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

Chapter 15: NYC Round Two, Rocking MSG!

April 2, 2012 - April 5, 2012
New York City

 At the hotel, we had just about two hours before we would start heading over to Times Square. We met up with Mike in our hallway and he went over the thirty second choreography with us one more time. Well, that didn’t take us long, leaving us at a ten o’clock stance. We had decided to go down to Times Square and hang out with the visiting families. “Grab your coats.” I said. “It get’s cold outside, late at night.”
    Probably something we shouldn’t of done, but did anyway was walk from our hotel to Times Square, since it’s dark, and late and cold. It was a bit sketchy. But we made it, and just as we entered the hotel their families were staying at, I had them call them. “Yo Storm, you think we can maybe drop them off with their families and we can go get something to eat or something, ya know, without them?” Ryan whispered into my ear. I shrugged. “Lemme see.” I said.
    The families shared where their rooms were. Since they booked together, they were together, next to each other. We got up to the fifth floor, and then right by the elevator was their rooms. “Our hotel is so much nicer than this.” Leo commented, looking around the hallway and entering one of the rooms. “We tried getting into your hotel, but it was booked.” His Mom said. “Yah, probably because our two hundred people plus on tour booked it out.” He said. It wasn’t that nice. It really wasn’t. Our hotel is much better, I just don’t like the distance. “Hey Leo, Adrian, you guys think you could hang out with your family for a bit and Ryan and I could go out for a bit?” I asked. They were perfectly fine doing that. “Cool, so you guys know where to meet us at one, right?” I asked. They nodded. “By the base of the red steps”. I said. They nodded again. We made sure their parents knew we were leaving and then left the hotel.
    Ryan and I don’t get a lot of time to be our own age. We’re very open with the boys, but there are things that we cannot say in front of them, or way’s we cannot act in front of them. I think the last time Ryan and I actually hung out together without the three of them, or any of them was probably Las Vegas, over three months ago. Literally, since then, I’ve had either Adrian, Marcell or Leo with me.
    Ryan and I wanted to go to a Teen Club, but being that it was Monday, most of them were closed, or those who are teen clubs are converted to Night Clubs for adults. We don’t look old enough to sneak into a Strip Club so we ended up going and getting something to eat in Planet Hollywood. Finally, we could open our mouths and use other profanity and talk about things we normally can’t talk about in front of them. It was nice.
    Before we knew it, it was 11:30, and we were partially being kicked out so the place could close. Going outside, I’m so glad I had told the boys (and done so myself) brought a Jacket and a hat, since it was getting pretty cold out. We now actually went to the Hershey Store, surprisingly still open and I bought some Chocolate scented deodorant. I don’t know when I’ll ever use it, but it’s bound to be used sometime. Halloween maybe? Valentines day?
    Our next stop was McDonalds, the 24-Hour McDonalds in Times Square in which we ordered simply off the dollar menu, then spent our 30 minute limit sitting in the seats upstairs, just chilling. By now, it’s after midnight, nearly 12:30 and with just half an hour left before we meet the others, we decided to head back to the hotel where the boys were and go chill with them for a bit.
    Finally, at one in the morning, we met the others at the base of the steps. In our group, it was of course the five of us, then Melissa, Jen, Chase, Hannah, and the four parents. The parents weren’t staying long since it was real late though, they just were curious to see what we were doing. The kids on the other hand got permission to stay out as long as possible. “I bet they used the ‘they’re doing it’ card.” Ryan whispered to me. “Oh, most definitely.” I said.
    We all walked out and by the time we got to the base of the Times Square red stairs/bleachers, the others were already there. It was five of them. Giannini, Shondra, Leeco and then Mike and Pom of course. They’re all bundled up in their coats, since it is cold out. “I still can’t adjust to this cold weather at night Storm.” Shondra told me. “Ya, it sucks.” I told her. I shivered. We all sat down on the steps and had a little ‘meeting’. Our guests sat a few feet away, talking amongst themselves. Once we had our little agenda planned, we started. We decided to film in order and not bounce around, so it was going to start with Pom and Mike. Once the area we wanted to film on was clear, we were able to start actually filming. Pom and Mike had to take off their Jackets and embrace the cold for the duty of the shots. Also at this time, the photographer showed up and started not only taking pictures of the shoot, but also of a lot of behind the scenes. Shondra was mainly there to support her friends, but she took a seat on the curb with us and our guests and we talked about random shit. The adults got cold and tired very quickly and left well before we were ready to film our parts, but the four kids stayed out.
    Leeco walked around and filmed some behind the scenes shots, and caught some of us saying some weird things. Such as Shondra saying “What time is it? Imma be up all night-woah! I’m gonna be up all night because it’s 3:28 and I’m just drinking a cappuccino real quick.” And time went by fast. Shondra was being real chill and nice to our kid guests, joking around with them, while giving Pom and Mike support. Drunk people were coming up to us, photo’s were being taken and we didn’t start filming our part until a little after 4AM in the morning. We were dog dead tired, completely wasted. And then all this included multiple trips to McDonalds to get coffee and food to keep us awake. Finally, we finished around 5:00 in the morning. I say ‘Finally’ with complete exhaustion. We walked our guests back to the hotel and then met back with the others and crammed all ten of us in two taxi’s. I don’t remember the rest. All I can say is that I didn’t make it much longer.
    I slept until about two in the afternoon that day, after working all that night, all of us slept late. I think the first up was Ryan, but not until after noon. When I finally talked to Adrian and Marcell, they had several missed calls from their parents and sister who have apparently been up for a few hours, asking if they wanted to go out. Together, we decided to get the families together, along with Desi and her father, Pom, Shondra, Mike and Thomas and take the cruise to Liberty Island. So, once we were able to get everyone together, just around three, we realized that there wouldn’t really be enough time to get there, take the ferry, climb the statue and then get back in time for work. So we decided to go to Madame Tussauds Wax Museum right in Times Square. It was still the same people, just a different activity.
    We all were in different parts of the city, so we met in the front of the museum before going in. Of course, the kids paid for their guests. At certain times, it helps to wear Cirque Gear such as our passes (which we had on us since we weren’t sure if we’d return to the hotel or not) and our MJIWT clothing. Such as today, Thomas, Leo and I had all worn something with the show’s name on it. It’s clear through the clothing and the passes clipped to our hips that we were not fans.
    “Do you guys work for the Immortal tour?” One man in a business suit asked from behind the box office?” He asked. “Yes, we do.” Thomas answered. That’s when the special treatment began. Apparently, one of the manager’s of the site is a big MJ fan and has tickets to see the show tomorrow night at MSG. Not only did he bring us inside but he also gave us VIP access, virtually skipping all of the lines. Of course, he asked for a picture in front of the Michael Jackson Statue with us. Why not? He got us the access to skip lines.
    Gosh, I think we spent twenty minutes in front of that statue, taking pictures, commenting on the details and everything. For us Immortals, it was exciting, for the others, it wasn’t that great. Then we started from the beginning of the museum and worked it all the way down, getting pictures with everyone. By ‘everyone’, I mean all the statues.
    By the time we exited the museum, it was time to go to work. Tara had suggested that the boys and I go into work first, figure out where everything is and then meet the groups and bring them backstage. That is what we did. We agreed to meet them (along with my family on their way into the city) at 6:30. We didn’t have enough time to go back to the hotel, so we took the subway right from Times Square to the station closest to MSG, arriving about twenty of six. We were told in the city packet we got that we need to enter MSG through the backstage entrance in the back side of the building. We flashed our passes at the security door, had to go through a security screening and followed the tape on the floor. For maybe a minute and a half of walking, it’s just one arrow that says “Immortal” pointing us down this long corridor. Down here was all of the garbage and industrial parts of MSG, none of our stuff. At the end of this walk, it led us to a service elevator. There was a sign on a picket piece of wood. The sign read “To Use Elevator, Press And Hold Up Button Until it Turns Green. Once you enter the elevator, remain clear of the doorway. It will not begin to shut until area is clear. Elevator will automatically bring you up to Arena floor.”
    We followed the directions for the elevator. It seems like it takes a long while, but it’s pretty cool since you can see the wall moving. It’s not glass, nothing is there but the floor and some handrails. The ride takes about ten seconds and once the door opens up, you can see the arena floor (since the door was open). Those doors will be shut shortly. More arrows on the floor led us into the backstage area where there was once again another security personnel checking people in.
    Once inside the actual arena, we had to find our dressing rooms once again. Since we’re still in NY, we still get our own dressing room. This one was much larger, much larger. Probably a team locker room but with our road cases and costumes in it. It was right along the other dressing rooms, so we had the same distance as the others did to and from the stage.
    We had yet to eat dinner, nor nearly anything today, so to keep ourselves going, we ended up eating some healthy food in the catering room. Shondra, in the meanwhile was giving a friend/press guy a tour. He seemed really annoying.
    Before going to meet our family, we put on our makeup, that way it would save time that we would have to show them a bit around backstage. It’s legit twenty five people, so we need to stretch them out a bit. I think the over 25 people might be stretching it a bit. Who cares. Anyway, we put on our makeup, made sure we had our passes and then grabbed Phil, one of the security guards to go out with us. There are crazy fans who will try to get over to us. The boys and I are quite popular for people who keep up with news and media of the show, and we’ve been rushed back inside or away by our security on a few occassions. Now we’re going outside not only of our arena with our passes just an hour and a half before showtime, but with our makeup on.
    We followed our way down the elevator and through the hallways back to the same door we came through. With Phil, we walked around towards the front of the arena where we found the large group. It was a large group. Luckily, Leo had remembered to bring the guest passes. As we walked to the back of the arena, we distributed the triangle sticky passes. Several photographers, getting ready to capture the few celebrities coming to the red carpet were on scene, waiting for that to start. It’s not hard to recognize us, plus they do research. They tried getting our attention, and it worked. They were snapping pictures but Phil quickly hid us away inside of the large group until we got to the door of the arena where we were the first in. Once again, we had to go through security and then walk the entire group to the service elevator. For precautionary measures, we did two trips up the elevator. During the elevator, I was so happy to see my family, it was unimaginable. Fun fact, Leo and his entire family took one elevator trip.
    Once upstairs, we split the group in smaller groups. We each took our families just around briefly, since it was already busy backstage. We didn’t bring anyone up on the stage, nor under it, but we showed them our dressing room and the stage while people worked on it, and then pointed out some things that were going on backstage.
    By this time, 7:00 and the show was going to start very shortly. Tara was now rushing us because she wanted all five of us on the private red carpet. We still needed to warm up, so with some ‘Good Luck’s’, they were out to take their seats while we went to go stretch. While stretching I tend to play on my phone. I updated my FB status to “First show in Madison Square Garden tonight! I love my job!” Then I put on my costume and we were escorted via security to a side part of the arena where the red carpet was set up. First, we had to go through the press area, where we posed by ourselves and at times with celebrities in front of the press. Going from one end to the other of the small ‘red carpet’, a total of ten or fifteen feet took about ten minutes, just because we had to pose for pictures, and we were forbidden to talk. Then, we went through a closed curtain to an area where the the celebrities were resting without the press before the show. It was here where we were able to talk, take private pictures with celebrities such as Ice-Tea, Coco, Tyra Banks, and more. The big celebrities I knew were Ice-Tea and Tyra Banks. They were kind enough to let me get a picture with them with my own phone which I hid in my pocket. They were amazed that there are five boys doing this show. We soon were excused by security and we returned to the backstage area.
    Something we had totally forgotten to do was give our family the passes for the afterparty. So we had to get the passes from our bags (since it was a private event, not run by CDS). The party is run by the New York Fans of Michael Jackson. The celebrities were also invited and I know of a few attending. It’s a completely private party by invitation only. Tara had to run out the passes to get into the party.
    Soon, we found ourselves out in the floor of the arena, interacting with the guests. It was also at this point where we could figure out where our family was sitting. Somehow, they managed to get the seats together, about a third of the way back on the arena floor, a little bit to the right of the stage. It wasn’t prime seats, but they were still good seats. So we walked around doing our ‘thang’, interacting with the audience, playing games, teaching them the dance to ‘Beat It’, all for about fifteen ten or fifteen minutes before we were finally cued to go up on stage so the show could commence.
    Our first show in Madison Square Garden, in New York City, the entertainment capital of the world! May I add that MSG said when Michael Jackson performed here on his Bad Tour, it was the biggest event to date to ever happen at MSG. So, it’s totally come full circle, which is really good.
    Maybe it was just me, or maybe it wasn’t, but bowing, doing the final bow in Madison Square Garden made me possibly the happiest kid in the entire world. Wait, the five of us might tie in that situation. Maybe it was just the thousands and thousands of people screaming, but it was incredible, absolutely incredible. I’ve never dreamed of performing in MSG, but I now see why people do.
    After the show, we stayed in the costume while our guests were escorted backstage to see us, along with Tyra Banks who wanted to come back. The others were going directly to the afterparty.
    Backstage, we got the entire groups of families together and took a few pictures, and then since Tyra likes us, we got her in the picture too. “Are you going to the afterparty?” She asked me. “Yep.” I responded. “You guys wanna ride with me?” She asked. Ummmm yes, yes we do. But how will our family get there? We had rented two limos to take us there, I guess it will be a missed opportunity. “We’d love to!” We said. We quickly went to take off our costumes and got back into our regular clothes. It wasn’t a fancy party, simply just to hang out after the show.
    Outside in the back of the arena, our families got into two limos to bring them to the party (and then to the hotel afterwards). Tyra’s suburban pulled up behind the limo’s. Surprisingly, Ice Tea and Coco were already in the SUV. So we all crammed into this Suburban and followed the two limos to the Hudson Hotel, where the afterparty was to be held.
    On the way to the afterparty, Tyra filled me in on a new social media outlet called “Instagram” and convinced Adrian and I to get it. So, on the long ride there, we downloaded and set up our instagram. Tyra was our first follower, followed by each other and then Cocoa. Did I realize twelve hours ago that I would be sharing a ride with these three people? Hell no, but I am.
    When we arrived at the Hudson Hotel, I could clearly see the bouncers and security at the door. There was some press there since the afterparty was not a hidden event. One of the security guards came and opened up a door on the right side of the car and ushered us to get out completely. We were rushed up onto the sidewalk, across it, few a line of press people and into the green lit hallway. Once the eight of us were safely inside, our families were able to follow.
    We actually didn’t stay too long, but stayed about an hour and a half was good enough for us. On what other night can you dance with Tyra Banks, sing Justin Bieber Karaoke and get totally chocolate wasted. Yes, Chocolate wasted.
    The limos first dropped our families off at their hotel, in which Leo switched Limos, letting the other one go. They were already paid for via my credit card. The other one then drove us to our hotel, just a few blocks away. “Dude, I’m wiped out.” Ryan said as the elevator door closed. “Yeah, I know.” I replied. “I can’t wait for my bed.” Leo added. Up in our rooms, I didn’t see Marcell or Adrian again for night (awake that is). I did go and check on them around three in the morning minutes before I passed out.
    The next morning, we slept until about eleven, and by that time, we were all up, not motivated, but up. The families were getting ready to leave and wanted to say their goodbye’s. They offered to meet us at the hotel, but to motivate and wake ourselves up, we decided to walk to theirs. So, without any showers, brushing of teeth or anything, we left the hotel and took the seven or eight block walk to their hotel. Already, Times Square was buzzing with people, people too motivated, like our families.
    We split into our little ‘groups’ of families. Leo with his multitude of people (some didn’t stay overnight), Adrian and Marcell with their families and then Ryan and I with mine. “Yo look, they're all wearing Cirque Du Soleil stuff.” Chase shouted out. We all looked down. We were all wearing the same exact hoody, our MJIWT CDS hoody only given to the staff. This instigated a large group picture. We had a police officer that was near take the picture. Soon, our families left in cars, and we were left heading back to the hotel.
    Back at ‘home’, we had the opportunity to shower and get ready for the day, and then to take the Ferry to Liberty Island to see the Statue Of Liberty with Desi, Thomas, Pom, and Davi. We all met in the lobby of the hotel, along with Tara who decided to show up. Together, we all took a Subway, at our own expense to the Ferry.
    Once at the ferry dock, we had to buy tickets for the ferry, and could conveniently buy tickets to Liberty Island and to climb to the pedestal of the statue as well. Now, before getting on the ferry, we needed to go through security, and finally, once on the ferry, we could stand on the top deck and take in the sunny, warm and perfect day for Sunglasses.
    We got off the ferry and made a literal bee-line to get to the Statue Of Liberty. Well, of course most of us snapping pictures (then Adrian’s videotaping) of the statue as we walk towards it. Once again, we had to go through security, but once we were in, it was smooth sailing. No school groups, not too many tourists, just random small groups of people. It was quite pleasing.
    We made it to the top of the pedestal! Some one hundred steps later. “Where’s the slide to go back down?” I asked, winded. “Seriously though.” Looking up, the statue was right there, we could touch it, and it was incredibly large. It was amazing. I’ve been here once before, but it’s still amazing. To Thomas, Pom and Davi, they’ve never been here, so it was even better to share this first experience with them. At last, I couldn’t find a slide, so we had to take the stairs back down.
    After leaving Liberty Island, we went back to the hotel and grabbed our bags for the night. We had almost two hours before having to be at work, so the five of us decided to walk to work, and find dinner on the way.
    I love walking around NYC. It’s cool to see all the shops, many tourist shops that have the same identical things. We stopped for dinner at a place claiming to have the Best Pizza in New York. I’m not saying it’s the best, but it was pretty good.