Showtime!

After the New Years Eve talent contest, I got together with a couple of the performers and we agreed it would be fun to do some kind of show. Well, last night we definitely did some kind of show.

It was pretty fantastic. We had 11 performers from 4 different countries... and a packed house. The show was mostly musical acts, although we had demonstrations of salsa dancing and tango dancing, and of course I did some juggling. I was also the main coordinator and MC, so I'd briefly introduce each performer and made sure they all knew when they were up next. I'd initially hoped we'd be able to fill an hour. The show lasted for two hours.

We've got some amazingly talented people around here. Judy, who is from London but was raised in Nigeria, sang a fantastic version of Whitney Houston's I Will Always Love You. She really pulled it off. A guy named Mike brought the house down when he sang Georgia on My Mind, and we even had a last minute addition of an Army Colonel who walked in cold and got recruited to sing One In A Million (and had all the ladies fanning themselves). My buddy Nihar from the British Embassy brought his band and totally rocked Hotel California, among other tunes.

I did two sets of juggling - one solo and one shorter set with my German friend Heino. Very smooth, no major drops, and unlike the New Years Eve show, this time I got to tell my jokes and stories, which got laughs at all the right places.

Being on stage was a blast. Definitely a morale boost for the performers as well as for the audience. We're hoping to take the show on the road and do a repeat performance at the British Embassy and maybe at Camp Eggers. I didn't get any pictures yet (turns out my cheap digital camera kinda stinks for this sort of thing), but I saw lots of cameras in action and I hope to get my hands on some pictures. I'll share when I get them.