Cruise Idol: Part 1 of 2

Cruise Idol

• Three rounds of intense competition
• 3,000 possible cruisers to compete for title
• 10 best selected to move on to the second round

Song choice: "I Want It That Way" by the Backstreet Boys

ROUND ONE:

Dedication: I was privileged enough to be able to switch my dedication which was originally directed to my future wife who wasn't able to be on the cruise with me. DJ Matt messed up my song number, actually it was my manager Christopher who did not proofread what I wrote. At any rate the wrong BSB song came up and I refused to sing it.

Rededication: To each and every person there that night. I think they felt special to know that I cancelled the dedication to my wife for them.

I was honored by DJ Matt's immediate placement into the second round of Cruise Idol.

ROUND TWO:

• Audience number: 1100
• Participants: 10
• Song: Each contestant was asked to sing the same song that was sang in round 1, except for one girl who sang a terrible first song and chose Ave Maria for her second, which she sang worse than me. Not really, I sang better.
• Outfit: Brown Leisure Suit, Captain America T-shirt*
  

*I was given the nickname of "Captain America" because I wore a Captain America shirt the first round of competition and from then on out I was referred to by everyone as "Captain America"

There was even a little girl in an elevator who leaned over to her parents and said "its him . . ." and the mom said "who?" and the little girl said "its Captain America" and the mom smiled and said to me "she really liked your singing". I went on to dedicate my song in Round Two to that little girl.

THE PERFORMANCE:


Key Moments of the Performance:

• Imaginary cord toss into the crowd
• Elbow crawl towards audience transitioned into a side roll
• Running off stage to personalize the song in front of the crowd (which increased cheering)
• Forgetting my line and effortlessly jumping back on stage

Judges Question and Answer:

Question: How did bring such a tight creaseless leisure suit?

Answer: My mom does my laundry and packed it for me.

Judd overview: My favorite part was the fact that people actually cheered and that the random group of 14 year old girls really took a liking to me**.

The arm crawl was a crafted move that Christopher and I practiced in our stater room.

Another great part of it all was that I got free drinks the rest of the cruise, I had a dressing room before and after the show, and DJ Matt gave me shout outs whenever I went to the Moonlight Dance Floor.

*Here I am taking a moment to pose with two of my fans

The Q&A was basically just a judges response, but the crowd was behind me and left no doubt in their minds as to the value of my music and performance. I also think Monica and I shared a moment, but that storyline will more fully develop in the next performance.

SPOILER ALERT: I make it into the next and Final round of Cruise Idol. Stay tuned.

123456789 987654321

Backwards and forwards, the touchpads are miscommunicating to my brain.

Thes numbers begin at the bottom with "1" and work upward to "9"

Yet in contrast, the telephone goes from top "1" and end with "9"

The joy of a comptometer operator (back office calculations operator) is when your fingers are free from sight, meaning you can type numbers without looking at each button that your finger presses. This means rapididity, a freedom from mind and body.

The difficulty for me is when I am done counting millions of dollars I then need to use the phone. I transfer this same skill of non-looking and dial an incorrect number.

The example of horror was when I just made a bunch of phone calls and then went to type some numbers on the computer, the number "377 . . . .", when I finished and looked up I had actually typed "911 . . . " -- you can imagine the surprise and relief that the commputer did not do as I had commanded.

The Reason for the difference, as I am able to project, is that it must be easier to make phone calls by counting down and it is easier to type and count numbers by typing up.

I just wish they both would go up to "11".