"Quality Time"
Journal of August
By Luis Vega
I remember my first gig...Oh man, how can I forget it..I still think the mistakes I did and the things I did right...it was a party in a house, for a girl I knew in the gym, her name was Veronica, and she wanted to hire me to entertain her friends, she wanted a comedian, but when she find out I was a magician she ask me to assist her party, she was going to pay me 20 bucks (400 pesos) and I accepted...there was another party with my girlfriend, but I didn´t care, it was my shot at starting doing magic seriously...
the gig was great, and everybody had a great time...
some years later I return to the present day...
Capitan George
Friday 7
12:00
This is my last free day, and to be honest doesn´t look good, there is a private party upstairs and I am dying to go there and entertain and get some money, but the manager doesn´t want me to go, since they requested to not be disturbed...also I only got 40 bucks, bad for this place
Working here has been a nice experience, not only a magical, but also in audience management since I have learned a lot, about how a restaurant work...then I remember my first restaurant work, and to be honest It wasn´t a work, just a small gig..
the restaurant was called "Mediterraneo" and I was hired to entertain the costumers in their tables and I remember carrying around 30 tricks because I thought each table should see different tricks, also I seated with the people when doing magic...lots of mistakes...but I learned and now I am here
I am entertaing a big table, is a girl´s birthday and she is having a great time, but the only thing I can think is that I need to talk with the manager about our deal...maybe I could charge him less but get some free diners here, I bet that is almost as expensive as having a full price, also I cannot complain about the tips, yeah yeah, this was a slow night, but when is a normal night I end up with around 100 bucks in tips, but I can let that get in the way, I want a real job...
1:00 am
finally! I am done, maybe I should wait the manager to talk but then I realized he is very busy to even attend a waiter..
"Hey Everardo I am done for the night!!"
"Luis, so how did it go?"
"good"
"great!! so see you next friday?"
"actually I wanted to talk about our deal, but I feel you are very busy, maybe we can talk on friday, more early"
"that would be great, don´t think I have forgotten our deal"
"I haven´t forgotten it either..so see you next friday"
I walk away not without wishing good night to the staff...
Marcela...
"What?!! again?!! I thought I was over this,remember until you know exactly how she feels about you, don´t think about anything....well I cannot blame me..I saw her yesterday..man! that was a great time...I really, really love to be with her...what on earth could be worst than...not to know what she feel..."
Saturday
9:00 am
"Good morning son!!"
"what? who is it? where am I?" I say while trying to wake up
"so, you arrive late yesterday huh?"
"yes, dad..."
"ok, so get up we are leaving at 12:00"
"leaving where?"
"don´t you remember? we are going to San Luis Potosi, to a party of our relatives "crap! I completely forgot about that...well doesn´t matter I don´t have gigs today so I guess I can spend some quality time with my family" I think while getting up
My family is a "normal" family at the eyes of the society, but I feel more connected to my brothers lately, each one of us has or is an artist in our specific ways, the older is a full-time musician, I am a magician and I was a Flamenco guitarrist, the next one is a head-shrink but he had a music band where he was the vocalist and the younger was a baritone..
lately is been hard to have quality time the whole family...I remembered when we used to eat everyday at home, the whole family and talk about school, family, funny things, family problems...those were great time..Now we are lucky if we eat one time each 2 weeks...and sometimes not even that..
11:30 am
Wallet: check
Cellphone: check
deck of cards: check
leather bag with some cookies, water, camera, some gimmicks, change and my medicine: check
I am ready...man I really need to get an IPOD for this trips...it will be a 3 hour trip to get there..
then my phone rings
"Hello Luis Vega?"
"Yes, it´s me"
"Oh hi!! I am Salvador Gutierrez and we met at the Capitan George 3 weeks ago"
"ah it´s true!! so what´s up?"
"I wanted to know if you are free to do a show"
"of course, when?"
"today at 5:00 ó clock..I believe we had set a price of 100 bucks for an hour"
Ok here is a very hard decision so I ask sometime to think about it
"let me check my schedule with my promoter" what? you don´t even have a promoter!!" to see if I am free today ok?"
"Ok, call me back"
I sit in my bed to think about this...I remember this guy, he looked like a rich guy and perhaps doing this gig will bring me fame and fortune and maybe I will met more rich people willing to hire me...but..my family was looking forward for this trip...it´s quality time, and we get less and less of it as the time passes and we grow older...then..it becames the easiest decision I have made in sometime..
"Hello Salvador?"
"Oh hi!! so I´ll be seeing you today"
"oh! I am afraid I have an event at 6:00 ó clock out of town, so I cannot assist to your party, I am really sorry"
"it´s ok, I think I should have called before, maybe some days before...well maybe next time!"
"ok, so we´ll be on touch!"
"ok see you around!!""
I hang up then as I continue to think that I just rejected a gig...my first rejected gig, then I remember my first gig and I thought all was about getting gig and get known here...I realized now..family is more important...
"Hey son!! ready to go?"
"yes, I am ready"
"who you were talking on the phone?"
"oh!! nobody, wrong number"
"ok...so let´s go, I bought some carnitas to eat in the road"
"sweet!!"
Sunday
11:30
San Luis Potosi, The hotel´s restaurant
I am eating hot cakes and then I remember about rejecting that gig and instead having a hard trip, a noisy and bad party where everybody was drunk, then a long walk to find a hotel with some free rooms, then having a bad night because if the outside noise...
as I eat my hot cakes I see my brothers and my parents and I think....
"Worth it...."
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and follow me on Twitter!!
Journal of August
By Luis Vega
I remember my first gig...Oh man, how can I forget it..I still think the mistakes I did and the things I did right...it was a party in a house, for a girl I knew in the gym, her name was Veronica, and she wanted to hire me to entertain her friends, she wanted a comedian, but when she find out I was a magician she ask me to assist her party, she was going to pay me 20 bucks (400 pesos) and I accepted...there was another party with my girlfriend, but I didn´t care, it was my shot at starting doing magic seriously...
the gig was great, and everybody had a great time...
some years later I return to the present day...
Capitan George
Friday 7
12:00
This is my last free day, and to be honest doesn´t look good, there is a private party upstairs and I am dying to go there and entertain and get some money, but the manager doesn´t want me to go, since they requested to not be disturbed...also I only got 40 bucks, bad for this place
Working here has been a nice experience, not only a magical, but also in audience management since I have learned a lot, about how a restaurant work...then I remember my first restaurant work, and to be honest It wasn´t a work, just a small gig..
the restaurant was called "Mediterraneo" and I was hired to entertain the costumers in their tables and I remember carrying around 30 tricks because I thought each table should see different tricks, also I seated with the people when doing magic...lots of mistakes...but I learned and now I am here
I am entertaing a big table, is a girl´s birthday and she is having a great time, but the only thing I can think is that I need to talk with the manager about our deal...maybe I could charge him less but get some free diners here, I bet that is almost as expensive as having a full price, also I cannot complain about the tips, yeah yeah, this was a slow night, but when is a normal night I end up with around 100 bucks in tips, but I can let that get in the way, I want a real job...
1:00 am
finally! I am done, maybe I should wait the manager to talk but then I realized he is very busy to even attend a waiter..
"Hey Everardo I am done for the night!!"
"Luis, so how did it go?"
"good"
"great!! so see you next friday?"
"actually I wanted to talk about our deal, but I feel you are very busy, maybe we can talk on friday, more early"
"that would be great, don´t think I have forgotten our deal"
"I haven´t forgotten it either..so see you next friday"
I walk away not without wishing good night to the staff...
Marcela...
"What?!! again?!! I thought I was over this,remember until you know exactly how she feels about you, don´t think about anything....well I cannot blame me..I saw her yesterday..man! that was a great time...I really, really love to be with her...what on earth could be worst than...not to know what she feel..."
Saturday
9:00 am
"Good morning son!!"
"what? who is it? where am I?" I say while trying to wake up
"so, you arrive late yesterday huh?"
"yes, dad..."
"ok, so get up we are leaving at 12:00"
"leaving where?"
"don´t you remember? we are going to San Luis Potosi, to a party of our relatives "crap! I completely forgot about that...well doesn´t matter I don´t have gigs today so I guess I can spend some quality time with my family" I think while getting up
My family is a "normal" family at the eyes of the society, but I feel more connected to my brothers lately, each one of us has or is an artist in our specific ways, the older is a full-time musician, I am a magician and I was a Flamenco guitarrist, the next one is a head-shrink but he had a music band where he was the vocalist and the younger was a baritone..
lately is been hard to have quality time the whole family...I remembered when we used to eat everyday at home, the whole family and talk about school, family, funny things, family problems...those were great time..Now we are lucky if we eat one time each 2 weeks...and sometimes not even that..
11:30 am
Wallet: check
Cellphone: check
deck of cards: check
leather bag with some cookies, water, camera, some gimmicks, change and my medicine: check
I am ready...man I really need to get an IPOD for this trips...it will be a 3 hour trip to get there..
then my phone rings
"Hello Luis Vega?"
"Yes, it´s me"
"Oh hi!! I am Salvador Gutierrez and we met at the Capitan George 3 weeks ago"
"ah it´s true!! so what´s up?"
"I wanted to know if you are free to do a show"
"of course, when?"
"today at 5:00 ó clock..I believe we had set a price of 100 bucks for an hour"
Ok here is a very hard decision so I ask sometime to think about it
"let me check my schedule with my promoter" what? you don´t even have a promoter!!" to see if I am free today ok?"
"Ok, call me back"
I sit in my bed to think about this...I remember this guy, he looked like a rich guy and perhaps doing this gig will bring me fame and fortune and maybe I will met more rich people willing to hire me...but..my family was looking forward for this trip...it´s quality time, and we get less and less of it as the time passes and we grow older...then..it becames the easiest decision I have made in sometime..
"Hello Salvador?"
"Oh hi!! so I´ll be seeing you today"
"oh! I am afraid I have an event at 6:00 ó clock out of town, so I cannot assist to your party, I am really sorry"
"it´s ok, I think I should have called before, maybe some days before...well maybe next time!"
"ok, so we´ll be on touch!"
"ok see you around!!""
I hang up then as I continue to think that I just rejected a gig...my first rejected gig, then I remember my first gig and I thought all was about getting gig and get known here...I realized now..family is more important...
"Hey son!! ready to go?"
"yes, I am ready"
"who you were talking on the phone?"
"oh!! nobody, wrong number"
"ok...so let´s go, I bought some carnitas to eat in the road"
"sweet!!"
Sunday
11:30
San Luis Potosi, The hotel´s restaurant
I am eating hot cakes and then I remember about rejecting that gig and instead having a hard trip, a noisy and bad party where everybody was drunk, then a long walk to find a hotel with some free rooms, then having a bad night because if the outside noise...
as I eat my hot cakes I see my brothers and my parents and I think....
"Worth it...."
add me in Facebook!!
and follow me on Twitter!!
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