I”ve never been a performing actor or musician. Even in high school I was never in drama club, so I never played Willy Loman, or even Biff, in the high school production of “Death of Salesman.” I tinker at the guitar, but I have never performed on stage for anyone other than my family. Last Saturday, even though I was only acting like I was singing and faking the sawing on the fiddle as one of the Soggy Bottom Boys for two performances of the Celebrity Lip Sync show, I have to admit that I now understand why people talk about the “lure of the stage.” We may have just been in the spotlight for a few minutes to lip sync “Man of Constant Sorrow” from the movie “Oh, Brother Where Art Thou,” but the reaction of the crowd during our performance and the compliments afterward were, for me, like an endorphin rush on a long run. It makes you giddy.
I have to admit that when Jan Parkinson first started pushing the idea of a lip sync show as a chamber of commerce fundraiser, I was just a tad skeptical. My first thoughts were of Milli Vanilli from the 1980s and how that lip synching venture went well at first, but resulted in colossal failure. But, she was persistent and showed proof that it had been a big hit in Petaluma for many years. Plus, the people buying tickets would know up front we would be lip synching.
In the early stages of the event”s planning, I wasn”t seriously considering the possibility of being one of the performers in the show. I did entertain the idea that maybe some of the younger, outgoing staff members at the paper might be interested and we could sponsor them. When no one came forward, and with some well-timed prompting from Melissa Fulton at a chamber dinner, advertising salesman Shawn Garrison and I relented, as long as we could perform “Man of Constant Sorrow.” The key with the song was the fact that Shawn”s son, Matthew, would only help us out if we did that song. Fulton accepted and we went to work with Sarah Dutra, one of the show”s choreographers.
It was with Dutra”s assistance that we were able to create a performance of value to the music of the song. One of the bright spots of our performance was from Matthew, who, young and handsome, handled the George Clooney lead role. From the beginning, his between-verses dance was dubbed the “chicken dance” and it was what always evoked a roar from the crowd. Over weeks of rehearsal, Matthew perfected the dance and it paid off. A number of people told us our act was a hit and that made all three of us proud of our theatrical accomplishment, especially me, the rookie performer of the trio. Shawn has performed his own songs on stage many times and Matthew was an actor in high school plays.
Ever since the weekend shows there has been a buzz in the community about how good and how entertaining the entire show really was. For me and Shawn the mood was captured perfectly by an elderly lady getting into her car with several girlfriends immediately following the afternoon performance. When Shawn asked her if she enjoyed it, she said, “It was just what we needed for these difficult times; something to make us laugh. And we laughed more than we have in a long time.”
People who were in the show, and some who were not, are already talking about who they want to be and what song they want to do next year. Thank goodness for Parkinson”s persistence and show producer Kristy Weiss” vision for the show.
Gary Dickson is the editor and publisher of the Record-Bee. Call him at 263-5636, ext. 24. E-mail him at gdickson@record-bee.com.
