A year or so ago, I played at a local spot in Indialantic, and was surprised to see a huge crowd inside. I've never had much of a ‘following’ (people that come to see me play often), maybe because most of my gigs are in Orlando or Cocoa Beach, both of which are pretty far from home. So, as I set up to play that particular day, I felt some pride in seeing how, after ten years, I seemed to finally be getting some traction with the locals. Man, the place was Standing Room Only! Wow, all of this for me?

During my first break, I went outside, all full of myself, until I noticed on the big sign: TODAY 1 to 5PM -  JOHN MCDONALD AND THE MANGO MEN (a fairly popular local band) .  Whoops.  I asked the Manager about this, and he said “Yeah, sorry; we messed up our events calendar and forgot to change the sign”. Translation: I was actually playing to somebody else's audience. So much for my ‘following’.

I made the best of it, and cracked a few jokes about what had happened, and how it had brought me right back down to earth. The crowd seemed to appreciate the humor and the irony of it all. Most of them even stuck around to hear me play!

This story reminds me of my mantra for any other guitar players who may need something to keep their inflated egos under control: Just go to YouTube or Instragram and watch all the nine-year old kids playing Matteo Mancuso solos note-for-note. It works every time.