 
|
|
|
 |
DON HO
PERCEPTIONS
|
One of the highlights of my recent Hawaiian Honeymoon Holiday was seeing the amazing Don Ho in his brand new customized showroom at the Waikiki Beachcomber Hotel in Honolulu. The Don Ho Show is a highly entertaining, fascinating experience, combining elements of a Hawaiian luau, a Vegas lounge act and a celebrity-hosted talk show. Don Ho is by far one of Hawaii's greatest assets.
My new hubby Jake and I sat at a romantic, candlelit table in the intimate room, just a few feet away from the stage. After our waitress, Desi, served us a tasty mahi-mahi/island chicken dinner, someone announced that Don would take pictures with fans before the show began.
We grabbed our camera and lined up to see the legend up close. Sitting in a rattan chair surrounded by tropical plants, he looked a lot older than I thought he would. At first sight, he made me think of Martin Landau's Bela Lugosi in Ed Wood and Al Lewis as Grandpa Munster. He was pale, and moved and spoke in a slow, cool fashion that might be expected from a legendary "swinger." A Jackie Wilson impersonator we met a few days later told us that Don is reputed to live with many wives and has over 100 children (!) perhaps explaining his tired appearance. However, he wasn't too tired to be kind and gracious, kissing all the ladies, and warmly shaking hands with all the fellas, genuinely appreciating everyone who came to see him.
When the show began, Don came out and sat (in another rattan chair) center stage at a keyboard. He did "Tiny Bubbles" early on, explaining that he performs the song twice in each show -- at the beginning and at the end -- because his older fans sometimes forget that he has already played it. Throughout the show he joked about how he and his fans have aged, seeming both nostalgic about the past, and proud of his longevity and ability to continue performing.
Apparently, Don Ho's live performances is similar in format to a television show he had during the 70s. He described this morning program as a venue where he showcased local talent, including regulars that still occasionally appear in his live shows. The Don Ho live show features a wide variety of performers who do their thing, and then are called to sit down next to Don for a moment or two while he reflects on how he met them and shares lots of other memories, observations, jokes.
Hal, a young Vegas-style vocalist, sang a few upbeat tunes and then Don told us that he just made his prime time TV debut on the Cheryl Ladd series "One West Waikiki." A beautiful dancer/singer, Haumea Hebenstreita, joined Don on a few songs, and gracefully did the Hula. Joe, a Japanese country singer and banjo player, had appeared on the TV program, and plays with Don most evenings. The fans can't get enough of Joe's hot bluegrass licks and heavily accented vocals, especially on "Achy Breaky Heart!" Two young brothers, Michael and James Delacruz, sang a Hawaiian song in an entrancing style taught to them by their grandmother. Don told us afterward that these men devote much of their time teaching young children about their Hawaiian heritage. A surprise guest was Auntie Lei, a big band singer from the early days of Waikiki's hip nightclub/resort scene in the thirties.. She delighted the crowd with a couple of raunchy numbers, and then delivered a beautiful rendition of the "Hawaiian Wedding Song" with Don. The most amazing part of the show for us was when Don called up our waitress, Desi, to sing "Unforgettable" with him (ala the posthumous Nat King and Natalie Cole duet). For a minute, I expected Don to call us up to the stage!
We did get to participate a little bit. He asked for anyone celebrating a birthday, anniversary or honeymoon to stand, and had champagne sent to our tables. He also asked all veterans to stand, and the crowd gave them a long round of applause while Don praised them. We later learned that Don served in the military . . .
Throughout the show there was a warm feeling of friendship flowing from the stage and throughout the audience. Many people there had obviously seen Don many times before, and were fans from way back. (Apparently, if you bring an "official" photo of yourself taken at a Don Ho show, you can get in half-price!) Don explained that he liked to do shows to small audiences rather than in big, impersonal showrooms. He also made it very clear that he was not too fond of the hustle and bustle of current-day Waikiki Beach, with its huge hotels and shopping malls stacked up against each other. He saw his showroom as a kind of sanctuary providing visitors with Hawaii's true spirit of Aloha -- welcome, peace, and love.
In addition to this really positive vibe, there were also some very strange moments. For instance, Don asked a couple of audience members to taste the drinks that he had sitting on his keyboard -- they turned out to be water and pineapple juice. He said, with an almost bitter seriousness that betrayed his joking manner, that once a woman in the audience complained that he was drunk during the show. Since he's so laid back and his speech is rather slow and slurred, many people (my husband included) probably draw this conclusion, so Don obviously felt he had to go out of his way to demonstrate to us that he was sober.
Also, throughout the show, when the spotlight shifted from him, Don would pick up a telephone receiver that was connected to his keyboard and talk to someone (?) about something (?) very abruptly. Toward the end of the show, he would speak into the phone during the pauses of the song he was singing. We still don't know what to make of that.
When the show ended we took our "official" photo (and a box of "Don Ho 'Tiny Bubbles' Chocolate-Covered Macadamia Nuts") to be autographed by this fascinating performer. As he signed our mementos, I asked him if he had a message for me to take to the young people back home on the mainland. He took my question very seriously, paused from signing and then thoughtfully said;
"Perceive. Perceive with common sense. People don't realize how important perception is."
Now make yourself a Mai Tai and think about that.