The story. We were running late as we returned to the ship after the ship scheduled Luau so we had to have our dinner in the main restaurant. 20 after nine and we made our way to the show lounge for the 9:30pm show. The theatre was filling up rapidly and we found some second row seats beside Dolly (a long time cruising friend), not too close and trapped in deep enough to shield ourselves from any possible stage participation - so we thought. The show progressed and was wonderful, the couple of the stars of the show were a couple of young boys (aged 6 and 7), cute and very entertaining as they worked through their routines. So here comes the guest participation part of the show - the dancers come down off the stage and are looking for volunteers - ah oh. So great one of the girls ask Jan to come up and Jan politely says no, perfect we are safe. Well safe until one of these little boys looks Jan in the eyes, extends his little hand and asks Jan to join him - she just cannot say no, so up she goes. Not a few seconds later as Jan is leaving her chair one of the other female dancers asks me, well I am thinking Jan is up there and we don't have a camera so it might be fun that both of us are up on stage. Jan is in front of me as we are going up the stage steps, they go towards the middle of the stage. I am following them until my partner guides me to the back of the stage... and then down some steps, "ah, where are we going I say" she turns with a big smile and says that "I am the guy", "ah, what guy am I", "you are the Chief of all the people" she says with the big smile. I say "okay, and what does that mean". She says "well we are going to dress you up in a costume and you and I will be dancing on the stage together, just you and me". It is here where all these thoughts start running in my head... This is why we do not sit so close during these shows. What was I thinking... I thought that I would just go up for a few minutes and be with Jan on the stage, why not, no big deal. And so here I am in the dressing room getting this costume put on me, how did this happen. At this point my partner looks at me (I guess she could read my mind) and asks if it is okay or is everything okay - something like that. I stopped all my thoughts and as I looked in the mirror now that I have this costume on and said, yes this will be fine, it will be fun, just you and me right, yah, okay. Ah should I wear my glasses? "Only if you want to see the audience" she says, then she was quick to say that I would not be able to see anything but what is happening on the stage because the lights will be so bright. Ah, thanks for making me feel better. Okay she says we are almost ready to go, lets go...
In the meantime Jan is now off the stage and asks Joy, "where is Gerard". Joy says, "I don't know he went up with you and then disappeared". Jan laughed.
I am know known as "Chief Gerard" on board, so much for remaining under the radar. A fun experience. Although I couldn't see much from the stage the one thing I can remember hearing is Bob's distinct laugh (Bob our table mate of a couple cruises). His laugh in itself speaks volumes, it is a laugh that says, "Man, I am really glad I am not up there but this is going to be good"
Some pictures of the nights events, thanks to Leslie and Bob for providing. BTW there will be a full DVD version of the event available because this morning at Tai Chi one of the guests (Al) approached and asked if I was Chief Gerard and that he taped the whole thing and will give me a DVD version tomorrow. Wait it gets better, Gene Young the cruise director told me that his copy was also available on youtube - thanks Gene.
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