Candyce was a 33-yr old vegetarian and part-time model for Jantzen and Columbia. In all my days on this planet, I have never met a more intense woman. She was down-to-earth on one side, but glamour girl on the other. She told me she had been married and lived on a farm where she canned and dried her food for storage. The marriage didn't work out and she was reliving a childhood, lost.
It surprised me to learn that most of what Candyce instructed me to copy were mainly 60's dance steps: the pony, the twist, the swim. This was not what I had trained for, but my Mom taught me those steps as a young girl, so I wasn't completely clueless...just surprised.
Rehearsals were a breeze compared to the hours and hours of stretching, warm-up, memorizing and training I was accustomed to as a student. Candyce insisted all I was to do was copy her every move...no improv, no deviation...just follow the leader. Simple enough.
Both Candyce and I were avid thrift store shoppers, so off we went searching for flash. We each picked up a pair of black and white go-go boots, pantyhose, fishnet stockings, shiny black leotards, looong black and white gloves and sequin anything. I headed to one of my old dance studios and found a couple other 'real' costumes from other shows. Candyce squealed over them...she was amped!
Next was the makeup. My sister thought it was cool. Mom, on the other hand, would have barred me from leaving the house if she thought it would really work. We used liquid eyeliner to make huge catlike eyes...enough to scare any mother out of their wits!
I was seeing a drummer at the time who I had met at college one weekend when his band was playing on the road. He was just launching a new band in Portland, and I thought cool...maybe we'll get to play the same club some weekend. When I told him I had joined up w/ Billy, he took it very hard, and still does.
If their was one band that other bands hated more than others in Puddletown, it was the Malchicks... Billy's previous band. Music came easy to Billy, and so did the girls. My little drummer boys ego couldn't take it...he found it disgustingly simple music without complexity or interest...to him this new band of Billy's was worse than the Malchicks. He is quite the genius musician, with to tolerance for mediocrity. Well, I sure as hell wasn't going to quit because he didn't approve, so we slowly went our separate ways.
I had just turned 18-years old and had barely ever set foot inside a bar. With that makeup and those costumes, I thought no one would ever question my age...and I was right, they never did.
With everything in place in less than a week, it was showtime...and what a show it was!!!
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