I dreamt last night that I was performing in a talent competition of some kind. People were acting like it was a "big deal" but really it looked as though it was being held in an elementary-school gymnasium. I was singing the song "Almost Paradise" (from the Footloose soundtrack) and accompanying myself on piano. At the start of the song, I announced to the crowd that it was a duet, but that since I was singing it by myself, the audience would have to sing the Ann Wilson part.
At first, it was only one or two people in the audience who stood up to sing the Ann Wilson part. But by the end of the first chorus, nearly the whole crowd had stood up and joined in, and they all seemed to know it by heart! Every word.
It was all pretty triumphant, right up until I myself screwed up the lyrics near the end - which caused some hoots and catcalls to be mixed in with decidedly unenthusiastic applause, after I finished. Still. For such a tough crowd, they had really "bought in" to the audience participation aspect! I must say. I felt pretty good about my salesmanship, showmanship-wise. It's tough to cajole forth that audience participation, without seeming like a presumptuous ass. Plenty of times I've gone to a show and there's some dick up there on stage, nagging you to sing along louder, or to clap in a really organized way. Fuck you, dude! You can't nag and harrass the paid public. You've got to elicit it from them naturally. Effortlessly.
Like I was able to do in this case, apparently. So score one for me on that.
The tepid response, I have to put down to my piano playing (plus the muffed lyric, which I can understand would stick in their collective craw considering they all knew the words). See, I can't play piano at all, under normal circumstances. Not hardly, anyway. But in the dream, I was able to accompany myself quite decently! Yet, every time I tried to do anything special on the keys, it came out as the most unwarranted and awful virtuoso jazz flourishes. The effect was as if I knew how to play perfectly well, but was deliberately undermining the song for some reason with these inappropriate jazz elements. Kind of like Sting I guess?
Anyway, it was a pretty cool dream on balance. I'm more or less proud of how I put the song across, despite the one or two hiccupy aspects. And the person who won - he really knocked it out of the park on his rendition of Glenn Frey's "You Belong to the City." So I can't really feel too bad. Losing to that.
In fact, I think it might have actually been Glenn Frey. Which, hell! To lose to The Glenn Frey, in a talent competition...?! That'd be kind of an honor.
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