Sorry guys, this isn't a leather pants fetish page, so just move along. What it really is is a story about a bit of work that I stumbled into in February 2008. Not just any work, but my stage debut - wearing Lederhosen!
At this point, you are probably wondering what did I get myself into, which is exactly what I was wondering too. Everyone I mentioned it too got a big chuckle, and many came up with humerous explanations. Things became a bit clearer when I got my copy of the script and was able to search out what the event was. To make a long story short, Andy's uncle was producing the Carlson 70th anniversary summit celebration in Las Vegas, and Jason had convinced them that climbers ascending ropes off of the stage would be a good idea. Andy thought I might be available (and I was), and I knew Eric was in town looking for work, so that is the cast of characters. I got a feeling things were a little serious when I saw some of the script and actually recognized some names, plus royalty and the CEO's of several large corporations, and when I started getting e-mails from the costume department wanting all sorts of sizes...
According to Carlson's web page, this is what was going on:
LATE FEBRUARY BUSINESS SUMMIT, GALA ARE PART OF OBSERVANCE
Carlson’s 70th Anniversary observance also will include a day-long, international business summit and world gala for invited guests on Feb. 28 in Las Vegas. Carlson Chairman and CEO Nelson will host the Imagination Summit, which will include Her Majesty Queen Silvia; Peter Brabeck-Letmathe, chairman and CEO of Nestlé; Honorable Christine Lagarde, minister of finance and economy, France; Maya Angelou, poet, author and educator; and Dr. Klaus Schwab, founder and executive chairman, World Economic Forum.
Regis Philbin will host the evening gala, featuring performances by Tony Bennett, Garrison Keillor, O Tahiti E, the Boys Choir of Kenya, Paul Potts of the U.K., Maria Alexandrova of Russia, and the Taiko Drum Ensemble of Japan.
“All of the 70th Anniversary events and celebrations are designed to inspire, entertain and motivate the participants,” said Kim Olson, Carlson’s chief communications officer. “The theme of the late-February business summit is ‘Imagination.’ We know what our accomplishments have been in the past, and we know imagination, strong leadership and hard work will help shape Carlson’s future.”
(in case you couldn't tell, I didn't write that)
As the big days approached, I was floored by the flu for a few days, barely able to shuffle from the bed to the bathroom to the couch and back, Luckily I was in Flagstaff and not in the back of my truck somewhere. Luckily for me that is, maybe not Will and Bonny. Fortunately nurse Julie had me on the acetaminophen, liquids, and rest plan and I was starting to improve when I had to drive back to Vegas. There I wandered around Mandalay Bay for a while before finding the circuitous trail of signs through the belly of the beast to the wardrobe department. As soon as they had a "climber", the wardrobe people got a big chuckle. I was disappointed to discover that they were only mock lederhosen. In fact my pair was sort of like green polyester burlap spandex shorts with trim and too-short suspenders. Round them out with old leather boots, fancy shirt, vest, and hat, and I was definitely a sight to see, more like early Bavarian soft porn than alpine climbing though.
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The purpose of our little skit was to settle the audience back after an intermission and to introduce Peter Brabeck, the head of Nestle, and a mountain climber himself. So we walk onto stage with a panorama of snowy peaks behind us on the big screen, and have a little dialogue featuring "Down is not an option" sort of language, and ascend up the ropes out of sight as fast as we can, arriving on the catwalk about 60 feet above very out of breath with burning biceps. I think the flu didn't help me much here, but being "Peter" gave me a head start which helped a lot. The rehearsal had a few snags, mostly involving getting the ascenders hooked up quickly, correctly, and cleanly, but everyone seemed to like it, and everyone definitely got a chuckle out of our outfits. When I got one of the costumers to take a picture of us, she said ok but only if she could take a picture of her own too.
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The day of the event, things were running behind by up to an hour, but that didn't make much difference, and we were after a break anyway. Our show went off without any serious complications, although I did manage to get the rope stuck between my boot and the etrier so that it wasn't running nicely. I had to pause to clear it, which made me a little slower jugging the line. I think it went well. In any case, we got paid, and I can include stage acting and line ascending to my varied resume.
We got to see Maya Angelou perform before we had to get enlederhosened, and I was most impressed. She really is a top notch speaker. Unfortunately we didn't get to see much of the rest of the performance, and despite staying at the Mandalay bay (pretty fancy, but no free internet), I didn't get to sample their fancy swimming area complete with wave pool and "lazy river". I suppose that will be for my next command performance. We also didn't get to see the evening's entertainment.
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