Live at Sowa JHS Culture Festival

KC and Konrad came out for two weeks which was a nice breathe of fresh air for us creeps under water. Konrad arrived on Thursday and KC on Saturday. Sunday was my school's annual culture festival and without a doubt the happiest day of the year for these kids. It's a day long party with performances, songs, talent shows and various themed parties throughout the school. Everyone's in a great mood, family and friends go, the kids are screwing around and having fun, laughing, teachers are taking it slightly easy - a polar opposite from the day-to-day.

I'd known about this festival for a while and as with my previous performance, dragged my heels in volunteering to perform a song - I waited till Wedensday, the week before. They told me I had 5 minutes.

The day of the festival we were screwing around with the kids and involved in all the other ruckus going on. We helped at the Halloween party by emceeing the BINGO game along with various other pro-bono appearances. We didn't go on till about 3pm but only had time for a 10 minute dress rehearsal right after lunch. We threw in a Kojima Yoshio move (he's so hot right now) to ensure we got a laugh. At this point I hadn't been very nervous at all. The three of us have been doing this song for a few years now - granted in a much different and less sober state than we were in on this day - but we all new our lines for the most part and it's an easy enough song and pretty difficult to screw up. There were going to be over 600 watching us, but our familiarity with the song, the presence of my friends and the busyness of the day had a calming - diverting effect on the nerves. For a while at least.

Then the bell rang, the lights dimmed. We were rushed backstage and were the 4th act of about 10. Behind the curtain, the scene was weird, frantic and unsettling. The acts following us were various dance numbers to be performed by groups of 5 - 20 14 year old boys - some dressed as girls, some in nothing but short shorts and all involving some sort of make-up and/or glitter garnishment. They were all crammed backstage with us - bustling around, fixing their hair or costumes or whatever. After 5 minutes back there, the fear set in.

Sweat was pouring down my face and neck. I was shaking and fidgeting around. Honestly thought I was going to piss my pants. Most nervous I've ever been - I think. The other two were fine though, offering words of encouragement like, "Ahh, you know what, we don't really feel like doing this anymore - good luck buddy" and inappropriate comments about how cute all the little girls backstage were (I actually joined in here - and may have been the ring leader - I guess sometimes instinct just takes over) - Creeps. One of the acts before us was one kid (hack) singing karaoke by himself - I swear he didn't move the entire song - and this brought me down slightly from piss threat level red to orange.

Then we got our cue and the rest doesn't need much help explaining.