Cruising with Dueling Pianos

I’m doing a Dueling Piano show on a cruise ship out of Barcelona for a few weeks. I only met my other two partners the night before we were signing on. One of the guys is a vet of about 8 years, and is super nice. The other is a younger kid with about 3 or 4 years under his belt and a great attitude. Actually, I think we all have a great attitude. I don’t mean to gush, but this particular gig is a real privilege to work. You get to travel through Italy and Spain on one of the largest ships on the water, get well taken care of, have sound and light guys, great equipment and audiences that are on vacation and are already predisposed to having fun. All of that, and you get paid.

So far we’ve played 2 shows, both of which have gone well. I was pleased to discover that both of my partners have solid shows and are very supportive on stage. The audience this week is somewhat older, averaging 45-55 years old, and this bunch isn’t very energetic, but they give us love in a reserved way. 

The first show that we played we had very little time to do a sound check as the room was in use until 45 minutes before our show began, and the techs wanted to wait for a third tech to come and help them move the pianos. Then there was a problem getting one of the wireless mics to work, and so we rushed through a sound check in 10 minutes and it just wasn’t enough time.

The following day we helped the techs move the pianos onto the stage, and got right into the sound check, as we already knew what the problems were the night before and could tell the techs exactly what we wanted to change. By the time the sound check was over, the monitors were perfect, and I was really pleased with this.

During my first break, while my partners were up on stage, I was working with one of the techs and we were able to get the main room sound just about perfect as well.

Our schedule on the ship is 4 nights on followed by 3 nights off. Tonight is my second night off, and I’m about to go out and check out some of the other entertainment on the ship.