Archive for January, 2010
 Where in the world am I today?: North Vancouver, BC, Canada
“Charm is a way of getting the answer yes without asking a clear question.”
–Albert Camus, French existentialist author & philosopher (1913 – 1960)
Addendum…
“The ability to convince people that it was their idea to do what you want them to do for you is an incredibly powerful tool…the squeaky wheel may get the grease, but if you can get the grease with out being squeaky, so much the better”
–David ‘checkerhead’ Aiken
Charm when combined with grace can weave an incredible tapestry of opportunity. Understanding he subtle idiosyncrasies of human communication and working them to your advantage take practice and a great deal of skill, but if mastered, this skill will take you further in life than any university degree ever would.
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 Where in the world am I today?: North Vancouver, BC, Canada
Prologue: Jeff and I originally met down on Granville Island sharing the pitch back in the mid-90s but I really don’t have vivid memories of seeing him perform until the 1995 when I watched him work at the Vancouver Fringe Festival. I’ve always been impressed with his go-out-and-do-it attitude. This was a bit rough around the edges when I first saw him working, but I could tell right from the beginning that he had what it took to make it as a performer… Beyond just the desire to do it which is huge, there was a playfulness to his exchange with the audience which made his shows fun to watch. From Vancouver he migrated East to Toronto to work/study and learn and yet we still end up bumping into each other at Festivals across the country. Aways fun to get to hang and see what he’s been working on.
STATS
Name: Jeff Krahn – Scot Free – Fesso.
Birthday: January 1973.
Place of Birth: Winnipeg, Manitoba.
Started Peforming/Working in the Industry: Granville Island 1991.
Discipline: Variety entertainer/clown.
Websites: www.scotfree.ca and www.fesso.ca
Video Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mblrX2UH4Pk
Venues Worked: Street and stage, festivals and fairs.
Hot 10 Questions:
- What’s your favorite flavor of ice cream and why? • I prefer salty treats.
- Name one movie that would make it to your Top 10 all-time great films. • Buster Keaton’s “The General.”
- What was your favorite toy from childhood? • Lego.
- Who were your biggest inspirations when you got started? • The Checkerboard Guy, Bill Ferguson, Rick Lewis, Alex Elixer, Charlie Brown.
- From the world of animation what one character do you most identify with or see yourself in? • Bugs Bunny.
- Name something that scares you. • Winter.
- Apart from the entertainment industry, name one other job you’ve had. • Video game tester.
- What’s something you haven’t done yet that you’d like to try? • Scuba dive.
- What’s your least favourite thing about being a performer? • Paperwork and taxes.
- If heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates? • “Ladies and Gentleman, we have a special guest tonight in heaven, he comes all the way…..(pointing down to Earth) from right there, Please welcome the amazing, the spectacular, the wonderful Scot Free!!!“
The Nugget:
Pick one nugget of wisdom you’ve picked up from your career in Show Business to share with the World.
“I try to give the audience what they want to see in an act, not necessarily what I want to see in an act. Steve Martin put it well: “I believe entertainment can aspire to be art, and can become art, but if you set out to make art you’re an idiot.”
–Jeff Krahn
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 Where in the world am I today?: St. Thomas to Antigua to Toronto to Vancouver – A Travel Day!
Got the following from my friend Mike Wood in an email recently… The original text can be found here – http://wordsmith.org/words/buskin.html
buskin (BUS-kin) noun
1. A thick-soled laced boot, reaching to the knee or calf, worn by actors
of ancient Greek tragedies. Also known as cothurnus.
2. A tragic drama.
[Perhaps from Middle French brousequin.]
NOTES: A thick-soled boot was a distinctive feature of a tragic actor in ancient Greece. It elevated him and raised his stature. Because those big shoes were often worn by tragedians, we came to refer to a tragedy itself as a buskin. A counterpart of buskin is sock (a comedy) after soccus, a lightweight low shoe worn by comic actors.
“‘My vein,’ wrote Corneille, ‘often combines the lofty buskin with
the comic sock, and … pleases the audience by striking contrasting
notes.'”
Linda Winer; Corneille With Kushner’s Help; Newsday (New York);
Jan 20, 1994.
Interesting that the world originated with actors of tragedies… These days most people I know who go busking are more interested in comedy and you think any Busker worth their salt would prefer to collect his money in a sock, not an open-toes boot… That’s just dumb. Though I have heard of people who collect using a fishing net so that all the loose change falls through encouraging people to just give bills… Besides, it the comedic counter part to the ‘buskin’ had been adopted as the word for Street Performer it might have ended up that people would look at us and say… Hey are you going to do a socks show? Which is just a little too close to hey are you going to to a show that sucks? Yeah… Perhaps Buskin was the better choice.
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 Where in the world am I today?: St. Maarten aboard the Emerald Princess
So I’ve done two different cruise ship gigs since the beginning of the year. One aboard the Monarch of the Seas, a ship operated by Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines and the other which I’m on now aboard the Emerald Princess. Before I go any further I must state that both lines have been good to me over the years and I’m in no way trying to pit one against the other, but wanted to put forward some math that I was running through my head the other day when I compared one with the other…
Let’s start with the contract I did aboard the Royal Caribbean Ship. Joined the ship on a Monday, left on a Saturday, performed two times for the Farewell Show on the last night and my sets were about 45 minutes long each. Six days aboard the ship if you count the day I disembarked, complete freedom to do what ever I like for the first few days until I was brought into the theatre on Friday to do my rehearsal and shows that evening.
Next lets look at the contract I’m just finishing up aboard the Emerald Princess. I joined the ship on a Thursday and will leave tomorrow (also a Thursday). I’ve done fourteen shows in the Piazza and do two tonight in the Princess Theatre as part of a split bill show. So… eight days aboard the ship if you count the day that I disembark, shows every single day of the contract averaging around 25 minutes or so meaning a bit less freedom of movement, but an awesome opportunity to stay sharp by performing a lot which I quite like because I find that if I don’t perform a lot I get a bit rusty… This many shows has the effect of making me really sharp, though by the end of a run like this I’m usually a bit drained…
Now… Consider this… Both contracts pay roughly the same salary.
The conditions are similar but different, the performance obligation aboard Princess is certainly consists of a significantly larger number of shows, but the shows are shorter and certainly in the Piazza are much lower pressure than working in the bigger rooms. Having such a light performance schedule on Royal Caribbean may seem great, but sitting around waiting to work can end up getting a bit boring if you let it.
This particular contract aboard Princess has a rather high show count and usually it’s not quite this high, especially if you’re brought on to perform in spaces other than the Piazza. I should also mention that the expected show length in the Piazza is only really about 15 minutes with some acts doing as little as seven or eight, so that I typically do about 20 – 25 is more than is really ‘necessary,’ but I just don’t feel like I’ve done a show unless I have some sort of beginning, middle and end.
The show count on Princess has gone up over the last year though, there’s no doubt about that. This started back in about March of 2009 when I think they pulled one guest entertainer spot off per cruise on all of their ships as a money saving procedure. The remaining acts were asked to do repeat performances and pick up the slack, but the salaries didn’t increase along with the show count. The general consensus is/was that if you were going to complain about the extra shows they could simply replace you with a long list of acts who had been cut and were quite happy to accept the new conditions if it meant getting the job…
“In these touch economic times” seemed to be the catch phrase that got bounced around a lot as the means to manipulate the system and performers into doing more shows for the same money.
Working on ships is pretty great, you get to travel around usually to either warm or exotic ports, you get a staff of people backing you up to make your show look and sound the best it possible can which is awesome! Being aware that each line has different expectations of the acts and how much they’ll be asking you to work is worth a bit of research though just so you know what you’re getting yourself into and can feel good about the decisions you’ve made and the number of shows you’ll be doing. It’s not always about the money, but the last thing on earth you want is to start feeling as though you’re being taken advantage of.
Posted in Cruise Ships, Job Opportunities, Performance | Comments Off on Reflective Math after two contracts…
 Where in the world am I today?: At Sea in the Caribbean aboard the Emerald Princess.
The two biggest things you need to know about connecting to the Internet when you’re aboard ships is that it’s Slow and it’s reasonably $pendy. Now my experience of connecting to the internet while on ships has been limited to three lines, Princess, Royal Caribbean and Carnival, so I can only really talk about my experience on these three lines, and some of this information may not be current because I haven’t been on a Carnival Ship in a while. If anyone reading this knows more about the situation on other ships and cares to add information to the comments section it would be a welcome addition to this particular technical issue that performers face when performing on ships.
On both Carnival and Royal Caribbean I connected to the Internet using the wifi connection and pricing plan that was available to passengers. The log-in procedure for both was fairly simple. On Royal Caribbean I went to the ‘Internet Café’ onboard and set up a wifi account by swiping my cruise card (the card you receive when you join the ship which you use to charge all of your expenses to) and following a fairly straight forward log in procedure. Basic pricing started at 55¢ a minute for the wifi connection but if you wanted to buy a chunk of time there were plans that offered a slight discount depending on the number of minutes you wanted to purchase. In this situation I opted for the by the minute rate and really tried to limit the amount of time that I was connected to simply darting online, grabbing my emails, sending anything that needed to be sent then disconnecting. If you’re not careful, it’s really easy to let this sort of plan run up a significant bill… Especially if you inadvertently forget to disconnect – Ouch!
When I got to perform as part of the Barenaked Ladies Ships and Dip cruises (I did them in 2007 and 2008) I was on a couple of different Carnival Ships and their Internet connection policy was much the same as it was on Royal Caribbean. Log on, set up an account and pay by the minute of connection time…
Princess (which I seem to work on the most) has a slightly better deal. For what ever reason, I’m able to connect to the Internet on Princess Ships at the crew rate. To do this I go up to the crew internet cafe, pick up a $20.00 internet access card (pictured in the image that accompanies this post) and get 180 minutes of internet time. This works out to a little over 11¢ a minute which represents a significant savings. On many Princess ships you need to go up to the Crew Lounge to connect to the crew wifi signal, but on some ships like the Emerald Princess which I’m sailing on at the moment the signal reaches all the way to your cabin so you never have to leave the comfort of your cabin when you want to connect to/surf the net and at 11¢ a minute you can actually do a bit of surfing with out the threat of having to mortgage your house or sell your children for lab experiments to pay for the cost of it… Princess has however put some blocks up in the system… You can’t connect to YouTube for example because the bandwidth required to play streaming videos is such that it really slows down the system.
Speaking of the speed of the internet on ships… It’s slow… Really slow compared to what it’s like on land. This is because the internet connect is set up through the ships satellite communication system and as a result you’re limited to what the ships communication system is capable of. You’re also sharing that capability with not just your fellow crew members, but also all of the passengers on the ship. So even if Princess hadn’t put a block on YouTube, chances are you wouldn’t want to watch any videos via YouTube anyway because they’d take so long to download that the ‘free’ nature of what YouTube offers would end up costing you far more than it’s worth.
What I often end up doing is keeping emails in my inbox that require some sort of longer internet connection to deal with until I’m either at a port where there’s an Internet Café or just wait until I get home and breath a deep sigh of relief when I open my laptop and my computer finds the home signal… Ah the joys of a nice fat pipe to the wonderful world of the Interweb!
Posted in Cruise Ships, Technical Tuesdays | Comments Off on Connecting to the Internet while on Ships…
 Where in the world am I today?: At Sea in the Caribbean aboard the Emerald Princess
Lifted the movie poster for Adventures in Babysitting for today’s post because it somehow seemed appropriate. What does babysitting have to do with marketing? Aren’t Mondays on this blog supposed to be about some sort of marketing tip? Well let me tell ya. The last three days or so aboard the Emerald Princess my cruise ship agent, Wendy, has been on board with her family including her 21-month old daughter. In the chaos of being on the ship with her husband, her parents, her inlaws etc., not to mention the social/business obligations she had to meet the entertainment department on the ship, get to as many shows as possible and be “ON” as an Agent… Well the added responsibilities of the 24/7 job that is motherhood stretched energy levels a bit thin at times…
Having lived through the happy chaos of parenthood with my two boys, I recognized immediately the need to give Wendy a break and offered to keep an eye on her daughter who had already come to see several of my shows in the Piazza, so for little pockets of time when ever I saw the opportunity I jumped in as babysitter so Wendy could grab a bite to eat, or have a conversation, or check on her husband, or what ever.
So what does this have to do with Marketing?
Well people who are successful in business are successful at building relationships. In the five years that I’ve been getting cruise ship work through the Don Casino Productions office I’ve spent very little time actually building a personal relationship with the people in the office who continue to provide me with a TON of work. When I first heard that Wendy was going to be on the ship I thought that perhaps it would be my chance to ask a number of questions about the upcoming season, about getting the sort of work that I wanted to pursue, about possibly getting a pay increase, about any number of topics, but the need I saw which I could happily fulfil, that of a babysitter, will likely do more for my connection with Wendy than any three hour conversation about the state of the industry would have.
Besides, it was fun. My kids are nine and twelve at this stage and are becoming increasingly independent. Having a couple of hours to share with a younger child was actually a lot of fun because it reminded me of a much different time in my journey as a parent.
The fact that my shows so successfully kept Wendy’s daughter… Heck, Wendy’s entire family so entertained in the Piazza of the Emerald Princess will also likely put me in good standing with the agency and with the Entertainment Department of Princess Cruises as one of the things that Wendy did say to me in one of the conversations we did have was – Princess should book you for all of your available dates… They NEED you!
So… Some fun shows, a few hours of hanging out and babysitting and it feels like I achieved more in the last three days in terms of traction with my agent and Princess Cruises than I think I may have in the first five years of working through the agency… Amazing!
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 Where in the world am I today?: At Sea aboard the EMERALD Princess.
“Never continue in a job you don’t enjoy. If you’re happy in what you’re doing, you’ll like yourself, you’ll have inner peace. And if you have that, along with physical health, you will have had more success than you could possibly have imagined.”
–Johnny Carson, US comedian & television host (1925 – 2005)
Addendum…
“People sometimes still ask me what I want to be when I grow up and I always answer the same thing – Happy. Remain happy and life’s journey will give you more rewards than money alone.”
–David ‘checkerhead’ Aiken
When I went to find the quote today I searched for Johnny Carson… Not sure exactly why, but it just seemed like there’d be a gem of his worth posting, perhaps some comedy gold, perhaps some nugget of wisdom worth imparting… This one seemed to fall under the nugget of wisdom category… When I was performing as a teenager people asked when I was going to grow up and get a real job? Now in my forties people ask me how much longer I pan on doing what I do for a living. Truth is, I still love it. I still get a charge out of walking out on stage and imagine I always will. When will I give up being a performer? Hopefully never. As long as the physical health component stays in place I plan on sticking with this gig for many many years to come – it’s just too much FUN!
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 Where in the world am I today?: Grand Turk, The Caribbean aboard the Emerald Princess
Prologue: I ran into Jonny O in the Byward Market sometime in the early 90s. I was back in Ottawa for Canada Day and he and his partner were working a pitch in the Byward Market. I stopped and chatted with them a bit after enjoying their show. The combination of juggling and percussion really clicked. I’ve always loved it when you put the two disciplines together and have great memories of watching the Waldo Woodhead Show when they worked with their drummer Witlo and even before that seeing the Amazing Fantasy Jugglers doing a great Ring Passing Routine while backed by a drummer. Junkyard’s additional environmental message and recycled/found props also created a really interesting dynamic. Since our first meeting we’ve bumped into each other at various festivals and events around the world including the Nanjing Clown Festival where I snapped the shot that accompanies this post.
STATS
Name: Jonny Olsen aka Junkyard Jonny – Junkyard Symphony
Birthday: October 29, 1972.
Place of Birth: Ottawa, Ontario.
Started Peforming/Working in the Industry: 1992.
Discipline: Circus/Percussion.
Website: www.junkyardsymphony.org
Video Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pq6xwshBPkQ
Venues Worked: http://www.junkyardsymphony.org/performances.html
Hot 10 Questions:
- What’s your favorite flavor of ice cream and why? • Cookie Dough, because it tastes like cookie dough.
- Name one movie that would make it to your Top 10 all-time great films. • The Adventures of Baron Munchausen.
- What was your favorite toy from childhood? • Big Trak.
- Who were your biggest inspirations when you got started? • Stompin Tom, Bob Marley, Neil Peart, Sam Malone, Hawkeye Peirce.
- From the world of animation what one character do you most identify with or see yourself in? • Shrek.
- Name something that scares you. • Paris Hilton.
- Apart from the entertainment industry, name one other job you’ve had. • Artist see – www.jonnyolsen.com.
- What’s something you haven’t done yet that you’d like to try? • Ski Jumping.
- What’s your least favourite thing about being a performer? • Volunteers that just don’t get it.
- If heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates? • “You’re not done yet…go back. You can take my car, it’s a Porsche of course. Oh and tell Tiger Woods to stop pretending he’s me.”
The Nugget:
Pick one nugget of wisdom you’ve picked up from your career in Show Business to share with the World.
“Life is like a trampoline, the harder you fall the harder you bounce back up. The height you reach is determined by whether you land on the trampoline on your feet or on your ass.”
–Junkyard Jonny
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 Where in the world am I today?: St. Thomas aboard the Emerald Princess.
I arrived in one piece yesterday into St. Thomas, but my luggage… Well… As I posted yesterday, it missed the connection in Toronto and didn’t make it with me to St. Thomas. I’m very pleased to report that I was reunited with my crap at the St. Thomas International Airport today around Noon – Yippee! From the Airport I was dropped off at Crown Bay to join the Emerald Princess… Did the usual embarkation two step getting on the ship… My Battle Axe and Dubé Juggling Machete weren’t confiscated by ship board security this time around (often they are so this was a nice surprise) made it up to cabin #7110, arranged everything in front of my cabin bed and snapped the image that accompanies this post.
Missing from the big purple bag that I carry my free-standing ladder and unicycle in was the luggage strap I wrap around the middle of the bag and the small spindle of blank CDs and DVDs I carry in my props case (in case I need to burn a back-up Show CD or want to give someone some digital files) had opened up enroute and most of the blank discs seem to have been pretty thoroughly scratched up so given I wasn’t sure that my bags were going to make it to me and the ship in time, these were fairly minor casualty of this particular voyage.
The mild separation anxiety I experienced after having had my connection to my luggage unceremoniously severed at YYZ has passed, but got me to thinking that another casualty of the trip may well have been that small part of my psyche that pondered what would happen if my bags didn’t make it in time… That energy spent imagining the worst possible scenario of arriving at the ship stinking like four different airports and told that I’d have to come up with something to present none-the-less to keep the passengers happy…
Oh, and I should mention that Wendy, my agent from Don Casino Productions along with her parents, Don and Candy Casino the original operators of the agency, Wendy’s almost two-year-old daughter, her husband and various In-Laws… Well they’re all on board the EMERALD at the moment, and wouldn’t you know it… There they were at my first show in the Piazza… Ha! Thankfully everything came off with out a hitch and I’m looking forward to the chance to enjoy some conversations with everyone over the next few days…
It all worked out. Somehow it usually does… Even when it doesn’t, I think the degree to which your psyche is effected depends enormously on how you choose to let unexpected events effect you. This time around I think I managed to pull through quite successfully just sort of rolling with the punches. Sure did feel good to see my bags arrive in St. Thomas today and be reunited with my stuff!
Posted in Thoughts, Travel | Comments Off on Reunited…
 Where in the world am I today?: Toronto to Miami to St. Thomas
Wanted to find the right image to describe my day today and stumbled across this architectural drawing of a baggage carousel… What does this have to do with my day today? Well after arriving in Toronto on a Red-Eye from Vancouver I had to drag myself from Terminal 1 to Terminal 3 then pick up my luggage from a carousel similar to the one in the drawing and walk it through customs and immigration for the United States before boarding my flight to Miami…
Much like the description of my day getting through YVR on my way to the Monarch of the Seas recently, I got stuck waiting in at the connecting luggage carousel for well over an hour waiting, waiting, waiting for my luggage to not show up… When I went to the American Airlines desk to ask what my best course of action was going to be they said that I really did need to go through Immigration immediately if I was going to catch the flight to Miami, so I had to abandon any hope of getting my luggage on the flight and simply make a B-Line to the departure gate…
Oh… I should also mention that on my way to the gate I needed to check my hat box that I’ve carried as hand luggage for as long as I can remember because the increased restrictions on what can be carried as hand luggage is really being enforced and there’s no messing around with the TSA guys when you get to security… As it was it was touch and go as to whether I could bring my camera bag/back pack with me too as it was considered a bit too big…
On days like today I remember that sometimes the job (and after all Wednesday’s are traditionally about talking about job opportunities) is more about the challenges of traveling than about the actual performance. Heck… The shows, that’s the fun part, but red-eye flights, staring at baggage carousels while praying to the luggage gods, making sure that Immigration inspectors have no call to pull you aside, getting patted down in Airport Security… That’s what I’m getting paid for…
In the back of my mind I’m wondering how long it’s going to be before we start to see full body scanners the likes of the ones seen in the 1990 Arnold Schwarzenegger film ‘Total Recall’ showing up in Airports… The things that were Science Fiction 20 years ago becoming the reality that we’ll soon be living in, much like the way flip style cel phones sort of resemble the original Star Trek communicators… If it would speed up travel days like today then quite frankly I’m all for it…
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 Where in the world am I today?: YVR to Toronto…
Spent a good chunk of the day checking and re-checking contract details for the performers who will be involved in the corner of the upcoming Winter Olympics that I was brought in to consult on… Can’t really talk too much about who was selected and intentionally blurred the image to make the names next to impossible to read, but it was one of those days where I just stared at my computer screen, copying, pasting and assembling information that I’ve been slowly acquiring over the past few months into one master document which was requested the powers that be that hired me for the consulting gig…
I seem to be collecting information in various software packages and ended up copying and pasting things out of Scrivener files, Microsoft Excel Files and Microsoft Word Files and in the end assembled everything in one Word Document as it seemed like the file-format that was going to be most compatible on the other end of the connection…
I think I’m still figuring out the best possible work-flow for this sort of work, but in the end, even if you figure out the work-flow that works best for you there’s always the other end of the equation to consider as well… What will work for the client you’re working for? I’m not a huge fan of Microsoft per se, but they do have the de facto word processor, so when preparing a document for general consumption Word seemed like a pretty safe bet in terms of a file format. Especially if you save it in a legacy file format that’s compatible with earlier versions of the software.
This idea of ease of access to information creeps in to a lot of other aspects of the entertainment industry as well… I think part of the reason that I’ve had the degree of success that I’ve had is because the content of my show is easily accessible to a pretty broad spectrum of demographics…
I remember a story I heard from a Festival Producer a few years back. The producer had received some complaints about one of the performers that had been invited to participate in the event and instead of telling the performer that they had to change the content of their show, the following question was posed…
“Did you come here to expose the audience to your form of ‘Art’ or did you come here to make Money? If you came here for your Art then I’m happy to back you up in your artistic choices, if you came here to make money, I have a few suggestions for you…”
I’m well aware that some of my ‘artistic’ decisions are actually ‘financially driven’ but what’cha gonna do? Wife and kids need to eat, bills need to be paid.
Gee… I seemed to have strayed a fair bit from my original thought of staring at a my computer screen checking contract details, but I think that’s to be expected – especially after staring at a computer screen all day.
Posted in Technical Tuesdays | Comments Off on Accessibility…
 Where in the world am I today?: North Vancouver, BC, Canada
Since about the time my older son Koji was born back in 1997 I’ve made an effort to get a Seasonal Greeting Card into the Mail and over the last five or six years these cards seem to have become more and moor elaborate and have included everything from the legendary “Magic Jumping Fish” to paper models of my S-Cargo to mini-milk carton ornaments to this year’s effort which was all based around the shape of that classic Little Tree Air Freshener.
In recent years it seems like we’ve needed to send out between three hundred and three hundred and fifty of these cards and need both an English version as well as a Japanese version. The need for the Japanese version stems from the fact that for years I worked in Japan and still want to stay in touch with friends and colleagues there as well as the fact that my wife is originally from Japan and we send these cards out to her family as well. Beyond the three hundred and fifty-ish cards that we had printed, I also ended up sending out some where around a hundred and sixty ’email versions’ of the card, so in the end, over five hundred people were exposed to this year’s effort at seasonal creativity with a promotional twist.
This annual extravaganza ends up turning into a bit of a labour of love and this year’s card was no exception. 2009 was quite a busy year for me contract-wise and on the week that I would normally devote to getting Christmas Cards into the mail I was sailing aboard the GRAND Princess… On the way to the airport to join the ship (my wife drove me out) we stopped by Staples with a memory stick containing a PDF version of everything and dropped it off at their Print Shop to get printed. While I was away on the ship my incredible wife hand cut the three hundred and fifty-ish air fresheners out, punched holes in all of them, attached the little piece of elastic and assembled the cards where the freshener was place on the card to make it look like it was dangling from a car’s rearview mirror.
When I got home from the GRAND on December 21, I finished printing envelopes, and started stuffing. I also managed to get the email-versions sent out each with a bit of a personal note included On December 22 the cards going to international destinations made it into the mail. On December 23 those to Canada got sent. On December 24th we finished some last minute Christmas shopping and on December 25 and 26th I crashed, chilled and enjoyed the sense that I had just barley gotten this year’s effort out in time to get a pre-December 25 post mark. December 27th I was back at the Airport flying to join the Monarch of the Seas.
So why make such an effort and spend so much time, energy and money on a Seasonal Holiday Greeting Card? I get to the middle of the process every year and I ask myself the same question. It starts of innocently enough being yet another avenue to poor creative energy and one I quite enjoy, but somewhere in the middle of the assembly-line like process of stuffing, licking and sticking envelopes it sort of becomes a bit of a drone job… The true impact of the cards only really makes sense to me in the months that follow because inevitably over the course of the year as I run into past clients and colleagues who’ve received the card and comment that it’s one of the things they look forward to each year. That what in essence is promotional tool has become a yearly tradition taps into a much greater resonance than a standard mailing. That’s when all of the effort makes sense.
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 Where in the world am I today?: Port Canaveral to Orlando to Minneapolis to Vancouver and home…
“Good resolutions are simply checks that men draw on a bank where they have no account.”
–Oscar Wilde, Irish dramatist, novelist, & poet (1854 – 1900)
Addendum…
“New Years indeed seems to take out a mortgage at such a bank!”
–David ‘checkerhead’ Aiken
So here’s to good intentions! Wilde suggests that it’s easy to decide to do something if you’ve got nothing at stake when it comes time to pay the bill… This blog is and example one resolution that I kept as I went into 2009, but I’m well aware of so many more over the years that I haven’t… As we look down the barrel at a brand new year, here’s hoping you selected any resolutions wisely and that you’re actually able to stick with them…
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Posted in Thoughts | Comments Off on CBG World Report Archive
 Where in the world am I today?:
Prologue: I met my wife while working for ArtLand a Japanese company that brought over a ton of performers to perform in Japan from the late 80’s through the late 90’s. I met Peppi through this company too. Actually I have pretty specific memories of hanging out at Peppi’s place in Tokyo back in 1995 when I went to Japan for most of the Month of November to visit Emiko (my now wife) and figure out if we’d be able to live together. At the end of the month I ended up proposing to my wife, but during the month I got to enjoy just hanging out in Tokyo. Peppi and I have done several gigs together in Japan but another one I remember very clearly was the Canal City Circus Festival in 2002… The group show at the end of every night was one of the best I’ve been a part of… Just a great mix of talent, the right length, and a really cool venue… Always a pleasure being around when Peppi is working!
STATS
Name: Chris Foster – Peppi The Clown
Birthday: December 8, 1969.
Place of Birth: New York City.
Started Peforming/Working in the Industry: I started Performing at the age of 9. Performing at Birthday Parties, Department Stores, Festivals in New Jersey/New York City.
Discipline: Clown – as a side bar I am a Graduate of the High School of Performing Arts (FAME SCHOOL) class of 87. Jennifer Aniston and I were in the same class.
Website: www.peppizaclown.com
Video Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FydIjbWTE4Y
Venues Worked:
In Japan – Tokyo Dome, Base Ball Cafe, Korakuen Amusement Park , Laqua Spa, Toshimaen Amusement Park, Sunshine City Ikebukuro, Ebisu Garden Place, DECKS Odaiba, IKSPIARI Maihama, Harumi Toriton Square, Tokyo Motor Show, Yokohama Daidogei Festival, Shizuoka Daidogei Festival, Okinawa Club Med Miyako Hotel Okinawa, Hokkaido Fantasy Dome, Marine Park Hokkaido, Fukuoka Canal City, River Walk Kita-Kyushu,The Marina Shopping Center Fukuoka, Tobu World Square, Tivoli Park Okayama, Super Circus Tokyo Japan 2004-2005 Nagasaki Holland Village.
Performances Abroad: New York City. Juggler and street Performer. Broadway District. Also Performances at Washington Square Park. Paris France 1987. Mime and street Performer/Juggler Philippines. Numerous performance for birthday parties. Korea. 2005 World Performance Festival, Madangkuk Top Festival 2007 Mokpo New Wave Nowon 2008 Seoul International Performance, Festival Ansen Performance Festival Seoul, Korea , Yangpyeong Dumulmeori Open-air Artys Festival Seoul, Korea , Geoje International Comedy Festival Seoul Korea. China Aqua City, Thailand Street Performers Festival Bankok
Hot 10 Questions:
- What’s your favorite flavor of ice cream and why? • Hummmm chocolate. I used to love chocolate cake when I was a little boy but for some reason now I just can`t eat it! reminds me of pimples every time I see it.
- Name one movie that would make it to your Top 10 all-time great films. • American Gangster. Just a cool movie!
- What was your favorite toy from childhood? • Juggling clubs.
- Who were your biggest inspirations when you got started? • Marcel Marceau.
- From the world of animation what one character do you most identify with or see yourself in? • I see my character as a Disney character up there with Donald Duck.
- Name something that scares you. • Car accidents.
- Apart from the entertainment industry, name one other job you’ve had. • Waiting, dish washer, cook, janitor. The fun jobs!
- What’s something you haven’t done yet that you’d like to try? • Riding a unicycle.
- What’s your least favourite thing about being a performer? • Wondering when the work will come in.
- If heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates? • “Can you make a balloon for me?“
The Nugget:
Pick one nugget of wisdom you’ve picked up from your career in Show Business to share with the World.
“I have worked with many performers from around the world in my years, the one thing I can say is always try to be modest in your performance and working with other performers. Have fun and enjoy what you do! And always keep in mind that you are creating all the time and each performance isn’t the same. Work hard and all your dreams will come true!“
–Chris Foster
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