Performance mishaps

Today was the August Moon Festival in Chinatown. Like many festivals I heard of some mishaps that happened today. First of all if something like that happened to you or your team, I'm sorry that it happened to you. It can be a terrible feeling. I encourage you to share your own story. But those are your stories to tell, so instead I'm going to talk about some past mishaps I experienced and witnessed.

And before I even begin, mishaps are inevitable when the people running an event are not professional event organizers. Professional event organizers get paid serious serious money to do what these community people basically do for free as a thing on the side i.e. not their real job.

That being said my second example involves real big time professionals. And sometimes you see stuff happen on the news and other shows like that. So even with professionals, it happens.

1) When I was a teenager during a stage performance for Chinese New Year some teams took longer than others. And so the organizers tried to speed us along, to the point where when we began our Choi chiang rather slow (we planned this whole thing out to show case kei lun bo etc. But the head was new to the whole thing and the show did start off in a slow manner. Anyway they organizer took it upon himself to try and announce us off the stage. Funny thing is, I knew the organizer and he was a close family friend of the person in the head, who was also my best friend. Despite this friendly relationship, or maybe even because of it, there was some exchange of Diu nay lo mo's and ew hais as well as "careless accidental" waving of edged three kingdoms era weaponry and actual slowing down of the performance and doing more forms than we even planned because... well you know... diu nay and nay ma ga hai. Of course the next day everyone was friends again. (sort of) When these thing happen it's usually not on purpose. Again, it's usually because this type of thing is not their day job.


But then sometimes it is.

2) A few years ago Neil Diamond came to sing for the Fourth of July. He also sanf for this rehearsal thing that would air on TV in the event of a storm or something. Anyway, the News station messed up with the filming so they wanted to stop Neil Diamond mid song... mid "We're coming to America."

This is something you don't do.

"Stop Stop we have to do it over." was announced. They cut the mics to the choir. They cut the mics to the instruments. They cut Neil  Diamonds mic and this lady came out on stage and started yelling... at Neil Diamond.

You know what Neil Diamond did?

When they announced it interupting him, he didn't miss a beat. When they cut the choir, he kept singing. When they cut the orchestra he kept singing. When they cut his mic he clapped to the beat stepping from side to side. When the lady was screaming at him, he continued to sing. Only we couldn't hear because his mic was cut.


The crowd went nuts to the point where they had to just turn everything back on and let Neil Diamond, who was still singing and smiling as if nothing had even happened, finish his song. He had the crowd on his side. Neil Diamond was before my time, but I became a serious fan of his in that moment. "Today......today..." yeah sing it Neil.


The point of that story is, if your going to diu someone. Diu them with a smile on your face and don't miss a beat. I'm sure Neil was pissed. But he didn't show it. He announced at the end of the song that because of an issue filming he would have to sing the song again and did the audience mind. The audience went nuts. The news film crew studio or whatever it is they are called was thinking about the viewer at home, but they forgot to respect the audience present, not to mention the performer.

For the first scenario, the organizers were only thinking about the time for the visiting politicians. But again, they forgot about the audience and the performers, and the fact that the only reason those politicians are there, is to get the support of said audience and performers. I.e. it may seem like those politicians are more important than the lion dance team. But in fact, the inverse is true during the performance. The festival can actually exist without the politicians even without a stage. It could be just some street performers and the audience and that's really where the party and the festivity is. The Politician is there because of the crowd
and to get votes. They are there because of the festival. The festival is not there because of them.

But the organizer, may very well be there because of the politician. And that's where there is a conflict. Maybe the organizers of these community events should be high school Asian clubs. Like BLS, BLA and O'Bryant. And Charlestown High too. I'm not talking about volunteers just helping to sweep the stage. I'm saying actually put those kids in charge. If there is chaos, just congratulate them at the end anyway. And if Politicians complain (which they won't if they are to be successful politicians as those high school students will soon be voters, you just shrug and say something like "Kids these days."

But actually the O'Bryant Asian night we performed at one year was one of the most tightly run shows I've ever seen. These high school kids may invest more energy and time to these sorts of things because they can and there is also something to gain from it. Plus it is their whole world for that year. Just like a sports season to a high school athlete can sometimes seem like a life and death contest.

One of the worst Asian Nights I went to, was Harvard's. Again, maybe there are other things that those particular students have to focus on other than that night's entertainment.

The last scenario will be one Asian Night at Stonehill.

One time on Asian night in college, this female student was going to do a dance and lip sync. But they couldn't get her cassette to play. I walked over and asked the then head of the Asian Club (which was called SASS) what was wrong. She turned round and in tense and scared words told me the situation and told me to "Do SOMETHING Please!"
"Yeah I'll just play dulcimer and you give me a signal when you're all set."

So I went up there and asked the audience if they wanted to hear me play another song, or if they wanted to hear me freestyle on my instrument. The audience was mostly friends of students, as opposed to students themselves and most were friends of one particular Hmong student actually. And they all enjoyed hip hop and free style so "Yo free style that!" was the answer.

So I did.

I snuck in some of my favorite Wuxia tunes in there too. It was easy and I could just keep going without even focusing and I think they liked it better than my actual song I had played earlier. The problem soon was fixed and I explained this and made my exit.

I'm not sure if the moral of that is "always have a back up plan" or "Don't freak out." or both. Regardless, when something does happen, (and it will) you will rely on your performers to "DO SOMETHING PLEASE!" So it's best if you are in a good relationship with them and ask them nicely. Then they will gladly help you. Or there could even be someone in the audience that can help too.