Atlanta Professional Musicians
Connecting Atlanta Musicians
Socializing With Patrons
Okay folks! How would you handle this one?: A few weeks ago, a couple of guys were sitting at the bar in one of my venues. These dudes were regulars, and had been talking amongst themselves for about thirty minutes before I started my show. As I moved up to my piano, two of them looked at me and said "Hey Robert- Happy Birthday!" I thought they were kidding around, so I kiddingly responded "oh yeah! Thanks guys!- I appreciate that."
You see, my 13 year old and his friends have this "thing" about yelling "Happy Birthday" out the window of the car at random pedestrians while we are riding down the road. Harmless. Therefore, I naturally thought that such was the case with my bar buddies at the venue. Not so. As it turns out, the actual birthday belonged to one of our other regulars who was due to show up that afternoon, but in the cross-talk a few of them mistook it to be MY birthday. Then, everyone figured that the guy and I shared the SAME birthday.
As the evening progressed, one or two others wished me Happy Birthday as well, but I decided to ignore it from then on, so as to not get out of hand. The trouble was, the other patrons DIDN'T ignore it, but rather began spreading the word. By this time, I didn't want to go "pouring cold water" on everyone's enthusiasm... they all seemed so happy to know it was my birthday, and were apologetic that they had not previously known about it! I had hoped they would just forget about it, and focus on the other guy. The more I tried to keep a low profile, the more everyone seemed to be getting involved. Even the guy who's birthday it really was, displayed genuine excitement about having the same birfday as me. I was getting hugs, kisses, handshakes, and well-wishes out the ying-yang!
By the time the night was over, the bar crowd had lit up candles for me on the tastiest birthday cake I ever had, shot several pictures of me standing with each of them, and had taken up a collection of enough money that I could nearly open an IRA! It was one of the best birthday celebrations I ever had... and it wasn't even my birthday!
What do I do about the folks who are scheduled to show up on my ACTUAL BIRTHDAY!
You see, my 13 year old and his friends have this "thing" about yelling "Happy Birthday" out the window of the car at random pedestrians while we are riding down the road. Harmless. Therefore, I naturally thought that such was the case with my bar buddies at the venue. Not so. As it turns out, the actual birthday belonged to one of our other regulars who was due to show up that afternoon, but in the cross-talk a few of them mistook it to be MY birthday. Then, everyone figured that the guy and I shared the SAME birthday.
As the evening progressed, one or two others wished me Happy Birthday as well, but I decided to ignore it from then on, so as to not get out of hand. The trouble was, the other patrons DIDN'T ignore it, but rather began spreading the word. By this time, I didn't want to go "pouring cold water" on everyone's enthusiasm... they all seemed so happy to know it was my birthday, and were apologetic that they had not previously known about it! I had hoped they would just forget about it, and focus on the other guy. The more I tried to keep a low profile, the more everyone seemed to be getting involved. Even the guy who's birthday it really was, displayed genuine excitement about having the same birfday as me. I was getting hugs, kisses, handshakes, and well-wishes out the ying-yang!
By the time the night was over, the bar crowd had lit up candles for me on the tastiest birthday cake I ever had, shot several pictures of me standing with each of them, and had taken up a collection of enough money that I could nearly open an IRA! It was one of the best birthday celebrations I ever had... and it wasn't even my birthday!
What do I do about the folks who are scheduled to show up on my ACTUAL BIRTHDAY!
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by George Martin on -
Just do a repeat performance! That the best part of playing for drunk people-they won't remember. We should all do that about once a month!
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