{"id":16883,"date":"2013-10-09T08:00:59","date_gmt":"2013-10-09T12:00:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/?p=16883"},"modified":"2013-10-09T08:23:20","modified_gmt":"2013-10-09T12:23:20","slug":"today-i-am-a-man-x-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/2013\/10\/09\/today-i-am-a-man-x-2\/","title":{"rendered":"{TODAY I AM A MAN} X 2"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

My son<\/strong><\/span> Jack played his first professional gig with Yiddishe Cup at age 8, when I gave him five dollars to play \u201cWipe Out.\u201d We were at a temple Chanukah party.\u00a0 Before that gig, he had done pro bono<\/em> work, sitting in frequently with the band and stealing the show. The senior citizens loved him.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Jack, age 4, 1992, Beachwood library, tambourines and drumsticks.<\/p><\/div>\n

Years later, Shirley Guralnik, a fan of the band, would ask me, \u201cHow\u2019s the little one?\u201d And I would answer, \u201cThe little one is in college now and bigger than me.\u201d Shirley died in 2011. She had followed\u00a0 Jack’s career from the beginning.<\/p>\n

Jack never got nervous.\u00a0 A case of nerves was hard to develop if, like Groucho Marx, your stage-mom (or dad, in this case) put you on stage practically in diapers.<\/p>\n

I told<\/strong><\/span> Jack I would pay him $75 — real money — for a real gig after his bar mitzvah.\u00a0 He would be Yiddishe Cup\u2019s drummer for some gigs. He wouldn\u2019t just sit in.<\/p>\n

He did great.<\/p>\n

Jack got uptight only once.\u00a0 It was at his own bar mitzvah — not the music, reading Torah.\u00a0 The rabbi asked him, \u201cHow nervous are you on a scale of 1 to 10.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cEight.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s not<\/strong><\/span> bad,\u201d the rabbi said.<\/p>\n

Jack said, \u201cI\u2019ve never been an 8 before!\u201d<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

\"\"

Jack, 13, 2000, at his first "real money" gig<\/p><\/div>\n

Jack\u2019s<\/strong><\/span> $75 <\/strong>gig<\/span><\/span> was at the Barrington Golf Club in Aurora, Ohio.\u00a0 A country club staffer asked if she should light the Christmas tree for the bar mitzvah luncheon.\u00a0 I said,\u00a0 \u201cNot a good idea.”<\/p>\n

On the way home, we stopped by my dad\u2019s grave on Aurora Road.\u00a0 \u00a0I told Jack to place an old clarinet reed on the grave marker.<\/p>\n

My point? 1) I didn’t have any old drumsticks. 2) I was at my father\u2019s grave with my youngest kid, who I had just paid to work, just like my father had paid me (to paint walls, argh). The cracked<\/span> reed fit into the Jewish star on the grave marker.<\/p>\n

My son got the $75.<\/p>\n