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CJC

About 15 years ago,,I was called by a group,,,that did hawaiian catering etc.
They had a complete show,,,knife dancers,tahitian girls etc,,,,this was a well
known group in new York City,,,I worked with them at the Hotel Lexington hawaiian room years ago,,,,the leader was a talented guy,who looked really cool and his wife Evalani was a knock out,,,,they did great harmony together and all their music was authentic,,,

I was not too familiar with all the tunes but was able to get by.

John Di Mesa was the leaders name,,,he called me and said he had a great job that payed a lot of money for a 4 hour gig,,the pay was $175.00 for the 4 hours which was good money back then.

He told me it would be a special gig and I would really dig it...I met them in manhattan
left my car in a parking lot and we all went to the gig in a chartered bus,,,up to upper Westchester county NY.They had people who did all the catering and it was a package deal.

He explained that it was for a group of top executives from all over the metropolitan area and was a private restricted party.

When we arrived at the destination it was a big compound of a place,,,,we were greeted by a fellow dressed for the occasion with white pants they were cut just below his knee
like those clam digger pants,,,he had a bright hawaiian shirt on and he was very courteous.He walked like a little "swishy" you know

We unloaded the gear and went into the pool area where the party was taking place,,,it was gorgeous summer night and it was sundown
the lighting was done with "torches" and everything was in place with hawaiian decor etc,,,,the food was fabulous,,,,drinks as well....it was the epitome of class ,,,you could leave off the cl if you would like...

Most all of the people were in the pool swimming,,,beautiful gals,,,some not so beautiful,,,but most of them were in the pool
some were just "hangin out",,,,I couldnt beleive my eyes,,,,,,they were stark naked,,John Di Mesa looked at me and said "cool it man" he thought I was going to do the wise guy thing,,,,

They started the show,,,singin standards
Blue hawaii,,Sweet Leilani,,,,the host came over and asked us if we would like to make ourselves more comfortable,,,we all said no ,,,we were fine,,,I mean how would I look playing a steel with everything in view,,,they could see all my knee levers.

All you could hear was the laughter and water splashing in the pool....they were having a great time,,,the food was great,,,one guy walked over to me in his birthday suit and said man thats some contraption you have there,,,why are there two of them??? I wanted to say ...so do you,
you have three of them.

We did the show,,,the tahitian gals did their traditional dance,,,,and went over fine
we had two knife dancers who were from the Hotel lexington and we did hawaiian war chant

John and his wife came out dressed in white & with the spotlight on them and sang a beautiful version of the Hawaiian wedding song
I mean this was the real thing....

John asked me to do a steel solo,,, I tried to think of something appropriate,,,No I could do "Im in The Nude for Love",,,that would have not gone over too well.

I did Bye Bye Blues real up tempo the drummer
was great as was the rest of the group,,,I did all the bar crashes etc you wont beleive this but as I was almost finished with my number they started coming out of the pool,,,there must have been about 50 people in the pool,,,I got a standing ovation as they emerged from the pool,,,I stopped the show,,,this was not the courteous applause that was heard for the other perfomers who had much more talent than I ,,,,they were standing up you should have heard the round of applause when they all sat down on the marble tile on the pool site,,,,they all sat down together and the applause was like nothing I have ever heard.....It was great.
I never thought I would have a chance to tell this story,,,,"Copyright (c) 2001 by
Jody Carver "All Rights Reserved" I said John Di Mesa,,,not John DeMaille,,DeMaille is a Red Neck not a Hawaiian The money for the gig was not good,,but I enjoyed "hangin" out with those people.

[This message was edited by Jody Carver on 06 July 2002 at 06:18 AM.]

quote:

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BTW, they were lousy tippers.

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Of course they were. No pockets!

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HagFan

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"Let's go STEEL something"
If it feels good, do it. If it feels COUNTRY, do it twice
jpp

That would be one hell of a pre-gig rehearsal !

NO,I mean:

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Have a good 'un! JH U-12

[This message was edited by Jerry Hayes on 25 January 2002 at 08:00 AM.]

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James R.Hall
MSA S10 & MSA D12

Again in July of 2001 I played the same nudist resort for a two-day motorcycle rally. Spent that whole time "nekked as a jaybird". How did I like doing the gigs? Let's just say I had no trouble with the vertical kneelevers!

Keep on pickin'!
Glenn

[This message was edited by Glenn Suchan on 23 January 2002 at 02:21 PM.]

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Have a good 'un! JH U-12

[This message was edited by Jerry Hayes on 23 January 2002 at 05:17 PM.]