Eric Herman - Travelblogue: 2008 Spring/Summer Tour

I had a show this morning at the Whitney Library, which has a beautiful theater. I should have expected that right after saying yesterday how it seems like all Las Vegas area audiences are super energetic that I would get one that was more low-key. It was a very young crowd and 10:30 was probably teetering into naptime. It was also a case where having a stage created some confusion... I had invited some kids to come up on stage to do the "In the Box" toy clean up, and that went well (with some gentle deflection away from my guitar)... but then later for the dance contest, when I asked for the kids to come up front where Roseann (the judge) could see them, I gestured in front of the stage but several kids thought I meant to come on the stage again. That would have been too dangerous during that song, so we had to stop and start over until it was clearer where they should be. But several parents came up afterwards to tell me and Roseann how much they enjoyed the show and that their kids were having a lot of fun, so it was a case again of my perception not really mattering at all compared to the audience's experience. It can be hard to shake the feeling in the moment of "this isn't going as well as I had hoped", but regardless, I just have to do the best I can and let it be what it will be for the audience.

We stopped for lunch and then I had a 3:30 show at the Enterprise Library. Becca, Evee and Roseann stayed in the bus to try to get a nap, though that never quite took.

It was a smaller crowd, but they were more of the super gung ho Vegas type and we had a lot of fun together. During "The Elephant Song", there is the moment right after the first "mistake" line ("I like how they swing through trees") when I'm reacting to the objections from the kids and I ask something like, "Well, what was I thinking of, then?" At this show, a cute little girl scrunched her face up and said really loud, "Elephants are really stinky!" Well, you probably had to be there, but it was a perfect ad lib and totally brought the house down. I had a hard time continuing with the song from laughing so hard. There have been a lot of funny responses during that song over the years, but that was definitely one of the best. Another I just recalled was at that same point in the song... I said, "What's the matter? Is something wrong?" A little boy who couldn't have been more than 3 or 4 raised his hand and when I called on him he said, "Yeah... This song needs more rock 'n' roll!" So I had no choice but to oblige him by singing the next part of the song with power chords and a British punk accent. I asked if that was better and he said, "Yes!" So that was the one-time punk-metal version of "The Elephant Song", and no, it is not available on YouTube... thankfully.

We drove back to the KOA and had dinner and put the girls to bed, then we caught up on some TV shows and went to bed ourselves.

Kids crowding around the toybox to clean up the toys I dumped out during "In the Box"...