Our Talented Performers

I’m often asked if we have entertainment onboard, “like a regular cruise ship.” Indeed so. They vary in their quality, right up to absolutely superb.

The series that’s the most talked about is Kit’s Speakers Corner, where Residents give talks based on their expertise or passions. The previous post describes another Resident-led program, The Light at Night weekly late-night talkshow.

These self-led initiatives are great, but mostly those asking the question are talking about professional entertainment. Yes, we have that too.

They range from bringing in local talent for one or two shows to my favorite amenity, professional pianists brought on for months at a time who play live for us daily. Our main theater has a grand piano, as does one of our lounges. The main lounge has a decent electronic piano that’s wired into the sound system.

We’re presently without a pianist, and I’m looking forward to the next one: they have always been be quite good. That’s particularly meaningful to me because my mother was a classical pianist for around 90 years; I grew up with nearly daily, professional quality, live piano music in the house, so I know a good pianist when I hear one.

Plus the Dancers

The ship also sometimes has dancers on contracts to come in not just to perform, but to teach classes.

I briefly mentioned one pair of dancers in my May onboard wedding post, Ivo and Elise. Ivo is Bulgarian, and Elise is British.

They were not just superb, but have great chemistry together. Unsurprisingly, they were itching to break out into something bigger, like one of the big TV talent shows, which gives great exposure and can lead to really high-end jobs.

One way to get on a big TV talent show is to start on one of the smaller talent shows: do well on a small one, and larger outlets in the franchise will often recruit them to compete.

It’s a good strategy. Britain’s Got Talent and America’s Got Talent are at the top of the heap, and would be hard to get to even though Elise is British.

But hmm, Ivo is Bulgarian, and there is a Bulgaria’s Got Talent. So guess where they started?

That is the sort of performance we got from them here! See what I mean by “superb”?

Keep an eye on these two. I suspect it won’t be too long before they’re on the BGT stage. I love that they were on ours, and we are cheering them on.

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Randy Cassingham

Randy is the co-founder of Residential Cruising, and is best known as the founder of the oldest entertainment feature on the Internet, This is True. He and his wife, Kit, live full-time on the Residential Cruising ship Villa Vie Odyssey, where they are “Digital Nomads” — continuing their work while living aboard the ship.

• Our Talented Performers
• The Light at Night
• Party Like There’s No Tomorrow
• The Media Takes Notice
• Jumping Ship for a Bit