Yesterday, I signed off of the Liberty in Ft. Lauderdale and flew to Nassau in the Bahamas to sign onto the Fascination. Often, when signing onto a ship you get delayed at various points for certain reasons. Sometimes there is a huge line at the airport to go through customs or immigration, sometimes the customs officials at the port make you wait before going to the ship to search your luggage. Sometimes ship security doesn't have your name on their paper work, sometimes the master of staff administration (or MSA, like the HR supervisor on the ship) isn't available when you finally get on the ship to give you your cabin key and sometimes, the cabin isn't ready for you to occupy it. It is usually just one or two of these places where you get held up and you can never really predict where it will be.
I made it all the way on board the ship without any delays yesterday. The MSA just happened to be in her office when I signed on. She gave me my cabin number and a phone number to call if it was locked. Okay, most ships use the coded magnetic key card system that you find in hotels today for their crew cabins, but some have actual metal cabin keys. As a fly-on, I occupy a cabin that was occupied by another fly-on a few nights before I get on and will be occupied by some other fly-on when I get off. Since this cabin on this ship only has one metal key, and comics aren't the most responsible folk in the world, sometimes these keys get misplaced. Sometimes on the ships the policy is that the fly-on act leave the key on the desk and the door unlocked. Unfortunately, the cabin stewards who clean the cabin and make the beds out of habit will lock the door afterwards. That is what happened yesterday. When I get to my cabin I just want to unpack and take a little nap usually. I was stuck waiting in the hallway hoping that the housekeeping guy who I talked to on the phone understood that I needed him to come down and unlock my cabin.
Well, it was a very good thing I was waiting in the hallway. There are two types of fly-ons. One type is the stand-up comic, the other is the variety act. The variety act is a juggler, magician, or music act usually. Most of the family shows on ships consist of one comic with one variety act. I work as both, sometimes I do the whole show myself, sometimes I am the juggler working with the comic and sometimes I am the comic working with the variety act. This is really fun for me, because when I am on as the variety act I have the unique priviledge of getting to see and work with the other comics, something they don't get to do, and when I am on as a comic, I get to work with and see what the other variety acts are doing. Among the best variety acts on Carnival are the Zunigas. The Zunigas are a legendary Mexican circus family who are amazing jugglers. Three of them work for Carnival, each with solo acts. There is Uncle Manny, Manny Jr., and Victor. These guys are my heros. I love working with them because aside from being fantastic jugglers, they are really funny and crowds love them. While I was waiting in the hall for my cabin to be unlocked, out of an adjacent cabin came both Manny Jr. and Victor. Manny Jr. is on the Celebration and they were also docked in Nassau so he came over to have a juggling workout with his brother Victor. If I hadn't been waiting for my cabin to be unlocked, I wouldn't have even ran into them. They invited me up to work out with them. My cabin was unlocked soon after and I changed and took my props up to the stage. Juggling with these guys was such a rare treat. We spent a few hours trying to show each other up on the stage. The brothers are very competetive in a fun way. I'm not terribly competetive, but I do try to make sure that folks out on these ships understand that I am a real juggling act, not just a comic who juggles a little to try to pick up some extra work. At one point Manny and I were both juggling seven balls while Victor was juggling seven rings. That workout hardly ever happens on land, let alone on a ship. I juggled way too much. Both of the Zuniga brothers are older than me, but they are thick chested and muscular. After our workout, my arms felt like they were ready to fall off. I took my nap and woke up really sore. It was totally worth it.
After the Super Bowl tonight, Victor and I are doing the family show and I will do the R-rated show at midnight after that.
tommy on 02.03.08 @ 10:44 AM CST [link] [No Comments]