Jenn Powazek

A Recap

I had such an amazing time last night. My friend, Nicole and I, went to Fray Day LA. We even signed up for the open mic section. I know.... scary! I hadn't written out what I was going to talk about but I had some sort of idea.

I haven't gotten that nervous in a long time! Give me a song to sing or a combination to dance and I won't even think twice.... but make me stand up in front of people and talk.. that is totally new! But yesterday was a day of new beginnings. It started with having Indian food for lunch. No, I'd never had Indian food before. I always thought it would be way too spicy for my sensitive tummy. But, a lot of folks on the sales team were going... and I thought it would be good to network and show my face. I ordered an eggplant dish that came with rice, a cucumber, onion, and tomato salad, and some other yellow stuff that I think was lentils or something. It was actually really good!

I digress.... so, last night was the first time I've ever gotten up in front of people, without a script, and told a story. Now, I tell stories all of the time. Especially at work. I'll walk up to friends and go into a whole drama about the weekend or the previous night or something.... but never in a "staged" setting.

So, I was the second to last person to go on. After hearing some amazing performers, I knew I had a lot to live up to. When the Emcee introduced me, he said I was "royalty because I was Derek's sister". How frickin cool is that? After he said that, I kind of blanked on anything else he said because I was stuck on the whole... hmmm... I'm royalty... thing.

It was the strangest feeling. I was so nervous right before.... but as soon as I got up there, I felt so good. I even opened up with a joke about how friends call me Jenn... or lately, J.Po. ha ha ha. They laughed eventually. :)

I told them I would not be telling stories about Derek, or about our crazy childhood. (Because many of them seemed interested on getting the skinny on what he was like). I said we came from a long line of story tellers and it was kind of engrained in our jeans...er... genes. I talked about how my current job is as an account manager for an internet company but that in my previous life, I was a performer... did a lot of shows, etc. My favorite story is when I was doing my first professional show, Gypsy. There were some theatre folks in the audience so they all nodded their heads in support of that show. Funny... so, I set the scene... I was 12 years old.... JoAnne Worley was playing Mamma Rose. Who was absolutely brilliant, by the way.

Anyway, I'm not going to retell the experience verbatum, but I shared how one night, we had a 35 second quick change and my zipper was stuck. I had to go on stage with only velcro holding my pants on... for a TAP DANCE. What ended up happening, I'm sure you can imagine... was that my pants fell down right at my solo section. 12 years old... pretty embarrassing. Yet so funny.

It was invigorating to perform like that. It didn't make me want to be a stand up comic or even do this regularly. But it did make me realize that there is still this vibrant creative energy inside of me that I need to find ways daily to use. That I feel more connected and fulfilled when I'm involved like that. It truly was an amazing experience. I even called my brother from there to share the experience with him since he is the man behind this whole event! It felt good to share something like that with him.

The other cool thing about last night was I finally got to meet a friend of mine that I have been IM'ing with for over a year now... I think. We have lived such parallel lives... from what I know about him so far. Many similarities.... both Jewish.... lived about 5 blocks from each other in Astoria, NY..... rode the same train, daily... ate at the same favorite restaurants in our hood... know some of the same people... went to the same movie theatres.... probably sat right next to each other on the train and never knew it. How karmic is that? So, he showed up at the coffee house last night... got to hear Nicole and I do our thang.... and then the three of us went out for drinks. I can't even explain what a GREAT time was had. We all talked about theatre and movies and experiences..... so cool.

It's extremely hard to meet new friends when you get older. Once you are taken out of the youth groups and college setting... all of the things in your life where you see the same people continuously and already have some commonality with. How do people meet these days if not through friends or through the internet? I've been extremely fortunate with the people I have met through this web site. I can thank my brother for first introducing me to personal blogs and creating this for me. Thank you, Derek!

I got home last night around 2:20 AM. I know.... I am hardly ever up that late. I brushed my teeth and washed my face.... got into bed.... and just sat there thinking.... and being so thankful for such an amazing evening. I opened my eyes to look at the clock (something I do every night before I go to sleep for some reason), and it was 2:37. For anyone that does not know, my two lucky numbers are 23 and 7. It was definitely karmic.

I went to sleep .... smiling.

Posted by Jenny at October 4, 2003 09:11 AM