Where in the world am I today?: North Vancouver, BC, Canada
How do they do it? Swing by the Moisture Festival Web-site and you’ll see an incredible alumni of incredible performers appear on screen. All acts who have journeyed to Seattle to take part in a festival where the salaries are entirely dependant on ticket sales.
It’s a pretty simple equation. The festival runs for four weeks, shows are put together from a star studded collection of variety and burlesque entertainers, each time you perform you earn one share, once the festival wraps up all of the expenses are paid and then the proceeds are distributed equally amongst the share holders… Is it Democracy? Is it Communism? Is it the way things should run? I’m not sure, but one thing is for sure, incredible acts seem to be drawn to this event.
Back in December when I was sending out festive greeting cards I created an email version of the card that I could send out along with the three hundred and fifty 0dd hard copies that also got distributed during the holiday season. One of the recipients of the email version of the card was Tim Furst one time (all time?) Flying Karamazov Brother. Tim also happens to be one of the key players (if not THE key player – well my main connection anyway) in the Moisture Festival Organization. I sent out a ton of the email versions of the Holiday greeting and some people responded… Tim was one of them. When I heard back from Tim I took the opportunity to ask about Moisture Festival.
Now I have to admit that I’m generally motivated by money when it comes to gigs and I think my capitalist tendencies are well enough known that one of the first things that Tim did was warn me of exactly what I was getting myself int0 –
First, read the Performer / Booking Information page on our website www.moisturefestival.org so that you know what you would be getting yourself into (ie, no financial guarantee but lots of fun – and only doing 5-12 minutes per show. It is, after all, a Varieté festival . . .) Then, if you are still interested, let me know if you can legally work in the USA.
So I read and I reported in that I ‘got it’ and that really all I wanted was a chance to play for play’s sake.
This is, I think, the key. The idea of playing with out worrying about money is very liberating… I know many performers for whom this is the driving force behind why they became performers in the first place and somehow by the sheer act of playing the money seems to look after itself. Perhaps I’m a bit too left brained at times and I should trust my right brain more when it comes to the play quotient, but left brained concerns like family, bills, and responsibility have a nasty way of creeping in more often than I’d necessarily like and play is often shelved in exchange for security.
Moisture Festival for me will be a chance to play. Sure it’s only for one day, two if you count the extra day I’m spending in Seattle to just watch shows, but especially after a very busy February where jobs that offered security were at the for front, this chance to play for the sake of playing is going to be great and I know I’ll get as much (if not more) from going down with this mindset than I may from the actual time I spend on stage…
If you’re in the Seattle area, I’ll be a part of two variety shows on March 14th one that starts at 3:00 pm and the other that’s slated to begin at 7:30 pm. Details can be found on the Moisture Festival website.
