My performing schedule is slowly starting to build up again, although nothing like before the corona virus pandemic. Since our own church has reopened (were small enough that we are allowed to)I've been doing a segment in each of our morning services for a few weeks now. I've have a few outdoor shows at different facilities, and last week I did a show for All About Kids, a children's program that a former student of mine works at. I set up outside on the sidewalk, and the kids and staff then sat in the yard at an appropriate distance.
These were little kids, and it's not a faith based facility, so I did it more as a favor to Katrina than as a ministry opportunity. I decided to go for laughs right off the bat, and did a bit in which I 'accidentally' spill a bucket of balls on my head, leading into a prat fall. Somehow, I actually DID trip when the balls hit me, and I really did fall. It felt like slow motion. In the second it took to fall, I realized that I could be seriously hurt, I thought how traumatic it would be for the kids (to say nothing of a student I was seeing for the first time in five years) if their guest star ends up laying in a bloody heap on their sidewalk until and ambulance came, and I decided I simply couldn't afford to get hurt. Call it faith, or the stubbornness that comes from my Swedish genes, I knew the show must go on before I ever hit the cement.
I tore a hole in the knee of my pants, and got a pretty bad scrape on my right elbow and knee, but there was no blood at all, I popped back up without missing a beat, and the audience believed it was all intentional. In fact it got a huge laugh. I was fine and continued for a 45 minute show.
One of the benefits of doing mostly outdoor shows is that I'm free to juggle fire, so of course I did. The kids were great, the show was good, and the highlight was when I called Katrina up at the end to show her own juggling skills. She's still got it, as she showed us with balls and clubs. Next time I told her to be ready for fire!
It was cool to see this young woman who I remember as a 14 year old spit fire who once put salt in my coffee. She's excellent with the children, and she told me she would be getting married next summer. I've not met her fiancé, but he's a very blessed young man.