And now to kick the stage

This was heard at a conference. The conference chair, after making a few opening remarks, said, “and now to kick the stage.”  This is a mash-up of “kick things off” (to begin something) and “set the stage” (to prepare something for some activity). It is almost a congruent conflation as both idioms involve starting something.

I wonder if he was a rocket scientist? Now if the guys from Monty Python said this, they would be literally kicking the stage… A big thanks to Martin Pietrucha for hearing this one and sending it in.