The following is a review of Todd Eldredge's little event, by Bix. Thanks!
"Cook's Champagne Presents Todd Eldredge and Friends" took place at The Palace in Auburn Hills, Michigan on Monday, Dec. 8. It started shortly after 7:30 p.m. and finished around 11. The event even made the local news-- Fox 2 Detroit broadcast live from the Palace during the 5 p.m. news (I caught glimpses of Punsalan and Swallow, and Meno and Sand on television). I had a pretty decent seat-- 16 rows up in Section 114, a center ice section. It turns out that the event was being captured by ESPN, and was scheduled to be broadcast Monday evening of the following week. They had six or seven cameras to catch the action, and three announcers including Bob Varsha and Christopher Bowman. I didn't buy one of the colorful, flashy programs, but I did borrow someone's program to get a list of names: Todd Eldredge, Tara Lipinski, Yuka Sato, Scott Davis, Jennie Meno and Todd Sand, Elizabeth Punsalan and Jared Swallow, Eve Chalom and Matthew Gates, Jessica Joseph and Charles Butler, Tiffany and Johnny Stiegler, Danielle and Steve Hartsell, Naomi Lang and Peter Tchernyshev, Kate Robinson and Peter Breen, Amaan Archer and Stephanie Kalesavich, Jamie Silverstein and Justin Pekarek, Kristen Melohusky, Tatiana Salamone, Zuzanna Szwed, Erin Pearl... and the surprise of the evening for me, PAUL WYLIE. Not to be rude to Scott Davis, but it seems his bad luck on missing jumps deserted him and landed sqarely on Paul, and with a vengeance. In Davis' two programs, he nailed four triples-- the triple lutz, toe, Salchow and (yes, Liz) the AXEL! He only popped a lutz into a double... but no falls, no clumsy stumbles out of the jumps. And, my God, those SPINS!!! He did what has to be the fastest crossfoot spin in history! After the performance of Meno and Sand to "Steppin' Out," a tuxedoed Todd Eldredge introduced Paul Wylie. When I first saw Paul standing by the boards, he was dressed all in purple (which looked blue under the lights). I was thinking he'd do "Summon the Heroes," but, no, he brought out the song from "Hercules." The "Hero" program went fine until the triple toe came up-- he popped it into a double. His triple lutz immediately went bye-bye; he singled it. Argh. Out of frustration, maybe a bit off the music or perhaps at a loss as to what went wrong with the jumps, Paul did a little re-choreographing in parts with the footwork. He did do two marvelous scratch spins, however, in an attempt to make up for it. After the end of the program, Paul remained on the ice to film some re-takes. The triple toe took some work: he rotated quickly on the first one but fell on it (it appeared that he might have hurt his left hip in that attempt, as he rubbed it from time to time after that), he popped the second and third ones into doubles, and then nailed the triple toe on the fourth attempt. The announcer made a comment to the effect of "Don't tell anyone" about the re-takes, and as he skated around and prepared himself for the lutz, he locked his hands together as if saying, "PLEASE!" The lutz attempt failed, though, and he doubled it. The announcer asked, 'Do you want to catch your breath?' and Paul nodded rather quickly that he did indeed need a break, and left the ice. He came back out after Todd Eldredge's "Casino" number, "Walk on the Wild Side," (damn, I LOVE that program, especially when he throws his head back!), and it looked as if he was getting advice from Todd's coach, Richard Callaghan, for a minute concerning the lutz. When Todd finished, the announcer said, "Guess what? He's back!" and Paul went onto the rink. The crowd began to clap in unison for him, but he put his hands up near his head and hushed them, a strained look on his face. The audience quieted down obediently, and Paul made an attempt at the lutz. Double. The announcer came on and encouraged him with, "Once more!" Double. Several skaters had come out to stand by the gate at this time, and one of them trilled his tongue and shouted, "Arriba!" SINGLE. Paul stepped off the ice after that one, and Meno and Sand came back on to do their re-take. Jennie Meno had fallen during a triple throw something-or- other during "Steppin' Out," and had gotten up with an "Aw, hell," look of bemused irritatino. After the technicians re-set the lights, they did the throw and she got a perfect landing. During this retake, I looked over and noticed Christopher Bowman was leaning over the announcer's table, his body tense and his entire concentration focused on the rink. I didn't know how long he'd been like that, but I'll bet the anxiety had little to do with Jennie and Todd's reshoot. Then, Paul came back. Again. The announcer quoted a famous gymnastics coach and said, "You CAN do it, Paul!" with a Russian accent. It brought on a spate of laughter. So, there goes Paul, down the ice for his fifth attempt at the ominous triple lutz, the only single skater in the whole show who needed re- takes... Just a brief note, here: it's pretty easy to tell when Paul is going to miss that jump. When he goes into it standing up and dips down after making the arc into the lutz, and he slowly swivels his head to look back and then forward, just think "double" because that's what it almost always is. When he slowly leans forward as he's gliding back, reaches that leg far behind him and does a kind of quick look back, he's got a better shot of at least getting the rotations, if not holding onto the landing. On this one, Paul Wylie leaned forward and reached that leg back behind him. He stuck his toe into the ice, flew into the air and did the three rotations... and two-footed the landing. But he DID it, finally, and the audience gave him his due. The incident obviously embarrassed and distracted him, however. The skaters all came out for their final and skated to "Time To Say Goodbye," lining up at the far end of the rink in three rows after doing their solo spots. As Todd finished his, the lines moved forward, their hands together until they also linked hands with Todd. Paul was a few precious seconds behind the mass movement, and barely managed to grab Yuka Sato's hand and the woman next to him as everyone swept towards Todd. But, all in all, he proved one thing to everyone. He's a determined little son of a gun! ;-) (As if I can talk, being of comparable height, right?) --Bix