IMMORTALIZED - Michael Jackson The Immortal World Tour by Cirque Du Soleil

Chapter 5: I Think We're Finally Getting A Hang On This Whole Tour Thing

November 26, 2011 - December 1, 2011
Salt Lake City and Las Vegas

It was a rainy afternoon, so there was going to be no going outside today. We were staying at the Hotel Marriot, which according to Hotels.com, is notorious for their heated, clean and nicely decorated pool. The reviews rave about it. As we checked in, the man at the desk said that there was a large box for me. “Is it a large black hard rolling box with the word “School” painted in white on the side?” I asked. “I think so.” He replied. “Yep, it’s ours.” The man went behind a closed wall and came out of another door into the lobby wheeling the school case. “Great, not that again.” Marcell said. “Cry about it.” Ryan said. I thanked the man and we went up a few floors to find our rooms. We weren’t sure who had already got in, so we didn’t go looking for people.
    We spent about an hour getting settled into the rooms, changing into swimming trunks before heading down to this notorious pool. I was very surprised as we arrived. The indoor pool room was neatly decorated with plants and exotic decor. Sticking my hand in the pool, the water was comfortably warm. Glancing over to a corner of the room is a hot tub, hidden by a few fake trees. I could tell this was going to be very comfortable.
    We were down in the pool about four and spent right up until 5:30 hanging around the pool. Tara stopped by, figuring we were there to say Hi. She just wanted to make sure we got in okay. “Remember to be at the arena at one tomorrow for some re-staging. Wear comfortable clothes!” She reminded us. “Great, more rehearsals.” Adrian grunted. “How about we go find something to eat?” I asked. “Yeah, I’m getting kind of hungry. Didn’t we pass a Pizza place down the street on the way in?” Ryan asked. “Yeah, I saw that too, wanna try it?” I asked. The boys shrugged. So we proceeded to get out of the pool, dry off, go up to our rooms and get changed. I gathered everyone in the hallway and we tried to find this Pizza Place we saw on our way in.
    It was farther than we had anticipated. It was nearly four blocks away from the hotel, but when we arrived, the smell attracted us. “That is how Pizza should smell.” Ryan said upon entering this scented Pizzeria. We were seated by an older waitress who immediately took our drink orders. We agreed on getting a Pepperoni Pizza then a smaller cheese Pizza. I ordered and within minutes our food was out. “That was really fast!” I exclaimed as she put the tray down on our table. She just smiled at me.
    We ate the pizza in near silence. It was really good. And we’re in Salt Lake City. The official Pizza city is on the other side of the country. Afterwards, being Saturday night, a lot was going on in the warm night city. We explored a night festival going on in a plaza for about an hour, listening to the music and visiting the different opened shops before returning to the hotel. I had the boys going to bed about 10:30 that way they could get up a little earlier than normal. I wanted them to get as much homework done as possible before we headed to rehearsal.
    Ryan and I woke the boys up around nine in the morning, asking them to get up and get ready to do some schoolwork. They didn’t like it but they got up anyway. By 9:30, we were all inside of the room Leo and I shared on our laptops starting our schoolwork for the week. I started with Math and Science to get it over with. I really don’t like those subjects. I don’t do well in them, as in I don’t get the objectives but I do all my work for my best effort which landed me my good grades. We worked on school until Noon, in which we knocked out just about half of all of our work for the week. Adrian and Leo, being in the same grade, do not have Math this week, instead, they have a large science project to do. They have to do a research project based on some Biologist, make a powerpoint on it and write a research paper. They then have to present the powerpoint to us, Tara and the teacher via skype on Thursday morning before we fly to Las Vegas.
    Before heading to the arena for rehearsals, we stopped at a local Panera Bread for lunch. I’ll admit it. I’m a Panera virgin. But it was delicious! I’ve never tasted Franchise food so good! Luckily, it was right next door to the arena, so we just walked across the street and to the back door of the EnergySolutions Arena. We walked in the door, signed in and followed the arrows taped on the floor to the main stage, where we always meet first when we have to do rehearsals. We made a quick stop in the dressing rooms, already set up to drop our things off and head into the actual arena. Cherylie and Tara made some quick remarks on the days events and we went straight into it.
    We started by creating and rehearsing the transition between Wanna Be Startin’ Something and Dancing Machine. They just added an extension onto Desiree’s Guitar Solo Opening. When they realized they needed more time than just that, they are having us do some air guitar with Desiree. See, in normal Cirque Shows, they have clowns. Since this is a Michael Jackson show, it wouldn’t really make sense to have clowns in the show, so the five Fanatics were born. This is our little time to try to be funny in the show. It’s our forty seconds of getting the audience to laugh while some of the cast changes costumes backstage. Once we worked a bit with that, a lot of it is improvisation, we moved onto the next part which is adding Adrian, Marcell and Leo into the Smooth Criminal Bridge. The Cirque Technicians were hard at work the night before adding the pegs into the floor of the stage. Because of the size of the younger boys, trying to make them all look the same size on stage, staging needs to be a bit different. First off, for the pre-chorus, Adrian and Leo are on the far edges of the stage, one on each side. Ryan and I remain on the edge of the BBQ deck, on each side of the steps. Marcell has been added in between us. There is about five feet in between each one of us. When the chorus hits, Ryan and I go down one step, Marcell stays where he is and Adrian and Leo join the larger group on the center of A-Stage. When it’s time to get on the steps for the lean, Leo, Adrian and Marcell all go to the third step, while Ryan and I go down to the second. After the lean, when we do the dance, all the dancers usually make their way to the floor of the A-Stage. Now, the farthest Leo and Adrian go down are to the first step, and Marcell to the second step in order to make the audience look like we are all the same height. At the end of the song, when Felix Cane, the pole dancer shoots us, the boys do not join for the Dangerous Scene. Ryan and I get to rip off Felix’s Smooth Criminal Costumes and throw them during the process onto the A-Stage. Adrian and Marcell’s job is to get the pieces of the clothing and take them off stage along with Leo. That is the end of that scene for them.
    The only part that is changed after this is the Gone Too Soon act which is being cut. Now, we go directly from Scream to TDCAU. In which it is the same transition except while the Privacy interlude is starting, the mat from Scream is still being folded on B-Stage. It was a quick re-stage. Afterwards, we did the entire show... with costumes, which lasted until about seven, then we were dismissed for the night. We were told there would be no rehearsal tomorrow morning, so feel free to enjoy the morning off. “See you at six tomorrow night everyone!” Cherylie said.
    We relaxed around the hotel for the night, mainly playing video games. No matter how many video games I play, I still suck at them. I am illiterate when it comes to them. We weren’t up too late though. I think I got them to settle around 9:30, let them watch TV and such. At 10:15, I went into Adrian and Marcell’s room. “Time for bed, TV Off.” I said, entering the room. “Can we finish watching this?” Adrian asked. Looking at the TV, it was American Dad, the same episode I remember we watched a few nights before break. “I remember this one, we’ve watched this before. Time for bed.” I said again. “Ugh.” He replied. “C’mon, tomorrow we have the first re-staged show here and then before the end of the week, we get to live on the Las Vegas Strip for an entire month!” I exclaimed, trying to get them pumped. I was actually really excited.
    The following morning, I got the boys up at nine so they could maybe even finish their schoolwork for the week. As normal, they all filled up in my room to try their best for the day, but this time in Salt Lake City. I spent a lot of time helping Adrian and Leo with their project while Ryan tried to help Marcell with his french. The boys were picking up basic phrases very well. Ryan and I tried to finish the last bits of our work but was cut short because we had to help the others.
    We ended at noon, which gave us tons of time to go out and explore this city. It was a bright, warm and sunny day, perfect for exploring. When I officially ended school for the day, I sent the boys to get ready. Leo was the first in the shower in my room, a way to make sure that he is ready. While I was not getting ready, I was in the other room making sure that the boys were all getting ready for the day. Ryan and I are usually the last ones to get ready so we can be sure that the other boys are getting ready and all settled before we leave. We don’t do procrastination.
    The area we are staying at here in Salt Lake City is pretty nice. I don’t think we’re in the touristy part of the city, but it’s very nice. It’s clean, it’s not too shabby. I could live here. The shops and little tiny restaurants along the avenues seem that they are open with a smiling faces, which led us into several stores. One sunglasses store, a home remedies store AND a chocolate store. I got white chocolate fudge for the first time in my life. I had never of been happier.
    I think the best thing we saw in Salt Lake City was see the Clark Planetarium in which we bought tickets to visit the show inside. It was very cool! Living in cities for the past long while, we don’t get to see the stars as you would normally, so to say in the woods. It’s something that I realized I have really missed.
    When we went back to the hotel to catch the shuttle to work, I changed out of my stylish clothes and into some shorts and a t-shirt. I like to be comfortable when I go to work. On the shuttle, it was a buzz of support staff, dancers, acrobats and musicians, all talking amidst each other in order to gain a perspective on the nights show. Reminding each other about changed parts. Hopefully, tonight will all go well.
    As we arrived, we all signed in on the piece of paper, nodding and saying our Hello’s to ‘Bernie’, as we learned her name. She’s the woman always sitting next to the check in paper. I don’t know what her job is and I’ve spent many nights trying to think of what else I’ve seen her do. As I sat at my makeup stand, looking in the mirror, applying my makeup for the first time in a few days, I thought about where this job has brought me. Being home for the few days, the real only meaningful thing I saw about it was seeing my cousins for their birthday. Other than that, I sat at home the entire time. Maybe I won’t go home for the next break. Maybe a real vacation? I think I deserve one of those.
    After putting the makeup on my eyes, Tara gathered all in the Smooth Criminal scene (over the intercom) and we went onto the stage and rehearsed the re-staged version one last time before tonight. Of course we didn’t do the lean since we didn’t have the shoes so we just sat there and purposely tried to be as awkward as possible. Once that was finished, we had to get off the stage and close the curtains as they were to begin bringing audience into the arena. Right as we were backstage, right behind the main stage, we heard the buzz of the audience taking their seats. Ryan and I then proceeded back into the dressing room to get our costumes on. One the five of us fanatics had our clothing on, we took a group ‘selfie’ in our costumes, with our characters personality. Adrian did the same thing and his picture came out relatively better than mine, just because of our facial expressions.
    The show went really well! The only problem I had this show, since there usually is a problem each show, was that during “Beat It”, one of my shoes came off as I got out of the penny loafer, leading me to take off my other shoe and throw it in the penny loafer and did that segment without any shoes. As I came down on one of the lifts from A-Stage, one of the understage technicians were right there with both shoes, handing them to me. “Be careful next time.” He told me. “Sorry, one just kind of came off, and then I had to take the other one off so it wouldn’t look weird.” I explained. “Just don’t do it again.” He said sternly. He’s the evil one, so we say.
    After we bow, Ryan and I have a tendency of jumping off the stairs instead of using them to get down. It’s our style and nobody copies it. As we go around the sides of the stage, and meet back up on the other side. “One show down, two to go.” I said to the boys. We proceeded to our routine. We slowly went back to the rooms, took off our costumes, washed off our makeup, used the bathroom and gathered our things to go back to the hotel. With the few revisions we made, the show ends about twenty minutes earlier. I think that’s because of the cut of two songs, a transition and we actually started on time tonight. We usually don’t start until 8:10 because of some technical difficulties. But now that the tree is gone, and the crew call is a half an hour prior to when it was, things are moving a lot more efficiently. Instead of the show ending a little after eleven, now it ends about quarter of eleven, letting us leave a little after eleven, before a lot of the audience is even out of the building.
    One thing that really intrigues me is that on the shuttle going back to the hotel, we pass dozens of people, many with show shirts, dressed in MJ clothing, some with programs still waiting outside of the arena. They have no idea who just passed them in a van. On the way back, people seemed a bit more awake than normal, but still tired. Marcell still rested his head against my arm. I could tell the boys were tired. They have like a sensor in them. They’re awake on stage, and at work. They can be totally alert, aware and awake while at the arena, but the minute we take that step to go out to the hotel, they just crash. I’m not saying they can’t walk, but all of a sudden I can tell by their eyes and their facial expressions how tired they really are. They go from professional dancers back to tired little boys.
    I kept the midnight bedtime, regarding of the earlier we get back. I figured that would give them some more time to be up, contact home, watch TV and get some ‘free time’ before I make them go to bed. Then again, if they fall asleep prior to midnight, it’s their decision. I’m not going to keep them up. They can decide that. I like to give them as much freedom as I think they can handle. Bed time is not one of those free decisions. When I say they need to turn off the TV and go to bed, they do. I think they know, just like Ryan and I know that if we don’t enforce it, they will stay up all night. I know it at too well from the first few weeks of rehearsals.
    The following morning, I started school before the boys so I could get as much done in order to help them the older two with their project and help with their french. For some reason, both Madame Gagné and Tara has told us that we are going to need it soon, hence Ryan and I’s refresher lesson we had this week. They won’t tell us why though. By starting early, I was able to finish all of my work an hour into the ‘school hours’ for the day, which I proceeded to help Marcell with his French. Ryan took the time to help the boys with their project. No offense, but I am much better at French than Ryan, and he is much better at science than I am, so it was a good fit.
    By the time we had finished school, all homework was done but a bit Leo and Adrian had to do for their project, which can be completed tomorrow morning. We had plans to attend. Since it was a bit cool today, we put on hoodies and went to visit a local fair that was open. It was a carnival fair with all of the rides. Together with the five of us, Tara, Desiree, Shondra, Gianinni, Leeco, Mike, Pom, Tina, Baaska, Marissa (dresser) and Cherylie, we went and spent four hours at this carnival riding the rides, playing the games and attempting to eat the food. I went to buy a Fried Dough, but Tara stopped me. She said I had to say it with at least one other person, I couldn’t have it by myself because it was too much ‘shit’ for my body to handle at first. “Do you want some of it then?” I asked. “Sure.” She replied quickly. I think I was fooled. I think she just wanted half of my fried dough.
    When we left the carnival, we walked back to the hotel, took the shuttle to the arena and ate a quick dinner in the green room. It was a basic Paninni stand, not the best I’ve had, but edible. I wouldn’t eat it again though. Luckily during tonight’s show, we didn’t have any shoe problems. I didn’t have any real big problems. I had to run to the bathroom during one of my changes that made everything else have to happen incredibly fast. Another highlight of the night was during intermission where we had a scare of a fire drill that led everyone backstage only (which was weird) outside, some of us still in costume. Leo had tweeted “If this really is a fire, the audience is screwed.” They never did evacuate the patrons nor told us what was going on, but many people on twitter favorited the tweet.
    As the next day progressed, it went on as normal, except we did not have a transfer immediately after the last show here tonight. Tomorrow will be our first day plane transfer in almost a month. It’ll be nice being able to see out of the window as we fly into Vegas. I spent the morning inside of the room helping Leo and Adrian with their projects. Marcell not having any other work was resting in the other room. I made sure they had no spelling mistakes, and they had me read through their essays so they could make sure that they were clear before they sent them via email to Madame.
    The day was quiet and calm. We spent a few hours at the pool, another hour at the gym and another hour at the park before having to head for work. At work, we completed the third and last re-staged show in Salt Lake City. As we left, with the boys oddly more awake than normal, I posted on Facebook “Done with Salt Lake City, off to Las Vegas for a month tomorrow!”
    Back at the hotel, I tried getting the boys to calm down a bit earlier. “C’mon Adrian, you and Leo have presentations at nine tomorrow morning before the flight, you need to get a good nights rest. I’m waking you up at 8:15, remember? That’s only like nine hours of sleep.” I told him. He really didn’t want to go to bed half an hour before their normal bedtime, but neither did Leo or Marcell, but it was happening whether they like it or not. Back in my room, as Leo went to bed in the dark side of the room, I stayed up on my laptop doing some work for some upcoming Masterclasses Ryan and I are doing in Las Vegas. It’s a teens only class that we were approached to do by the publicist of the tour who know a few people in Vegas. Before long, I was asleep like the others.
    The morning came. I crawled out of bed and into the shower. I was out of the shower around 8:10 and slipped on shirt, shorts and did my morning routine, just faster. I ended up waking up Leo, Adrian and Marcell around 8:20. Five minutes can make a difference, because then the boys stress about being late and it’s a whole load of confusion. People were in and out of our room getting their presentations all set, putting on somewhat nicer clothes. They wanted to impress Madame Gagné. Around 8:50, Tara entered our room for the presentation. She took a seat at one of the desks while Leo and Adrian rushed around. I’m not sure what they were doing since their presentation was already on the computer. Apparently they were printing out notes and keys that they needed to talk about.
    About 8:55, Tara answered the skype call to Madame. This was the first time any of the younger boys were seeing her face. Ryan and I had talked to her via skype a few days ago so we’ve actually seen her. She is really nice, very funny. She’s really easy and laid back to work with too. She tries to only speak to us in French. We’re getting better, but still have a ways to go.
    When the presentation started, the boys seemed nervous. I was sitting behind the camera mouthing to them to calm down. ‘She’s not even here, it’s just me, Ryan and Tara’, I whispered but mostly mouthed to them. After they calmed down, they did an awesome ten minute presentation. At the end, after Adrian said “The End”, Madame said “Great! Let me grade your papers and I’ll post the project grade by the end of the day. Good job guys.” She said, speaking to them in French mainly because they just started. “So I’m looking forward to seeing you guys!” She said. This confused us. “Are you coming to visit?” I asked. “No, you guys are coming here...” Madame Gagné said. “I haven’t told them yet...” Tara told her. “Oh.” She replied. We looked at Tara confused. “Well then, I’ll talk to you guys soon. Good job Leo et Adrian!” She said, hanging up from skype. “What’s going on?” Ryan asked Tara. “Well, I was going to tell you this when we get to Vegas, but your next Vacation might be cut short.” She said. “Why?” I asked. “We and your teacher are hoping that you can go up to l’ecole Nationale De Cirque and spend a few days there with the students as well as complete a few lessons with Madame Gangé in an actual classroom with other students.
    The five of us were no stranger to what the L’ecole Nationale De Cirque was. In english, it’s the National Circus School. It is a professional circus school that focuses main circus elements such as dance, acrobatics, manipulation, flexibility and aerobics. It has a professional college level program but also has a program for kids ages 9-13 and then a High School Study program where students spend half the day doing academics and the other half their circus skill. Many students are boarders, which mean they live at the school. Tara explained to us that they wanted us up there to work with the dance and acrobatic students. She said that we had to decide for ourselves since it would happen during our break in the end of January. We had a few days to decide.
    After the presentation, we rushed around to pack up our things so we could catch the bus. We hadn’t even packed, and the bus was leaving at 10:00. I rushed to pack up my things, close up the school case and get everything into the hallway. It was a big rush, but made it down just as Cherylie said that if we were any later, we’d be in trouble.
    We got onto the plane to Las Vegas. The flight was only supposed to be a little longer than an hour. We had no schoolwork to work on, I had no real work to do so I put away my laptop, which I usually use when I’m on the plane and listened to music and was sociable for the plane. I spent a lot of time talking to Davi, one of the female dancers on the tour. I also briefly talked to the other boys about if we wanted to do the school visit in Montreal over the break. A good point that Leo brought up was that since there's no school for them on Saturday or Sunday, and since we start break on Monday, if we were to stay for half of our break, maybe until Thursday in Montreal then fly home and spend Friday, Saturday and Sunday at home. It seemed reasonable. We continued to think on this idea.
    We landed in Vegas about one in the afternoon. Once again, Adrian was filming this, because this was big. Our month long stay in Vegas connected with the official Estate endorsed Michael Jackson Fan Fest. Plus, what other time do you get to live on the strip and perform on a nightly basis on the strip? The only bad thing about this was that most nights we have to work, we will be doing two shows. Thirty one shows in twenty one days. Plus, we have two shows on Christmas! This is taking ‘working on Christmas’ to an entire new level.
    We actually got our bags right off of the plane and then had to walk through the airport with the public to get to the bus. This was brand new to us. And this was everyone on the tour, so close to two hundred people following the group of airport personnel. We couldn’t take the tram because it would take too long with two hundred people, so we had to walk quite a bit, up an escalator, through the baggage claim area and onto our eight buses parked outside. On the bus, they did a very quick attendance and we proceeded into the main part of Las Vegas.
    Once again on the bus, they relayed another message onto us about another change in the show. We have a brief rehearsal on Saturday for this. Now, the order is changed. It used to be Wanna Be Startin Somethin, Dancing Machine, Ben, Gangster Medley and then the Jackson 5 Medley and Mime Segment. Now it goes Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin, Jackson 5 Medley, Dancing Machine, Ben, Gangster Medley and Mime Segment. Their would be a quick rehearsal for this on Saturday morning at 9:00AM sharp!
    While driving through the strip, Tara and Cherylie came up to the five of us. “Okay, so I know you guys kind of figured out that you will be rooming together for the stay here.” Cherylie said. “Yea, Tara spilled the beans.” I replied. “So you guys have given up a lot coming on this tour, and we really appreciate it. Regardless, you guys have virtually given up a chunk of your childhood.” Cherylie added. We nodded. “Well, to make this stay a little bit better, we did some special things for you guys regarding your stay here.” She told us. This should be interesting.
    “We put you guys up in a five bed suite. It’s only two bedrooms and you’ll only have twin sized beds, but it’s like a little apartment.” Cherylie told. “Cool!” Marcell exclaimed. “We also did a few things to the room to make it seem a bit more Christmasy. There should be a small Christmas Tree in the room, and the resort said they were going to do a few more things for you guys too.” Cherylie added. “Plus, we were able to get you access to the resorts beach... which is open year round.” Tara added. “But we did have to do some restrictions because you’re in Vegas.”
    “First off, the mini bar, the booze in the room is gone. Next, you guys know you can’t go into any of the Casino’s, or gamble. You get caught, you will be escorted off the premises.” Tara concluded. “We don’t drink nor gamble.” Ryan told them.
    When the buses pulled into the Mandalay Bay Resort, we were immersed in its majority. The complex is huge, and we only saw a brief part of it. Looking at a map as we got inside, we were amazed by the campus this resort is on. Cherylie brought us up to the counter first to get us checked in. It was an easy Check In, just giving us our five room keys and having a bellhop escort us up to our room. Being that we are staying in one of the suits, we are separated from the rest of the people on tour who are staying in normal hotel rooms. I kind of felt bad.
    We took an elevator up to the 20th floor of the tower, very close to the top, followed the bellhop down a short hallway to the room 1500. “Your room.” He said with a smile. I thanked him and handed him a few singles. He thanked me and left. Before I could turn around, the door was already flung open the boys were inside. Remarkable. Speechless. I wasn’t expecting more nor anything less. It was perfect. A kitchen, a small dining room, a small living room, two bedrooms, one with two twin size beds and another with a twin sized beds and bunk beds. A note sat on the dining room table. It was a fancy note that was labled with all of our names on the front. It was written in gold. We flipped it open. It read: “Boys, hope you enjoy your stay here in the X3 Suite. If you need anything, feel free to call us by pressing ‘0’ on the telephone. On behalf of the staff, Happy Holidays!”
    Ryan and I immediately took over the private room with two twin beds. Well, they’re bigger than twins, but smaller than what we are used to. Marcell was given the top of the bunk bed. Leo and Adrian are smart. They don’t want to have to climb out of the bed, literally. They’d rather just have to reach over and touch the floor. So in a way, Marcell was screwed.
    We really got settled in the room since we’ll be here for another twenty eight days. This is the longest place we’ve stayed in since Ottawa during the creation period. But getting settled didn’t take us long. We wanted to check out this beach. So we changed into some beach clothes and followed the signs down to the entrance. We scanned our room keys to get in, walked through an outdoor pavillion filled with rentals, food and services, turned a corner to the left and saw this sanded area with large pool filled at the other end. Again, total shock.