Archive for July, 2009
 Where in the world am I today?: North Vancouver, BC, Canada
I just got home from a three city tour that jumped me around the country a fair bit with stops in Ottawa for Canada Day, Edmonton for the Edmonton International Street Performer’s Festival and Peace River, Alberta for Peacefest. All three events were outdoor festival environments, but luckily two of the three provided sound systems for me to plug my wireless microphone and iPod into so I didn’t have to worry about sound.
The only festival where arranging for a sound system became an issue was the week I spent in Edmonton. The Edmonton Streetfest had made arrangements to rent Fender Passport Systems and the rental cost was spilt between the performers who used them. This lead me to the debate of whether it was going to be better to ship my own system to Edmonton or buy in on the rental of the system that was being arranged by the organizers.
To make matters more interesting, I was given ‘special guest’ status and was invited to perform in the nightly Troupe du Jour shows where a sound system was provided but was scheduled for fewer street shows of my own (where a system wasn’t provided) in the square than most of the other acts that had been invited to participate in the event. This made me feel less inclined to opt in to the ‘day rate’ for the Fender Rental because I was getting less use out of the systems than just about any other act at the Festival.
In the end I opted to ship my system up to Edmonton on the bus and ended up sharing my system with my friend and fellow performer Mike Wood. Mike has a pro-active hate on for the Passport System for some reason so was pleased to use my Anchor System and there was only one instance when we were double booked to do shows at the same time. In this scenario we were able to borrow yet another system from another group and successfully managed to avoid the Fender Systems all together.
There’s something to be said for not having to carry a sound system with you if your flying from event to event as the excess baggage charges can add up quickly, but there’s also a certain power in using a system that you’re familiar with and in this particular instance the cost of shipping my system by bus seemed to work out to a fair bit less than it would have been for me to buy in on the festival organized rental. This isn’t always the case and certainly if you were traveling further afield where the weight of your luggage becomes more and more of an issue the rental option might work to your advantage so it’s important to look at the specifics of each situation before making your final decision.
Posted in Technical Tuesdays, Travel | Comments Off on To Ship or Rent (Sound Systems)
 Where in the world am I today?: Peace River, AB, Canada on my way home to North Vancouver, BC, Canada
Just heading home from a three city mini tour today (Ottawa, Edmonton, Peace River) and along with some fantastic memories of the shows and people I met and performed for, I’m also bringing home several newspaper clippings that feature me doing what I do. All three newspaper shots featured in the picture that accompanies this post came from my time at the Edmonton Street Performer’s Festival. This festival seems particularly good at drumming up press for performers and in the hospitality suite during the festival there’s usually a wall of Fame featuring all of the newspaper coverage from the festival which is pretty cool.
I make an effort to collect all of the newspaper articles that I appear in. Why? Well I think it’s perhaps in part because I have a bit of a compulsive nature for documenting my where abouts and the things I get up to. That beings said, from a purely practical stand point of view, having all of this press at one’s finger tips can be an incredibly useful tool when it comes to marketing one’s show. I always try to include relevant newspaper quotes in with my promotional materials because any time that I can call to an outside source that states that I’m fantastic, the more prone potential buyers will be to actually believing that you’re the best thing since sliced bread.
It’s sometimes tricky to pull just the right words out of a picture/caption shot, but it’s usually possible to come up with at least something interesting to form a promotional quote… For example, in one of these three images this was said about yours truly –
“Aiken is a juggling maestro…”
–Marliss Weber, See Magazine
Creative placement of such statements about one’s show sprinkled liberally through-out promotional material will help craft celebrity and the perception that you’re awesome and will easily be able to solve a clients entertainment need. The direct result of this is that you will give the person in charge of doing the hiring the confidence required to go from a simple entertainment inquiry to an actual booking.
So get out and start collecting… Better yet, get out there and perform!
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Posted in Marketing | Comments Off on Build your Archives
 Where in the world am I today?: Peace River, AB, Canada
“All I have is my performance, I try to feed in the best of everything that I could possibly do into those 90 minutes and to make a live entertainment show out of it.“
–George Thorogood, US Rock/Blues Musician (1950 – )
Addendum…
“There’s really something to be said about giving it all you’ve got. I mean you’re there anyway and in my experience you get as much out of life as you put in, so why not put everything you can into this entertainment show called life.”
–David ‘checkerhead’ Aiken
Performing at the Edmonton International Street Performer’s Festival again this year reminded me of how true it is that if you make an extra effort you are almost always rewarded for it on one way or another. My role at this year’s festival seemed to be to support other people who were taking risks and needed help so when ever there was a chance to pitch in and provide assistance I did.
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Posted in Quotes | Comments Off on George Thorogood – Quoted
 Where in the world am I today?: Edmonton/Peace River, AB, Canada
Prologue: I first met Guy Collins at the 2008 Kingston Busker’s Rendez-vous. Because we knew so many of the same people and were of a similar vintage it somehow seemed easier to talk to Guy than to some of the younger performers who were in Kingston that year. It made for an easy hang to be with someone of the same generation and similar life experience… Wife and kids? Yep. Similar list of friends? Yep. Heck he even played Ukulele (better than I do I might add). We went from being friends to virtually brothers in the span of a couple of days…
STATS
Name: Guy Collins – Groovy Guy
Birthday: August 12, 1967
Place of Birth: Marietta, Georgia, USA
Started Performing/Working in the Industry: 1987 busking in Paris, France
Discipline: Mostly Juggling
Website: http://www.jugglerguy.com
Video Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxS2Tes5C58
Venues Worked: The streets of the world, Blackpool Pleasure Beach, Covent Garden Market, London, Edinburgh Fringe, But for the last 7 years Westin Hotel, Key West, Florida. (Next to Mallory Square).
Hot 10 Questions:
- What’s your favorite flavor of ice cream and why? • Neopolitan, I can never make my mind up, but I normally eat the chocolate first.
- Name one movie that would make it to your Top 10 all-time great films. • Star Wars.
- What was your favorite toy from childhood? • My bike.
- Who were your biggest inspirations when you got started? • Airjazz, Frank Olivier, Paul Morocco, Sean Gandini (before he started dancing), Kris Kremo and Archaos (Ledgendary French anarchist circus).
- From the world of animation what one character do you most identify with or see yourself in? • Bugs Bunny.
- Name something that scares you. • Spiders.
- Apart from the entertainment industry, name one other job you’ve had. • I was a travel agent for a year when I first left school.
- What’s something you haven’t done yet that you’d like to try? • A paracute jump.
- What’s your least favourite thing about being a performer? • Being booked as corporate eyecandy.
- If heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates? • “You were wrong I do exist, come on in and enjoy the party.”
The Nugget:
Pick one nugget of wisdom you’ve picked up from your career in Show Business to share with the World.
“It does not matter what you do as long as you are confident and positive when you do it. The most basic trick will get a great reaction if you present it with confidence.”
–Guy Collins
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Posted in Interview | 2 Comments »
 Where in the world am I today?: Edmonton, AB, Canada
It’s been an interesting week at the Edmonton International Street Performer’s Festival for me. I have so many vivid memories of being at this event and cranking out shows and busting my hump to put money in the bank, but this year has been an entirely different experience for me. My invitation to come to the festival this year was to be a ‘Special Guest’ at the daily ‘Troupe du Jour” shows. These shows typically include between 6 – 8 acts who get together to put on the last show of the evening in the square. This special guest status also came with the caveat that I’d be doing fewer shows during the day than most of the other acts and after all was said and done it ended up averaging out to one show a day in addition to my participation in these evening group shows.
At first it was a very strange sensation to be at the event and working so little and I fumbled with this feeling for the first few days. I simply didn’t feel like I was ‘doing’ enough to justify being at the festival. I just seemed to be talking to the other performers at the festival and having really great conversations, but not really ‘working.’
I had a couple of particularly good chats with Michael Kennard – a.k.a. Mump from the horror clown duo ‘Mump and Smoot.’ Michael and I have know each other for years from what I consider the ‘Hey Days’ of the Edmonton Fringe Festival in the Early 90s and I’ve always had an enormous respect for the work that Michael does. The opportunity that this past week provided to have some really in depth conversations with him about his background, how the Mump and Smoot show developed and some of the journey that he’s been on was wonderful. Also the chance to share some of what’s going on in my head with out feeling that I needed to cut the conversation short to run off to do a show was SUCH a luxury! What a fantastic gift to be able to connect with an artist for whom I have such an enormous respect on a much deeper level and feel like I was able to do more than just skim the surface of a conversation before I needed to redirect my focus.
In the world of having conversations with all of our ‘friends’ on Twitter via 140 characters, it’s been a real pleasure to not have to count my keystrokes or watch the clock. I highly recommend wallowing in the wonder of really connecting with people one on one instead of just trying to reach the far corners of the social network universe.
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Posted in Thoughts | Comments Off on Conversations…
 Where in the world am I today?: Edmonton, AB, Canada
So…the opening weekend of the Edmonton International Street Performer’s Festival was a huge success and we’re just over the hump of the run. The shot that accompanies this post was taken yesterday (Tuesday) mid-afternoon in Winston Churchill Square, the performance venue where all of the shows take place… Obviously the weather presented some challenges yesterday. Everyone made it down for a cast/group photo at 10:30 am dancing between the raindrops to get from the hotel to City Hall (seen in the background) where the picture was taken.
Things cleared up a bit in the evening and some people did get shows in, but the weather is very much an issue when performing at Street Performing Festivals and certainly something to take into consideration before booking a tour who’s revenues are directly tied to the amount that the sun shines…
That being said, weather can even have a serious effect on contracted gigs. Last year during the Pacific National Exhibition the Fair had the wettest run on record. Often in Vancouver you’ll get a day where it rains in the morning and then clears up in the afternoon and people will still come out in support of an event if the weather clears. At last year’s PNE we had several days when the weather just got socked in and it rained all day and kept fair patrons away all day. Although this didn’t impact on the performers who were performing at the fair last year (2008) what happened as a result of decreased revenues was that the fees offered to the cast of the 2009 Street Stars Program took a pretty significant cut.
So what can you do on a day when an event gets hit by bad weather? Roll with the punches. At the PNE we looked into finding alternate rain venues so at least some of the shows could go up. Yesterday at the Edmonton International Street Performer’s Festival people remained in a holding pattern waiting for the weather to clear then got out and made the magic happen in spite of the conditions not being ideal.
Audiences can tell when you’re making an extra effort to overcome challenging situations and the bigger the attempt to make things work the more appreciative crowds tend to be. Of equal or possibly greater importance though is the impression you leave on your employer when you make an extra effort to make a show happen in spite of challenging circumstances. This sort of dedication will often lead to repeat bookings and long term business relationships.
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Posted in Job Opportunities, Performance, Thoughts | Comments Off on Dealing with the Weather…
 Where in the world am I today?: Edmonton, AB, Canada
I received the image that I’m including with this post from Bob Cates after a recent bought of emails we had both received from the agent who books us both onto Cruise Ships… The policy for the last few years that I’ve been working for Princess Cruises has been that performers who travel with excess baggage would be re-imbursed provided that they submit the original receipts along with a ‘reimbursement form’ stating what each item was. In the last few months, I’ve received the following from my agent on numerous occasions…
PRINCESS CRUISES POLICY ON EXCESS BAGGAGE
- Princess Cruises will only reimburse Excess Baggage fees for acts that travel with necessary show props (jugglers, ventriloquists, comedy magicians, etc).
- The standard maximum reimbursement is $50 USD per airline traveled during the course of a contract.
- Excess Baggage expectations must be pre-approved and specified on the Guest Entertainer Booking Form.
- When possible, please store necessary performance items in your carry-on luggage.
To date I haven’t been denied full reimbursement for excess baggage on any of the trips I’ve made for Princess, though there are still two trips for which I’ve submitted receipts that I haven’t been reimbursed for yet, so I’ll be very interested to see how strictly the company adheres to the policy as stated above.
I was on a ship back in June and ran into a guy from the Princess Finance department who was commenting that although the ships still seem quite full of passengers that the people are buying the tickets to get on the cruise at a discounted rate then not spending as much as in previous years which was having a big impact on revenues… “In Today’s Economy” is a catch phrase that’s being thrown around a lot but to date this is the first time that I’ve seen the direct impact of this statement on how I’ve been doing business in recent years.
Again, I’ll be very interested to see how big the cheque I get from Princess is once my latest reimbursement forms have been fully processed.
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Posted in Technical Tuesdays | 1 Comment »
 Where in the world am I today?: Edmonton, AB, Canada
GGOL is an acronym for ‘Generous Gift Of Love’ which is a concept that I was introduced to over my years of working at the C.A.M.P. program in Winnipeg. What started off as somewhat of a joke with the event producer about how instructors hired to teach at the program should shower the producer with said gifts of love has become a wonderfully odd tradition and helped me realize how important it is to genuinely give thanks to the people who give you jobs.
People who hire you to do a gig almost ALWAYS have a choice about who they bring in to work the event that is being staged and recognizing this and acknowledging this may be the difference in doing a gig once verses doing it multiple times. Cultivating good working relationships with a few key clients can be the ticket to success especially if you’re working corporate jobs which pay incredibly well, so taking a bit of extra time to find out how to most effectively ‘GGOL-ing’ (this time used as a verb meaning the act of giving the generous gift of love) your employer will likely leave a lasting impression that will help you develop lasting relationships.
I remember very specifically working at an Arts Festival in Texas and approaching my employer near the end of the gig to inquire if I might take her out for a drink to say thank you. She declined on the invitation because she had a lot to do with the tear down of the event, but as I was walking away she called me back to thank me. Apparently the simple kind act of offering to buy her a drink had never been done before and she really appreciated the gesture. I was invited back to the festival again a few years later. The fact that my show had been well received was also likely part of the reason I was invited back, but making the extra effort to say thank you for the opportunity likely made that decision easier too.
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Posted in Marketing | 2 Comments »
 Where in the world am I today?: Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
“Humor is always based on a modicum of truth. Have you ever heard a joke about a father-in-law?”
–Dick Clark, American Television/Radio Personality (1929 – )
Addendum…
“The truth is funny… No doubt about it. The trick it to take the truth and bending it a way that makes people see the funny.”
–David ‘checkerhead’ Aiken
I think my training as a street performer has helped me point out the funny in situations that just pop up unexpectedly. Hopefully finding the funny in those otherwise awkward moments turns a potential disaster into gifts from the Comedy Gods!
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Posted in Quotes | Comments Off on Dick Clark – Quoted
 Where in the world am I today?: Edmonton, AB, Canada
Prologue: Met Tony Daro recently while working on the STAR Princess or actually met him at the Airport in Juneau when we flew in on the same flight and got picked up by the port agent. Somehow we fell into a straight man funny man schtick where I’d inadvertently set him up and he’d deliver the punch line. Over the week on the STAR I figure I set up jokes for him in day to day conversation a half dozen times a day and he was quite happy and able to bend a joke or two out which was a constant source of amusement. Thanks for the laughs!
STATS
Name: Tony Daro
Birthday: February 17
Place of Birth: Bronx, NY, USA
Started Performing/Working in the Industry: At a tender age.
Discipline: Zen Buddhist/Stand-up Comedian
Website: http://www.myspace.com/tonydaro
Video Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFsnlTswDvc
Venues Worked: Indoors…outdoors. Everywhere, anywhere you could possibly imagine. Have even done shows on a train and a helicopter.
Hot 10 Questions:
- What’s your favorite flavor of ice cream and why? • Coffee. Because it tastes like coffee.
- Name one movie that would make it to your Top 10 all-time great films. • The Godfather – Part 3.
- What was your favorite toy from childhood? • The yo-yo because of its simplicity and beauty. Also the fact it can used as a weapon.
- Who were your biggest inspirations when you got started? • Woody Allen, George Carlin and Jack Ruby.
- From the world of animation what one character do you most identify with or see yourself in? • Superman. Obviously.
- Name something that scares you. • Kryptonite.
- Apart from the entertainment industry, name one other job you’ve had. • Raconteur.
- What’s something you haven’t done yet that you’d like to try? • Independent wealth.
- What’s your least favourite thing about being a performer? • Morning radio.
- If heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates? • “You again?”
The Nugget:
Pick one nugget of wisdom you’ve picked up from your career in Show Business to share with the World.
“Don’t poop where you eat.”
–Tony Daro
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Posted in Interview | Comments Off on Tony Daro • Interviews from the Inside
 Where in the world am I today?: Flying from Ottawa, ON, Canada to Edmonton, AB, Canada
I arrived in Ottawa for Canada Day (July 1) on Tuesday, June 30th and had made arrangements to hook up Al Miller as I had seen via Facebook that he was headed to Ottawa for Canada Day. He actually arrived about a week ago and has spent the past week busking in the Byward Market. So I get down to the Market and the weather’s looking a bit ugly, but there are at least a half dozen acts in on the pitch ready and chomping at the bit to work the streets on Canada Day… A few new faces I’d never seen before, a few familiar faces that were good to reconnect with… Al and I went to dinner along with Kate Mior as a chance to catch up (hadn’t seen him in years, hadn’t seen her since a gig we did together in China), have some dinner and see what the weather was going to do.
For years this was very much my life… Show up to a town, find the pitch and hang out with the acts who had also arrived to work the streets. I did a whole tour of Australia like this in 1990 in a car that kept breaking down. I’d drive to one town, work to pay for what ever repairs were needed, drive to the next town and work to fix what ever else had broken… It was a great adventure and a whole lot of fun and certainly the friendships I made on various pitches around the world are some of the strongest I’ve had in my life but my life took a left turn at Albuquerque when I met my now wife, we got married an started a family. All of a sudden my focus was spilt in a most challenging and wonderful way.
On the one hand I still very much loved (and still do) the life I have as a performer. The simple and addictive pleasure of making people smile for a living is something that I hope I can do until the day I die. I simply LOVE being on stage and playing for a crowd.
On the other hand my growing love for the challenges, pleasures and rewards of being a father and husband kept sneaking in to my myopic performer-centric existence and providing such a wonderful distraction from the life that I had so long clung to.
It was/is a weird transition and I feel incredibly fortunate to be able to enjoy a dual existence as I really do get to enjoy both… I get the Performer Fix when I’m on the road and I get the the Family Fix when I’m at home… The tricky part for me happens when I try to keep things in balance when I’m working AT home. If I find myself at home and have a show to do I always feel more drawn to being with my wife and kids than chasing another show… Somehow the chance of adventure with the home team just resonates with me more as I get older… Especially as I’m well aware that my kids will soon hit an age where they want little or nothing to do with me.
Wallow in what ever the day has to offer seems to be the motto I’m living by these days. If it’s a day of performance…well then bring it on! If I’m at home and I can spend a day at the beach with Emiko, Koji and Owen well then I’m there! I sometimes think that I might be a better performer if I hadn’t let this other life divert my course a bit, but I’m well aware of the fact that my life is made SOOOOO much richer because of my Beautiful Distractions!
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Posted in Thoughts | Comments Off on Beautiful Distractions…
 Where in the world am I today?: Ottawa, ON, Canada
So… Ottawa… Canada Day… As it so happens this is my 25th year of performing in the Nation’s Capital on Canada Day. I’ve been performing for 28 years, but I missed three in there, so it’s a bit hard to actually call this a ‘Silver Anniversary’ but still 25 years does represent a milestone of sorts…
My first few years working on Canada Day I came out and did straight ahead street shows and passed the hat for tips… For what ever reason I gravitated to Major’s Hill Park as a place to do this and it wasn’t very long before the NCC decided to give me a contract to perform in this very same location. For what ever reason, I seem to have become a fixture that certain people search out as part of their Canada Day experience and the couple of times that I haven’t been performing the NCC has actually had people call in to ask why I wasn’t there – very flattering, but also somewhat bizarre.
I’m a firm believer that performers are taught how to perform by the first audiences that they have the privilege of performing in front of. I started in Ottawa, so for me returning to Ottawa to perform for this crowd is always a sort of home coming, and my show often works better here than in any other place on the planet. For so many reason’s it just feels effortless to do my show in Ottawa. Last year this video of one of my shows got posted to you tube –
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmFycEowtSQ
All this to say that most countries have some sort of national holiday which is well worth investigating as an opportunity to work. Some examples that I’ve been introduced to are –
I’m sure that with a bit of poking around you’ll be able to find that most countries have some sort of day on which they celebrate being a nation and the parties are usually a blast and if you can’t get an official invitation (ie a contracted job) you can always crash the party (street perform) and will likely do exponentially better than were you to be performing on a non-holiday day.
If you find yourself performing in Canada today, be it in Ottawa or some other part of the country, I hope you have a great time helping celebrate Canada’s 142nd Birthday and bring lots of laughter to those who will be watching you work!
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Posted in Job Opportunities, Performance | 2 Comments »
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