It’s been a little over a week since the 2013 Apocalypse Kow Kristmas Kabaret. Your Kows have had their post-mortem of the show, performed at a comedian friend’s Christmas show, and cheques have been written. Here are some thoughts.
Wow, just… wow. Seriously, you guys, you have made me a very happy ninja this season with your support, your generosity, and most of all, your continued enthusiasm for coming to shows and events. This was one of our most successful Kristmas Kabarets to date, and several organizations are going to be very pleased with the donations you helped us raise this year. First of all, we raised $800 for the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation of Canada, Alberta Chapter. Thank you. The lady from the CCFC who spoke at the Kabaret seemed extremely pleased with the show. Heck, she walked out of the show having won one of the gingerbread houses. And the table full of representatives from the CCFC seemed extremely pleased as well. And therein lies one of the strange stories of coincidence of this Apocalypse Kow season.
You know how, in our Fringe show of time travel, we had a character named Lori (played by friend of Kow, Erika Conway) who was Jago’s girlfriend in one of the alternate futures? Well, during the run of the show, we would ask if any ladies in the audience were named Lori/Laurie. One night, there actually was a Laurie, who knew Joel F. but didn’t know he was in Apocalypse Kow, so that was kinda cool and kind of a surprise. It turns out, this same Laurie is a VP in the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation of Canada, Alberta chapter, and she was at the Kabaret! Keep in mind: we did not know of her affiliation with the CCFC, and we chose the CCFC at random. (I considered the organization at one point because I know a couple of people suffering from Crohn’s or colitis.) What a coincidence, eh?
Anyhoo, the gingerbread house auction raised $175 for Joel R.’s brother Jon-Jon’s organization, whose name I forget at the moment. All I remember is I needed to write a lot of words in the remarks section of that cheque. So that money is going to typhoon relief in the Philippines. Sorry, there’s no fun story of coincidence in this case, other than the Rivero family has always been very family-oriented and I was happy to have this opportunity to give back to the Riveros and their causes, as they have always been very supportive of Apocalypse Kow.
On a lighter note, we didn’t sell any Beefy Packages at our merch table, but the Kabaret has always been, first and foremost, a fundraiser for non-profit organizations. We even got a few bags of food for the Edmonton Food Bank, though donations at the Kristmas Kabaret have fallen off dramatically since we stopped offering ticket price rebates in exchange for donations. Come on, folks, it’s good to give even if you don’t get anything out of it but warm fuzzies, especially during the holidays! I encourage all of you who haven’t done it already to make a small donation to the Edmonton Food Bank this year, just because. You don’t even have to tell them Apocalypse Kow guilted you into it!
That said, we did sell a few items. Greatest Kow fanstress Andrea bought one of our new tote bags, which are ordinarily only available with the Beefy Package. But she asked real nicely, and I’m a sucker for a pretty Kow fan who wants a complete collection of Kow merchandise. We even managed to find the very last Kow hoodie hiding in one of the boxes and sold it to Kow fan Fiona, who has misplaced two of them and needed a(nother) replacement. Glad we could help.
Kow now takes a little break before returning in the new year with new music, and a gig already booked for February! Please comment on our posts on Facebook or directly on the website to let us know what you think.
Remember that Kow music is available via streaming from the site and a full album on iTunes. We’re also going to put up some of the video from the Kabaret on YouTube, so watch for that!