When Julian Dykmans hooks you up with a gig, you know you’re in for an adventure. You remember Julian, don’t you? The pro skater from Belgium who starred in the production of The Marriage of Bette & Boo that I directed a few years ago and found us the poles for our wedding chupah? I thought so.

Saturday night, I was the Master of Ceremonies for the Red Bull SkateShot international skateboarding video competition at the BCN City Hall nightclub. About 300 skaters were in attendance to see the skate videos on the enormous (and expensive!) video screen behind me on stage and I was shitting myself.

It wouldn’t have been so nerve-racking if everything had gone according to plan. You see, I was supposed to be one half of the two-man presenting team for the event. Red Bull had also hired a local Spanish snowboarder named Fidel to present with me – him in Spanish and me in English. This wasn’t a speak-and-translate thing, mind you. We were going to do a point-counterpoint type thing, each speaking in his own language so that every member of the international audience would at least understand part of what we were saying. Anyway, in a taxi on his way to the event, Fidel started to get these massive chest pains. They were so bad that he ordered the driver to turn around and take him to the emergency room! It turned out that he had some sort of tiny bubbles around his lungs and I had a whole new challenge set before me: present the whole damn thing by myself… in both Spanish and English!

I had spent the whole day with both the five international skate teams and the Red Bull big-wig organizers – so I had all the information I would need floating around in my little head. But would I remember it all? And when to switch languages? Where was the third camera positioned? Was that Germany or Austria? Who landed that nollie inward heelflip to wheelie? How do you say ‘That skate spot is played out’ is Spanish?

Well, everything went just fine. The crowd warmed up pretty fast and my insane amount of adrenaline carried me safely through the night. I knew I would have at least one friend in the audience because I had told Jan to dress up like a skater-chick and I would leave her name on the guest list. What I didn’t know was that she then called five of her friends to come along. I guess the organizers of the event saw me as pretty important since, after mentioning my name at the door, each of Jan’s friends was presented with four tickets for free drinks at the bar. I also gave them the six tickets that they gave me since I had access to the open bar in the VIP lounge which was filled with all sorts of tasty appetizers like toothpicks with cherry tomato, watermelon and mint – surprisingly yummy!

Once the competition was over and team Austria was rightfully awarded first prize, Jan’s friends slowly started to stumble home. It was only midnight at this point so the club was still open for another six hours. So Jan and I chilled with Julian in the VIP lounge for a while and then observed the wildlife on the dance floor. Jan was so supportive and kind that I floated home on a cloud, wonderfully content with the sizable challenge I had overcome.

Thanks Julian!