I’ve heard that if people die on board, they don’t divert because what difference does it make at that point.
And, apparently people die on cruise ships with about the frequency you’d expect of a boat full of 70 years old who have eaten too much and exerted themselves more than they normally do. Which is to say, often enough that they’d have very concrete plans to deal with it.
A similar incident took place prior to the 1984 Major League Baseball All-Star game. During warmups, Tigers shortstop Alan Trammell got hurt, and could not play. The American League looked to be down a man… until the Blue Jays’ Damaso Garcia mentioned to the AL manager that he had brought his friend and double play partner, shortstop Alfredo Griffin, to see the game on one of his guest tickets. Griffin was having an absolutely brutal season, but he was definitely the best shortstop amongst the spectators, so he was quickly assigned to the AL team as a replacement.
He even got to play in the game.
The incident you’re referring to happened in 1988. Buffalo Sabres coach Jim Schoenfeld had a highly entertaining postgame dispute with referee Don Koharski that happened to be caught by TV cameras (“have another doughnut, you fat pig!”). The leagues suspended Schoenfeld for the next game, but the Sabres contended that the suspension wasn’t done properly, and got a court order overturning it. The officials refused to work the next game in protest, so the league got some minor league officials to fill in.
League president John Ziegler interrupted his vacation in Switzerland to do the suspension properly. That was probably the beginning of the end of his tenure, though, because here was the president of the league on vacation half a world away during the Stanley Cup playoffs, and he didn’t even know how to pronounce Schoenfeld’s name.
So there you go. Have a donut on me 
We did a production of Urinetown last quarter where the drummer got sick in the middle of the first act and we drafted an audience member we knew to do it without the music in the second act. He was a life saver.
And in a less noble heroic type thing, there was an episode of Nevermind The Buzzcocks where one of the guests got all pissy and stormed off so they replaced him with an audience member. The entire time they were talking about how he made a terrible replacement since he took the teasing so well. One of my favorite moments.
I was in attendance at a Counting Crows concert in December 2002 where about halfway through the performance, the drummer suffered an unspecified “medical emergency” and was unable to finish the show. The remainder of the band switched to acoustic instruments and started playing without a drummer until the late part of the show, when the drummer from Cake (who just happened to be in attendance) somehow found his way onstage and took over the drumkit. The finale turned into a bizarre medley as the drummer and singer/guitarist from Toad the Wet Sprocket (the opening band) joined them onstage. It was certainly an interesting thing to see live.
sigh, if only it were true.
Small nitpick, I believe he was with the Devils when that incident occurred. Here’s a link to a YouTube video of it:
Can I have a donut?
Y’know, I did have the nagging feeling that I had got that detail wrong.
DONUTS FOR EVERYONE!
Coincidentally, this article came up.
This opera soprano got hauled onstage with 5 minutes warmup to sing excerpts from “Aida” in 2003… in front of an audience that contained the retired super-diva who used to own that role. :eek: :eek:
I would’ve loved to see that show, simply because I’m a fan of both the Counting Crows, and Toad The Wet Sprocket.
Almost related, S^Gal and I were watching a Celine Dion TV special a couple days ago. She told a story of where She was supposed to rehearse The Prayer with Andrea Boccelli, but he wasn’t able to make it, so he got this young guy to stand in for him. This kid was totally awestruck to be singing with Celine. 8 years later, he sang the song with her again on this special. his name?
Josh Grobin.
S^G
Aw, I just watched one of the YouTube videos and this was in the Comments section:
And now I just went back and read the Wikipedia page.
RIP man, damn, what an anecdote! How wonderful that someone was filming.
Awesome. 
My search-fu is lacking and my memory is somewhat vague, but there was a performance of Carmina Burana where one of the principal singers could not continue (I forget why) and in the audience was a youth who’d done the role at school. He approached the conductor, was tested, and put on stage and did a good job.
Reader’s Digest once described a screening of the movie Superman just after it had been released in 1978.
The screening was marred by the failure of the sound system, which would have been the end of the show.
But no: someone in the audience began correctly voicing all the characters’ parts.
Who was this person who, in the pre-VCR era, knew every line by heart of a newly-released movie?
Christopher Reeve.
I opened the thread to post this!
It was at the The Proms at the Royal Albert Hall, London, 1974. Thomas Allen was the baritone soloist, who fell ill in mid-performance and had to be carried off stage. The understudy fo Allen’s part was a doctor and hence busy looking after him, but fortunately an audience member named Patrick McCarthy stepped up (and apparently gave a very good performance). Needless to say, he received a standing ovation at the end.
[BTW, I don’t recall reading about them “testing” him. He’d trained at the London Opera Center; I’d imagine that the conductor just took him at his word that he could do it.]
Another “not quite, but pretty close” incident: Washington DC area resident Henry Garfield was a big fan of the 80s California HC band Black Flag, and was pulled up onstage by singer Dez Cadena to sing a song. Turned out Dez was wanting to quit as singer, and the band was impressed with Mr. Garfield. They called him up the next day, offered him a more formal audition, and he became the newest lead singer; he quit his job, moved to California, and renamed himself Henry Rollins.
That doesn’t seem like terribly good planning.
I was out of the house when that one was on the TV, but here’s an obligatory wikipedia link.
Years ago on The Tonight Show, after a break Johnny came back and there was a piano on stage. He said they had booked a concert pianist to perform (a name I had never heard) but he just recently jammed a finger, and couldn’t play that night. Johnny asked if there was anyone in the audience who had several years of piano playing experience who would like to perform. A few hands went up, and he picked two people to come on stage. Both were very good. A woman played a medley of Christmas tunes, and a college kid played a show tune, I think. A few months later they had the guy back on the show because his performance had led him to a job playing piano on a cruise ship.
Very cool! Thank you.