Talk about improvising. On one of those nights at the community center the drummer didn't show up at all. No drummer, no drums and the show had to go on. They had a tambourine, so I pulled a chair up next to the bass players mic stand (one of the old big round based ones), placed the tambourine face up holding the sides with my legs to kill about half the jangly things, used my foot tapping on the base of the mic stand for a kick drum thump and played the tambourine as a snare by thumping it with my right middle finger. I played like that all night. It's a wonder I didn't get carpal tunnel in my right hand. 
I usually just have to have something wet, and since I don't do alcohol, then water it is. another thing I do, is gargle with pure lemon juice prior to singing, it keeps my voice from cracking when hitting high note. and oh yeah, I swallow the lemon juice after gargling with it for a few minutes.
