Playing, entertaining, interacting at parties where kids need to be entertained. You've got to ask yourself: "do I do entertainment for ME and play what I want to play, or do I do it to make people happy which translates to “do I try to make the world a better place through my musical skills? If it’s the former, it’s OK to do whatever floats your boat. But if you want to keep working (and making money) rather than moan about the times.....adapt.....like Donny says: either work on fitting into a new groove or.....sit it out at the train station.

I chose to adapt in the past. Sure I was hesitant and uneasy with each new change but as I began to take possession of each new role I was entering I found the change to be quite therapeutic. Woke me up out of my hum-drum. Life was never meant to be static. The human body and mind was never meant to decompose from non-usage.

I was smart enough (and lucky enough) to be able to adapt to all the changes over the years. Well, all the changes up to now....now they're coming too fast to get a handle on them.

But it went like this for me. Started, like most of us...a musician playing my instrument…the accordion. Realized I eventually needed to sing so I took years of singing lessons. Saw the arranger age coming and slowly transitioned to my first arranger keyboard…a Casio. Then realized there's money to be made in the "piano circuit" so I spent time polishing up my piano chops ‘cause the piano is a whole lot different than an arranger. Next, DJ's came into vogue. That meant another year transitioning into that starting in the early 90's. Did most of my work as a DJ at parties at night and a musician during the day at the nursing homes for the next 20 years. During my DJ years, I found I liked the freedom to move around and the enjoyment of "listening" to music now instead of playing it but eventually I became bored just standing around spinning records. So I began developing “patter” with the audience, singing with Karaoke tracks during the DJ performance, and going out on the floor and interacting with the people. Next, when I ran through that phase, I found I really enjoyed working with the kids and for a few years that’s what I did. Became the circus master. Whatever kind of party I DJ’d, I made it a point to get the kids worked up with party games and whatever dancing they could relate too. Got to the point where I was doing 3-4 hours mostly working the kids. We were all happy.....me.....working with the children and feeling important giving them the attention their parents didn’t, me.....picking up a big paycheck for the “specialty” work, the kids.....having fun with a temporary father/authority figure that they needed (me), and.....the parents.....as one parent put it to me one day: “thanks for taking them off my hands for a few hours!”

I’ve been lucky that I had the ability to shift gears all those times. But the real talent is working hard at what you‘re walking into. I have to give myself credit. I worked ferociously.....really really hard and put countless hours into learning every one of my new “musical careers” I was starting at every step of the way. I didn’t walk into anything blindly.

Kids are great to work with if you know your stuff.....what songs to play, playing kid’s games, determining what they will react to both musically and verbally, realizing how they need a “leader” to follow because many of them are lost in today’s complex environment having no parental guidance, etc. The best part…..after working with them for a few hours, you walk away feeling young again, rejuvenated, refreshed and mostly.....the innocence of the children reminds you the world is really a beautiful place when you get the adults out of the picture!
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Mark adds the next morning after a good night's sleep:

When I say "kids" I mean up to around ages 14-15. After that they start to approach "unruly" stage.

Thought a lot about what I wrote above. At this stage of my life, I could easily throw in the towel. The creature (music industry) attacks with so many tentacles now you don't know which one to address first. Maybe it's time to pull a "Gary" and "Donny" and bow out gracefully!