Last night was O Bar's Chinese New Year show and it was a lot of great fun. It's easy to focus on birthday shows as the sort of marquee events in the O Bar calendar, but I've really grown to appreciate these more nuanced ones. And Chinese New Year can feel very different given things like lion dancers and full numbers in Chinese. But they keep things very O Bar with a mix of the dramatic and the ridiculous. I love that O Bar magic so, so much.
And this month is extra tricky since circumstances have come together to result in three events this month - two birthday shows and this new year event. That demands a LOT from the performers since they still need to arrange and rehearse all these numbers and come up with a coherent event show while still having something to stage throughout the rest of the week. Less frequent O Bar patrons probably don't realize how much work goes into running an entertainment space like this.
Thus that has become the sort of unwritten social contract we've committed ourselves to with respect to the bar. For as long as they do their best to stage these one-of-a-kind events week after week, we also do our best to show up and support these ventures in our own way. The more obvious part of this effort is me doing my best to record all the different numbers that make up the show. But there's also us trying to promote the event to our respective social circles and working to coordinate with different friends in order to come up with a full O Bar table for each event night. And let's face it, not everyone is as committed to O Bar as we are or have a calendar that priotizes O Bar over other things. Thus getting friends to show up at the bar three weeks straight is not the easiest thing to arrange.
But I'll always feel the effort is worth it because the shows are always amazing and whoever we bring to the bar finds themselves enjoying themselves as well. And being able to celebrate a little with the O Divas, the O Boys, O2Men and even the O Ledge after the show is all part of showing we appreciate all the hard work and give recognition where it's due.
This is how our O Bar family dynamic works, I suppose. We forego travel, other hang outs and whatnot in favor of supporting O Bar and continually trying to give back after all the great memories and experiences the whole O Bar family has given us over the years. That's a special kind of love that goes both ways for sure.
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