Chapter 168 - Quinceanera
Chapter 168 - Quinceanera
The feeling of doing gigs in bars was nice, but the feeling of coming to do special and different gigs was even nicer.
It was Friday and I had just arrived at the venue for the girl's 15th birthday party.
Looking at the size of the ballroom where the birthday party was to be held, I could understand where the girl's parents got $4,000 just to pay the singer for the party.
The place was gigantic, even bigger than the wedding party where I first sang Bailando.
"You're the singing group, right?" A woman with a tablet in her hand looked at us and started walking. "Come with me."
Our group of five followed her curiously, looking around.
Since this was one of the special gigs I would be playing for several hours, I invited Mark and Frank to play with me so I wouldn't get so tired.
Especially considering that I was already getting so much money, considering the payments from the shows, the payment from MeTube, the payment from Spokify, the payments from my acting, adding it all up, there was so much money in my account every month that paying Mark and Frank to play with me was like an investment so that I wouldn't get so exhausted during the shows.
If I can keep myself less tired during today's show, I can perform better at tomorrow's show without having to compromise the quality of either show.
Having the two of them in the show with me meant that I would be paid about $600 less than I would have been originally, but if it meant that I could do more shows, or even extend the time of the shows to earn more at each show, it was already an indirect profit.
"Hey, is that Jack?!" I heard a surprised girl's voice.
"Is that him? His hair looks a little different..." Another girl commented confusedly.
"That's why I think it's him even more, because I saw on his Instagram that his original hair is bleached, just to play the character of Jack in Duncan Family he dyed his hair black!" The other girl explained.
Realizing they were talking about me, I got curious and looked in the direction of the voice and saw two girls a little younger than me, wearing pretty dresses, looking at me with interest.
Seeing that they were really talking about me and looking at me, I smiled at them and nodded politely.
"It's really him!" The second girl said excitedly.
"I knew it was him!" The other girl said even more excitedly.
"I can't believe Victoria managed to get Jack for her birthday party!" Another girl who had also seen me began to comment.
Jason was smart and already had his camera on, pointing at anything that looked interesting so I could use it in my vlog, including the decorations and the girls' reactions.
With the right editing, this would make a great filmography.
Something I have noticed in the last few videos is that the quality of Jason's shots has improved a lot.
Compared to the first videos we did together and the most recent ones, I myself noticed several points where he was using the camera much better, which greatly increased the quality of the recording for the videos.
This also made me consider increasing the amount I was paying him per day, as I didn't want him to leave me to shoot for someone who was paying more.
Like it or not, Jason is the second biggest reason I make over $20k a month from MeTube, so paying him more isn't undeserved.
We had about 40 minutes to organize the instruments and set up all the equipment we would need, and then at 8:00 p.m. we finally hit the stage and I looked out at the audience with a smile on my face.
As a girl finishing her quinceanera, the birthday girl was very visible among the guests with her long, elegant dress, and to see the smile on her face as soon as the stage lights came on and revealed us to the audience, I was pleased.
"Good evening everyone, I'm BlackVelvet, but I think some people here might only know me as Jack from the Duncan Family, I was invited to do a few other shows tonight, but when I heard that Victoria specifically wanted me to sing at her birthday party, I had to turn down the other commitments and dedicate myself to making this event so special for her. As soon as I said that, the crowd started clapping and I noticed that Victoria, the birthday girl, had an even bigger smile on her face.
It wasn't a lie that there were other events I had been invited to that night, just that the pay and interest wasn't as good as this birthday, so technically I was telling the truth.
But saying it that way was a great strategy to make the party hosts feel more honored that I had chosen them, in an indiscreet way that not only increased my value by showing that I had other events to go to, but also by valuing their invitation and showing that I really appreciated it.
"To start the show, I thought of one of my fans' favorite songs to sing..." I spoke, but was interrupted by an excited girl.
"Boyfriend!!!!" The girl shouted, surprising me and the other guests at the party.
Seeing that everyone was quiet, the girl was startled and lowered her head in embarrassment.
Laughing, I looked at her with a smile and replied, "I see someone here likes my songs haha, thank you very much, I was actually thinking of singing Boyfriend, but since the birthday girl wanted Jack to sing at her concert, I thought I'd start with the song "Up Down" to liven up the place a bit and then sing Boyfriend.
When I heard that I was going to sing "Up Down", the song that Jack sang on the show and that most of the girls at the party knew about me, I heard a few screams from excited girls, especially from the birthday girl who ran up to the stage to watch the whole thing with her eyes wide open.
Although it was a new song, I had already given Mark and Frank the sheet music and we had played it a few times at my house before coming here so they were familiar with it, which wasn't hard to learn with their talent.
Even more, for those of them who already knew how to read music, having it in front of you while playing the instruments was like having the answers to all the questions on your test, it was practically like playing with Hacks.
So with the three of us set up, Mark started the score on drums, Frank was on keyboards and I had my guitar on my chest when I started singing.
🎼🎶🎤 n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om
It was Friday after five, I got here just in time.
Went ahead and wet a line 'fore I went and lost my mind
And I ain't been here long, but the bobbers in the pond
Going up, down, up, down, up, down...
🎼🎶🎤
As soon as I started singing this song, I was surprised to look out into the audience and realize that there were several girls singing along with me!