SURVIVING PERRY

When we arrived in Montreal on Thursday, the first thing we did was load in at Le Petit Campus. The second thing was to walk our butts over to Shwartz’s for some legendary smoke meat. The drive over was a little taxing and most of us felt a little weird after (and I speak for myself) snacking on pretzels and whatnot. I shared a sandwich with Brendan and it was a half portion of perfection. Melt in your mouth topped with mustard. Yowza! Lo(rraine) Muller joined us and we moved on to a coffee shop around the corner form the venue hoping to drink something that would help us feel less full before we had to flop onto the stage. As we ordered we realized that there was going to be live entertainment in the form of a piano/ synth and a very emotive jazz singer. Immediately, everyone started groaning a little (the band that is), Meher put his foot down declaring that he’d walk out if they sing Summertime. I looked over to watch the act for a second and like a heat seeking missile the singer locked eyes with me and was winking and smiling a way that suggested that everything would be alright and perhaps I could get a foot rub out of it if I played my cards right. I blushed, naturally. Following that song, I clapped whole heartedly, to the exasperation of the my colleagues “what are you doing?” “you’ve got to be kidding” or “don’t encourage them.” Feeling no fear, Perry got up and slowly (like he was floating on the current) moved towards the act. When they had completed another Humber Jazz school gem he leaned over and spoke his magic to the singer who looked unsure, but nodded as if she dared not deny someone brave enough to cross the performer/ spectator line – that line moves depending on the venue and in this case, it was about 3 inches from Casio’s plastic chassis. Well, before you could sing out “All Of Me” Perry was in the middle of a honey on your toast duet of Summertime. Meher looked back in horror and Perry smiled and winked at the audience…