My son Nicholas makes most of his income entertaining. He plays piano and accompanies himself. An amazing repitorie is one of the reasons Nick is so popular with his senior audiences. He knows “their songs”. He is rarely stumped if a member of the audience requests a song. Having a virtualy unlimited roster of tunes parked in his brain, ready to call up and execute on a moments notice is remarkable. I believe this is one of the benefits of his autism, along with perfect pitch and a memory that vivals any search engine.
“Nothings quicker than Nick!” A phrase I heard often from classmates who’d frequently ask Nick for details on various pieces of music, rather than try to “look it up” on the internet.
This summer I am standing in for Nick’s usual support person named Tommy. He’s a great guy and taking Nick out to perform is one of his “day jobs”, but his true passion is his musical career. He’s a drummer . During the summer Tommy is on tour with his band.
Your’s truly is driving my son, Nick to his monthly engagements at various venues. Many of these are at Senior Assisted Living facilities. I sit by his side while he sings and plays piano for his audience.
Nick’s way of introducing a song is mostly spot on- he incorporates a theme for his set of selections, in an appropriate manner. Most of the time…but sometimes his logic works differently, the whole process of sharing information makes sense to him, of course… but the rest of us, well let’s say it can present challenges.
One quirky bit- his refusal to announce the actual name of the piece of music he’s performing, before he starts playing. I have endeavored to change his behavoir, but to date have been unsuccessful.
If I happen to be in attendance at one of his senior/assisted living gigs, I’ve been known to shout out the title when he pauses. He doesn’t get mad at me. He just chuckles, like sons tend to do when their moms do something they don’t exactly like.
Bottom line- my interventions don’t change his behavior or method of announcing at all.
It’s like he wants his audience to guess. I keep reminding him that many of his audiences are comprised of seniors who would love the hint> They want to know … rather than be confused for the first stanza, and hopefully recognize the piece by name when he starts on the chorus.
Sometimes when his thought process takes a turn away from what most of us would consider the norm… His introduction results can border on being hilarious.
Take a recent performance of Peggy Lee’s iconic song “Fever”.
This was part of his “summer set “for July.
Nick tends to work up a group of songs each month, a set program that he can play at each of the locations, without too much adjustment. Makes sense to me. Rather than come up with 15 or 20 entirely different playlists, the repetition helps him time his performance to keep within the 55 minutes he’s allocated.
So summertime means hot weather, and sweat, and feeling, hot hot hot! Nick decided that “Fever” fit his theme. Instead of introducing it as the “fever of love”, he opined that “This is how summer makes him feel.” His phrasing was spot on, right up to the point where he announced- “ This song is about the F word. “
Jaw dropping silence, and shock filled the faces of many in the audience. I must note that being blind, Nick could not see that reaction. He simply carried on performing this song.
Dealing with my son in a congenial manner means I must pick my battles, and this clearly was not the hill I needed to die upon. Smiles soon returned to the faces in the audience as they heard the bars of the chorus and recognized an old favorite.
When we returned to the car, I proceeded to explain that using term, “the F word “was not to be repeated. He was mystified. The song starts with the letter “F”, so what was my problem? A lengthy discussion about other meanings of the F word ensued.
His response was a typical outburst of “Oh! Oh! Oh!” Followed by lots of arguments about why he should still be able to use this description. Logic would not easily win the day in this particular situation. After much prodding on my part, he conceeded.
The description of “Fever” at Nick’s next performance included a lengithier description of the song’s content, which he described as Peggy Lee’s , “Iconic tune.”
But…True to form, he still didn’t announce the actual name of the song.
by 