Keith at Irvine Spectrum -- 23Dec2011

The parking structure was almost completely full, even as early as I got there, but there were hardly any people to play for.  I guess they were all actually *shopping* -- imagine that!  I guess two days before Christmas is the wrong time to be out there...

On the other hand, Spectrum has actually been pretty tough for the last several gigs.  I'd say that I might need to re-think playing there, but it's the only steady gig I've got (and I'm only allowed two gigs a month, at that), so I'll just have to keep going and hope it gets better as it gets warmer.

Not that it was a "bad gig" at all, there were just very few people to play for.  Few of the young families that I usually get, and hardly any roving teens.  But my brother and his wife came, and my daughter and her friend, and my wife, too.  I had one little toddler girl, and since nobody else was listening, I just played for her for a while.  She (and her mom) had fun with the usual "Rudolph" and "Frosty", and she seemed to know that throwing her arms up was required on "Hey!" in "Jingle Bells".  The really cute part was when I started playing "Twinkle Twinkle", she looked up at her mom with delight, while her little hands involuntarily started opening and closing -- the universal sign for "twinkling".

Towards the end, a couple came and were clearly listening, and clapping (albeit all alone) at the end of every song.  I played for them for a long time, but decided to call it at night at 11:00.  They came up and introduced themselves as the couple who post on my Facebook "Keith Comer, Good Music" page -- my (only) actual "fans".  It was really nice to have someone to play for to wrap up the Christmas season for the year.

Somehow I made $80 for the night, so I really shouldn't complain.  There were two twenties, and a ten-and-five folded together, so *somebody* snuck up and delivered some Christmas Spirit, even though nobody seems to have taken any CDs for their generosity.

Keith at Santa's Workshop -- 21Dec2011

The lady who we may charitably refer to as "in charge" of the booking for Santa's Workshop was never actually clear on who was booked when, even when prodded directly, so I just gave up and went down there to see. There was, indeed, a Girl Scout troop, with three expected participants, (Really?!? Three unamplified Girl Scouts?!?) so the lady in charge (who knew me from the Holly Trolley incident) had them sing for the Cookie Decorating booth people, while I played for the line.

And I'm very glad I did I took the chance. Since it was the last night, there was a huge line, and we started early and ended an hour and a half late. I had *lots* of kids come down to listen, dance, sing along, and shout "Like a lightbulb!" during "Rudolph". And several parents, too.

Unfortunately, without the sanctity of the "not allowed on stage", the kids tend to come around until they're standing right next to me, "helping" me find the next song in the book, pointing at the words as we go along, stepping unexpectedly on the harmony box pedals, hugging my legs, etc. One kid decided to see how much sand he could kick up onto the pedal board, and another wanted to see what would happen if he dangled a dry leaf into the coils of the heater. I had to ask them, "Really? You want to be 'bad' with Santa Claus sitting *right over there*?!?", to much chuckling from the parents in line.

But mostly the kids were great. Lots of participation -- little girls doing preset hand motions to some of the songs, or just making up a dance on the spot. Lots of dancing, with the accompanying parents with smartphone video recorders. One little girl whose go-to dance move was shaking her hips back and forth, while her stiff car-coat looked like a ringing bell, clanging against her clapper-knees.

The stealth tip jar worked well again ($41), but after a while the presence of all the money made it confusing for the kids trying to get to the candy at the bottom of the box. And it turned out that the cranky guy who objects to my having an actual tip jar was being Santa (he's presumably not so cranky with the kids...), so I coulda been more overt.

But anyway, it was the most fun I've had playing for a long time. I love playing for kids!

Keith at Santa's Workshop -- 17Dec2011

Now, that was fun. Not double-booked this time, and that helps...

The setup space was a little different, so I wasn't on the lawn, and had a fence behind me so I didn't have kids running around, tripping on the wires. And I was near a set of park furniture, so some kids and moms would come over and sit "up front". Lots of kids dancing and singing along.

One little toddler boy, bundled up so much that he was a immovable unit, staggered over, unsupervised. Cute, but potentially dangerous with the wires everywhere on the ground. Between songs, I inexplicably stuck out my hand, and he slapped it -- "low five". He seemed to be happy where he was, so I started the next song, but halfway through, he put up his fist for a "bump", which I managed to fit in in-between chords. His mom kept zooming over to snatch him up, but he'd be back in a few minutes. Some kind of junior Houdini, apparently.

I had a small table up, mostly to hold my Dew, but also with my little sign on it, and my "stealth tip jar" -- a small Tupperware with some business cards and wrapped candies, and a dollar bill. The kids discovered the candy, and the parents noticed the dollar, and it started to accumulate tips. I'd done it as a "candy dish" for plausible deniability if the cranky guy from previous years came along. Got away with it too, and made $34. Mostly I had to do *something* to prevent the parents from coming up and trying to hand me money while I'm trying to play, as they do, and it's awkward all around.

Got two requests for "Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer". These were most likely instigated by parents, sending the kids over with the request. I don't play that one -- not to be a snob, but that level of redneck humor is lost on me. Problem is: what to say when asked. I can't really say, "Sorry, that song is just too lame" to their face. I told the first kid "I don't do that song -- I *like* my grandma.", but he just looked confused by that explanation, which admittedly has faulty logic if you take the song's first-person narrative as a true story. The second time, I just said I didn't know it...

Anyway, I love playing these Santa gigs -- it's a shame that I only got three and got gypped out of one of them. The last one is this Wednesday evening, and the booking lady's incommunicative messages may or may not imply that even though I'm not officially booked, I can come down and possibly play the last hour and a half after a theoretical short "first act". It may turn out to be somewhat awkward, depending on who the first act happens to be, but it's definitely worth a try.

Keith at Santa's Workshop -- 17Dec2011

Now, that was fun. Not double-booked this time, and that helps...

The setup space was a little different, so I wasn't on the lawn, and had a fence behind me so I didn't have kids running around, tripping on the wires. And I was near a set of park furniture, so some kids and moms would come over and sit "up front". Lots of kids dancing and singing along.

One little toddler boy, bundled up so much that he was a immovable unit, staggered over, unsupervised. Cute, but potentially dangerous with the wires everywhere on the ground. Between songs, I inexplicably stuck out my hand, and he slapped it -- "low five". He seemed to be happy where he was, so I started the next song, but halfway through, he put up his fist for a "bump", which I managed to fit in in-between chords. His mom kept zooming over to snatch him up, but he'd be back in a few minutes. Some kind of junior Houdini, apparently.

I had a small table up, mostly to hold my Dew, but also with my little sign on it, and my "stealth tip jar" -- a small Tupperware with some business cards and wrapped candies, and a dollar bill. The kids discovered the candy, and the parents noticed the dollar, and it started to accumulate tips. I'd done it as a "candy dish" for plausible deniability if the cranky guy from previous years came along. Got away with it too, and made $34. Mostly I had to do *something* to prevent the parents from coming up and trying to hand me money while I'm trying to play, as they do, and it's awkward all around.

Got two requests for "Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer". These were most likely instigated by parents, sending the kids over with the request. I don't play that one -- not to be a snob, but that level of redneck humor is lost on me. Problem is: what to say when asked. I can't really say, "Sorry, that song is just too lame" to their face. I told the first kid "I don't do that song -- I *like* my grandma.", but he just looked confused by that explanation, which admittedly has faulty logic if you take the song's first-person narrative as a true story. The second time, I just said I didn't know it...

Anyway, I love playing these Santa gigs -- it's a shame that I only got three and got gypped out of one of them. The last one is this Wednesday evening, and the booking lady's incommunicative messages may or may not imply that even though I'm not officially booked, I can come down and possibly play the last hour and a half after a theoretical short "first act". It may turn out to be somewhat awkward, depending on who the first act happens to be, but it's definitely worth a try.

Keith at Santa's Workshop, kinda -- 10Dec2011

Well, I went down to play for the kids in line to see Santa again, and as I was setting up, a college-age kid showed up and started setting up a keyboard stand. I asked him if he was playing there, and he said that he was, and he was the leader of a choir and had 19 people coming. He knew the name of the booking lady, and was sure that she'd given him the date, as well as the next Saturday (which she'd also given to me).

So, we decided that I'd give up this Saturday, and he'd give up the next one, and I started packing my half-deployed stuff back up. It seemed a lot easier for me to go home than for him to stop 19 people from coming.

As I was packing up, though, another lady from the Recreation Committee, Cathy, came over and said she was glad that I was there, so I told her that I wasn't really there -- there was some kind of mix-up and I was going home to let this choir play instead. She said, "Why don't you come play for the reception, then?" She was running a side event where people came to ride on the "Holly Trolley" to cruise around the city and see the winners of the house decorating contest.

I wouldn't normally have agreed to play a half-hour gig -- it's just not worth the hour of setup and takedown time -- but since I was already there, what the heck. I had to go into the men's room to get out of the longjohns, but then it was quite pleasant to play indoors where it was quiet and warm for a change. And the people who were coming in to have some coffee and cookies before their bus left were, by definition, in a holiday mood and a great, (captive), and quiet audience. Most of them were older (you know, my age), so I got to play the prettier, and more interesting, sentimental Christmas songs instead of only the kids' ones.

And after they left, there were plenty of cookies to snag as I was tearing down...

Keith at Irvine Spectrum - 09Dec2011

Another kinda slow night -- I don't remember it being this slow last winter.  I did have a pretty constant stream of packs of kids, and some isolated young families to play to, but a general "sit a while" audience never materialized.  Maybe people just aren't really prepared for the cold yet, so I get some people to pause on their way past, but they're not ready to sit in one place for any length of time.

Or maybe it was the plague of Jesus people who were hassling folks and chasing them away.  It wasn't just some isolated prosthelytizers either -- there were several groups covering the place.  This *is* the U. S. of A., and they're free to believe what they want, but their freedom to swing a fist ends where my face begins, and I'd just as soon they'd swing somewhere else and quit scaring my audience off.

But I had fun playing to the people who braved the phalanx to come listen to a few tunes.  "Jingle Bells" hauls distant little kids over pretty well -- along with lots of teenage girls, who are also inexplicably into "Holly Jolly Christmas", apparently.  A young couple came up and the lady asked me the million dollar question: "Do you know any James Taylor?"

I got to sing my new "Merry Christmas, Darling" a couple of times, though nobody was there to hear it.  But the setup was sounding unusually good and I was having fun just singing, people or no.

Somehow I made $62, though half of that was a ten and a twenty.  I'm not sure how that happened -- usually I can tell when someone likes me enough to put in a decent tip, or when they're buying a CD, but nobody really seemed to be hovering over the table this time.  A nice surprise, though.

Keith at Santa's Workshop -- 03Dec2011

It was a pretty small turnout for Santa, but it's early, and maybe some parents are smart enough to avoid starting up the kids' Christmas Anticipation Engine with three weeks left to go.

So an actual line never really materialized -- just a constant clump of a dozen or so people waiting at the gate. I played anyway, of course, and actually got to play some of the non-kids Christmas songs, since it was mostly adults waiting in line.

The kids were running loose, playing with the toy train setup, or watching the projected kids' Christmas shows (Frosty, Rudolph, Charlie Brown, etc.) behind me. The setup is a little strange now, 'cuz there are people milling around behind me as I'm situated to play to the line. I may try to come up with another setup, but there aren't a lot of options.

Anyway, it was fun, and not too terribly cold -- yet. In previous years I've set out some CDs and the little standup signs and a candy basket (as a stealth tip jar), but the card table has mysteriously disappeared, so I didn't do that this time.

But, one grampa came over and slipped a fiver underneath my cup of water so it wouldn't blow away -- that was nice. His 2-year-old granddaughter was fascinated by the guitar, so I had let her strum it a few times, despite how sticky she was getting with the Christmas cookies and candy canes. I'm about to need new strings anyway...

Keith at Irvine Spectrum - 19Nov2011

Awfully slow for a Saturday night, caused, no doubt, by the disruption from the very loud generator running next to the Hurley promotional truck parked over by the movie theaters.  I guess I'll have to give the booking lady the benefit of the doubt and presume that she didn't know that the Hurley people would be running a generator to power their big TV screens and such, making so much noise that the scheduled performer would be mostly drowned out, but it was pretty bad.  And the worst part was that the truck was in the main flow of traffic -- usually, people can hear me from across the plaza as they go by, and wander over if they like what they hear. But with that generator going...

Anyway, I was singing and playing well, for those that did come over, but mostly I felt pretty alone.  Until suddenly a group of little kids came running across the plaza (trailed by their various parents) to jump around right in front of me, and it was *on*.  I played all my kids' dance tunes, and a bunch of the regular kids' songs, and didn't have to feel weird about boring the adult audience with the kids stuff, 'cuz there wasn't one.

The Hurley people finally shut the generator down at 8:30 or so, and it was suddenly luxuriously quiet.  It was great to suddenly sound so good -- I wish there had been some people there to hear it...

I made a possibly-record-low $27, but that's understandable with as few people as I had. The only question is: What am I paying dues *for*?