—by Lisa Handman

I was hired by a local restaurant to play for one hour at a VIP event. As is usually the case with these gigs, very few details were provided to me other than location and time. The restaurant was located inside a mall and was right next to a valet parking service. Since there had been a recent carjacking in this mall, I decided to valet my harpmobile.

When I arrived at the restaurant, I was given the full scoop of details. This was a surprise engagement party for actor Kevin Hart and Eniko Parrish. Kevin Hart had actually planned the whole event and had arranged for family and friends to be there hiding behind a curtain. Eniko was under the premise that this was a little birthday party for her.

The restaurant was decorated with pictures, videos, and an ice sculpture pertaining to their relationship. Entertainment executive Kenny Burns was the M.C. for the event, and he went through the music on my iPad to select the song for me to play when the couple arrived.

Since this was a VIP event, I expected to be there for hours longer than what I was booked for, but I was happy to hear that I was to play only the one selected song for the couple’s entrance, after which I could strategically wheel my harp out of the restaurant, and the DJ would take over. It was all going according to plan. The guests, who were all staying at a local hotel, arrived by shuttle right on time. The surprise went off without a hitch, and Eniko was totally shocked. I could not believe I was actually leaving five minutes after the event began. I was really going to be home for dinner!

I promptly packed up, and went outside to the valet stand and handed my ticket over to the young man working there. I started chatting with another person standing at the valet stand. Both of us were watching as the valet started to pull my minivan up to the loading point. The young man miscalculated the curb distance, and proceeded to plow my harpmobile into a Maserati in front of it. Needless to say, both cars were damaged, and my carefree five-minute gig turned into a several hours-long debacle in a matter of seconds. The police took quite a while to arrive, and then they had to find the owner of the Maserati. So much for my quick gig. The valet company did pay for the damage to both cars, and I at least got an interesting story out of the event. So much for being home for dinner. •

—Lisa Handman

Alpharetta, Ga.