Two Wise Men, a Camel, and a Bottle of Schnapps: Inside the “It Must Be Halloween” Listening Party

Listening Party Review of Eaten By Clowns – “It Must Be Halloween”

The band showed up “fashionably late” as they say in the music business, smelling vaguely like the art teacher’s break room. The edges of their red-rimmed eyes could be seen around the cheap plastic curves of their dark sunglasses that so effectively hid the rest of their eyes. They shuffled in and took their places on the stage before an emcee introduced them to an underwhelmed crowd and scattered applause. There was a cautious excitement to the crowd, having been starved for entertainment recently, but they voiced their excitement by yelling out things like, “What the hell kind of name is Eaten By Clowns?” and “Is that a woman?”

One resident could be heard exclaiming, “If they don’t know any Barry Manilow, I’m rushing the stage,” just before the lights went down and the music started to play.

The room grew silent as the first notes started to play. The staff had timed everything perfectly for the event, because everyone’s medication began to kick in about halfway through the first song. From that point on, everything about this listening party seemed to change.

Judging by the size of the underwear, it must have been Mabel who got naked first, but it was as if a parachute had covered half the band when her panties finally landed. The parachute-like underwear landing was the spark the party needed. Immediately, all of the residents were out of their chairs and dancing as best they could. Three residents went down immediately with bad hips, but the rest stayed grooving as the first song ended and the next one began to play.

Walkers became something to hang onto while Beatrice did something she called ‘backing that thang up.’ Several residents remembered and attempted dance moves called things like “The Cabbage Patch,” “The Sprinkler,” and “The Roger Rabbit,” before being hospitalized for their attempts. When “break dancing” was mentioned, the nurses decided to pass out another round of medication.

There was a nativity scene in the lobby that had become repurposed as unwilling dance partners by the time the second round of pills started to work. Two wise men, a camel, and a little drummer boy were found on the roof with an empty bottle of Schnapps, and one of the plastic sheep had to be rescued from the band’s van just before they left. Joseph was never seen again.

It was a calmer group of residents that enjoyed the last few songs, but many were still bobbing their heads. Maybe it was the uncontrollable shaking—who can tell? They were definitely moving, though, and sometimes it’s about the small victories. The band on stage seemed really focused on the music, or had fallen asleep after the third song. With the sunglasses hiding their eyes, it was hard to tell, but most of the people who remembered the band being there at all remembered them as being focused.

All in all, it had been a successful night of music. Some residents found it a bit confusing to be hearing a Halloween album during the holidays, but the confusion was blamed on the medication, and most people didn’t seem to notice anyway.

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Review taken from the Shady Hill Retirement Village of Sheboygan’s Winter Festival

Written by resident editor Walter Cardigan