Returning to the Pearl Company Theatre at the end of this month with nuclear weapons Mary Margaret O’Hara and Aidan Closs. Should be swell no?

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I expect nobody to show up. If anyone does – Bonus!

Hamilton always a tough city, not that I don’t love parts of it. I used to live near Hagersville and spent a few years going to Hamilton for roti, art, groceries and a bit of romantic drama. Tough in a sort of grade 8 going to the mall sorta way and having a strange kid punch you, call you something villainous or steal your bag.

Everything I’ve ever done with Mary Margaret has been stained with magic. We have never done a show before just studio recordings. She is the secret weapon in whatever perfect moments might exist in parts of the records I’ve released.

I learned an important lesson the first time I worked with her which has served me well with many other gifted people. Each time she sung she came into the studio and we reviewed what she did and I gave her feedback about what I liked and what I wanted different. Then she would go back to the microphone and we would record and she would do new things which left me with the same impression. Again I would express what I liked and what I wanted different. The new things she did each time were also unexpected and better than the last thing so much so I soon grasped I should shut up and leave her alone. If I needed to edit it afterward I could. Directing her only slowed things down because her instincts were more interesting than anything I would describe or direct.

Maybe I sound too bleak about Hamilton. It isn’t bleak but maybe because I have had wonderful up close and personal experiences with performance settings avec drunks or simultaneous blaring television sets adjacent to the stage or audiences of nobody or hmmm…. what other disasters are in my personal archive? – But having Mary Margaret and Aidan makes the likelihood of magic quite high. It might just be incredible; never know. Plan for disaster, savour perfection if you happen to be lucky. The mysterious This Mad Desire will also open the show. He better not blow us off the stage or I’ll have to never again allow a third party to join the bill even if it is for only 10 minutes.