Tales of Tiptoe and More - Volume IV

Episode 24

Curtain Call: After 36 years, Pat Benatar and Neil Giraldo remain
rock's best secret tiptoers.

That's not to say there weren't minefields the couple had to tiptoe over, and still keep their tiptoeing a secret. That was actually how they became such master tiptoers. You develop great tiptoe control, if you know any false move could trigger off a landmine explosion.

They briefly considered "coming out" about their secret tiptoeing, incorporating it in a tour where Pat would tiptoe thru a "minefield" on stage, where each "mine" would actually cause beautiful fireworks to go off. Pat planned to "accidentally" tiptoe into one each time there was a dramatic moment in her songs. But the finally decided against it, since tiptoeing was the one thing they did that no one else knew about.

But after secretly tiptoeing for 36 years, they decided to add a new element into their tiptoeing, where they could have curtains continually opening and closing across the area they tiptoed in. After struggling with old fashioned curtains that had to be opened and closed by hand, they invested in voice-controlled curtains, with each curtain having a different command-word to open and close. While they tiptoed, they would call out to the various curtains, such as "Curtain #1 - open" or "Curtain #6 - close".

Keeping track of which curtains were open and closed added a new level of excitement to their tiptoeing, and now they can't wait to get home every night night, to do more curtain call tiptoeing!