What a busy day today. I have a lot of work I need to do before I leave. I have to re-edit a project before I leave tomorrow (Project #1) and I have to make sure that everything is taken care of for project #3 is re-edited by someone by the time I’m gone. This is not the 12th edit and they are wanting it redone to help celebrate national day…which is very similar to our 4th of July. National Day is usually around December 20th so they decorate everything in red and white so it looks a little bit like Christmas.
I had to head over the Bahrain TV today. I met with the top person there. This was a courtesy visit on his part. We are doing a project for a sister governmental organization and they are helping us out. So they wanted to get together on a social setting which was very nice. Everyone knew I was coming and everyone knew my name. We were in the paper today…so that helped too. One of the benefits I have is that everyone knows Khalifa Shaheen here. I mentioned this in past blogs and I’ll mention it again. In the early 70’s the Wonderful World of Disney on ABC show two episodes here in Bahrain called Hammad and the Pirates. Khalifa was the lead and he also produced the film. So that helped propel him to stardom here in Bahrain. All the locals know and revere Khalifa…that name gets me in a lot of doors. Plus his niece works for the director of Bahrain TV. It seems like Khalifa’s relatives (I think he has about 9 siblings) branch out in every which direction. Bahrain TV is giving us a lot of footage for the revised project. They are giving it to us for free where in the states it would cost upwards of $45 a second.
I got back to the office and Khalifa helped me re-edit a project in Arabic. You can sure tell he’s a director. He hasn’t been in the editing chair for a long time but still the passion was there. I enjoy working with him.
I had to rush out early to play Darren a game of squash. We had to get one more in before I headed back to the U.S. I remember talking to Marloes on the phone as I drove home to take a shower. I was running late and wanted to call the sound guy, who was supposed to meet me at Aqua Fuego (the venue) at 7. But I couldn’t find my phone. I looked everywhere for it…five times. I retraced my steps which weren’t that many. I started to get worried a little bit. What if my phone is gone…I don’t know anyone’s numbers. That the downside of cell phones…you don’t have to learn anyone’s number. What if the sound guys get there and then leaves when he sees that Im not there? So I started to praying. I said God let me find this phone…puhleez…in Jesus name and all that. But no…I couldn’t find it. Then I heard that still small voice say…look under the seat in your car. So I got all excited when down to the car…and still couldn’t find it. I think that’s a lesson that even I am not going to recognize God’s voice all the time. You have to differentiate between God’s voice, my voice, and the voice of the enemy. Most of the time Im right but this time I was wrong. So I was trying to avoid a panic attack. Besides the phone, I was also missing page two of my show outline (or my script). I got in the car and thankfully the sound guy waited and was very cool about it. They set up the new mics…and by this time I was having a low blood sugar as I hadn’t eaten since 10am. So I snuck away to Burger King and wrote the rest of the second page. I was a little worried about the show. We were missing 3 of our top 5 (in my opinion) comics. When we started the audience was small…but by the end of the night the room was full. The performers just nailed it. It was our best show yet. I think there is such a chemistry brewing between all the actors and we just feed off each other. They are performing for each other…not necessarily the crowd. Sam won tonight…and Im so proud of him. The first two nights of the competition he was so scared to go on stage. He used to beg me not to put him up there as he wasn’t feeling it. Now his confidence has grown sooooo much. Im quite proud. I don’t want to take the credit as the performers are all talented. Im just happy I am able to teach/direct the best performance out of them and place them in situations to succeed. So every week (6 now) there has been a different winner. I love that. Its going to be very difficult to come up with a fair and unbiased way to pick the overall funniest person in Bahrain after our ten competitions are completed. Im really happy that a lot of the contestants have gotten to wear the crown so far. The audience really loved the show tonight.
I got home…and remembered…I put the phone in the pocket of my bathrobe…whew…
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