"Fly me to the moon and let me play among the stars..." he crooned.
Satisfied with the levels, he came up to our table. He shook my dad's hand and straightened his yellow cable-knit sweater. "Thank you guys for coming out! Are you one of the people I called?" It seems that Luigi drums up an audience by cold calling them.
He took an instant liking to my father. Often over the course of the next few hours he would sing directly to my father. He was under the mistaken impression that my dad was Italian. We tried to disuade Luigi, but he had already decided we were Pizan and facts were really superfluous.
"We'll start in a minute or two. Glad you're here! Glad you're here!" He moved on to the next table.
We learned a great deal about Luigi. He's a self described Jewopajo. This word was derived from his mixed heritage. His dad is a "wop" his mom is part Jewish, part Navajo.
Luigi is 65 and he works three jobs. The first, is the lounge-lizzard thing. The second is voice over work. And finally he's the Deli guy at a local Albertsons.
Oh, and sing he did. He sang for three hours straight before we left. He was still singing when we left. o He sang mostly Sinatra standards, but he snuck in a little Neil Diamond for kicks. I requested "Girl From Ipanema" becuase I thought the evening was missing the bosa nova. Luigi threw his head back as he sang, belting it out and gesturing for emphasis. There was even a little scatting where appropriate
The singing was delightful, but the highlight was the banter between numbers. While he was cuing up the next background music CD, Luigi regaled us with tales of his life. His bride, Donna, was in the audience. He told us of their nuptuals. I give you my version, which is greatly diminished as a result of the retelling. I hope the soul of the tale still manages to come through.
It seems that they have been married for nine years. They went to Eureka Springs on a winter morning to have it done. It was cold, but they caught a break when the weather warmed up enough for them to be married outside in a gazebo. They took only two sets of clothes to Eureka Springs. Sweatsuits and the clothes they were to be married in. After the wedding they checked into a hotel. There was a mirror above the bed. Luigi remembers it clearly because it said, "Warning! Objects in mirror may appear larger than they are in... or something like that. You know what I'm saying?!"
They called the front desk for a wake up call for 7. Luigi had to get home to be at work that afternoon. Deli meats had to be sliced. The following morning they awoke on their own around 10. They called the front desk, understandably upset. The front desk said, "you ain't goin' nowhere. Look out your window." There was two feet of snow outside. They were snowed into the hotel for four days.
Here's the good part. The hotel? It had no restaurant. It only had a candy machine! They survived on Kit Kat Bars and Whoppers. Ha Ha! Donna was cheering him on from her seat in the back. "It's true!" she yelled out. "It's all true!" Ha Ha!
Midway through the concnert, Luigi called my dad to the stage. He presented my pop with a tape of his work. A tape of Luigi pretending to be Frank Sinatra. It was free.
When we left, my sister's fiance, Peter, received one as well. Also Luigi asked for dad's phone number. It seems he'll be calling the house when he's gonna give a concert. I live in another state, so I was allowed to leave without giving personal info.
Posted at 12:03 a.m.
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