01.22.08

PW and the Blue Men

Posted in Community Relations, General at 9:00 pm EST by Michele PW

In case you don’t know who the Blue Man Group is, they’re a group of three men who are (what else) blue, and together they perform this quirky show with no speaking, a touch of the odd, irrelevant humor and lots of really jamming percussion-based rock music. You might remember them doing Intel commercials a few years back. (Ironically, their show is based on poking fun at modern society, so for them to be in any commercial is pretty funny.)

Anyway, the Blue Man Group is on the road right now and their travels have taken them to the surprising place of Prescott Valley, Arizona. You may have heard of Prescott Valley, but my guess is probably not. Prescott Valley is part of what’s known as the Quad Cities, which includes Prescott, Chino Valley and Dewey/Humboldt, and if you add all the people up together you’ll maybe get a population count of 100,000 if you’re lucky (and if you include various horses and dogs and cats in the count).

However, despite its size, Prescott Valley has a convention center complete with its own minor league hockey team. And, small as it is, it’s packing a pretty hefty punch as they’ve been attracting some fairly big acts, such as Heart and Alan Jackson and the Blue Man Group.

Now, my friend Alice (who is also my old college roommate back in Wisconsin and has been living in Flagstaff for almost as long as I was living in Prescott – I know, isn’t it funny how life works out sometimes?) volunteers for the PBS (Public Broadcasting) station in Phoenix. (If you live in Arizona, you may have seen Alice on television during Pledge week, which has nothing to do with fraternity pledges and everything to do with you pledging to give PBS money.) For her troubles, she ended up with some extra tickets for the show.

So of course I couldn’t turn that down.

The seats were great, right in the middle very near the front. And after the show, we got backstage passes to meet the Blue Men. (However, remember how I said the convention center was small? Well, apparently it’s so small it doesn’t include a back stage per se, so we ended up going in a corner, so it was more like corner passes. Nonetheless, the important thing to remember is we got to meet the Blue Men.)

They came out in costume and character, so no talking (on their part) and they posed for pictures and painted things (and people) blue. When it was my turn, I handed him my little program for him to sign (which he did by kissing – I told you they were quirky) and Alice started yelling “It’s her birthday, it’s her birthday.” And I said “I’m forty.”

Okay, a few words on me being forty. First off, I’m actually not. I just turned 39. And I realize I’m probably one of the very few people on earth over 30 to lie about my age and make myself OLDER. But I decided I’m going to be 40 for the next two years because:

• No one believes you when you say you’re 39, they all think you’re actually 40 and just lying about it.
• No one believes ME anyway because I look so young – I was carded a month ago at Safeway trying to buy some wine for heaven’s sake.

So rather then fight it, I’m just going to be 40 from now until I officially turn 41.

But back to the Blue Man. After I said I turned 40, he leaned over and gave me a kiss on the cheek. And then he looked at me and said “happy birthday.”

Yep, he said it. I couldn’t believe it. Wasn’t that a cool birthday gift (and certainly worth making myself a year older)?

A final note about that blue makeup – if you end up seeing the Blue Men in Vegas or New York and don’t have access to a washing machine right after a show, I would highly recommend wearing something you won’t mind having some blue marking on it. I washed my sweater the moment I was home and while the blue came off, it took two washes. My face I also had to wash a few times. I don’t know what’s in that stuff but it’s pretty potent.

Michele PW (Pariza Wacek) is the author of 5 Mistakes Entrepreneurs Make That Kill Their Sales…And How To Prevent Them. Ready to turn lookers into buyers and watch your business skyrocket? Click here to learn more about this special report, free for a limited time.

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