Jak Frosty Xmas for Kids 
with Paediatric Congenital Heart Conditions

Last Friday I got a call from a good friend Charis (Link to the Lady's Blog - I've never read it), who asked if I was free on Saturday for a charity event to be Jack Frost for Kids in Hospital for kids with some sort of medical named heart condition, she had me at Charity and Jack...

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Basically I turned up the next day at 1pm and got up to speed with what I was to do, but what was more if not as important was to find out what Paediatric Congenital Heart problems are. Basically it is Treatments, operations and surgery for Children born with heart irregularities, conditions that generally cause the heart to not function properly. Such complications require closed or open heart surgery which of course costs thousands, the children usually continue to live active normal lives but often several follow up surgeries are needed. his charity event was to create awareness of a support group of families with similar experiences in living with heart conditions. My father was born with an irregularity in his heart which causes a small leak in one of the valves, this however did not affect him, and even when doctors suggested an operation to prevent possible future problems he refused, why fix something if it still works fine?

Anyway, my role was to be Jack frost, who is probably not the most friendly looking Xmas character, looking cold pointy and etc, I wiki'd on my phone before the event that although friendly if provoked he would even kill people with snow ice and maybe even frozen turkey. 
I was to assist the Hostess of the event, who turned up a bit late, and generally entertain the kids with games. My hosting side isn't the strongest and while I can get the attention of Children, I can't seem to hold it, I am still trying to pin point why, but on this occasion I did perform better than usual but far from stellar. 

My stage presence was not as strong as the more experienced angel costumed hostess, who was only mild in her delivery, but she did evoke an aura of professionalism, in progressing the event, I would always struggle to keep track of time. Experience gives an aura that as soon as someone has more than you can dwarf your performance and your confidence 
has a lot more work to do if it wants to measure up, and this was a problem I noticed I have in co-hosting, so she did almost all the work.

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There were a few talks by Doctors, patients and parents, but particularly there was Video of various families expressing their hardships thanking the charity for their support financially and mentally, My Angel Co-Hostess was in tears, so I had to introduce the next speaker, Can't say I did that well because I just stalled time till she recovered in time to explain her emotions to the audience and before steering things back on track. 

I was lead to think how to feel in such a situations, what is the most appropriate way to behave? here we have strong families, forged with burdens of health and medical expenses, they themselves are sick of tears and pity is it better to show your tears or to treat them like normal people? not ignore their circumstances so to speak but not make it obvious at the same time. I was moved by the video but I am in generally good control of my waterworks. I'm sure in this instance that as an Emcee, it is best to be in control and be strong for the families.

Anyway, Deep thoughts and medical complications aside it was a fun event and we both worked together well in playing games with the adorable children. I stayed back after the performance and helped the backstage crew clean up and pack up, while the angel flew off. The costume was pretty cool too (pun intended), I'd wear it again and work with this team again.

Performance Rating: 4.7/10
Lack of stage Presence, substandard improvisation, passable interaction with Children.

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