During our recent visit to NYC last November (2010), my husband wanted to see the famous Apollo Theater in Harlem. On Monday, November 29th, we took the D train from Bensonhurst, Brooklyn to 125th Street. If you look at the subway map, the long ride was from Brooklyn at the bottom (two stops from Coney Island) to almost the top of the map in the Bronx.
There it was, one of New York City’s great cultural landmarks where the music greats such as Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Duke Ellington, and Nat “King” Cole performed.
I went back two nights later to try-out for the regular Wednesday night amateur performances. I did my 3-act routine. First, I told a few jokes to warm up the audience but the crowd did not even crack a smile. Then I started to dance and the audience broke out laughing so hard. Finally, when I started to sing, the people ran out of the ballroom as if there was a fire! “TOTA, don’t quit your day job!”, the stage manager told me, still laughing at my dancing. 
It was time for lunch and I suggested that we had some soul food but my husband was a bit nervous of being “out of place” so we took the subway back to midtown.
During our recent visit to NYC last November (2010), my husband wanted to see the famous Apollo Theater in Harlem. On Monday, November 29th, we took the D train from Bensonhurst, Brooklyn to 125th Street. If you look at the subway map, the long ride was from Brooklyn at the bottom (two stops from Coney Island) to almost the top of the map in the Bronx.
There it was, one of New York City’s great cultural landmarks where the music greats such as Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Duke Ellington, and Nat “King” Cole performed.
I went back two nights later to try-out for the regular Wednesday night amateur performances. I did my 3-act routine. First, I told a few jokes to warm up the audience but the crowd did not even crack a smile. Then I started to dance and the audience broke out laughing so hard. Finally, when I started to sing, the people ran out of the ballroom as if there was a fire! “TOTA, don’t quit your day job!”, the stage manager told me, still laughing at my dancing. 
It was time for lunch and I suggested that we had some soul food but my husband was a bit nervous of being “out of place” so we took the subway back to midtown.
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