Embarrasing moments on stage?

Subject: Embarrasing moments on stage?
From: Deckman
Date: 11 Dec 02 - 10:08 PM

I was 18 years old. I had the world by the tail. I was a FOLK SINGER! Heck, I even could sing a couple of hundred songs. The Summer before I was to go into the Army, I figured to travel the country. I aimed for Wisconsin, got lost and ended up in Missouri. They never taught map reading in Seattle where I grew up. As long as I was in Missouri, I stopped by and spent some time with Uncle Allan, in the town of Skidmore. This was in 1955. That Saturday night, Uncle Allan invited me down to the local Grange Hall for the big Saturday night bash. He suggested that I should bring my guitar. The evening was fun, the whole town seemed to have turned out for the square dance. Two bands, much dancing and gaiety. Toward the intermission, I was given to understand that I would be invited to come up on stage and play during the break. I said sure ... remember, I was 18 and I could lick anyone in the house!

I sang two or three songs and they seemed to go over O.K. Then for a closer, I thought, "Hey, I'll sing Jesse James!" I kinda remembered that he came from somewhere around here. And I did sing it. You know the version, the rinky dink, up tempo chorus:

But that dirty little coward,
That shot Mr. Howard,
He has laid poor Jesse in his grave."

When I finished the song, I could have heard a pin drop! NOTHING. Absolute silence. Not a sound. Folks that had been standing around the stage just turned around and drifted away.

It was at dawn the next morning that I understood what I'd done. Uncle Allen and I were having coffee on his porch, watching the sun come up. He was very gentle with me. He just said, "here's how we sing the song down here."

I wonder where my poor Jesse's gone,
I wonder where my poor Jesse's gone,
Will I meet him that land, where I've never been before,
I wonder where my poor jesses's gone.

He sang it slow and stately, like an anthem. He sang it with reverence and incredible feeling. His voice, at 81, was a little weak, but the meaning rang through loud and clear.

Have you ever had embarrasing moments like this? CHEERS and GOOD THOUGHTS, Bob(deckman)Nelson

Subject: RE: Embarrasing moments on stage?
From: DonMeixner
Date: 11 Dec 02 - 10:56 PM

You mean like the time I sang

"On the Bosom of Young Abigail,

Was written the price of her tail,

and upon her behind,

for the use of the blind,

was the same information in Braille.

And the audience was mainly a bunch of Christian women. Everyone else in the band knew it seems but they never told me.

Don

Subject: RE: Embarrasing moments on stage?
From: Sorcha
Date: 11 Dec 02 - 11:52 PM

LOL, nothing that bad. I did introduce Eric as "Chuck" more than once.....he just looked like a chuck.....what can I say?

Subject: RE: Embarrasing moments on stage?
From: mooman
Date: 12 Dec 02 - 04:05 AM

You mean like playing to 700 with your flies undone sort of thing?

moo

Subject: RE: Embarrasing moments on stage?
From: mooman
Date: 12 Dec 02 - 04:06 AM

Or a friend of mine who performed not knowing the back seam of his trousers (pants) had completely ripped asunder!

moo

Subject: RE: Embarrasing moments on stage?
From: GUEST,ellenpoly
Date: 12 Dec 02 - 06:32 AM

Actually,Deckman,the most embarrassing moment onstage was when another actor,totally stoned out of his gourd and rambling on and on about who-knows-what,was simply left out on his own as the rest of us slowly drifted offstage leaving him to his own devices.I wish I could say that he was as embarressed as we were,but the truth is that he didn't even remember the episode and thought we were making it up!

Subject: RE: Embarrasing moments on stage?
From: Bagpuss
Date: 12 Dec 02 - 06:41 AM

Not a personal one - but the concertina player in our band (many moons ago) was playing away while sitting on the amp at the back of the stage. Behind the stage was a curtain and he presumed that behind the curtain was a wall - when he leaned back against it and fell off. His concertina rolled under the stage and he had to crawl under it to find it. We has great difficulty finishing the set of tunes because we were laughing so much.

Subject: RE: Embarrasing moments on stage?
From: GUEST,COCO
Date: 12 Dec 02 - 09:46 AM

For me my most recent one was 2 months ago, I'm a member of a Samba band. We were doing a country gig thank goodness the crowd was only about 2000.... My unfortunate moment was just as we were going on the stage"I was right at the front" in formation I lost my balance right in front with this big burning bright spotlight which was shining right on me.I was on my hands and knees, but worst of all I had nothing to hold on to to gat me back on my feet my skirt was long ang fine cotton and as I tried to get up with great difficulty one of the roadies came to my rescue, he helped and smiled saying everyone could see through your skirt because of the bright light....and the band played on...da ra da ra da ra..........
.

Subject: RE: Embarrasing moments on stage?
From: Dave Bryant
Date: 12 Dec 02 - 10:37 AM

I once had a request for "I touched her on the toe" and a very volupturous young lady was pushed forward to help me with the song. I was hardly going to miss a chance like that ! It was only when I got to to the chorus line "My nigger draw near" that I realised that this beautiful young lady was black. That evening (and ever since) I have always sung the words "My darling draw near".

I once sung the same song at a "Folk Day" evening event on the large riverside terrace at "The Anchor" a pub near London Bridge. The "victim" that time was a well shaped lass who's premarital "Hen Party" it was. She climbed up on to a plinth. As I pointed to the various parts of her anatomy in each verse (Knee-a-nacka, Thigh-a-thacka, Funny-Thing-a, Navel-Stringer, Breast-Plate etc), she gaily removed her garments to display the corresponding part - ending up completely naked ! I was afterwards congratulated by other people, not only on my choice of lady, but also on my ability to continue singing the song !

If anyone doubts this story - try PMing "Auntie Wend" - she'll vouch for it - no it wasn't her !

BTW - It's a quite a while since I've sung it - I must bring it back into my repertoire - any volunteers ladies ?

I can also remember a certain Tenterden folk festival about 25 years ago where myself and a girlfriend of the time (much resembling the current editor of Folk London) decided to streak around the campsite at midnight. We leapt over a bank in the dark, only to find it was a long sheer drop on the other side - straight down to a patch of nettles - the lady concerned also ended up with a broken arm - thank god I didn't break any protuding parts.

Subject: RE: Embarrasing moments on stage?
From: Deckman
Date: 12 Dec 02 - 11:27 AM

This embarrasing story happened to a friend of mine. I know, because I was in the audience. It was in 1965 in Berkeley, California. My friend was enjoying huge popularity and this evening he and his wife were singing on stage to a very large audience. He was native Irish, and told his stories very well, as only the irish can. He introduced the song, "Little Land," mentioning that this was a traditional Irish song he learned in the olde country. At the conclusion of the song, Malvena Reynolds stood up in the audience and said, "I WROTE THAT SONG." You could have heard a pin drop, in an audience of probably 2,000. The singer fumbled and stumbled around, trying to collect his thoughts. Finally he acknowledged that he didn't know where it came from and thanked her for writing it. What a moment. CHEERS, Bob(deckman)Nelson

Subject: RE: Embarrasing moments on stage?
From: wilco
Date: 12 Dec 02 - 01:14 PM

Last Friday night, a friend of mine played at one of the local Oprys. He is totally blind. He's a very kind person, who invites just about anyone to play in his jam bands at these oprys. Sometimes, these new performers get kind of nervous and forgetful.
    I got there just as they were coming out on stage. The previous band had moved out of the way, and his band was setting-up.
    The MC introduced the band as "Randy Roberts and his band," when I noticed that they had fogotten Randy!! He was standing backstage, laughing his head off, saying "I can't believe my own band forgot me!!!" His whole band was embarassed!!!

Subject: RE: Embarrasing moments on stage?
From: Rapparee
Date: 12 Dec 02 - 01:15 PM

We were putting on the play "Dracula" when a friend of mine, playing Renfrew, did his dash across the stage -- and off, and into the first row of the audience. He took out three ladies and broke two toes, but his only thought was "Get on stage or the Director is gonna KILL you!" He did, and finished the scene before collapsing backstage.

Once, I was playing Ravel's "Bolero" with a band and we got lost. Everyone. Including the Director. We were trapped in the "dah, dadada, dah, dadada, da" section for three or four *minutes* before the lead trumpet stood up and took up the music several bars on. We managed to pick it up without a problem and I don't think anyone was any the wiser.
This might say something about Ravel's music, too.

Subject: RE: Embarrasing moments on stage?
From: Don Firth
Date: 12 Dec 02 - 03:54 PM

"I knew he was a folk singer when he spent ten minutes introducing a three-minute song."

But it can get even worse than that. Early Sixties. The Corroboree coffeehouse in Seattle. It was fairly early in the evening and fortunately the crowd wasn't very big yet. In the middle of my first set, I introduced the song The Flying Dutchman (learned from Raphael Boguslav's record, "Songs From a Village Garret," Riverside RLP12-638) with a long dissertation of the legend of the Flying Dutchman, waxing eloquent on variations of the story and I rambled on and on, even going so far as to allude to Wagner's opera. Then, I launched into my guitar intro for the song, opened my mouth, and nothing came out. I had gone completely blank on the words!! No amount of faking on the guitar would bring them back. They were gone, solid gone!

The crowd thought it was pretty funny, so I was allowed to escape with a teensy amount of dignity and moved on to the rest of my set.

But the BIGGY:—

In 1959, Patti McLaughlin and I did a series of television programs called "Ballads and Books" on KCTS, Seattle's educational TV station. Now, KCTS is a PBS affiliate and it's a big operation, but back then it was pretty low-budget, living on funding from the University of Washington and donations of equipment. Even their cameras were hand-me-downs from KING-TV, Seattle's first big commercial station. Also, these were the days before the widespread use of videotape, even by TV stations. The only videotape machine in Seattle at the time was at KING. Newly purchased, it had cost them $50,000, it was the size of a large desk, and the videotape reels looked like reels of 35mm. movie film. So our shows were live.

On one of the programs, we were comparing and contrasting British Isles versions of ballads with American versions. We discussed the folk process and the variations that occur when songs move from place to place, interspersing our comments with songs by way of illustration. We discussed The Twa Sisters (Child #10). I sang Binnorie, an English version, and Patti followed with Bow Down, an American version of the same ballad. She had learned it especially for the show. Then we discussed The Gypsy Laddie (Child #200).   Patti sang The Wraggle-Taggle Gypsies. This was the version I normally did, but since Patti had learned a song especially for the show, I learned The Gypsie Davey. I'd learned it only a few days before, and although I'd sung it through a dozen times or more, the words sat very precariously in my memory. When Patti finished, I started up. I got about three verses into the thing, then blanked out. PANIC!! I was using a sort of Carter Family-style accompaniment, so I played the melody on the guitar, praying that the words would come. Fortunately they did, so I finished the song, giving thanks to Orpheus, or whatever gods determine the fates of troubadours.

A month of so later, KING-TV wanted Patti and me to do a sort of condensed reprise of the "Ballads and Books" series on one of their programs called "Community Workshop." We put together a half-hour of what we considered to be the best bits from "Ballads and Books," went to the KING studios one afternoon, and taped the show. Although it would be possible to stop and do something over, we decided to try to do it in one shot, the way we were used to. At the same point in The Gypsy Davey, I blanked out again! Angry at myself, I bounced on the same safety net I'd used before by launching into the guitar solo. And lo! the words came to me and I finished the song. I'd escaped disaster once again!

The following Sunday morning I crawled out of bed (public service programs are not generally scheduled in prime time), fixed myself a cup of coffee, popped on the boob-tube, and prepared to watch the show. I had heard my own voice on tape quite a bit, but I had never seen myself on movie film or videotape. The show came on. Patti look absolutely gorgeous as usual; cool, calm, and competent. To me, I looked weird, but I knew that was a normal experience until one gets used to seeing oneself this way. Patti sang The Wraggle-Taggle Gypsies, doing a very nice job of it and looking exquisitely charming while doing so. Then I sang The Gypsy Davey. Three verses. Then I went into the guitar solo. As I played the melody, it was obvious that I was muttering to myself! It also seemed pretty obvious that I'd forgotten the bloody words and was trying to cover! I had probably done the same flamin' thing the first time around, too!

Afterwards, though, people told me that everything had looked fine. When I started into the guitar solo, they said that they were watching my hands and if I'd been muttering, they hadn't even notice.

I sure hope that was true!

Don Firth
(Next time, I'm gonna use cue-cards!!)

Subject: RE: Embarrasing moments on stage?
From: Deckman
Date: 12 Dec 02 - 04:12 PM

Don ... I remember that event ... mutter mutter mutter! We all thought you should have kept it in the act! CHEERS, Bob

Subject: RE: Embarrasing moments on stage?
From: GUEST,Walking Eagle
Date: 12 Dec 02 - 05:23 PM

I once had a dulcimer string break and launch itself into a fan that WAS helping to keep us cool! Any of you who play a dulcimer knows this is pretty nigh impossible as the strings are well anchored at both ends

An antique stool (200 odd years, I think) decided to become pieces as I was doing a story telling in front of 300 folks.

Subject: RE: Embarrasing moments on stage?
From: harvey andrews
Date: 12 Dec 02 - 05:33 PM

I was having a great night in a community centre with the local community. A chap at a table in front of me spent most of the first half staring ahead at the wall to my left. I finished a song, he applauded. Only once did he look at me.I knew he wasn't blind. Second half I was so intrigued I stepped down from the stage and stood behind him and asked "What is it you're staring at?" He didn't respond. The person next to him whispered "He's got Alzheimers".
Apparantly the whole audience of local people knew.
I climbed back on the stage and wished I was on Mars!

Subject: RE: Embarrasing moments on stage?
From: GUEST,JB
Date: 12 Dec 02 - 06:01 PM

Forgetting words is one thing, but I forgot the tune. At the Gottagetgone Festival I prepared to sing the song I'd just learned from a John Roberts/Tony Barrand tape -- Nine Times a Night. The lyrics were there all right, but the tune had gotten lost. Instead of stopping and moving on, I, like a fool, kept going in the hope the melody would emerge at some point. Never did, though. All 6 verses of that a cappella song came out as some sort of folk improv. The topper was that John Roberts himself was in the audience. Gentleman that he is, he only commented that he'd never heard that tune before.

Subject: RE: Embarrasing moments on stage?
From: Sorcha
Date: 12 Dec 02 - 06:48 PM

Then there was the 3 or 4 months that I totally forgot the last 2 bars of the "A" part of Redwing.........finally had to go get the paper out. Bad, bad.

Subject: RE: Embarrasing moments on stage?
From: X
Date: 12 Dec 02 - 07:23 PM

In 1980 I was working in a top 40s country band as a pedal steal player. My amp wasn't polarized with the sound system and I didn't realize it and it was time to introduce the band and that job fell on me. I reached for the mike and placed in near my lips and ZAP! A big blue spark flew from the mike to my lips and I yelled F**K! As loud as I could into the mike. Every head in the church turned toward me, we were playing a barbecue that The Lady of "What Ever it Was" in Descanco, CA throws every year. We played that evening and after having played that gig for over five years we were never asked back.

Subject: RE: Embarrasing moments on stage?
From: Deckman
Date: 12 Dec 02 - 07:53 PM

TOOOO FUNNY! "Guest JB". I can match your story, and Don Firth was there. We were singing a concert at Seattle University in the late 50's, 1950's, NOT 1850's! We were doing a sea chanty. Duet. I sang high harmony to Don's bass voice. We would trade verses. When the time came for me sing the melody line on a verse, for whatever reason, my voice was locked into that stupid high harmony. It sounded absolutly silly, by itself. But what are you going to do? All I did was continue on, and try to stare Don down, as he looked at me like I was nuts! Oh well ... that's how we learn. CHEERS, Bob

Subject: RE: Embarrasing moments on stage?
From: Les B
Date: 12 Dec 02 - 08:14 PM

I may have posted this before. A friend of mine was scheduled to sing an inspirational song to a group of boy scout -- something like "the wind beneath your wings," or similar.

He walked out and sang the first four words and then totally lost the words and the tune. He stood there for a moment with a "sheep eating grin" (or is it a "shitish grin") on his face, shrugged and walked off the stage never to be seen again on the program.

Subject: RE: Embarrasing moments on stage?
From: Malachy
Date: 12 Dec 02 - 08:36 PM

Well it wasn't my embarrassing moment exactly, but I used to play in a country band. The lead singer really fancied herself. Anyway she learned this new song called '18 Wheels and a Dozen Roses'. She used to start the second verse off with the words 'The vile winds of Bago' which I noticed used to produce smiles from the audience.I got hold of the Kathy Mattea version to discover that the words were 'They'll buy a Winabego'. I laughed..but I never told her!!
I should have..she was a good sport. The 2 of us got pissed at a temperance gig. Fed up with being offered cups of tea, we escaped to the pub during the break, robbed some glasses, went to an off licence, got some beer and vodka. Came back with our spoils, only to be confronted by the priest, who was running things. 'Have the decency to drink it from a tea cup ' he said. Now that was embarrassing!!

Subject: RE: Embarrasing moments on stage?
From: Don Firth
Date: 13 Dec 02 - 03:46 PM

Not an embarrassing moment. A moment of triumph, actually. But it contains one of those goofy little things that can happen on stage from time to time.

Dipping into the memoir thing I'm writing:— between fall 1963 and spring 1965, I attended the Cornish School of the Arts. Unlike the University of Washington School of Music (at the time), the Cornish music department didn't care if you were interested in classical music, folk music, jazz, or whatever—just as long as you were serious about what you were doing. Small classes, excellent teachers, good atmosphere, interesting fellow students. In fall of 1964, several new students appeared in the hallways.

*    *    *

        One fall afternoon in 1964, while sitting in the coffee room at Cornish, I heard a voice lifted in song in the student lounge next door. It was one of the folk songs that Joan Baez had recorded. The accompaniment was piano rather than guitar, but the voice—it was Joan Baez. I got up and went to the door.
        No. It wasn't Joan Baez.
        A tall, slender young woman, one of the new music students, sat at the piano and sang. When the song ended I went in and introduced myself. Her name was Annie Hartz.
        Hesitantly, not knowing how she felt about it, I commented on the amazing resemblance between voices. She acknowledged it ruefully, saying that this resemblance was something of a curse. She loved folk songs and wanted to sing them, but she couldn't open her mouth without someone accusing her of copying Joan Baez. She wasn't trying to copy anybody. That was just the way her voice sounded.
        Annie wanted to sing at the coffeehouses, but the only instrument she felt competent with was the piano. Not folky. She and I wound up doing several performances together, with me providing the guitar accompaniment when she sang solo.
        How to handle the Baez thing: we decided that Annie could use it to her advantage. It would certainly call attention to her fine voice, and rather than fighting the resemblance, she should flaunt it. Once that was out of the way, people might begin to realize that she was a superb singer in her own right, and sang a lot of stuff that Joan Baez didn't do.
        The Queequeg coffeehouse in the University District planned a concert night and Eric Bjornstad, the Queequeg's owner, invited me to perform. Lots of VIPs were going to be there, including some non-folk performers such as Gina Funes and a number of jazz musicians, and a couple newspaper entertainment reviewers indicated they would come. It was intended to be a Big Deal. I told Eric about Annie and he said, by all means, bring her.
        Annie's Seattle coffeehouse debut was the time to do our flaunting. Except for one song, Annie's program would be straight off the recordings of Joan Baez. The song we programmed as next to last was Fair Thee Well, from Joan Baez's first LP. Pure chutzpah on our part. The verses were traditional, but the melody, written by Dave Gude, was a real display piece for Joan Baez's voice. To compound the felony, I studied Joan's record carefully and got her guitar accompaniment down practically note for note, then added a few licks of my own.
        Annie knew and sang Try to Remember from "The Fantasticks," and she wanted to include it in the program. I didn't do the song myself, but I worked out an accompaniment for it. I added a brief coda to the accompaniment: the first few notes of "Soon it's going to rain, I can feel it. . . ."
        I thought the coda was a nice touch. It would give those familiar with other music from "The Fantasticks" the pleasure of recognition, plus indicating that we hadn't just learned the song from a Brothers Four record, we knew where it came from. It fit nicely. We decided to end our part of the program with it.
        The response to Annie was positive right with her first song, but we could feel the "she sounds just like. . . ." flowing through the audience. Then, on Fare Thee Well, between my hard-driving guitar and Annie's powerful soprano, we blew 'em away. The crowd went nuts! Huge applause! No matter who she may sound like, it was obvious that Annie was one helluva singer!
        Annie really got into Fair Thee Well, and in the headiness brought on by the roar of applause, she lost track of where we were in the program. As the applause died away, she whispered to me, "What's the next song?"
        It was our last one, the non-Baez song.
        "Try to Remember," I muttered back.
        "I am trying," she whispered, perturbed. "What's the song?" she persisted.
        "Try to—"
        Then suddenly we both realized. We had practically started a sort of Abbott and Costello "Who's on first?" routine without realizing it. We burst out laughing like a couple of idiots.
        I don't think the audience had the foggiest notion of what the two of us were laughing at.
        Try to Remember was a good choice to finish the set with. It eased down from the preceding tour de force, and we left the stage accompanied by a wonderfully warm ovation.

*    *    *

I lost track of Annie shortly after that. I ran into her again in 1991 at a coffeehouse reunion. She had done some singing around, but didn't really follow any kind of singing career, although she certainly could have. Socio-biological factors entered her life. Married, three kids. She looked good and was doin' well. Still sang a bit for fun.

Don Firth

Subject: RE: Embarrasing moments on stage?
From: Benjamin
Date: 13 Dec 02 - 04:38 PM

I haven't had as many opportunities as some here have had yet, but they're coming!
However, I remember a couple of years ago when I was performing Queen Elizabeth's Galliard by John Dowland up at Shoreline Communitty college in Seattle. Everything was going great until I forgot how the piece was suppose to end. I made something up but don't remember it as being to convincing.
Last year, my choir took a short tour (to Olympia, we could of just driven home instead of spend the night down there and still made the next day's gigs). The first stop was at a highschool south of Tacoma, performing for their choir. The men were to sing an arrangement of Copland's The Boatman's Dance. However, the music arrived late and we didn't have much time to learn it. After a pause of silence, the conducter started signaling the huge forte entrance. However, when gave us the entrance, no one came in. I thought his disappointed look was funny, which got rest of the guys to start laughing. From there, the girls, then highschoolers all joined in. When we got back on the bus, The director announces "we are not going to do the Boatman's dance the rest of the tour, when we get back, that's the first thing we are going to work on."
At the performance after we got back, I missed a dramatic cutoff in the middle of Oh Freedom which earned me a few stares.

Subject: RE: Embarrasing moments on stage?
From: BlueSage
Date: 13 Dec 02 - 07:59 PM

My most recent embarrassing stage moment happened within the last week while doing a christmas gig at a local university.

We were playing in one of the largest of the university ballrooms for a local business christmas party. Our agent had given us the wrong starting time so we arrived too late to set up our PA system. I decided to use a small mixer and plug into the existing house PA system.

What I didn't know was that the university had recently upgraded to a new computer controlled PA system that automatically adjusted the levels of the microphone inputs.

It worked fine while I introduced each song but would completely turn off the PA when we started to play our instruments and sing!

After two songs, we were told to leave the stage! I then asked the venue manager to inform the poet (who followed us on stage) to lengthen his set and finish the show without us. The poet misheard the request and thought we wanted him to end his show early (after two poems).

I received the blame for that mistake as well!

It could have been worse.   I had a friend of mine who accidentally tucked the end of a roll of toilet paper into her panties before a gig and then wandered on to stage with ten feet of the stuff trailing behind her.....

Mike

Subject: RE: Embarrasing moments on stage?
From: fiddler
Date: 13 Dec 02 - 08:12 PM

We used to do an annula Gig for a church, every year they reminded us they were a church group and asked us to amke sure we did nothing to offend - well that was the gist of it.

So we did (or one of us did) The Vicar and the Frog! IN the light of Boston Today this may not be funny. Teh Roman Catholic Priest and his assistant roared with laughter. The congregation were very silent. We never gog the gig again!

Does that count - as we did it on purpose!

A

Subject: RE: Embarrasing moments on stage?
From: Art Thieme
Date: 13 Dec 02 - 09:17 PM

I've never had any embarrassing moments. Really, I cannot think of any at all. Neither can Carol.

I've screwed up plenty on stage & those were often VERY FUNNY. I've switched lyrics around by mistake in songs----like singing Steve Goodman's song "City Of New Orleans" with Steve in the room and I inadvertantly switched "rail yards filled with old black men" into "grave yards filled with..." ---------You get the idea. That's as close as I ever got I guess. But then there was the time I went on the air drunk at WFMT in Chicago on New Years Eve. It was a week after Mayor Richard J. Daley had died and I took note of the fact that ""They should've laid him out face down so everybody could kiss him goodbye." --------- (I was too out of it to be embarrassed then.) But we were still angry with Richard J. Daley for gassing, jailing and beating our friends in Grant Park---1968. Hell, if Sadam Hussein did that to the Kurds, Bush'd probably invade !   It was pure fun to turn potentially embarrassing stuff into schtick fodder.

Art Thieme

Subject: RE: Embarrasing moments on stage?
From: GUEST,.gargoyle
Date: 14 Dec 02 - 09:34 PM

More than half a life-time ago...dazed and confused - (not unusual) - showed up to what I thought was a practice session... wearing groady-green sweat-pants and a raggedy green, plaid, wool shirt.

The note on the door told us to report to another section of campus. A sax player and I stared at the note - and then trudged across campus.

It was a formal cocktail evening to celebrate big donors to the university and some extension to the library....evening gowns and tuxedos.

We kept our cool. The mantra for night was "From the neck up.. we look the rest.

Sincerely,
Gargoyle