This past weekend, I took on two slightly new personalities.
This may come as a shock to people who didn’t think I had enough personality for myself, let alone taking on new personalities.
On Saturday evening, I was ‘Allan Hart’, and on Sunday afternoon, I was ‘CJ the DJ’.
On both occasions I was at the Elder Citizens Recreation Association, helping with their Fabulous 50s concert.
I hadn’t been too sure about it when Janice Turner first asked me, but I said yes. It sounded like it would be fun, and I figured that at worst I would just say what songs they had just sung and leave it at that.
That was, to some extent, how it started Saturday evening as I got my feel for being a 1950s disc jockey with a chorus in the studio and a variety of special guests dropping by.
I had been given a basic script, indicating who was signing what and when the ‘commercials’ needed to go in.
Yes, commercials. The members of the Forever Young chorus had put in a few real commercials from the 1950s for products such as Mr. Clean and Pepsodent, products that had sing-able parts and offered the chance to have some fun visually as well.
By the intermission on Saturday, I was starting to feel more comfortable, and I had a bit more fun in the second half.
That carried over to Sunday, where it helped that I had a pretty good idea of what was coming and how I could have a bit of fun with some of the group descriptions. There was one group of ladies who called themselves the Bridesmaids, and sang the Dixiecups classics, Chapel of Love.
When I came to talk about their song, I just said, “And that was the Bridesmaids, who may have to change their name after making a visit to the Chapel of Love.”
I thank the Forever Young Chorus for giving me the chance to be part of the concert, and I thank the audience members who came out to the shows, especially those who made a point of coming up to me and saying how much they enjoyed what I was doing as the show’s announcer.
