An Evening with Patrick Chan

Whenever I watch Team Canada Hockey...Olympics...Worlds...I don't have enough finger nails to chew on.  My heart races, I'm on the edge of my seat and can barely watch.  If Canada scores I jump off my seat so fast that my cat hits the ceiling nails dug in upside down.  Kids cry from being so startled and my wife yells at me...

Then there is figure skating.  Months of practice...pressures at an all time high resting on the shoulders of one individual who has to spin multiple times in the air and land on a blade 4mm wide...oh and by the way lets combo that with another insane aerial acrobat...and heaven forbid you don't land smoothly let alone fall! I can barely watch...in fact most of the times choose not to.  Can't handle it!

This past Friday night I had the pleasure of providing audio for an "Evening with Patrick Chan" a fundraiser to help support the current 2011 World Figure Skating Champion. Not only did the Ottawa born figure skater win the world championship in Moscow he did it by smashing three world records in the process!

The event was held in Richmond Hill at the Premier Banquet Center.  Roughly 500 guests showed up at the $130 per plate event in support of Patrick, including coach, Christine Krall, mayor of Richmond Hill, Dave Barrow and Donald Jackson 1962 World Champion (first to land a triple lutz in competition).  PJ Kwong and Scott Russel both commentators for the CBC were there MCing the event. The night included a silent and live auction which had an autographed Wayne Gretzky Edmonton Jersey (that sold for $1700), latin dance performances and what seemed to be a never ending multiple course meal of Chinese dishes.

Premier Banquet Hall In Richmond Hill

My gear along side Bernard of WPI Events

I worked along side Bernard of WPI events who ran two video screens used to show videos of Patrick's past performances and a training video blog put together by Patrick's best friend.  Coupled with my normal set-up a whole bunch of other equipment was added to fill the cavern that was the Premier Banquet Hall.  Here is what I used:

• 2x Yorkville NX75P - 750watt mains on the dance floor.
• 2x Yorkville NX55P - 550watt mains mid room.
• 2x Yorkville NX25P - 250watt mains at back of room to cancel out echo.
• 2x Yorkville NX720P - Subwoofers on the dance floor.
• 2x Line 6 XV-70 Wireless Mics.
• Shure SM 58 Hard Mic.
• Mackie DFX-6 Mixer (for Mics and DJ mixer input).
• 2x Denons DNS3500 CDTT with Ecler Nuo 4 Mixer.
• Laptop with Traktor Scratch Pro and Traktor Kontrol X1 midi controller.

Meeting Patrick was a treat.  He is very small in stature...almost seems fragile....that's what I was thinking anyway when we shook hands.  But the power needed to do what he does on a pair of skates tells you what he really is...a super athlete.  He may be small but he probably has the biggest smile ever.  He must have posed for litterally 500 pictures that night and in every one his smile got larger.  During his speech he talked about his performance in the Vancouver Winter Games and the lessons learned.  He claimed his perspective had changed since and he was enjoying the skating a lot more leading up to Moscow.  If that directly coorelates to the size of his smile I am sure it helped win the judges over...that and landing a few quads in the meantime.  He was super humble and showed his appreciation for everything that went on that evening and from what I can tell it was a great success!

Patrick asked for a picture...I said sure! :)

CBC's Scott Russel & PJ Kwong along side Patrick Chan

With all the nights festivities going late - there wasn't much time for me to get the dance floor going.  It was all about Patrick.  For those that were left what was more important was some last minute autographs, pictures and some personal time speaking to him.

At the end of the night I joked with him as we talked about online gaming I found out to be one of his passions.  He is a young man after all.  He mentioned "Left for Dead".  I haven't played that game personally.  I then spoke to him about the wonderful World of Warcraft, a highly addictive, super time wasting game he has yet to try.  I urged him not to....but if he does and his career takes a sudden down turn in the near future it's not my fault!

Ohhh...and I also spoke briefly to the mayor's wife.  Unfortunately she couldn't do much to help reduce the amount of traffic in Richmond Hill on my way to work.  She said she couldn't help me cause I lived on the "other side of Bathurst"...aka Maple... :)

In case you missed it here is his long program performance!

A special thanks goes out to Carmen James of the Richmond Training Center for recommending me for this gig.  I met some wonderfull people that night!