Just a Little More Detail

I want to write a little more detail about The Night of Laughter. Since it was an all consuming part of my life for the past several weeks it seems unfair to minimize it in past tense to a couple of lines in my blog.

Everything went fairly well except for a few unforeseen situations. For one thing, the childcare situation was a bit slim. The ladies who were attending the event were supposed to sign up the number of children they were bringing as well as their ages. Over 100 children were signed up and yet there were only a handful of workers. Not only that but their were many parents who completely neglected to sign up at all and there were several men who were attending the men’s ministry meeting who assumed they could use the childcare as well. This just wasn’t the case and some people were turned away because of it. I feel that there was certainly a lack of communication that needs to be remedied for the next event.

Another thing was the amount of people we planned for. Each year the event has grown but never has it more than doubled. Last year was a big hit and word got out that the Night of Laughter was more than just a few jabs at the church staff and some campfire and bathrobe skits. We have legitimate comedy happening here folks. Real funny stuff with some very talented performers. Last year we had 183 women in attendance and we felt certain that moving our event to the next larger room would be a great next step. However…with attendance exceeding our wildest imagination the gym was not nearly big enough for the activities we planned and slowly executed. I say slowly because each year the Night of Laughter involves food. The ladies are asked to bring a snack and drink…and then we all get in line and eat it. We added tables and more tables and more chairs and more tables and finally there was no room for more tables so tables were emptied of food containers that had already been pillaged and still the line went on, wrapping itself around the room in a terribly unorganized fashion. As we set out more chairs we would look at the line and realize it was not getting any shorter and we would set out more chairs. Finally the totals were in…425 was our count. And they all ate. We started our performance a bit late due to the length of the line.

The performance itself had a few glitches as well. Some of our ladies don’t know the value of keeping the microphone close to their mouths and it was hard to hear some of the lines. some of our performers were a little slow getting on stage…some just didn’t know when to get off. Two of our sketches were somewhat based on add libbing and keeping a natural appearance to their roles…this was good…they pulled it off…but they wouldn’t stop! I was in the back at the sound board and I wanted to whisper in their ears…”you’re doing great, but half of these women have babies crying in the nursery and they need to go home sometime before midnight!” They didn’t know until later how late they had gone and unfortunately we had to cut two of our last three acts in order to allow our audience to leave around 9:30. I felt terrible about cutting my sister Becky’s act. She had a monologue that I think would have been a hit. She had worked very hard and shown up to rehearsals and done everything asked of her, only to have it cut at the last minute. She is so busy and has three kids and one on the way so I know this felt like days of wasted time and energy to her. I will find a way to make this up to her I guarantee it.

I was amazed at the tolerance of our crowd. They were not only polite about our long show…they were supportive. There were some who just had to leave and I could not blame them a bit…there were so many however, who stayed and cheered and gave standing ovation to our crew at the end. They have been coming to me ever since asking to be a part of things next year, telling me how much they needed the laughs and generally patting me on the back. I’m an affirmation freak so I eat this up.

We learned a lot and definitely will plan on using a larger room (the sanctuary) more childcare workers, a more detailed performance plan, and no food next year. I’m looking forward to it.