somewhat flat and continued on with the show. Which went great, especially when I got off the stage and actually entered the audience for high-fives and the quick-y running demonstration.

Needless to say, the handstand is temporarily on hiatus from the show.

Call tomorrow: 6:00am (pending weather conditions; big storm on the way and school may be canceled), parking lot of the Hilton Newark Airport. Yes, Hilton. Single room. And I'm not paying for it. This ain't no Theaterworks tour...

Kid quote of the day: (after the "Bone Rap" song) "I hurt my joint once," said a very excited little girl, as she pointed to her ear. Hmm...