Where in the world am I today?: North Vancouver, BC, Canada
Prologue: Hmmm… Where did I meet Jeff Moche…we have to stretch all the way back to the late eighties on this one. I think it was probably at the 1988 Halifax Buskers Festival. There was so much going on that it was hard to keep track of at times… Those were the days when Halifax was really taken over by Buskers and there was magic on every street corner. Huge hats! Great Times!
That of course wasn’t the only spot I ran into Jeff. There was the time that we bumped into each other and hung out a bit at Le Festival D’été in Quebec City in 1993. And quite a few others as well. Jeff was also pretty instrumental with my thinking process when I decided to try out the cruise ship market a bit more pro-actively. He helped me understand the benefits and drawbacks to working with an agent and also gave me a bit more insight into what working on a ship was actually like. Good guy! Funny! Very New York! Awesome!
STATS
Name: Jeff Moche
Birthday: Mid-February of none of your business! (Internet security issue, you bastard)
Place of Birth: New York, NY, USA
Started Peforming/Working in the Industry: 1987-ish
Discipline: Besides not having discipline, comedian-magician
Websites: www.jeffmagic.com
Video Link: http://www.jeffmagic.com/video.html
Venues Worked: Began as a street performer, but soon moved up to avenues and boulevards. Mostly now I do cruise ship and corporate work, besides of course “pimpin’ my bitches”.
Hot 10 Questions:
- What’s your favorite flavor of ice cream and why? • B&J’s Americone Dream. It tastes like Steven Colbert, and I fantasize that while I’m eating it it’s languidly melting atop Jessica Alba.
- Name one movie that would make it to your Top 10 all-time great films. • Casablanca (Couldn’t admit to Russ Meyer’s Super Vixens)
- What was your favorite toy from childhood? • Mouse trap. I loved the whole idea of a Rube Goldberg contraption and tried to build them at home. Nothing ever worked though.
- Who were your biggest inspirations when you got started? • I saw a few really good street performers in NY, Philly and New Orleans, and the whole genre of street performing thrilled me.
- From the world of animation what one character do you most identify with or see yourself in? • (I’m going to answer more the question I wished you had asked…) George Castanza.
- Name something that scares you. • The Checkerboard Guy. And not being properly prepared to do a job (I have recurrent nightmares about this).
- Apart from the entertainment industry, name one other job you’ve had. • I initially had thought to become a counselling psychologist and went to a very good university, graduated and worked in a brain function research study, a depression clinic and on a psych ward. But I found myself less and less interested in that, and finally had to make the choice to go on for a Ph.D or not. So in my mid-twenties I quit that career path and moved to New Orleans to perform full time.
- What’s something you haven’t done yet that you’d like to try? • Jumping out of an airplane. Starting a serious different business, hopefully while continuing to perform.
- What’s your least favourite thing about being a performer? • Marketing myself as a product, and doing all the phone and mailing stuff involved.
- If heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates? • “I actually quite admire that you held to your belief in my non-existence. Now here’s my angel who’ll show you to your palace, where the 72 virgins are waiting. And by the way, they’re our best quality virgins.”
The Nugget:
Pick one nugget of wisdom you’ve picked up from your career in Show Business to share with the World.
From someone who had been in the women’s dress business: “I was in the dress business for over 30 years. Dress #147 bought my house!”
-Jeff Moche
