The Wiz will probably tell you, Spaulding leaped off the stage again tonight. It is a baffling proposition. He will work fine every rehearsal, and there is a required rehearsal every time he makes his leap. But for neither reason nor logic he chooses his own moment to stay on stage or not; it is entirely out of anyone’s control once the cue has been given.

There are three people backstage left watching every night to see what he will do, Joe, Doug and the Wiz. The Wiz calls the cue, Doug is the one that pushes the button and I think Joe has wagers on the outcome. I hear the reaction of this exclusive audience every night. When he rolls off the stage, a groan comes from stage left that is not unlike the crowd noise when an NBA home team player misses a three pointer at the buzzer. When he doesn’t roll off I hear high fives all around, and occasionally a muffled cheer.

Even more unpredictable is the reaction members of the front row have when Spaulding jumps off stage. Some immediately grab him and toss him back on stage. Some just look at the ball as if it was ready to explode. Some pretend that it didn’t happen and I have to coax them into involvement. Some people throw it at me and some roll it gently back on the stage. One man tossed it so hard it almost went off the deck. It is live theater and Spaulding proves that every night.

I am always looking for signs. This could be one I am missing. Maybe we should note every time Spaulding jumps off stage and evaluate it against astrological events. Perhaps it is temperature, humidity, phase of the moon, or biorhythms. Maybe Spaulding is trying to tell us something. Could be he is reacting to the Dow Jones Index.

Here is the deal. If you were at the show when Spaulding jumped off the stage and something unusual happened to you that same day, or if you were the one to actually touch Spaulding and get him back on stage, and your luck changed in some way, let me know. Write me a comment on this blog. Together we could discover an untapped source of psychic energy.

You don’t think I am perhaps over analyzing, do you?
As you were,
Jay