My Bette Midler Experience by Danielle G.

My Bette Midler Experience.
by Danielle Gruskiewicz

“First off I want to say warning if you are under 21 you will not be allowed to enter into the show without an adult. O wait let me rephrase that, they will let you in the first 4 times you go but the 5th time they have a problem. O and even on the Bette Midler website it says there are no age requirements but they still have a problem, but only the 5th time. Ok I am done venting now, lets begin.

So I got to Vegas on Monday and spent the day having fun with my mom and doing all the things that one can do while in Vegas when under 21, which is basically everything except gamble. I would recommend a Vegas vacation to anyone of any age. There is something for everyone to do. Then on Tuesday I spent the day at the pool and shopping with my mom for the perfect dress to meet Bette in. That night I had 4th row seats to see Bette!

So I got ready and my mom and I walked up to the doors of the Colosseum. Since as you all probably well know, Bette tickets are not cheap so that my mom and I don’t have the money to buy tickets for the both of us. So when I go to see Bette I usual go in by myself, nobody has a problem and there was no difference this time. So I am seated in fourth row and I am right in front of the part of the stage where she sits down to play the ukulele, so I have a great seat.

Then the show starts and Bette appears. She was just amazing. Just breathe taking. The crowd went nuts. She changed her little jokes that she makes after her opening number to be more current and o my goodness I was laughing so hard when she mad fun of Sarah Palin and Jon and Kate. Sorry all of you who are fans of there’s but all three of them are idiots.

Moving on, all of her songs were amazing especially From a Distance, which is one of my favorites. It was just so powerful, but she always is. Also when the band is playing during the middle of the song and she is running around the stage she stops and like pretends to play hop scotch or something and people giggle, both times I went people giggled”¦ don’t”¦ moving on.

Another one of my favorites was When a Man Loves a Woman. She was so powerful she took my words away, even right now. Right when she walked out she had one hand on her back and I realized that she was trying to fix her mic box. I wear mic boxes all the time for productions and I know how big of a pain they can be. I felt so bad this was giving her trouble. As I watched I noticed, she is not fixing this. For the first half of the song the poor lady could not get the box to behave. Then the band’s solo came and she walked in the direction of Bette Sussman and her lead guitarist and I could see they were nervous too because the both shook their heads at her as too say, “are you ok.” But she put the microphone under her arm fixed the mic and nodded back, then finished the song with and amazing ending. I would have given her a standing o anyways but this time I think she really deserved it. lol
I also loved when she did Soph. I must say she looked amazing and I could not stop myself from thinking that they really jammed her boobs up into her corset type costume that she wore for Soph. They were practically at her throat. But they looked good all the same. lol She was hysterical. I love the joke about the Doberman pinscher and the Chihuahua. That one is probably my favorite.

Then came Wind Beneath My Wings, again another classic, she started off by saying ok the song you have been waiting for, then singing some Celine Dion song. I don’t know the exact words I am not that familiar with her. It was really funny because people laughed and she pretended to look sad. lol But when she really sang WBMW it was magnificent. I don’t know if she knows this or not, maybe she does, but I think the reason that song was so successful for her is because she is the person in that song for all of us. Yes I am sure some people take the song and use it when they want to express this emotion to others. I know one of them. But most of her fans really feel this way about her. I know she is my hero.

So then the next day, which was a Wednesday, was the day I would have front row seats and get to meet Bette Midler!!! I was so excited I could hardly think! So again my mom walks me up to the doors and hear is where things start to go crazy. So, I give my ticket to the guy and no special person takes me to my seat “clue number one something is wrong.” Ok, then I get seated next to this very nice man, Michael who I gabbed with about how much we love Bette and yatta yatta. He had seen Bette 17 times in his life, now 5 doesn’t seen so bad, does it now, lol. Then a woman named Talia “very nice Bette worker” gives Michael and I a little envelope that says VIP on it and says to stay in our seats after the show and she would take us to Bette. So by this time it was already 7:30 and the show usually starts a little late so I look in my envelope thing and there is no drink coupon “clue number 2.” So I just thought I will go up to the guy and show him what I have and see what he says. He told me no free drink, crap. This was bad for me because unfortunately I had no money on me and right during Bette’s show and I had to take some prescribed medication and a freaken water is 5 dollars. So I run out of the show to my mother who gives me some money and when I am coming back in a man who is suppose to check your bag asks me where my mother is. He said I could not get in, even though I had just been in the night before and 5 seconds ago without an adult. So I ran to my mother again and she runs to the box office 10 seconds before the show starts and has to buy a 100 dollar ticket.

So I go to my seat and watch the whole show which was amazing, I had the front row seat right in front of the step were she sings, you could not get any closer! She was beautiful and amazing and it was an experience I will never forget. Then, before the show is even over, Talia wisked us away to go wait for Bette!

We waited in this very nice furnished room for a while, while Talia said Bette “freshened up” after the show. So while I waited I chatted again with Michael and this very nice couple from London who had seen Bette 20 time “wow” and had just seen Bette when she was on Loose Women. Then when Bette came in she came in the side door and stood in front of the camera, then one by one we went in front of the camera talked to her for a minute or 2, took our picture, said goodbye to her, and left. I was second. When it was my turn she came back from behind the camera and put out her hand to shake mine with a big smile on her face and said o my goodness you are beautiful. I was so flattered. Then she put her arm around me and said to Marty the guy who was on Kathy Griffin, is she a “Smug?” and he nodded his head yes. I was so relieved; at least one person today was not going to try to kick me out of here. Then she said O my you are so young what are you doing here, you can’t be any more than nineteen. I then told her that I was fifteen. She asked me if I came with someone. I should have just said yes and left the question alone but like the idiot I am the word vomit came out and I told her what happened. I only said it because it was kind of a funny story to break the ice with freaken Bette Midler and I wanted to make sure that all of the security guards there new that I did not come alone so they would not throw me out anymore. Anyways, Bette said she was so sorry for what happened and said that she would have I guess her manager J.J refund me the 100 dollars I spent on the ticket. I was so stunned. I thought that was really really nice of her and very unnecessary. I think that shows just how down to earth she is. She did not have to do that for me and she did it with out even thinking about it.

Then she asked me where I was from and I told her I was from New Jersey and she said her parents were from there in this voice and we had this moment that was really cool and I said o really like I didn’t know even though I was perfectly aware of that fact. They lived in Paterson New Jersey. I just had a star struck moment was all. Anyways then she was like well I think you might be my youngest fan, well maybe not my youngest but my nicest and I said thank you. Then she said you are just so cute give me a hug so I gave her a hug and told her that I just loved her and thought she was great. Then we took our picture and she then told J.J to take care of me again.

Bette was so kind to me, I was afraid that she would not be mean but not as nice to me because I was younger but it was just the opposite. I want to thank her so much for her kindness towards me and putting up with me while I was so nervous. lol She is the wind beneath my wings.”

Love, Danielle xoxo