How I Learned To Love Drag Part 12

Sometimes when you hear a song on the radio, you like it immediately. You turn up the volume to full blast! The melody, the lyrics, and the beat just make you feel like dancing!

Whenever, Wherever is such a song.

I played the CD whenever I had the chance and wherever I could.

Moreover Shakira is an absolutely gorgeous girl. And so talented! She wrote the music with a guy named Tim Mitchell. Called Suerte in Spanish, Shakira wrote the lyrics. But for the English language version, she co-wrote the lyrics with Gloria M. Estefan.

I was so looking forward to impersonating Shakira!

Producer Ted Walters pulled a few strings. He contacted the producers of the Mike Howard Show, a popular talk show on the Comedy Network.

It was the right time for promoting ECSTASY. The fall schedule was just beginning. Our debut show would begin airing in a few days.

As far as Canadian viewers were concerned, I was an unknown comic.

If I did well in my appearance on the Mike Howard Show, I might create a buzz that could attract new viewers to tune in to ECSTASY. And maybe our old fans would forget I was replacing Steve Perry, the star who had left for greater glory in the United States.

The plan was for me to appear near the beginning of the show as Shakira. I'd do my singing impression, change, take off the makeup and reappear later as myself.

I liked the idea.

Appearing in front of a live audience was the one thing I had missed since I began working at ECSTASY. I loved the applause! I loved the instantaneous feedback! I loved the interaction!

Taped in Vancouver, the studio for the Mike Howard Show was located near False Creek, on the site of the old Expo 86. Vancouver had hosted the World's Fair back in 1986.

I had to get up early in the morning. The Mike Howard Show began taping at noon, but I had to begin getting into the makeup and costume long before that.

At my normal work studio in suburban Burnaby, I sat in the usual "barber chair" for my transformation.