When I was doing the Fischer Troupe in Frankenmuth, Michigan, I was paired with Jeff Dove.

As I have blogged before, Jeff and I did not get along.

We were the comedians of the show – for the most part.

And for some reason, we had great onstage chemistry.

Jeff taught me a valuable lesson.

You don’t have to like someone to work well onstage together.

I am not good at envisioning what is happening when I’m on stage.

I rely on my director.  I have to trust my director.

Our first year together, Jeff sang, Oh You Beautiful Doll to me and I followed up with Put Your Arms Around Me Honey.

We stopped the show.

Literally.

We had sung the numbers, left the stage.

I was back in the dressing room getting ready to change into my next costume.

Oblivious.

Jeff came running back saying we had to do an encore.

That’s when I realized that the audience were stamping their feet, clapping and calling for more.

They weren’t going to let the show go on without the encore.

I didn’t have a clue what to do.

So we went out and did the whole number again.

The next day, the director had us prepare an encore.

The only proviso was that I got to decide if it was necessary.

God only knows, Jeff would have been doing an encore every night with little or no provocation.

We did a lot of encores that summer – even with me making the decision.

And after that, whatever Jeff and my’s big number was, an encore was set up and it was often needed.

Jeff was a short kind of skanky guy with plenty of attitude and I was a big gal with big tits and plenty of attitude.

Jeff and I had plenty of other numbers separately, but put us together and somehow magic happened.

Wish I knew how or why.

To me that is the real mystery of the theater.