This weekend I had the rare pleasure of scheduling Darwin College May Ball. For those of you outside Cambridge, these are the lavish parties at the end of term that each college throws. They are surreal and ridiculous…and this year they got what they wanted….Circus.
In my case I was responsible for 43 performers working four ‘stages’ for a seven hour event. This also means I owe my best performers a blog post each…which means you lucky looky looky people get an eyeful of some stars.
So in the first of a few posts about these talented folks we begin with the host I wanted and got: Desmond O Connor. He deserves special mention for attracting crowds into a room that no drinks were allowed in. There are comperes who are good at what they do, and then there are the legends. The ones who are worth it because they can deal with problems, and turn them into triumphs. In this case, Des began in room of about five, and he just quietly strummed his ukelele, until he transformed it into a room of a hundred. His crowd management and building skills were exceptional, and so goes down in my little black book of performers as a man who can have some fun backstage, but truly know hows to work the stage as well.
The details of stage management should not concern you dear reader, and you would probably prefer to have a song…
I wonder if he really did use my clown nose to do his make-up?
