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

Chapter 9: Hard Goodbye's, Storm's Birthday and A New Kid?

December 26, 2011 - January 25, 2012
Las Vegas, Phoenix, Boise, Denver, Various Californian Cities and Los Angeles

   The following morning, I let the boys sleep until around eleven. I then went into their room, where everyone was still asleep and turned on the lights and opened up the curtains on the windows AND said “Let’s go. Time to get up.” They all awoke immediately, but Adrian and Leo quickly threw their heads back down on the pillows. “Je commence petit déjeuner maintenant, et nous étudions à l'école dans une heure.” I said, walking out of the room, closing the door behind me. I heard some mumbles which was probably one of the boys translating.
    Ryan stayed in bed a bit. He wasn’t feeling too hot, so I simply made some waffles and set those, some butter, maple syrup and juice on the counters. It’s a self serve kind of morning. The first out of the room was Marcell and Chase, taking seats on the couch. “That smells good.” Chase commented. “Thanks.” I replied. I looked over at Marcell, slouching on the couch. “What time did you guys go to bed?” I asked. Marcell shrugged. “Ask Leo, wake yourself up or I’ll give you a nasty energy shot.” I told him.
    Everything eventually stumbled out of the room, hair twisted, tired eyes, clinging to the table. They sat down and dug into the waffles as if they hadn’t eaten in years. “I’m not sure what you guys wanna do. You’re more than welcome to hang out here with us, but Adrian, Marcell and Leo need to do their schoolwork. “Can they stay?” asked Leo. “As long as you’re not distracted.” I answered. Ryan came stumbling out of the room. “I don’t know what I ate, but I feel godforsaken awful.” He said. “Well, you’re parents are at the point where they’re calling me now, so call them.” I told him.
    After breakfast, I had the boys sit down at the table and they started their schoolwork for the week. Madame Gagné gave us a light amount of work for the week, as her Christmas Present to us. “Merci.” The boys told her. I focused on getting as much schoolwork as I could done for the week, which resulted in me doing science and math in just a tad less than three hours, officially ending the ‘school day’ at 2:30. Now with three hours left, we decided to hit the beach, altogether with our guests. It’s something they hadn’t done yet and it was a lot of fun showing them it. It was a lot of lounging, but it was fun. On our way out of the beach, I posted on Facebook: “Leaving Las Vegas in less than 48 hours. Been here way too long! Onto Phoenix on Wednesday!”
    For these two shows, as well as the two shows the following night, our last two shows in Vegas, our guests only came to the last one, the 10:00pm one on Tuesday since Tara was able to get them some free tickets as the show was starting. After our final show in Vegas, Tara asked them to meet us in the hotel, not backstage due to the fast paced it is packing up to move the show. The boys and I were cautious about leaving our MJ possessions in the makeup stands as they are packed away, but they fit and I didn’t want to have to carry the frame with me, so I made sure my case was locked up tight before putting it in the road case.
    This was also our final night in Vegas, and once again, as for every other night since Christmas Eve, Melissa, Chase and Jen are staying in the room. “I’m waking you guys up at nine so we can be on the bus at ten.” I said to the boys as I shut the door to their room, just a little over seven hours before I would awake them the next morning. I knew the boys were bumming. They were excited to FINALLY be leaving Vegas, but bummed to have to leave their families.
    The following morning, it was a pain to get them up. I ended up ‘confiscating’ Adrian’s blankets, Marcell’s pillow and nearly everything but the boy of Leo’s beds. Eventually, they were up and were packing to head out. Something I hadn’t seen since Christmas was Adrian filming. “It’s our departure from Vegas, after a month.” He explained to me. We packed up our things just like we do after every tour stop. Except I was throwing a lot of food out. Canned food wasn’t really needed in our future stops, nor was milk or fridged items, but a lot of snacks I stuffed into the school box. The three other kids in the room were quite shocked at how fast we were able to literally pack up our lives. They only had five days worth of things and it took them a good five or ten minutes longer to get all of their things together and zipper their suitcases. Outside of our room, we propped all of our things, getting it all ready to bring down to the lobby. At last, I checked every inch of the room, making sure nothing wanted was left and closed the door as the other waited for me outside. We split into two elevators and got all of our things down to the lobby. This is where the family of Ryan, Leo, Marcell and Adrian waited. They (and I) greeted them for the morning, but I rushed the boys to put their things in the buses, not get on, just put their things there.
    It was hard for me to watch. Them saying goodbye’s to their family. Looking at my phone, it was 9:58, which a strict 10:00 leaving time. Cherylie was looking at me but understood. The kids and I got in a few pictures before Cherylie really started staring me down. I walked over to the group. “Hey guys, you know I don’t mean to do this, but our Company Manager is giving me death eyes, which means that we really need to get on the bus.” I said. The group said their final final goodbye, before Ryan helped me usher the three to the bus. They turned and waved again before getting on the bus. I turned and waved too before getting on the bus. The boys specifically sat on the side closest to their families and waved and took pictures of them. I’m not entirely sure if they saw them, but both parties kept waving. Within a minute, the buses wheels were rolling. They kept an eye on their family until we turned and couldn’t see them any more. “Well thats just depressing.” Leo said gruntly. “Well, I printed you guys some work you gotta do, it’s a five hour drive, I suggest you do some of it.” I said. I had already planned working on mine.
    The ride was long, just because we hadn’t done one like it in a while. But I was so relieved to get out of Vegas, if we went to Guantanamo, that would even be exciting. I got the boys to do just about an hour’s worth of school before they finished. As I said, this week wasn’t going to be much. Adrian then went on to editing an update video for his vlog. Leo was looking up cool cars on the internet and Marcell actually slept, which surprised me. For Ryan and I, we were working on some Masterclass projects.
    We stopped at a quick rest area, a large rest area around noon and stayed there for maybe half an hour. I don’t know why we stopped, but we were held there for about a half an hour. We got to go out and sit at the picnic tables and on the walls next to the bathrooms. It smelt weird, but it was a nice day. Leo was texting his sister who was just about to get on the plane back to CT. No one in that party was happy to go back to snowy and cold CT. “Tell them it’s perks of being on tour.” I said. I’m pretty sure he wrote that too.
    We got into Phoenix around 3:30. It was still a very hot day, so hitting the pool was our deal. “We’ll go get settled in the rooms, then we’ll go to the pool.” I told them. They totally agreed. The hotel we were staying at is once again, very nice, very spacious too. I think they overdid it with the one too few many mirrors, but it was okay. We were back to normal sleeping arrangements, which meant Leo in with me, Ryan by himself and the Abiatelli’s sharing a room.
    The pool wasn’t bad either. It was clean, but a bit cold, so I secluded myself to the small part of the pool not covered by shade, and near quarter of five, I actually got out since there was no more sunlight hitting the pool. Thought it was good that this time, it was easier to get the boys out of the pool and into regular clothing. Our hotel is two blocks away from the coolest looking Hard Rock Cafe that we passed as we pulled in. That was out motivation. With a Facebook status of “It’s another Hard Rock Cafe Night”, we headed over, sat at a table and listened to a local rock band jam out these awesome covers. “Where do we go next? The next couple of stops?” Marcell asked. The boys just go with the flow, and I’m lucky if they know two stops ahead. There have been times where they don’t know where the bus is headed. Hell, there have been times where they don’t even know what city they are in presently. In fact, I’ve had some moments like that too.
    “Let’s see, Phoenix, then Boise Idaho, then Denver and Sacramento. I don’t know after that. I know that from Sacramento all the way to our break at the end of January, we’re in California.” I told the boys. “When do we go to Orlando?” Leo asked. “Late February, I think.” I was right. We were all anticipating Orlando since it’s the entertainment capitol of the world. In fact, we were anticipating a few stops. Los Angeles, Orlando, Miami, New York, Hartford (Guess Why), Hershey, Washington DC, Boston and Mexico City. And that’s not even a third of our stops in the future tour.
    Once we left the Hard Rock Cafe, we walked back to the hotel. “Listen to me guys, I think that tomorrow, as much as you want to enjoy your day off, I think that tomorrow, you guys need a relaxing day. Then on Friday, before we go in for rehearsals, we can explore the city. You guys really need to rest.” I suggested. “But...” Adrian interrupted. “You need to rest. I can see in your eyes that you’re exhausted. We just did thirty one shows in a twenty four day period, you guys need to rest.” I told him. “No exceptions.” Ryan added. Ryan was on my side, he supported my decisions, mainly because he’s still not feeling too hot and didn’t want to listen or put up with anything. The tried arguing but it didn’t work. We were strict.
    The following morning, we did as planned. We let the boys sleep in as late as they wanted, which ended up being until about 11:30. Of course, this relaxation day was going to be a bit of a challenge for them since Ryan and I had both decided to do a complete French day, as Thomas suggested. We said “Bon Matin!” to them in the morning, and as they made them go to bed that night, we said “Bon Nuit!”. The day, we actually didn’t need to speak much. The boys laid in their rooms watching TV, played video games in each others rooms, and of course they spoke English to each other, Ryan and I had an upkeep of French.
    The following day, we had an upkeep of French in the morning and a bit while we went out too. While we explored the city, we didn’t actually talk to them in French, but we sort of quized them on things we saw. “Adrian, what’s that?” I would ask, pointing to a strip mall. “Centre-Commercial” he would answer. “Marcell, that is a what in french?” I said, walking by a movie theater. “Le Cinema.” He told me. “Bon!” I replied. “Leo, that is....?” I asked. We were walking by a grocery store. “Supermarché.” He told me. “Nice!”
    We explored the Phoenix area, going through a lot of touristy Native American, frontierland exhibits and attractions, taking pictures in front of things that look important and more. Before long, it was time to head to the arena. For this stop, the arena was too far to walk, so we had to meet the shuttle at the hotel and take the ten minute drive on that to the arena. Once arrived, around 4:30, we checked in and met the key people out on the stage. They wanted to rehearse Jackson 5, Beat It, TDCAU and Thriller. Simple enough. Rehearsals are always fun though, because it’s very laid back. We all know what we are doing.
    The most intense, which Marcell and Leo found hysterical was the TDCAU rehearsal because our resident Choreographer and Tara just nailed all of us. “Lift your legs higher!” “Jump Higher!” “Let’s go! I will bitch slap all of you!” Tara yelled. The other rehearsals were less tense, but TDCAU is probably one of the hardest, if not the hardest dance in the show due to its complexity and us having to do precise... very precise movements.
    At six, we started our normal show procedure. Looking at the clock, it felt weird doing it at six, not at five or at eight, but at the same time, it felt right. We haven’t done an 8:00 show in nearly a month, so we were happy to start it all over again. It didn’t need any getting used to. Our routine was actually on time now, we are getting our makeup done on time, stretching at normal times and going out into the audience at normal times. It felt right. It just felt right.
    By 9:30, we had hit intermission and were amidst it. The boys were fueled and ready for an awesome second half of the show. Ryan and I were calm, as normal, but motivated enough to be able to complete the second half. It’s all in the line of work. Being tired but staying motivated, especially in the show. Honoring the King Of Pop is what we do almost every single night.
    After the show, we were able to slowly and calmly take off all of our costumes, with no rush to get back to the hotel. As normal, the boys were fairly awake, but also getting to the point where they were on their way to sleep. Around eleven thirty, I got them onto the ferry which brought us back to the hotel. “Midnight, I’m coming in at midnight.” I said to Adrian and Marcell who headed to their room.
    Leo didn’t waste any time getting to bed. He quickly changed into some shorts, climbed under the covers and nailed his head to the pillow. Before I could get back from Adrian and Marcell’s room, he was asleep, even with the TV off. I didn’t turn it back on, I just went to sleep myself.
    The following night was New Years Eve. We had an awesome show, as usual, but after the show was even better. See, the show ends and we are usually out of there by 11:30. Instead, this time we stayed at the arena, went into one of their clubs and had a New Years Eve Party! It was late, but it was fun. We counted down the seconds until 2012 and when it hit, it was a parade of screams and cheers and more. Then again, during the show, I got a multitude of texts from friends wishing me a Happy New Year even though it was only 9:00 in Phoenix and I was just about to change into my Thriller Outfit. The party, the awesome food and of course, the dancing, lasted until three in the morning when everything settled down and we took a Taxi back. The shuttle can only hold thirty people and I didn’t want to have to wait for five shuttles to get back, so the five of us split a taxi to get back. It wasn’t much by splitting it.
    The following day, January 2nd, was my Birthday! I don’t like my Birthday really being celebrated but a few wishes here and there will do me good. This was our full day off in Boise, since we flew here from Phoenix here yesterday. I’ve never been to Boise, so when Ryan asked me where I wanted to go for dinner, I picked some random restaurant. He said ‘no’. “We got a few people together and we’re going out to a restaurant/bar place for your sixteenth.” He said. “You’re bringing me to a bar for my birthday?” I asked. “Sweet Sixteen brother, sweet sixteen.” He said.
    It was true. Around eight that night, after walking around and exploring Boise, we walked into this local and quite ‘hip’ bar to many people from the tour. Tara, Cherylie, Gianinni, Desi, Tina, Shondra, Pom, Mike, Tammy, Jossette, Joseph and a few more. It was a lot of fun! They got me a cake, a few of them got me gift cards, mainly Tara and Cherylie, some got me some cards, all in good fun. We hung out at this place for probably two hours before heading back to the hotel. It just so happened that as I got back to my room and unlocked the door, Leo ran in first. “What’s that?” He exclaimed, referring to the pretty large box sitting on my bed. Maybe a foot by a foot, and it was quite heavy too. Looking at the mailing tab, it had my name on it and was from my Mom.
    I cut open the box and flipped open the cardboard. Damn! The stuff in this box was amazing! Candy! Lot’s of Candy! A plethora of gift cards, each in gift card card envelopes from various people back home. I had a plethora of cards. In addition, I got some gag gifts like goo and peanut brittle snakes, but I got some good stuff too. I got a few nice shirts, a new pair of shoes, a lens for my camera and that was pretty much it. “This candy, we’re keeping to ourselves. Don’t tell anyone.” I told Leo, shutting the box and shoving it next to my suitcase in the corner of the room. I let the boys hang out in my room, which the video games were set up. I played on my computer while I watched the other few play video games. Before long though, it was bedtime and they knew it. When I fell asleep and woke up around 1:30, and they were still up playing, I didn’t scream at them, but told them how I was a bit disappointed, though didn’t care that they didn’t go to bed on their own. “C’mon, you guys should know this.”
    Seventeen days later, we were just getting off stage in Oakland, with a very quick transfer to San Diego right now. We quickly striped off our costumes, changed into some comfy clothes and nearly ran, well raced, back to the hotel, just a short five blocks. There was a shuttle offered, but most people, like the cast just walks for the exercise. Back at the hotel, most of our things are already packed, the school is all packed, our bags are all packed and all that was left for me to do was check Adrian and Marcell’s room to see if they’ve left anything.
    Downstairs, the bus was already there and the driver was already loadings things into the trunk of it. I helped him get the school case on it, but he insisted on doing the actual bags. With nothing to do outside the bus, we got right on the bus. Cherylie did attendance and by midnight, we were rolling away from the hotel and to the airport. By the time we arrived at the airport, Marcell, Adrian and Leo were asleep. “I am not carrying any of you. I’m way too tired. Get up.” I said, kicking Leo’s feet as he slouched in the seat. I tried, but they literally refused to get up. Absolutely refused. I don’t know what got into them. They were not this tired when we got onto the bus. “I can’t wait until the break, I’m telling their parents to just make them, force them to sleep for days on end.” I commented to Tara who was now also yelling at the boys. They were trying, they just could not physically get up. They looked so peaceful. “Here, I got this.” Gianinni said picking up Marcell and throwing him over his shoulder. Leeco took Adrian over his shoulder and Pom ended up picking up Leo. “I really love you guys.” I said to them. While waiting in line to get on the plane, I had to take a picture. I uploaded it to Facebook, tagging all three of them in it. “They’re really tired.” I wrote.
    Shocker. They slept the entire plane ride. Ryan and I were able to get them up long enough to walk themselves to the bus and then from the bus up to their rooms. Thank God for elevators. But once they hit the rooms, they were dead. I was surprised they even got their shoes off before climbing in there. “I wonder what made them so tired.” Ryan said to me out in the hallway. “Probably just everything catching up to them.” I said. The two of us said ‘night’ to each other and hit our own rooms.
    The following, our only day off was spent sleeping late into the morning, until eleven. With school already done for the week, we hit the beach. Yes, the beach in January. On January 20th, the five of us went with a boatload of other people to the beach for the afternoon, which was very much relaxing, and fun. I got an awesome Tan. I went swimming, and then flipped a shit when I couldn’t find Marcell. But it’s all good now. He was sitting amongst a crowd of people bigger than him.
    The following day, we walked around and explored the culture of this warm and welcoming city. I was wearing one of my Cirque T-Shirts for this day, so many people took notice. When we all went to work that night, Ryan and I were called via arena intercom to Tara’s office. It wasn’t anything we weren’t expecting. It’s happened before, but never about what we are about to talk about. We entered, and as usual we took a seat in the chairs in her makeshift office. “So guys, have another surprise and another job for you!” She said with a smile. “Last time you gave us another job, we were walking around a strip mall in costumes, dancing with people. And the time before that, you told us that we were going to parenting three kids. This should be interesting.” Ryan said. “Oh, it is.” She said, twisting her laptop so we could see her screen. On that screen, we saw a picture of a boy, younger than us. Looking closer, it was a Cirque Du Soleil profile. “Oh, not this again.” Ryan said, putting his hands up, getting out of his chair and leaving the office. “Joseph, get back here...now!” I yelled at him. “No! Parenting is your thing. I just help you. You deal with the new kid!” He said. I could hear his voice fading, so I knew he was walking away.
    That was exactly that. We were getting a new kid on tour. “His name is Elliot.” Tara said. “He’s from The National Circus School where we’ll be at the end of this month.” She said. “I don’t mean to sound rude, but why are we adding him to the tour?” I asked. “Because one of our dancers are leaving after LA and Cirque had the idea of adding another kid to the tour. It’s the last one, I promise.” She said. “We need some birth control in this company.” I joked. She laughed.
    “So what is he going to be put in?” I asked. “Well, he’s short, so we need to put him in strategically. He’ll be in Wanna Be Startin’ Something, Smooth Criminal, Thriller, Jam, They Don’t Care About Us, so it’s equal with Adrian, and in the Billie Jean Suits for Immortal Megamix. We are planning on having him bow with you, maintaining the ‘kid bow’.” She said. For the next ten minutes, she went into this whole spiel on who this kid was and his backstory. Tara was talking to Madame Gagné about adding another kid to the tour and jokingly asked if she had any ideas. “Indeed I do.” She said. She sent Elliot’s record to Tara who showed it to a few people. They were able to get a few videos and pictures of him before having Madame G approach him. After he and his parents talked to Tara, he was signed on locally at the National Headquarters in Montreal. According to Tara, he’s in what’s equivalent to the seventh grade age-wise in Montreal to the US, but is academically at an eighth grade level. He’s twelve, a year older than Adrian and Leo. In addition, his first language is French but he also speaks Spanish and English, English near fluently. “I want you guys to skype with him, call him, whatever.” She said, giving me a piece of paper with his phone number, email and Facebook username.
    I told Ryan out in the hallway and we agreed not to tell any of the other boys until tomorrow so they could focus on the show tonight. We did so. We had a complete show, successful for the San Diego Crowd, except for one thing. During TDCAU, the stairs didn’t pull out, forcing us to miss ‘The Drill’ part and march around (and keep in step) while walking down the back stairs backstage and onto the stage under the BBQ deck. We left the arena shortly after eleven, since we were able to get off our makeup and costumes very quickly. This way we all got a little more time to relax and wind down before going to bed. It didn’t help that the three of them sat in and listened to rap near the entire time, but getting to go to bed wasn’t much of a problem. “Remember, in less than a week we’ll be in Los Angeles and then shortly after that, you’ll be going home!” I told. Not sure if that would help them go to bed or not, but I figured it’d do something.
    The following day, we went and visited the local Hard Rock Cafe. Already this morning, I had talked to Elliot on Facebook. I friended him with a message the previous night and had a brief chat with him on Facebook. “I’m very excited!” He said. “Good! I’m glad! You’ll really like it here! It’s a lot of fun.” I said. So, at the table at the Hard Rock Cafe, I pulled out my phone and brought up his Facebook page. “Ok guys, I’m going to come right out and say this. There is another kid being added to the tour.” I told them. They got really excited and wanted to know more. “His name is Elliot. He’s from Sherbrooke, an hour out of Montreal. He’s twelve.” I explained. “Does he speak english?” Marcell asked. “His main language is French, but to my understanding he speaks near fluent english.” I explained. The boys were excited to meet him, excited to add him to our little touring family.
    I was already exhausted, but pumped at the same time. “Onto Los Angeles!” Cherylie screamed as we all left the stage on our way back to our dressing rooms. “Bus leaves at 12:15! Don’t be late!” She screamed again. “Yes boss!” Leeco said as he passed her. We were in an extremely quick transfer, but we all knew we weren’t going to get a lick of sleep tonight. We have a bus transfer to Los Angeles tonight, with an estimated arrival time of one in the morning. The Hand And FootPrint Ceremony is at ten in the morning, and we have an eight in the morning rehearsal, which means we’ll be getting maybe five or six hours of sleep tonight.
    Luckily, tonight, the boys didn’t fall asleep on the bus. I didn’t want them to since they wouldn’t want to get up again. I want them to get sleep, of course, but I didn’t want to carry them into the hotel. We all know what happens then. Ryan and I, and sometimes some other people end up carrying them.