After the dancing girls had left the stage, there was very little razzmatazz. We were left with Michael Noonan at the podium in a crisp white shirt, discreet tie and dark suit.
It was his big night, but it should have been a lot bigger. About 500 people attended the party's special Dublin conference instead of the thousands who would have been at the 71st ardfheis, postponed because of the foot-and-mouth crisis.
Everyone wiped their feet on the chunks of dirty, disinfectant-sodden foam rubber at the entrances to the RDS. The vague sheep-dip-like odour in the air meant the foot-and-mouth reminder never quite left us.
It had been a long evening for those who turned up on time at 5 p.m. At 6.30 p.m. an Abba tribute band appeared on stage, playing loud versions of Fernando, Super Trouper and Mamma Mia.
Shortly after 8 p.m. the new leader of Fine Gael gave his address, assisted by an autocue, with which he was clearly not comfortable. He moved his eyes from left to right in an unfortunately shifty manner.
Mr Noonan began his speech on the foot-and-mouth threat, saying the country faced a severe crisis. He spoke for almost 50 minutes, and that initial tone of gravitas continued throughout.
Mr Noonan had to perform in the absence of most of his family members, including his wife, Florence. Having banned all other non-Dublin delegates, he could not make an exception for family to travel from Limerick.
A number of parliamentary party members were also absent, most notably the man who failed to make it on to the front bench after challenging Mr Noonan for the leadership, Enda Kenny. Former leader John Bruton also had to remain at home because of "his association with agriculture".
The people attending the conference, delighted with their new leader, seemed open to a little rabble-rousing, but Mr Noonan, a little nervous, didn't leave much room for laughs. In these soundbite days it is a brave decision to try and keep a Saturday-night audience from zapping you into oblivion without the assistance of video inserts and other performance-enhancing aids.
He touched all the bases - maybe too many for a television audience - talking about the banning of corporate donations, the North, the economy, tax cuts, the health system, overseas development aid and crime.
Some of the lighter moments were delivered when he was mocking the Taoiseach. That well-known northsider, "Bass-drinking Bertie", he said, was available for everything from "the opening of a pub to the opening of a bag of chips" when he should be in his office doing what he was elected to do.
At the end of his speech Mr Noonan made his way down through the happy crowd to the strains of the Lightning Seeds telling those in attendance that "things could be marvellous, things could be fabulous".