Talent Show at Work

Yesterday I had the great opportunity to participate in a talent show at work. They ended up renting out a theatre in the Museum of Civilization that seats 500 people! Yowzahs! I sang Through The Glass by Stone Sour (one of the Top 40 hits out there right now) along with co-worker Shawn who is big into these things. He found out I played guitar back when we were baking bread a few months back so he thought I may be interested.

All along, I thought “Sure, this will be fun” but I didn’t realize the sheer size of the production until going for a soundcheck in the morning – along with those handy dandy monitor speakers at your feet so you can hear how you sound. That threw me off big time as the monitors were so loud that I couldn’t hear myself strum. That freaked me out for the remainder of the day, but luckily the sound guys turned them down for the performance.

Gigtime hit fast and Shawn was nowhere to be found. Doh! There were people rushing around trying to find him so they told me to just go on stage as it’s no fun watching an empty stage. I saunter out to some cheers (thanks to whoever cheered!) and sat myself and plugged myself in.

The first thing that struck me was that the spotlights make it so you can’t see the crowd. So it was surreal experience…almost like I was alone on stage with a black void in front of me that has whispers and claps coming out of nowhere.

The MC came out to talk a bit while Shawn was getting ready (no jack cord) and we had a good banter together. My favourite part was when he mentioned our Director General was in the audience today so I made a comment that she was the best DG we ever had. That had the audience roaring! Sophia actually caught all of this on video which was great.

We started off as soon as Shawn was set up and ripped through the song. It was great. I must admit that I had some lyrics at my feet which became my crutch and I read off of them. I’m so used to them and have no faith in myself when it comes to memorized lyrics. I feel that if I’m searching my head for what lyric comes next, then I don’t put as much passion into my vocal performance. However, I know I had memorized these lyrics as I had been practicing for some time now, but when the crutch is there, you take it. Not a big deal. In the grand scheme of things, when you’re in a theatre that size, no one notices what directions your eyes are pointing towards (aka, down at the floor at your lyric sheet).

Everything sounded great and we were both impressed. It’s funny…I realize that the performer doesn’t get to take the applause in afterwards…it’s just a rush off of stage and a rush of adrenaline now that you’re finished that hits you and you don’t even realize what’s going on until you’re backstage and thinking “Hey, they’re clapping for us!”

All in all, a great experience. I have no idea how many people were out there. I would estimate between 200-300. Probably your standard wedding size. One day I’ll hit up the stadium tour circuit and see what the crowds are like there. Speaking about stadium tours, one of the guys there was telling me their band won a competition to open for Tom Cochrane years ago at the Corel Centre. He said it was surreal playing for that many people. Awesome!

Thanks to Shawn for inviting me to take part in the peformance du jour.