Great Balls of Fire!
Goodness gracious, the karaoke finals were stressful. I don't even know where to start, except to say that those clues should have given away the song I chose to sing...
I was told on Tuesday that the competition had been moved to Friday, which cut the time I had to prepare in half. Of course I woke up on Wednesday morning with a cold. My throat hurt, my head hurt, my nose was running. Work sucked, and of course everyone decided to go grab a couple of beers at the end of the day. I had to sit out, which made me sad. I also couldn't rehearse my routine because I just went to bed after work. I was worried about being underprepared, but I at least had to make sure I would be able to talk on Friday.
Well, I didn't wake up Thursday feeling any better. The morning was busy, then I had to go do a story on another hamburger restaurant in the evening. I didn't get home until it was too late to practice again, so on the eve of my big performance, I still hadn't done any rehearsing, except that which I had done in my head...
I still felt bad on Friday morning, but I bought some medicine to help. The competition was at 1:30, so I spent my morning in the conference room practicing my dancing with my iPod on. I didn’t really have the whole thing planned, but I did have a couple of parts choreographed. I couldn’t sing in there though because the walls aren’t quite thick enough to shield my voice from the poor souls trying to work.
Being heard would have been less embarrassing than what really happened though, as two of my Chinese colleagues walked into the room while I was doing the twist on a table (I was wearing socks and doing it on the carpet was hurting my feet). Man, I was getting into it too. My headphones were on, so I couldn’t hear anything. My back was to the door and it was the piano solo of the song so I was just going all out – my right leg was twisting like crazy, my butt was shaking right in their direction. I turned around to lip sync the next verse and... There they were, staring at me. There I stopped, looking down at them.
Awkward pause.
“KTV!”I shouted, which is what the Chinese call karaoke. I jumped off the table, grabbed my shoes and bolted back to my desk, which I then hid under.
Celine, one of my Chinese colleagues, drove me up to the Karaoke venue after lunch. It was raining like crazy outside so I was just wearing a t-shirt and some shorts. I brought a suit with me – one that I bought here for a pittance – to wear for the performance. So I went back to the dressing room to change. I was feeling sick to my stomach and my throat was really dry. Some of the other competitors were getting ready, and they all knew my name, which was awkward for me since I didn’t know any of theirs. Sometimes it sucks to stand out...
I had the distinct privilege (curse) of being the first performer. While the 13 hosts were doing their intro, I was pacing backstage, going over the lyrics again, trying to test just how well I could hit the high-pitched parts with a cold, which was not well at all. I walked out on stage, grabbed my microphone and said hello to everyone in Chinese again, but didn’t take a picture this time. Then, as I was standing there, I had the awful feeling come over me that my fly was down. Tough start…
The folks in my department made signs and they were going nuts and there were about 72 studio cameras in my face, including one on a crane. I think the performance went well, even though I don’t really remember most of it. I finished well, hit the high note one good time and swung my arms out on the closing beat. The crowd seemed to like it and I think old Jerry Lee Lewis would have been proud. I got some good applause and people on the aisle were giving me some jibber jabber that I interpreted as positive feedback as I walked to my seat. They gave out scores as the competition went and I got a 97.87, which gave me the lead for a good bit, but the guy who went 10th had four pretty girls in short skirts do a dance behind him, which was good enough to knock me into second.
That didn’t turn out to matter though. I’m pretty sure my overall score was something like 15th in the competition. Yeah, there were that many people in the “finals.” Actually, there were 36(!) performers. 36! It took forever. The auditorium was freezing and everyone sang a Chinese song except for me and a nice woman who sang (surprise!) the Carpenters, so it was tough for the American contingent to keep up with what was going on. I’m still not totally sure who got the highest score.
But, it was definitely a once-in-a-lifetime event. It was something I’ll never forget, and it’ll probably go down as my favorite memory in China. Once I get copies of the photos and the videos, I’ll be sure to share.
I was told on Tuesday that the competition had been moved to Friday, which cut the time I had to prepare in half. Of course I woke up on Wednesday morning with a cold. My throat hurt, my head hurt, my nose was running. Work sucked, and of course everyone decided to go grab a couple of beers at the end of the day. I had to sit out, which made me sad. I also couldn't rehearse my routine because I just went to bed after work. I was worried about being underprepared, but I at least had to make sure I would be able to talk on Friday.
Well, I didn't wake up Thursday feeling any better. The morning was busy, then I had to go do a story on another hamburger restaurant in the evening. I didn't get home until it was too late to practice again, so on the eve of my big performance, I still hadn't done any rehearsing, except that which I had done in my head...
I still felt bad on Friday morning, but I bought some medicine to help. The competition was at 1:30, so I spent my morning in the conference room practicing my dancing with my iPod on. I didn’t really have the whole thing planned, but I did have a couple of parts choreographed. I couldn’t sing in there though because the walls aren’t quite thick enough to shield my voice from the poor souls trying to work.
Being heard would have been less embarrassing than what really happened though, as two of my Chinese colleagues walked into the room while I was doing the twist on a table (I was wearing socks and doing it on the carpet was hurting my feet). Man, I was getting into it too. My headphones were on, so I couldn’t hear anything. My back was to the door and it was the piano solo of the song so I was just going all out – my right leg was twisting like crazy, my butt was shaking right in their direction. I turned around to lip sync the next verse and... There they were, staring at me. There I stopped, looking down at them.
Awkward pause.
“KTV!”I shouted, which is what the Chinese call karaoke. I jumped off the table, grabbed my shoes and bolted back to my desk, which I then hid under.
Celine, one of my Chinese colleagues, drove me up to the Karaoke venue after lunch. It was raining like crazy outside so I was just wearing a t-shirt and some shorts. I brought a suit with me – one that I bought here for a pittance – to wear for the performance. So I went back to the dressing room to change. I was feeling sick to my stomach and my throat was really dry. Some of the other competitors were getting ready, and they all knew my name, which was awkward for me since I didn’t know any of theirs. Sometimes it sucks to stand out...
I had the distinct privilege (curse) of being the first performer. While the 13 hosts were doing their intro, I was pacing backstage, going over the lyrics again, trying to test just how well I could hit the high-pitched parts with a cold, which was not well at all. I walked out on stage, grabbed my microphone and said hello to everyone in Chinese again, but didn’t take a picture this time. Then, as I was standing there, I had the awful feeling come over me that my fly was down. Tough start…
The folks in my department made signs and they were going nuts and there were about 72 studio cameras in my face, including one on a crane. I think the performance went well, even though I don’t really remember most of it. I finished well, hit the high note one good time and swung my arms out on the closing beat. The crowd seemed to like it and I think old Jerry Lee Lewis would have been proud. I got some good applause and people on the aisle were giving me some jibber jabber that I interpreted as positive feedback as I walked to my seat. They gave out scores as the competition went and I got a 97.87, which gave me the lead for a good bit, but the guy who went 10th had four pretty girls in short skirts do a dance behind him, which was good enough to knock me into second.
That didn’t turn out to matter though. I’m pretty sure my overall score was something like 15th in the competition. Yeah, there were that many people in the “finals.” Actually, there were 36(!) performers. 36! It took forever. The auditorium was freezing and everyone sang a Chinese song except for me and a nice woman who sang (surprise!) the Carpenters, so it was tough for the American contingent to keep up with what was going on. I’m still not totally sure who got the highest score.
But, it was definitely a once-in-a-lifetime event. It was something I’ll never forget, and it’ll probably go down as my favorite memory in China. Once I get copies of the photos and the videos, I’ll be sure to share.
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