Clive Hollingshead, Senior Application Instructor, has been training as an MC and has been offering his services pro bono to nonprofits for a while now. At last he got his chance ... here is his story:
It has often been said that I love the sound of my own voice - as a trainer I have the perfect job, what with having a silent captive audience, so you won’t be surprised if I tell you I moonlight as a master of ceremonies.
A few months ago I was contacted by Long Ditton Village Fair committee, asking how much I charge. Their regular MC was very sick and could not perform his usual job at the fair and was I available to step in? They explained that the fair was the annual fund raising event for the village and all the proceeds went to pay for the youth club, brownies, senior citizens, etc. As this seemed to meet the requirements of the Foundation I was happy to offer my services and we agreed a fee of 2 burgers and coke - it being held on 4th July.
I should have heard the alarm bells ringing when I received an email saying that they had managed to get the deck from Radio Jackie and would I be bringing my own music, but I assumed it was just for background noise while I was away from the microphone. I was so wrong.
I arrived at the school grounds later than I would liked (but well before the fair opened) and made my way to the announcer’s tent where I found the deck. “Well done, you managed to get here”, I was greeted, as he turned to someone behind him and said “it’s OK, the DJ has arrived”. The blood must have still been in my face as he turned back and said “OK, over to you - we need to sort out some logistic stuff, so we will leave you to get set up - here’s a list of the events and notices. See you later” and off he went.
The first 40 minutes or so was kinda interesting, but I eventually worked out what happened if I slid up volume controls and mixing sliders to quickly (or not quickly enough). I must apologise to an elderly lady who rested against the speaker stack during a period of silence (I think it is called dead air in radio speak). She was fine until I opened the CD channel that played, at full volume, “Who let the dogs out”. Old people can move fast when they feel the urge!
As the afternoon progressed I even started to feel confident enough to take and play requests, speak over the music (at the correct volume) offer prizes and keep up a jolly banter. I did make 1 tiny mistake, introducing a local ballet school as “the dancing girls”, but I think I got away with it.
The Fair Committee itself made more than £2,000 and so will be able to donate sums to a number of local concerns around Long Ditton.
Competitions around the grounds included Children's Fancy Dress, a boys vs girls tug-o'-war (won by the girls, this year); a golf-putting points game (c/o the Women's Section of the Royal British Legion) and there were stalls from many of the local voluntary organisations and churches.
The sun shone, the village came out to play, and while I talked nobody seemed to listen. So, a good day all round really.
