Updates from stevo 2nd in a series of dispatches from the road
October 19th, 2005
Miles Copeland
The phone rings; its Miles calling from Monaco. I am back home in Los Angeles; things are going very well, we are performing at a very prestigious venue in the principality of Monte Carlo on the Mediterranean for 3 months, 4 nights a week at the Casino Du Monte Carlo. I had said my farewells to the ladies after we finished a series on Shows in the UK and Ireland about 3 weeks before. There seemed no point in both Miles and I being in Monaco at the same time so I went home to “hold the fort down” while he made sure the show was up to the very high standard it needed to be. In the meantime, we were looking to expand our horizons by additional shows on the days off, which were starting to come in. Miles and I are on the phone going through the dates and we decided that he will come home and I will go over to take care of the additional dates which will be in France and Portugal all within a couple hours drive or flight from Monaco. So a few days later I am booked on a flight to Nice were Brian picks me up and Miles and I pass each other at 36,000 feet somewhere over the North Atlantic.
Brian drives me to a place called Cap d’Ailwere we are all staying in 2 or 3 bedroom apartments, about a 5 minute walk from the beach and 100 yards from the border of France and Monaco. The border is a roundabout with two policemen from Monaco standing there occasionally stopping cars for what seems like no good reason (normally older cars with young people in them) and sends them back to France. The funny thing was sending them back to France meant just driving around the roundabout; very bizarre to say the least. I arrive and everyone is in good spirits, and seem to have all settled into the lifestyle of the rich and famous- Monte Carlo style. Most of the ladies go for a run in the morning or a swim in the Mediterranean, and then prepare for the show and head over around 5:00 pm for an early dinner and then the show. The routine has not changed much, but I have arrived signaling we are going on some adventures. First stop is Lisbon in Portugal in 3 days. Everyone seems excited to get away for a few days. Anytime the troupe goes anywhere, there is a lot of planning to do. It’s not easy to call up and book 20 airline tickets, so everything is done well in advance; this way we get the best deals and the space needed to all get on the same plane.
We head to Portugal, but it seems all flights out of Nice go through Zurich in Switzerland. It’s not that big a deal, so we change planes and head to Lisbon. We are performing there for one night. We arrive and are met by the promoter, who is a gracious host who insists on taking us all out for dinner to this great Portuguese restaurant. It’s a fantastic night, everyone is in good sprits, and seem generally happy to be away from Monaco for a few days. It’s a nice change for everyone. The moon is full, our tummies are full, and life is good if you are a Bellydance Superstar!
The next day we prepare for the show we are performing at a beautiful theatre in Lisbon. There are about 1500 people there; the crowd goes nuts and the promoter is happy- another city conquered in one foul swoop! We head back to the hotel, and I announce in the bus we need to have a company meeting at the hotel to go over travel arrangements back to Monaco.
As I mentioned earlier we have to book travel way in advance to get the amount of seats needed, but as I was a not scheduled to go to Monaco I could not get on the first segment of the flight from Lisbon back to Zurich. I was on an earlier flight, which departed 2 hours before everyone else with Adoré, but rest assured I would meet them at the gate when they arrive into Zurich. We have our meeting and I inform everyone what is going on: “All you have to do is be downstairs in the lobby at 9:30 am. There will be a big bus outside that will take you to the airport- just get in the bus and go.” I decide to appoint Stevie as the responsible adult. Everyone laughs and assure me it will not be a problem and we will meet up again in Zurich. It’s been a fun couple of days; I retire to my room feeling good about the gig and all is good in the world of Stevo. I think about the crew; Brian and Barbara are driving back from Lisbon to Monaco so they leave right after the show. It’s a long drive and they are carrying all of the costume bags, merchandise, and various production elements for the show, as this cannot be flown. I’m in a nice, warm bed and those 2 guys have a long drive. Oh well, we all have to pay our dues including the crew!
Adore
Adore and I meet at our allotted time and a car drives us to the airport. We check in and all is pretty uneventful. We land in Zurich around 12:30 pm local time. Well I need to eat! The girls will be 2 hours behind us so I suggest to Adoré to have lunch. We wander around and find this fantastic restaurant that advertises great homemade Swiss food- sounds great to me! “Adoré, let’s eat.” I do enjoy my food so eating has to be an experience and good; otherwise it’s a waste of my time, and Stevo gets very grumpy if time is wasted! We sit down and order. I have this amazing homemade bean soup, which is great. Adoré is looking as beautiful as ever. How good is my life! We sit and chat and talk about how good life is and are generally feeling good about the world we are living in. The main course arrives; it’s a great pasta dish with a beautiful flower in the middle for decoration- just fantastic. Adoré gets her meal; we smile and toast each other. My napkin is on my lap, I pick up my knife and fork and the phone rings. “Hi Stevo, it’s Brian. We have a couple of problems”
“OK, Brian can I call you back? I am having lunch (everyone knows that when I eat I do not like to be disturbed).” “No, I really need to talk; we have two big problems.” “OK, this better be important!” I put my knife and fork down before I take my first bite. “So, what’s up?” There is a slight hesitation in his voice and it is in a tone I have not heard before. “Well……….a few people have missed the flight, Sonia does not have her passport and no one knows were Issam is.” WHAT!?!? “You are kidding me! I left two hours ago, what is going on?” Apparently getting to the airport was fine and everyone checked in, but on the way to the airport Sonia discovered she had left her passport in her costume bag which was somewhere between Lisbon and Monaco with the crew! Immigration would not let her proceed onto the plane, so the person in charge- Stevie- decided she would stay behind and help Sonia with her passport issues. Two down! Petite Jamilla and Colleen were shopping in the duty free shops and had not turned back their watches the required 1 hour so they thought they had plenty of time only to discover when they arrived at the departure gate that the plane had already left! Four down!!!!!!! And no one could find Issam and did not know if he was on the plane. Amar was on the plane telling Brian all of this when a very annoyed flight attendant made her hang up the phone as they were taking off, so he only got half the story. Could there be anything else? OK, Brian has my full attention as my homemade pasta seems to be getting colder and colder. I am taking all the information on board and am trying to formulate a plan regarding getting Sonia a new passport and figure out what the hell happened to Petite Jamilla and Colleen, and Issam who knows. How could we lose 5 people in the space of a couple of hours? We have a show the next night, and if we miss the show we could be all sent home from Monaco and our engagement cancelled. This would be a disaster! I have a thousand things running through my mind on how I can fix this. I am about to rush Brian off the phone, as I need to get on this straight away. “OK, Brian I have to go and get his all figured out……….see you back in Monaco!” “But wait Stevo. I said they were two problems. “What are you talking about?” “The crew van has no gearbox; well it has a gearbox but it is on the floor of this garage in thousands of bits!” WHAT!!!! “We were stopping for gas, Barbara was driving and went from 5th gear to 1st gear and has broken the gogs in the gearbox, and we cannot move!” I cannot believe this; my healthy appetite has gone and I just having this horrible knot in my stomach. All of a sudden the pasta does not look so good! “Brian, where are you?” He has no idea except they are somewhere west of Madrid. “How is your Spanish?” “Not so good” is the reply! Great.
Sonia and Issam
I immediately leave the restaurant and look for a place where I can set up “office” and try and figure out what to do. I go to the nearest bar and ask if it would be ok to set up my computer and cell phone. I need some AC and I have a lot to figure out. Our gracious host points at a couple of plug sockets, I plug them in and I get to work. Sonia and Stevie figure out the best thing to do is to go back to the hotel and call me. One of the great things is, we always seem to know someone, who knows someone to get what we need. (I hope this is the case in Portugal.) I call the promoter and tell him the dilemma on the Sonia front. I need a replacement passport the next day so Sonia and Stevie can fly back in the morning as we have a show that night in Monaco, which they cannot miss. They need to be at the airport by 11:00 am that will get them back just in time for the show, so we cannot wait a day or even half a day. It has be done immediately and by 10:00 am. “Do your friends at the American Embassy who can help us out?” I am frantically asking the promoter. “Give me half an hour and I will call you back”
In the meantime, I get back on the phone with Brian and try and help as best I can. I guess we need to rent another van and they need to get going. Is there a local rental place? Brian replies, “I think this garage is the only place in a 30 miles radius, there is nothing!” I ask him if his Spanish has improved in the last 20 minutes. He says, “No.” “Well start asking around! You have to be in Monaco in less than 15 hours. Call me back when you have some news.” I hang up. The next incoming call is from Petite Jamilla and Colleen. They rather sheepishly tell me the story of how they missed their flight, and I am not amused to say the least. Colleen was buying some sort of fury animal, and their watch was on the wrong time, etc., etc. I tell them from my new office at Zurich airport, “Ladies, you need to book a flight and be into Monaco by 5:00 pm tomorrow. If you cannot be there by then, I would suggest you just buy 2 tickets back to America as your services will no longer be required in Monaco.” This may sound harsh but we are a collective. We all work together- if one fails we all fail, we cannot afford to lose this run of shows. I hang up with the two of them, and tell them I hope to see them in Monaco. I am now trying to hack into some Wi-Fi so I can check on the flights for Sonia and Stevie so I can confirm their tickets for the morning. The phone rings again. “Hey Stevo, it’s Miles, just checking in on how are things going.” “I have had better days,” I reply! I tell him what is going on and he thinks I am joking. I have to break it to him that I am not. “Oh well, you have had worse things to sort out. Call me when you get to Monaco.” “See ya!” The phone rings again. In fact, it has not stopped ringing for the last hour, and all of a sudden a beer appears on the bar courtesy of the barman. “I did not order it.” “It’s ok, I think you need this,” says the kind man. Yeah, I think I do. Good news! The promoter does know someone who knows someone and we can get an appointment at 9:00 am and get the passport replaced. They can turn it around in less than one hour. Thank God- one down! I call Sonia and Stevie, tell them the good news and arrange for someone to escort them to the Embassy in Lisbon. “See you tomorrow, safe travels.” I look at my watch. It’s been a couple of hours since the first call from Brian. The ladies are due to arrive at any moment- the ones that made the plane, of course. I still have no idea if Issam made the plane or not. I go to the gate and off they come two at a time like something out of Noah’s Ark. I guess they figure strength in numbers but I greet them all and thank them for actually arriving into Zurich and low and behold off walks Issam with a big smile on his face! “ISSAMBA LAKEM,” I shout!
I call Brian back and he has located a rental company that we can rent a van from, but we need to reload the van and he still has well over a thousand miles to drive (the top speed of the van is around 55miles per hour). I am very concerned if he will make it in time. He has already driven through most of the night, so he is very tired. The way I see it he can afford a couple of hours sleep at the most and this would put him into Monaco around 5pm when the crew will be expecting us at 2:00 pm. My stomach churns again. Well I guess the good news is we have a van and Brian thinks he will hit the road in a couple of hours having wasted most of the day. “Let’s keep our fingers crossed that I see you around 5 pm tomorrow.” I hang up. Jayna comes over to “my office.” She has lost her purse since she has arrived in Zurich! What, WHAT!?!?! I cannot believe this. After about 20 minutes after she has checked every possible place looking for her purse, her name is announced. Someone has found the purse, so we are all good!
Stevie, aka "Stefanya"
We all head to the departure gate like soldiers who have just been in battle- tired, weary and a few people “missing in action.” I think everyone is wishing this day would end ASAP. Let’s get back to Monaco! We sit around waiting for the bus to take us to the plane. I sit down and make another round of phone calls checking up that all the missing people that are just missing not lost, if you get my drift. I have one final call with the promoter in Portugal to re-confirm we will have someone take Sonia and Stevie to the American Embassy, and one more call with Colleen and Jeszi. They confirm they have booked themselves flights to Monaco and will be at the venue on time and as instructed. I call Brian again, and he has started unloading and reloading and should be on his way soon. I feel like I am a man who is spinning plates and has to go back and forth to make sure they all stay in the air, but this is very serious stuff. If we cannot do the show tomorrow night, this could be the end of our run, not to mention the huge embarrassment it will cause Miles and the company, and the financial implications it will have on all of us. People start loading onto the bus, but I am busy on the phone. I am sort of aware, but I need to make these phone calls before we leave Zurich. Everyone gets on the bus, but I am still working the phones. The first bus leaves, I ignore it. All the ladies are on the plane, and I am still at the gate. Unbeknownst to me they are all very nervous, as I seem to now be the one that is missing! I finally get on the plane and everyone starts clapping and cheering and of course there are a lot of people on the plane wondering what all the fuss is about. If only they knew!
So all’s well that ends well. The missing in action start showing up the next day- Stevie, Sonia with her shiny new passport, Colleen and Petite Jamilla make it back ,and Collen shows me the worlds most expensive furry animal, after many more phones calls from Brian who has only had a few hours sleep, he arrives around 6:00 pm, which just gives us enough time to have all the costumes and various production elements for the show. So the show goes on and all is well with my life with The Bellydance Superstars, at least for today!
