2016…the year of Emcee “X”


Mic check 1…2, is this thing on?

It’s no secret that the year 2016 went down in history as one of the craziest years with all of the celebrity deaths followed by a Donald Trump presidency. Even my personal life was dramatically affected by the wrath of 2016. It’s easy to wanna flip last year the bird, but I am trying to stay positive.

Just a couple of weeks ago, it felt like hell must have frozen over because I crossed over from DJ to Emcee. It’s one thing to hop on the mic once in a while to announce a drink special, but it’s a much different experience hosting the CityWalk “Live at the Lagoon” dance party. I don’t think that’s the official name, but it sounds legit.

I was scheduled to cover for the regular host, MC Ernie B, and to be perfectly honest, I was sort of freaking out. For days, I was thinking about what to say for an introduction and how to keep the crowd engaged for 4 hours. In my living room, I practiced with my own kids to see how they reacted to all my shenanigans. While home alone, I practiced a few lines to an empty room (except for my dog who probably thought I was crazy). I also spent a couple of long nights jotting down notes of things I wanted to say, or contests I wanted to play to engage the audience. In the nights leading up to the event, my subconscious was preparing me for my first job as a show host.

December 27, 2016 finally arrived and in the words of MC Ernie B, it was time to “show out.” Thankfully, he sent me a few highlights for the intros! Here is a rundown of how it all went down.

7:30 PM – Introduction to the show…That went pretty well. I remembered all my talking points, remembered the names of the bars, and gave the proper shout outs. To my surprise, there were quite a few people at the show from the very beginning so I had to nail it!

7:57 PM – I wasted no time giving away prizes. Since it’s a theme park, I asked people to bring me items like, gift shot receipts, restaurant napkins, cups, etc. and the first to show me the item, won.

Following those two acts, I was feeling pretty good about what the rest of the night had in store. We ended up having a hula hoop contest, playing Coke and Pepsi, doing line dances, and of course, we had a dance competition.

We played enough games to balance the night out between the live mixing and the crowd interaction, so all in all, I call it a success. In fact, it went so well that I’d do it again if I had to; oh wait, I DO have to on January 14, 2017! Check it out!