Mat Ricardo

I'd just finished a show. Not great, not bad, nothing to write home about - just another day at the office. I'm packing away my props when a friendly-faced man bounds up to me, family in tow. As I turn around to him, he thrusts a door key card into my hand and says "I think you must have dropped your card". "Oh..", I say, assuming it must have slipped out of my back pocket during the show at some point. I'm about to thank him when I look down at the card he has given me. It has my name on. More specifically, my stage name, Mat Ricardo. Well, not quite. It actually says Matthew Ricardo. Which is weird because my room card has my real name on, which isn't Mat Ricardo.

My mind, in it's typically post-show woozy state, crashes for a second. As it slowly re-boots, I realise what's going on. I look back up to the man, who is grinning excitedly. "This", I splutter slowly, "is your name?"

"Yes!", he says, and throws his hand out to shake mine, "Been trying to catch you all week"

We both stand there and giggle for a while, and I do admit that it's not my real name, but has been my primary name of use for 20+ years. We agree, it still counts.

We shake hands again and say how nice it was to meet Mat Ricardo, and say goodbye, and I go back up to my room giggling like a drunk, my mind boggled.