“Don’t Short Change The Muse” really happened. Days later, and I still can’t believe that three weeks ago this fundraiser, for me created by me, was just some random thought. I have random thoughts all the time. I am a talker, not a doer. I’m an optimistic pessimist, do you know how hard that is? I’m still not sure this has happened, but there are pictures and I have a program, that I created, to prove it.

It started here at a bar where my boss knows the owner. I called them up to ask for to use the space. They let me have it as a private party during a night that they are normally closed. We didn’t have to pay for anything but the drinks. A friend brought the spread of awesome food, and another friend brought a red velvet cake (that her ten-year old son picked out).

I opened with a speech that I wrote. I will post it in my next post. Since I was also the emcee I went right into my first piece it was a spoken word poem titled, “I Am Not Your Syliva”.

I wore these special red shoes that I love and never wear.

Sarah of Carpe Vocum singing sang Ach Ich Fuhl’s, from Mozart’s The Magic Flute.

Miss Fannie Fuller danced an amazing burlesque piece to Le Hot Jazz

A tribute Monty Python comedy troupe: Cirque De-cision, performed the sketch, “Army Protection Racket.“

Then we had intermission.

In the second act I did a monologue I wrote, titled, “The Tragedy of Abigail Lockhart”.

To start the second act we flashed the lights then Mel began to play the concertina as

I waltzed in character on the stage (the floor space) this drew people to their seats then in an exagerated southern drawl I began to speak. It is a comedic piece but dramatic.

Overly dramatic. This is a fun piece to do and it worked really well with the concertina as accompaniment.

Sarah and Meghan sang an operatic duet, “The Flower,” ( Lakme), written by Leo Delibes. It was absolutely stunning. Jaw dropping. (I wish I could have recorded their voices, it was unforgettably beautiful.)

Cirque De-Cision performed “Children’s Stories.”

I read a piece from my novel Zizkov

And we ended with more Burlesque from Miss Fannie Fuller.

I also had a silent auction going on at the event. After the performance I gave people five minutes to make their final bids and announced the winners as a closing part of the night.

My red shoes again, my friend with the camera loved my shoes too.

Artists and businesses had donated around $500.00 dollars worth of stuff to the auction including art, jewelry, a facial, acupuncture, hair cut, a dinner and journals.

This really was all done on the fly. I pulled this together because so many people wanted to help and wanted to be involved, which was amazing, but I didn’t think it was possible to pull together an old style variety show in a matter of two and a half weeks. Obviously you can. And the level of performance was stunning, so surprising. I had never seen any of the performers perform before so it was all new to me as I was emceeing and hosting and performing. The programing worked great, and that was amazing. My hope was to make at least enough to make my first payment, all I needed was $400.00 since I had already saved up $250.00 (The Attic has been kind enough to break my payments into four instalments of $650.00) my first payment is due July 15th. I made $797.00 dollars that night. I have already made my first payment and almost my second payment.
I’m still uncertain that all this came together.
But it did.