“In My Room” Again

Performing “In My Room’

Diane commented on my In My Room post, “I saw you perform “In My Room” live at that ball. You were great.”

The “ball” Diane was referring to was my support groups' annual banquet in March 2012.

After dinner, there were awards and the annual Follies. I usually lipsynced a song or two during the Follies, but that year,  instead of lipsyncing I decided to sing The Beach Boys’ song “In My Room.”

I own The Beach Boys’ Stack-O-Tracks album, which contains the instrumental tracks (no vocals) to 15 of their hits including In My Room, so I had the perfect musical accompaniment to my not-so-perfect singing voice.

I copied the song onto my iPod and began practicing during my daily commute. After a few days of that, I concluded that singing that song with my inadequate voice would bore the audience, so I decided to change the lyrics to make it more interesting.

After a few writing attempts, I came up with new lyrics and I practiced every day even during my drive to the banquet that night. But as I sat waiting for my turn to perform, I began to get stage fright. Going over the lyrics in my head, they suddenly did not sound right. I was close to breaking out in a cold sweat when I was called me up to the front of the dance floor to perform.

I pulled myself together and was ready to give it a go, but then there was a malfunction with the DJ's equipment. She could not get audio from the track I had given her and suggested using the karaoke version of the song, which she had on hand.

I was unsure about using the karaoke version, but I had no other choice, so being a trooper, I said, “On with the show.” But then she discovered the error of her ways and got my track to work. I was relieved and sang my heart out with the following lyrics:

    There’s a place where I can go and try on women’s clothes,
    In my room,
    In my room.

    In this world I wear a bra and fishnet pantyhose,
    In my room,
    In my room.

    Do my nails, wear high heels, even shave my back,
    Do my hair up and my makeup, I’ll wear basic black.

    Now it’s dark and I can sneak out dressed just like my Mom,
    From my room,
    From my room.

I got laughs from the audience after singing the very first line. That knocked the stage fright out of me and I received a nice applause at the end.

Wearing JustFab boots

Dávid Hartl femulates Kylie Minogue on Slovakian television's Tvoja Tvar Anie Povedome
You can view this femulation on YouTube.