It is very likely I was far from the only skeptic for the last year or so of watching the various PBS airings of child singer, Jackie Evancho. I've seen folks toss off a derisive look of, No way is that real. There is tom-foolery going on somewhere!
We first saw Jackie on TV when she was maybe just turning ten years old - her discovery coming on the show America's Got Talent. This kid has talent, that much I can now personally attest!
My sweet wife found out back in December that the awesome child prodigy was to perform live in mid-town Los Angeles on Feb. 24, which was very near my birthday. So she got the tickets three months early and kept me in suspenders as to the big surprise coming. She was able to keep the secret so well that I literally knew nothing of what to expect even as we drove to the Staples Center complex, with me at the wheel and her directing my trip. When we walked from the parking garage and into the courtyard of the complex, she asked me to turn around to look up at the bright marquee on the Nokia Theater. Even seeing the name of Jackie Evancho on the moving lights, though it melted me just to think of her and how incredible she is, I was not hit by the meaning of seeing her name in lights until the screen continued moving and the word TONIGHT came into view. Then tears immediately sprang to my eyes because it was now revealed that my wonderful wife had arranged for me to sit in a theater to actually watch this young girl perform. Amazing!
Our seats were seven rows from the stage and the star's entrance from stage right happened not more than forty feet from me. Her singing began after a sweet little semi-curtsying walk to center stage, waving childlike to the huge crowd. And when that singing - that fabulous SINGING began, it was at last completely clear and irrefutable that the entire voice was coming from her tiny body. No trickery could have been involved in the production of that amazing sound of a voice that seemingly would require the aging and many years of rehearsing to develop a mature diva. And we as a privileged audience never failed to laugh adoringly when between songs she would make little bobbing movements and cute waves of the hand while thanking us in a voice and manner that were perfectly fitting for a child of ten or eleven. I'm assuming she is eleven by now, but her tiny frame walking out on that stage, her height not above the seated orchestra members she passed on the way, said she could have been even younger. I pictured my six-year-old grandson and thought how close his height would be to Jackie's if he were to stand beside her. But when the first note came out of this lovely child, she magically became a thirty-year-old, 5ft.8inch owner of the stage.
So today, now on the actual date of my birth, I've partied down for three solid days and am half in the bag from the heaviest consumption evening I've allowed myself in a long while. Good that it's a rainy and cool Monday here in paradise today so I can sit at home and be as lazy as a birthday boy wants to be. And my lovely wife, who is going through withdrawal symptoms from having kept a secret for three months, will finish off my big day with a specially prepared dinner of my favorite dishes. This 67th anniversary of my entry on the world stage will possibly be the most memorable ever. I certainly hope Phyllis doesn't try to top this one!
If Jackie Evancho ever gets to your area, I recommend you treat yourself to greatness in a small package.
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