Wednesday, July 8, 2009

EMBARRASSMENT

Wednesday, July 8, 2009
It's happened to all of us.

Your body temperature rises twenty degrees. Your face burns red, your stomach drops to the ground, your palms sweat.

What an uncomfortable feeling.

Embarrassment.

The word alone incites a rush of memories. Some of them awful...some of them quite funny. I guess I'll share a couple of the humorous stories and maybe one mortifying tale.

Being an entertainer allows you an incredible amount of opportunity to embarrass yourself. Especially when you are singing five and six nights a week. It's hard to be "on" every one of those nights...but you sure do try. When you're standing on stage and you notice people watching you, you want to deliver the very best performance you can possibly muster. You allow yourself to get caught up in the moment, let the passion take over, and just let yourself go along for the ride.

So I would dash out into the audience and trip up the stairs...or try to toss my microphone from one hand to the other and watch as it hit the ground. Or there was the time I was in the middle of belting out a song and strutting across the front of the stage (which was four sections of stage that had been added to accommodate our stage show) and getting my 4 inch "Wild Pair" zebra shoe caught in the crack and walking right out of it--the shoe, that is. Well, I just kept going, one shoe on, one shoe off. It's kind of hard to sell a song when you're hobbling along... up, down, up, down...but the show must go on.

Singing that many nights a week is tough. So of course there were the times that I would crack, or nothing, no sound at all, would come out. But you learn to live with it I guess. One of the most embarrassing but funny moments that I can remember happened while singing a Madonna medley and doing choreography with the other lead singer in the band, Jamie. First of all, let me say that Jamie could really dance. I can dance okay, but I'm not a natural. I can pick up almost any dance move, but I don't have the finesse that some people just naturally have. So anyway, here we are dancing and singing, and we do this move where we step in with our left foot and then sort of kick our right foot out to the right. Well, when I stepped in with my left foot, I put the heel of my shoe into the cuff of my right pant leg. As I forcefully kicked my right foot out, I pulled my left leg out from underneath me and fell HARD to the ground.

If I had been sitting in the audience watching that, I would have been on the floor laughing my butt off. It happened so fast. I don't even know what I was thinking. I just looked up at Jamie and said "Hey, you forgot to fall! Remember we were supposed to fall here?". I don't remember her response...she was probably laughing along with everyone else. Although it was an embarrassing moment, it was pretty comical.

I guess now I will tell you about an incident that to this day bothers me. Again, it happened one night while I was singing. I must preface this story by telling you that, when I was very young, our younger sister B.J. would fall asleep in her high chair with her eyes open. They were kind of rolled half way back into her head and it was quite a bizarre sight to see. So anyway, one night while performing at a club that was attached to a dining room, I glanced over and saw a family of three sitting there enjoying our show. Mother and Father were watching intently and I noticed that the little girl seemed to be sleeping with her eyes open. Witty as I am, I decided to comment on how my sister used to fall asleep with her eyes open, too. But I couldn't just stop there. I made a few comments on how nobody could ever sneak up on her while she was sleeping and so on and so on. Even our bass player jumped in and we both kind of laughing about how cute she was.

Well... we came to a song in our play list that I had no part in, so I left the stage and went out and sat in the audience to listen. A waitress approached me and handed me a note. I assumed it was a request, but when I opened and read it, I could have crawled under a rock and died. It simply said "that little girl is not sleeping, she is blind." I was completely mortified. I looked up quickly to see if they were still there so I could go to them and apologize, but they had left. I know in my heart that I did not mean anything hurtful by what I had said, but still... incredibly embarrassed!

Really, my whole point in writing this is because I'd love to hear your stories. Please, do share. I think it's great medicine to be able to look at ourselves and laugh at the dumb@** things we sometimes do.

ALSO, I was thinking that maybe you would like to suggest a topic that you would like to discuss. I think it would give me a challenge to write about something that might be outside of my comfort zone. PLUS... I like writing about anything that gets you all writing!

But for now...What is your most embarrassing moment?

SIS Bren

31 comments:

B.J. said...

Brenda,

I think I have a pictire of me sleeping in a high chair with my eyes open. I will have to look for it.

An embarrasing moment? How about the time you tried to get me to sing at one of your shows.

Sisters-in-Sync said...

Hi B.J.,

I would LOVE to have that picture. Can't believe you may actually have it.
Sorry about embarrassing you... you have a pretty voice and I thought maybe you were feeling brave. You'll have to repay me sometime.
Look for that picture!

SIS Bren

Sisters-in-Sync said...

Hi,

I could tell ya'll about the time I ripped the seam of my extremely tight, white, patent leather pants while busting a move on stage. But I won't.

OR

I could tell about the time I fell on the dance floor during the electric slide. But I won't.

OR

How about the time I laughed so hard on stage I wet my pants and had to rush back to my room for a wardrobe change. Nope. Won't be sharing that story either.

No embarrassing moments here. None for me!

SIS Barb

Beth Ciotta said...

Embarrassing moments, huh? Well, I already told you about the time I was showing off and feel off the trapeze...

How about the time I was performing a floor show to a packed audience. The band was pumping. I was singing my heart out. Made a dash for the opposite side and ... tripped on a mic chord. Fell FLAT ON MY FACE.

Oh, another floor show moment. Performing a dance number at Tropicana Casino. Another packed crowd. My partner twirled me around, really fast, very cool... except my hair extension (a really long ponytail) flew off and hit an audience member in the face.

You mean stuff like that?

;) SIS Beth

B.J. said...

Brenda,

You didn't embarrase me. I embarrased myself because I was too shy to sing.

I will look for the picture though it will take a while because it is hiding from me at the moment.

Tori Lennox said...

I have to say the event where you pulled your leg out from under you had me giggling. *g*

The only really embarrassing event I can think of off the top of my head occurred when I was in the ninth grade, I think. I went to this small private school which had buildings across the street from each other. My best friend and I were walking from one to the other and were going to take a short cut through the grass instead of going around on the driveway. Problem was, there was a five or six inch curb around the grassy area. And I've been known to trip over stripes in the parking lot. So naturally, I tripped over the curb and rolled down the grassy area. It wouldn't have been quite so bad but about the time I tripped the guy I had a crush on walked out of the building and saw it all. LOL!

Sisters-in-Sync said...

Hi Tori!

Of course your crush saw you. That is totally the way of things!

SIS Barb

Sisters-in-Sync said...

HI BJ!

Bren only tries to bring the best singers up on stage. Consider yourself complimented!

SIS Barb

Beth Ciotta said...

B.J., I had totally forgotten about the sleeping with your eyes open thing! Seems to me that's some sort of special talent. ;)

Oh, and though you may be shy about singing on stage, you can sure burn up the dance floor. That's somehting we should do when I get home... go dancing. A celebration of life!

SIS Beth

Beth Ciotta said...

Oh, Tori, that story is priceless. But of course the guy you were crushing on just HAD to see your tumble... as if it weren't mortifying enough to begin with, right? ;)

SIS Beth

Heidi Betts said...

Okay, confession time... I *had* to see The Jungle Book one weekend when it returned to theatres & was so annoyed at some yahoo who fell asleep & was snoring thru the movie. I mean, how rude, right? Then I kind of snuffled & jerked & realized--OMG, it's me!!!! Thank God it was dark & I was sitting in the back, so as soon as the movie was over, I got my rude, snoring butt out of there before anyone could start poking me with sharp stiks. :-P

Mary Stella said...

I have too many embarrassing moments to share. They would fill up your blog and crash your server!

Some are also not G-rated enough for a public blog. hehehehehe

Beth Ciotta said...

Ha! Heidi, that's awesome. Okay, not so awesome from your POV, but very funny to the outsider. At least the ones who didn't have to endure your rude snoring. *G*

Jungle Book, BTW, harkens fond childhood memories. I used to listen to the album (on old 33, remember those?)and dance around our living room singing along. "Bare Necessities" was a fave. Oh, and "I Wan'na Be Like You (The Monkey Song)" You slept through that?? LOL

On another note, your book cover for "Loves me, Loves me Knot" is AWESOME. Love it! Everyone, take a sec and check out Heidi's work at http://www.heidibetts.com/

SIS Beth

Sisters-in-Sync said...

Heidi,

Thanks for sharing! That's too funny. Thank goodness you woke yourself up. Could you imagine the usher tapping you on the shoulder--"excuse me mam?" LOL

SIS Barb

Sisters-in-Sync said...

Okay Mary,

I so want to hear some of those non G-rated moments. What do ya say we talk over drinks sometime??

SIS Barb

Sisters-in-Sync said...

Tori,

Isn't that always the way it is? I guess that's what makes it embarrassing...that someone sees us do it. I love your comment about tripping over the stripes in the parking lot. That pretty much describes me. I can be walking along and just fall off the side of my shoe...and I'm not talking heels, I mean flats.
But I hope you at least fell gracefully.

SIS Bren

Beth Ciotta said...

Mary.... YOU TEASE!

Don't let her get away with it fellow SISters (of both blood and spirit) Beg her, demand that she share at least ONE embarrassing moment. Me? I prefer one of the NON G-rated ones. ;)

SIS Beth

Sisters-in-Sync said...

Hello Heidi,

You are too funny. I can't believe you didn't know it was you right at first.
Your story reminds me of my grandfather. He used to fall asleep in his chair while he was watching t.v. He would start snoring and it would get louder and louder until eventually he would let out a huge snort and then sit up straight in his chair and look around trying to figure out what loud noise had just awoken him.
Thanks for sharing,

SIS Bren

Sisters-in-Sync said...

Bren!

Too funny that you brought that up about Grandpa. I was imitating that exact scene the other day and now my rugrats do it all the time. "That's your grandpa. Right Mama?" they ask. "Exactly!" I tell them.

SIS Barb

Sisters-in-Sync said...

Mary, Mary, Mary,

Now you know that's not the way we run things here at SIS. You MUST and you WILL share. I, too, prefer the non-G rated. So, OUT WITH IT!!!

SIS Bren

Sisters-in-Sync said...

Barb,

Okay, that made me think of something else Grandpa used to do. How embarrassing was it when he used to "let one rip" and then chase the invisible stinker around on the floor and trap it in a corner and stomp on it. Only embarrassing when he did it when I had a friend over, but funny otherwise!

SIS Bren

Sisters-in-Sync said...

Bren,

How about the time he announced in front of my friends that it was so cold, his balls were about to freeze off?? Think I might have topped ya there. Next?

SIS Barb

Beth Ciotta said...

Yeah, okay. Don't remember the chasing the stinker around thing. I assume we are talking about Grandpa Boots? In which case... what about the chicken sitting over his shoulder on the recliner? Weird? Embarassing? I remember it as weird/endearing.

SIS Beth

Beth Ciotta said...

Just saw Barb's latest on our Grandpa. Lordy, Lordy. I used to hope that at least one of us would achieve great fame. Now I'm not so sure. Because, you know, this stinker/balls/chicken stuff is what makes it into those celebrity biographies.

Lordy.

SIS Beth

Olga said...

That was awesome! Thanks to everybody for sharing embarrassing moments. As for mine, I'm a very shy girl. So I don't think I can share, sorry!

Sisters-in-Sync said...

Olga,

That bad? You can tell us, we won't tell anyone. Well, except for anyone who happens to read this blog. hehe

SIS Bren

Sisters-in-Sync said...

Ah come on Olga,

We're all friends here. You can tell us ANYTHING and EVERYTHING!!

SIS Barb

Sisters-in-Sync said...

Beth,

You are so right. When I become famous, I'll conveniently name you and Bren as the ones that everything happened to and I will be squeaky clean!! Woo Hoo for me!

SIS Barb

Beth Ciotta said...

Don't listen to Bren, Olga She has a dark side... so I'm learning. Hee!

Hugs!
SIS Beth

Mary Stella said...

Mary.... YOU TEASE!

Now you know that's not the way we run things here at SIS. You MUST and you WILL share.

Nope. I'm in enigmatic, woman of mystery mode. Besides, I've shared embarrassing things over the years on my own blog and on Babes. (Almost knocking Jackie O. on her butt; Stabbing President Carter's son in the hand with a ballpoint pen, etc.)

You sweet sisters need to catch up.

Friend of SIS, Mary the Mysterious

Sisters-in-Sync said...

Mary,

You're right. I guess almost knocking Jackie O. on her butt is pretty embarrassing! And the stabbing rates right up there too. Thanks for sharing oh Mary the Mysterious!

SIS Bren

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