Bank Holiday Sunday, lovely weather, and a nice pitch on the seafront at Llanfairfechan, a small holiday resort on the North Wales coast. I've done occasional shows here every year for the past 25 summers or so. I've already done a couple of Sundays this year and had good crowds at both. Today I started the warm up with only half a dozen kids on the mat, so decided to play some music and dance a marinette around to try and attract a few more. After only a few chords the music packed in. On investigation I found that the battery was apparently totally drained. I hadn't recharged after two shows the previous day and it would seem I had left the amp switched on overnight. Calamity!
I did half an hour of magic - and as I don't normally only use a mike when inside the booth this presented no problems. But the crowd was building up and was quite sizeable by the time I was due to start Punch. Oh well, they'll hear the swazzle OK, I thought. Then it struck me that our Victorian ancestors worked busy and noisy streets without any amplification so why couldn't I .
Following a quick invocation to Saint Simeon I went into my opening chatter in the booth as I readied the puppets, and was relieved to get the laughs and responses as expected. I started the show, perhaps speaking a little more slowly, a little more distinctly than usual. The whole show ran without problem, I even managed to quieten the children after teasing them into a frenzy without any difficulty. I really didn't miss the microphone at all.
Of course I will continue to use amplification when in the booth. I was only doing one show today and I'm sure I would have found it more difficult to project as I got tired and did further shows. But it has taught me not to be frightened of working unamplified should I ever face the need in the future.