April M.
(Alias "Hot Hand")

They say "practice makes perfect" and April is living proof of the accuracy of that old adage. Her singing career began to skyrocket while working herself through the amazing Creative Expressions class taught by the Legendary Mr. Christopherson, well known educator, recognized by music experts to be at the pinnacle of the musical world himself.

April was totally involved in singing even at this early age. She sang everywhere, whenever the musical spirit arose in her. She would just burst out in song, gracing some melody or other with her mellow, tuneful voice. Everyone, except certain tone deaf teachers (but not the Legendary Mr. Christopherson, of course), would drop whatever they were doing to be serenaded yet again by that fine, mostly on pitch, voice. (April had this uncanny way of working her way from note to note in a song by sliding her voice from one pitch to the next, occasionally over or under shooting the target frequency by half a note of so. Some say it is this pitch variance which gives her such a unique sound among vocalists.)

Practice, as mentioned above, was at the root of her success. Immediately sensing her innate talent, the Legendary Mr. Christopherson pushed through a request for the funding necessary to hire a 37 piece orchestra to accompany her while practicing. The culmination of her efforts in middle school was the often still viewed music video wherein Ms. Martin can be seen refining her showmanship by gracefully tripping from chair to chair and draping herself appealingly across tables an unforgettable sight!

According to her agent, it was this very video which led to her first professional engagement -entertaining the off duty border guards along the US Mexican border, a job which she cheerfully accepted with the words, "well, somebody has to do it!"

One border led to another and during this phase of her career she became known as "The Border Baby," providing entertainment to untold dozens of hard working border guards. But then, her big break came.

While working a gig along the Nevada California border where guards were doing their best to keep those terrible Californians confined to their own state lest they escape and contaminate others with their loose ways, April was spotted while singing while stretched out along a special heavy duty table which she always carried with her. The spotter just happened to be a well respected talent scout from Hollywood who offered her a lucrative contract singing in the night spots of Las Vegas.

Thereafter it was up, up, and up into the top ranks of musical history. Unquestioningly, fame had come her way. April's name began to be mentioned in the same breath as the likes of "Slappy, the Horn Tooting Seal," and the screechingly successful "Chimpanzee Chorus." But her rise in the music world suffered a major setback at this point. While appearing on the same bill as the very popular "Drunken Skunks," she managed to generate a huge bolt of static electricity by innocently stroking her hair with a heavy hand. (See Erin W’s story) The resulting discharge caused the alcohol imbued Skunks to flame up immediately into little, sizzling, burning, white and black fur balls, putting an untimely end to their aromatic careers. April was promptly charged with skunk slaughter, but was able to plea bargain her way out of it by promising to donate 7% of all future earnings to the Society for the Prevention Of Cruelty to Drunken Animals, or SPOC DA.

But all that scandal has been forgotten now and April has moved back into her rightful place at the top of the entertainment world. As everyone knows, she currently holds the distinction of being the one and only performer to stand, day by day, singing her heart out, welcoming newcomers to our country, from the torch in the hand of the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor. What a fitting position to hold for such a remarkable vocalist; what a greeting awaits visitors as April lights up Liberty’s torch with her grand singing and the occasional stroke-of-hand-in-hair!