As you may or may not know, over and above his regular day job/program, DC also volunteers at a local theater. He has been there for four and a half years now. His best friend, BB just recently started volunteering there as well. 

If DC could choose his dream job, it would be one (or all) of three things; Working in a Bookstore, Working at Disney (or anything having to do with Disney), Working at a Theater (plays and musicals) – 4 Years ago today, DC and his Job Coach headed off to his first day of volunteer work at the theater. My Broadway Baby got his wish…. ~ From “His Dream Job” March 2017

 As one might guess, DC is more interested in working the Broadway Productions, but the volunteers are required to mix it up and work a few of each type of production held there. 

Some of these are difficult (or boring) for DC so I always try to come up with something to relate whatever show he is working to something he enjoys – which is usually something that begins with Disney, but not always.

A while back he was scheduled to work “The Phantom of the Opera”. Now don’t get me wrong, DC is the ultimate fan of musicals, but this is more opera than musical. To try to pump up the enthusiasm and interest, I told him that I saw the Phantom of the Opera many years ago in New York City (his favorite place) on Broadway (his second favorite place) when it first opened. 

Me: Do you know who played the Phantom when I saw it? It was the same person who played Cornelius in a movie that you really love.

DC: Walter Matthau (not pronounced quite that way but I knew who he meant)

Me: No, Michael Crawford. He played Cornelius and Walter Matthau was his boss in the store (Hello Dolly).

(Seriously, you have to give DC props for knowing Walter Matthau and knowing which musical just from the name Cornelius)

That was the best I could come up with…

When all of the attendees are seated and the show gets going (pending a 10-minute hold on the door, of course) the volunteers are allowed to go in and watch a good portion of the show. For this particular show, DC and Mrs. H stayed out in the lobby due to the production’s use of strobe lights.

There are screens in the lobby though. Mrs. H reported that as soon as the operatic singing began, DC in his not so “indoor voice” announced – This is ‘ted-a-bull’!

I suppose it was a very good thing that they were not inside the theater at the time.

Moving on to the “celebration”…..

Many years ago, when I got married, I gave the DJ a list of three songs that he was not allowed to play, even if a guest requested them. They were banned – BANNED!

The first was Kool and the Gang’s “Celebration”.

There was not any sort of affair that one could attend without ”Celebration” being the first song that was played, as if it was an original idea and no one had ever thought of it before. 

“A Party? A Celebration? Oh, we should play Kool and the Gang! We are so clever!”

Nothing against Kool and the Gang, I do like many of their other songs, but I am not a fan of this particular song.

Then, like clockwork, the very next musical offering 99.99% of the time would be, Sister Sledge, “We are family”.

No, no no no, just no.

The third was the chicken dance, because…….

Chicken Dance.

(Little did I know that one of DC’s early intervention teachers, Mrs. T (you know who you are) would teach him the chicken dance and he’d be doing it ever since)

Flash Forward to 2012 when DC’s Winter Guard Team chose – you guessed it – “Celebration” as their performance song for that season.

I mentioned my banned wedding song list to Tonya, Salli’s mother one night at Winter Guard practice after listening to Celebration in parts and in its entirety all practice long. She laughed so loudly that it got the attention of the director who also had a good chuckle over the torture I was experiencing. 🙂

DC loves Winter Guard but he never really gets attached to any of the songs they have used over the years. If they used something like “A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes”, “Beauty and the Beast”, “Seventy-Six Trombones”, or “The Trolley Song” – that would be a different story. Being a Disney/Broadway/Musical type of a guy, he is not always interested in the popular/top 40 music they use. He does like the songs and knows them when he hears them later, but that’s about it. I thought this would work in my favor with “Celebration”, but noooooooo….

He will randomly search for it on you-tube and listen to it over and over, still. to. this. day which I begrudgingly admit might actually come in handy as the next show that DC is scheduled to work at the theater is none other than – Kool and the Gang…

No prep necessary. I simply reminded him of his beloved “Celebration” and he is ready and seems to be looking forward to this show.

So, I guess you can say that Kool and the Gang came through for me in the end because, Everything is Related.