[PharmaDrMan]

How low can you go and sacrifice yourself in order to promote kendo?
How cheap do you sell yourself?

This a true story I just remembered and thought of sharing it with you.

One day we were finishing our keiko and a guy appears by the dojo’s door. He waits until everything is done and asks for someone to talk to. At the time I was a sort of Public Relations for the Portuguese Kendo Association (APK) and so I go and talk to the guy.

He tells me he is the PR of a famous jet-set/socialite/richandfamous bar in Lisbon, called the Boudha Bar, and that one of the regulars there, a lady, was going to have her birthday party there and she wanted to have a Kendo Show to enjoy her guests (I’m not joking) and that he, as PR of the bar, was there to set things up with us.
At what time could we be there, did we need a place to “dress up”, did we need any make-up, etc, etc.

I could not believe my ears. Did someone already talked to him? Did someone said we would be there?

No, he answered me, but since the socialite lady wanted us to be there, it was an excelent oportunity for us to show ourselves to the rich and famous part of society. And we could not fail him, because he had already sent the invitations saying that there would be a “kendo show” that night.

Since the APK is the only kendo club in Lisbon we had an obligation to go.

I sometimes go from amazed to angry very quickly, and was (really really) a milimeter away to tell him to go f..k himself, but don’t know why I kept listening to the guy and went I from surprise to suprise. So, HE said WE would be there, even without talking to us!
That it was an amazing oportunity he repeated, almost an honour that she chose to have us there. Did I even begin to realize how great that was? It was Miss Blablabla’s birthday party. It was the social event of the rentrée. It was going to be on the cover of all pink-press magazines. What the hell else did we need?

Ok, ok, the night of the show, we could drink anything we wanted at the bar.