{"id":7305,"date":"2021-12-22T18:08:36","date_gmt":"2021-12-22T18:08:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.spetz.com\/morningguyblog\/?p=7305"},"modified":"2021-12-23T21:32:16","modified_gmt":"2021-12-23T21:32:16","slug":"the-holiday-entertainers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.spetz.com\/morningguyblog\/2021\/12\/22\/the-holiday-entertainers\/","title":{"rendered":"The Holiday Entertainers"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nSix years ago, days before Christmas, we got a call from Seabourn Cruise Lines, asking if we could do a last minute fill in as artist-in-residence on a 3-week tour from Fort Lauderdale to Los Angeles, through the Panama Canal (back in those heady pre-Covid days). It was cold outside\u2014really cold\u2014so we considered the proposal for several minutes. It would be a monumental task to secure supplies on such short notice and we would miss Christmas with our family.<\/p>\n

Did I mention how cold it was?<\/p>\n

What followed was a wh\"\"irlwind of preparation, a frantic shopping spree (buying up all the local art supplies), weather-detoured air-travel (with six suitcases containing supplies), and confusion upon our arrival (it seems someone forgot to include our names on the ship manifest). Yet, somehow, we (and our six suitcases) talked our way through security.<\/p>\n

This was unlike our normal cruise watercolor workshops, where we brought our own participants (our own private group). On Seabourn, we were \u201cguest-entertainers.\u201d In fact, we signed the same Entertainment Agreement the ship\u2019s guest singer, com\"\"<\/a>edian, and ventriloquist signed. Our<\/em> entertainment assignment was to conduct (2) one-hour painting demonstrations on each \u201csea day\u201d (which only amounted to half of the trip\u2019s days). After those two hours, and on the other \u201cnon-sea days,\u201d we were just normal passenger-blokes.<\/p>\n

But this was no normal cruise ship with normal passengers. This was an exclusive crowd of “fine people.” Here’s a 23-sec. excerpt of me speaking at dinner one evening:<\/p>\n