Stephanie laughed brightly, “I’m all in, I pretty much know all your songs by heart.”
Then, with a touch of concern, she asked, “By the way, my songs are mostly in Chinese, are you okay with that?”
“Totally!” Tawanna grinned, “I’ve been listening to your stuff too, as musicians, we pick up melodies fast, lyrics might be a slight challenge, but no biggie, we’ll memorize them, and don’t forget, we’ve got teleprompters onsite, I can mark your Chinese pronunciations with similar-sounding English words, that’ll get me about 70-80% there!”
Charlie wade, sitting nearby, chuckled, “I’ve seen that trick used by singers everywhere, lots of Chinese artists mark English lyrics with Chinese phonetics when they sing in English.”
He paused, then grinned, “I remember this old internet meme that got huge, something about ‘nao tai tao.’”
Tawanna looked clueless, but Stephanie burst out laughing, “Brother Charlie wade still remembers that one…”
Charlie wade smirked, “It was pretty famous back then, right?”
Stephanie nodded, giggling behind her hand, “Oh yeah, super famous, tons of local singers decided then and there to buckle down and work on their English pronunciation.”
Not wanting to leave Tawanna out, she smiled and moved on, “Let’s keep going, how many songs should I sing?”
Tawanna replied with a smile, “Up to you, five to eight’s fine, too many and the show might run over.”
Stephanie smiled back, “Five then, too many would steal the spotlight, people are here for you, I shouldn’t hog the stage.”
Tawanna suggested, “If it’s five, how about this, when you come on, I won’t rush off, I’ll introduce you to the crowd first, then you take the stage, we sing one of my songs together, I step off for a break, you do three solo, and for the last one, I join you for one of yours, sound good?”
“Perfect!” Stephanie laughed, “That’s a great setup! Let’s lock it in!”
Then she turned to Charlie wade, “Brother Charlie wade, will you be backstage then?”
“Of course,” Charlie wade nodded with a smile, “I’m the feng shui director, gotta be onsite.”
“Awesome!” Stephanie clapped happily, “Brother Charlie wade, I’ve got this song with an ancient assassin theme, it needs a masked assassin to dance alongside, how about you wear a mask and help me out?”
Charlie wade waved her off, “Me? Dance? No way, I can’t, you’d better find a pro!”
Stephanie got serious, “It’s not real dancing, it’s for stage effect, the character doesn’t have dance moves, just martial arts stuff, Brother Charlie wade, you’re great at that, right? Just whip out some slick martial arts moves, that’s plenty, otherwise, you only need to pop up next to me at a few key parts for some interaction, the rest of the time you can freestyle onstage.”
Charlie wade shook his head, “Nah, I’m no pro, if I mess it up, won’t I embarrass you?”
Stephanie grabbed his arm, pleading in a sweet tone, “Brother Charlie wade, even if you mess up, it’s not embarrassing, and with your skills, there’s no way you’d flop! There’s even a wire stunt part, you’d wear an ancient assassin outfit, mask, holding a sword, flying around on wires, it’s super cool! No face reveal either, the mask covers everything, even my parents in the audience wouldn’t recognise you!”
Tawanna’s eyes lit up beside them, “Is that the song called ‘Assassin’? I love it too, how about we duet it, and let Mr. Wade dance for us!”
