Sinbad Watched Me Play at Open Mic Night …

… Then Gave a Stellar Performance of His Own

Last Thursday, while my guitarist Gary and I were practicing, we realized we had no live footage of us playing together. We decided to head over to the open mic night at The Big Easy in downtown Raleigh and have my boyfriend take a few videos.

We got there a early, so we ordered some drinks, and settled in at a table. As the open mic host set up all the sound gear, more and more people started coming in, and soon there was quite a crowd.

Then, a man walked in who looked very familiar. My boyfriend and I looked at each other in disbelief.

“Is that … Sinbad?!” he asked.

And it was!

People started stopping by his table take photos with him and compliment him on his work, and the open mic host gave him a shout out before the first band played the opening set. I’ve had very few celebrity encounters in my life, so right then I was too shy to say hello. And, knowing Sinbad would see my open mic night performance made me pretty nervous!

Soon, it was our turn to take the stage. The bar was very loud, and I could barely hear Gary’s guitar. But as we played our set, Sinbad watched intently.

And when we left the stage, he complimented me personally – he said “good job!”

If you’d like to see some footage from our performance, here’s Gary and me playing “A Grace You Don’t Deserve”:

As if that wasn’t enough excitement for the night, later on in the evening Sinbad took the stage with a full band. As it turns out, he’s been learning guitar for a few years, and has turned into a badass funk performer. His band played amazingly, but Sinbad’s vocals and charismatic stage presence were definitely the highlight of the show for me. He jammed on some fun and well-known tunes, improvised clever lyrics, and pulled other musicians from the crowd to play with him.

At the end of the night, I worked up the courage to tell Sinbad how much I enjoyed the performance and ask for a picture:

Though the pic is super dark and barely recognizable, I love it because it reminds me of an exciting night full of great music. If you ever get the chance to party with Sinbad, I highly recommend it. I’d do it again any day!

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