Every once in a while you get to do something that is truly memorable.
A couple of years ago we did a Christmas show at the Stafford Opera House in Columbus, Texas. It is a beautifully restored turn-of-the-(last)-century theater that hosts touring plays and musicals each year. We were honored to appear on their stage, and the audience really enjoyed the show. Apparently they enjoyed it enough that the Opera House invited us back to do our “regular” show as part of their season package this year.
There are real benefits to doing the show in a theater. In many of our venues my most important job is figuring out how the stage is going to be set up to accommodate our show and the necessary props. In this theater that is not a problem. Well, maybe the stage is a little too big, but we aren’t going to consider that a problem.
The show tonight was incredible. Frequently our audience is mostly women, which is understandable since we are hired by a lot of women’s groups to come perform for their events. Tonight the audience was basically half female and half male (the makeup of the room, not of the individuals in the room).
I have always said that men enjoy the show at least as much as the women, at least once they get permission from the misses to laugh. Every once in a while one of the men will laugh a little too loud or too long and will get a little side-eye from his neighbor, and we do see an occasional elbow. But most of the time the ladies are laughing too hard to notice what the men are doing.
Tonight’s audience was ready to have a good time from the jump. Every time we asked for a little audience participation the husbands were encouraging their wives to get up and dance, and several of the men joined the conga line along with their wives. When the show ended we had several of the men tell us they had never had more fun going to a live show, and for the first time I can remember we had as many men as women waiting in line to take pictures with the cast.
It was hard telling everyone goodbye when it was time to leave. Nights like this are so much fun and are why our group is so close-knit.
Laughter is good medicine. We all got a good dose tonight!
