Opened Mind Pt. 1!

I must say that I felt embarrassed to be so ignorant in public throughout out my trip to KL last week. I had to put my arm around a guy’s neck at ‘No Black Tie’ in order to make him sit down and stop interrupting the show…a first for sure!

So, about the dingbat who forgot that he didn’t pay everyone’s admission fee:

When my friend Pat Terbrack called me up to the stage, I began to address the crowd when THE LOUDEST phone ring went off in the middle of my welcome and thanks so, I had to call him out, get his name and make a little fun of the guy…cool, I let it go! Then, in the middle of the second tune, this dude walks from the back of the room up to the stage with his camera phone like we hired him to record the gig. Since I was sure that he wasn’t going to upload the video to YouTube immediately so, I felt the need to say, “Go Sit Down” in front of the entire audience in the middle of the melody I was singing. For most people, that would have been a clear indication that they should sit in their seats like everyone else and enjoy the show right? Wrong! This guy gets up AGAIN while I’m trying to sing “Moody’s Mood for Love” and gets right in my face with his camera phone AGAIN. “Moody’s Mood” is a bit involved so I couldn’t just stop and say ‘sit down’ again. I commenced to put my hand in his phone’s camera but that didn’t stop him. I stepped off stage and ended up singing to a really nice group of people in which I became friends with after the show…he did NOTHING to diffuse the other audience members’ discomfort! After my solo finished, I had to walk over to him, turn my back to the audience, put my arm firmly around his neck and politely said, “You HAVE to stay seated during my show because you are being extremely rude to everyone here…” For some odd reason, he couldn’t believe tat I told him to go sit down but, it worked and the audience lightly applauded as “Moody’s Mood” still played.

Yes, all this happened in the middle of my favorite ballad to sing in the world leaving me with a very uncomfortable feeling about the song and situation. I do appreciate when an audience member wants to take a video of our gigs for their memory but, wanting you do it from your own seat shouldn’t be such an unreasonable request right? I feel that it is my responsibility to make sure that everyone has a good time in the audience so, make sure that when you come you’re not drawing any attention to yourself while I’m paying homage to my dear teacher in spirit, Eddie Jefferson you dig!

Here’s to more things that make you say “Oh well….”