Archive for the ‘Performance’ Category
 Where in the world am I today?: New Delhi, India
I got an unexpected treat on a visit to Dilli Haat where I encountered three Indian ‘Street Performers’ who were obviously brought in to entertain for a group of VIP visitors – a sort of ‘mini’ corporate event. Wikipedia does a pretty good job of describing Dilli Haat as:
“Dilli Haat is a combination food plaza and craft bazaar located in the heart of Delhi…There are also stalls of crafts from all over India, and from a variety of cultural traditions of India.”
It’s a great spot to find decent quality crafts from all over india which makes it a perfect stop for visiting dignitaries.
It was pretty clear that these three performers were waiting to deliver a quick hit of Indian Colour so I stuck around the gate to see what was going to happen. I’ve done my share of this sort of gig in Canada, quite a few in Whistler actually where you’re brought in for a corporate event to amuse and entertain guests as they enter the banquet hall, then provide close up table performances and or a full performance for the evening so I totally ‘got’ what was going on.
Sure enough, about five minutes later the performers get the signal that the VIPs had arrived, the drummer kicks it up a notch, the horse guy starts galloping around (no El Gleno mind you) and the lady starts dancing around. The VIPs are ushered through the main gates and receive a flower garland around their neck and a bindi on their foreheads… Boom, instant color and photo-op! The street performers then scrambled into the bazar and raced ahead to the next performance location.
This next location was where the ‘Fire Breathing‘ Performance took place and judging from the smell of the flame and residual fuel that didn’t burn off the guy was using kerosene for the blowing… I always wonder about the long term side effect of putting that stuff into your body and this guy wasn’t skimping on the flames…
As I walked around the venue I ran into that group of performers a couple of other times and it certainly seemed like the India equivalent to gigs I’ve done in North America. Pretty cool to fly all the way around the world and run into a very similar event to those I’ve done at home and rather fun to be able to sit back and not have to panic about being out there shaking it for the client as I preferred being the spectator as opposed to the performer on that particular evening.
Posted in Job Opportunities, Performance | Comments Off on Street Antics at Corporate Events
 Where in the world am I today?: Mumbai then on to New Delhi, India.
Being in India has been great so far! My shows at the TTF & OTM Tourism Trade Show in Mumbai were a hoot and I was really interested to be in front of crowds in India because they seem to react differently than just about any other audiences I’ve performed for in the world. How? Well I felt like I was as much a curiosity as I was a performer. I gathered large crowds just about every show I did, but the spectators looked on with curiosity and reserve as opposed to the enthusiastic exchange I’ve encountered in other places in the world. I remember having this feeling when I first went to Japan too and over the course of about fifteen years and thousands of show in Japan I eventually figured out how to make my shows really work. Basically what it always comes back to is communication. If you can clearly communicate the basic rules of a game (ie your show) people will usually come along and play. I’ve based my career on this!
The other fun thing about my time in India (and this relates to the point above about communication) is that my employer, Derek Galpin from the CTC, is a guy I’ve worked for a number of times and he’s always pushing me to bring something new… The conversation usually goes something like this. What do you have that’s new for me this time around???
I’m well aware that this is coming before I even leave for one of these jobs and decided to swing by the local magic shop in Vancouver before I headed to India and picked up a set of Bounce -NO- Bounce Balls. I’d been aware of these from having seen other performers use them but had never really spent much time playing with them. I figured the six days of 5 – 8 shows a day would give me plenty of opportunities to play with these balls and experiment with what could be done with them while I was in India and I wasn’t disappointed.
The concept behind these balls is very simple. You have two one inch diameter black rubber balls that look identical – one bounces, the other hits the ground with a thud and doesn’t bounce at all. The simple presentation goes like this… Take the bouncy ball, bounce it a few times, then make the switch and hand the non-bouncy ball to the spectator to bounce… The expectation is that the ball will bounce and when it doesn’t, it gets a lovely reaction.
I had a lot of fun playing with this simple gag while I was in India because the rule of the game required so little explanation. I bounced the ball, I handed it to a spectator, they tried to bounce it, but it wouldn’t bounce. It was just a lovely bit of simple communication with a lovely unexpected outcome which played really well for as a crowd gathering bit.
I had made a note to myself a couple of months back to pick some of these up for the Piazza Sets that I do on Princess Cruises as this sort of gag would be ideally suited to that environment.
I’ve always sort of shied-away from putting too much magic into my show as I feel it’s a much different art form than what I’ve made a career out of, but I was surprised by how much fun I had with this little gag. As I left India I gave the set I bought to my employer because he enjoyed the gag so much too, so I’ll have to pick up another set when I get home, but I’ll happily make the purchase as I really did enjoy the fun of this simple idea and can see getting a lot of milage out of these as a crowd building bit in the right environments. Fun.
Posted in Performance, Technical Tuesdays | 1 Comment »
 Where in the world am I today?: North Vancouver, BC, Canada
Back in the Fall of 2001 I performed with my friend Iori Mikumo at the Shizuoka Diadogei Festival in Shizouoka, Japan. I wanted to see if a story-telling show in the genre of ‘Sak Theatre‘ or ‘Men in Tights‘ would fly in Japan as I’d never seen it attempted. We took the Japanese Children’s Story “Momotaro” and used members of the audience to play key roles in the story. Great fun and over the course of the five-days we performed the show actually ended up looking like a show and the audiences in Japan ‘got’ the format. It was pretty cool!
As part of the build for the show I threw together the logo that accompanies this post and added the tag “Since 2001” to the logo as a semi-joke because usually ‘since such and such a year’ is supposed to imply a certain longevity in business… That we were saying we’d been around since earlier that same year seemed to be both ironic and comedic all at the same time.
There is something to the notion that being in business a long time as it implies a certain success rate that new clients can derive a certain comfort in. The trick seem to be to imply longevity, but a spirit of innovation and growth that doesn’t make you look stagnant. I sometimes kick myself because I haven’t had a chance to update my promotional videos in years… The look and content is a bit dated and I know I really should update things, but I’ve had no shortage of excuses for not getting to this project, but I digress…
The point I’m trying to make is that this notion of longevity if used properly in your marketing materials can be an excellent benefit to promote to prospective clients. It’s why collecting letters of reference and newspaper articles to include in a promo kit helps sell you. If you’re show has stood the test of time it provides a certain credibility to your claims of being the greatest thing since sliced bread!
I remember watching a video that Willie Tyler uses at the beginning of his cruise ship performances which is more or less a slide-show of some of the moments from his career. Pictures of him as a kid with the very first Lester, shots of him working with Sammy Davis Jr., Shots of him working on Laugh In, Shots of him with Richard Pryor… Not only was it really cool to see some of the legends of show business that he’d worked with, it gave a really nice build to the moment that he stepped out on stage. You were given a glimpse of his incredible history which then made you appreciate his performance even more.
The whole process of selling one’s show requires you to provide evidence to a client that will convince them to hire you over some other act. A successful history in the business can be a very powerful element to this equation – be clever about how you use it and you will definitely glean the benefits!
Posted in Marketing, Performance | Comments Off on ‘Since 2001…”
 Where in the world am I today?: St. Maarten, The Caribbean aboard the Emerald Princess.
OK… I have to admit that I’m both a fan and a bit leery of Cirque du Soleil… I attended La Fete Foraine du Baie St. Paul in 1984 and got to see Cirque in it’s infancy when it really was a bunch of Street Performers from Quebec who got a big ass grant to buy a tent and put on a show and those shows were electric in a way that’s much different than the slick polish that the shows have become. At the time, it really did feel like a group of twenty acts all of whom easily had enough material for their own show, so every night the shows I saw at the Festival were completely different as though the shows had been thought out the day of the show and thrown together from people’s best bits. It was a ton of fun. Gritty, spontaneous, surprising and human on a much different scale. The shows I’ve seen in recent years (some 26 years later) have given up the grit for polish and although the shows are beautiful eye-candy, I find that I’ve left these recent shows with a sense that something was lost when they opted for the polish and I find myself pining for some of what I remember from the companies origins…
Man, listen to me I’m sounding like an old man… Yikes!
I’ve always had a sense that I’d end up working for Cirque at some point too. I remember doing street shows in Old Montreal near where Cirque was set up doing shows and seeing a group of performers walk by the pitch where I was working. We looked at each other as they past and their eyes lingered in a sort of acknowledgement of a shared ideology and sensibility…
Over the years I’ve known lots of friends who’ve gotten jobs with Cirque, in fact, I was just talking to one of the Dancers here aboard the Emerald Princess the other day about his experiences working in ‘O’ in Las Vegas. The comment that resonated with me from our conversation went something like –
It was great, but they work you hard!
The overwhelming sense I get is that you either love it or hate it once you start working for Cirque and I’ve always been a bit tentative about pursuing a performance position with the company. I think in my own arrogant way I figured that when the time was right they might come and ask me if I wanted a job with out putting in much of an effort to make that happen myself. I had some sort of weird sense of entitlement about the whole thing which I know is completely absurd, but I was quite content taking other gigs and just watching the growth of the Cirque Monster from the sidelines…
For those of you with more ambition and a less perverse sense of ego than I’ve had for years, you should check out the casting page for auditions in your area.
http://www.cirquedusoleil.com/en/jobs/casting/home.aspx
I had the chance to visit Cirque’s headquarters in Montreal two years ago and was really impressed. They have an amazing facility in Montreal dedicated to building amazing shows and have departments capable of building a show from the ground up – the costuming department alone blew me away with a section specifically dedicated to making just shoes or just hats, or just this or just that… AMAZING!!!
Through an odd set of circumstances it looks like I might given an opportunity to participate in the auditions that are coming to Vancouver in April and I’ll admit it’s got me feeling a little excited. I have no real ambition to give up what I’m doing and pursue a career with Cirque at the moment, but being asked to be involved was a nice feather in my cap (finally someone woke up and smelled the coffee and realized that I should be asked) and I look forward to seeing what the opportunity may bring.
Posted in Job Opportunities, Performance | Comments Off on Cirque Auditions Anyone?
 Where in the world am I today?: Toronto – Charlotte – St. Thomas
On Wednesday’s I try to find some sort of topic about a job opportunity, a possible market worth considering or something related to the execution of the getting/doing of gigs. Today I thought I’d take the opposite approach and ask this questions… If there are only 52 weeks in the year ask yourself this.
How many of them do you really want to be working?
I’ve been really lucky in that I’ve successfully migrated my career from one that was seasonally dependant when all of the gigs I did were in the summer months, to one where the season seems to bear little relevance to how busy I am. I’ve got work in various markets that keep me busy all year round.
Even when I worked almost exclusively as a street performer I found ways to follow the sun because it’s always summer somewhere. The 1989/1990 calendar was a perfect example of this for me because I worked a ton over the course of the 1989 Summer in North America, stuck around to do a slew of Christmas Gigs, then hopped on a plane and headed to Australia for three months during which I hit various Festivals and events as well as just street performed at various pitches. Following this I had a two month run in Japan which brought me to the beginning of May, and shortly after that I was back into the full swing of the North American summer season. I was 100% successful at keeping myself busy, traveling and working over the course of an entire calendar year.
That was the year it really started to click with me that, if I really wanted to, I could be busy 12 months of the year and I actively started to pursue just that, as many jobs as I could possibly book myself each and every month of the year.
With this sort of driven work ethic however comes the risk of burn-out. One of the things I really enjoyed about the seasonal nature of the North American Street Performer’s Season was actually taking some time off during the winters when I could recharge my creative/performance batteries and refresh myself so that when I went back to the day-to-day routine of a more demanding performance schedule I actually had something in the reserves to give to the audiences I was performing for.
There was a year in the late 90s when my touring season started in January and was pretty non-stop until the middle of November at which point I started into the Christmas Performance season. It was the peak of my work in Japan and the contracts that I was doing in Japan at the time were the typical three shows a day, six days a week sort of scenario. After three of those contracts over the course of the year each of which were roughly a month long combined with a very busy North American Summer Season of touring and performing I sort of felt like I was running on fumes and didn’t have much to give to my audience when I stepped out to perform.
I remember taking a year off between high school and university. I traveled, I performed, I explored anything and everything and at then decided to go back to school. I had a blast at the University of Ottawa. I studied general arts with a concentration in theatre and loved filling my head with interesting lectures and new ideas and at the end of the year at school I felt like my tank was once again full and when I went back to performing I had so much more to give to my audience.
There’s something to refilling your tank so you’ve got something more to give. Some people are successful at refilling their tank along the way, which means their tank never runs dry – this is awesome. For myself however I think I occasionally need a complete change of scenery to really re-charge my batteries. This past year I had the amazing opportunity to take about three weeks away from performing and travel to Peru and visit Machu Picchu… I came back with full batteries which was a pretty important thing because I walked straight into performing a new show at the PNE.
There are 52 weeks in every year. Yes working during many of them is important because if you want to make a living, but equally important, I think, is setting some time aside to make sure your tank is creatively and playfully full so that when you step in front of the audience you’ve got something in your well to give.
So, figure out what your financial nut is and make sure you’ve got enough gigs in the schedule to look after that, but also give some thought to your creative nut and what it’s going to take to make sure that it’s being nurtured and satisfied as well… If things get out of whack balance-wise you run the risk of burning out, and if what you really want it to be able to sustain a career as a performer and creative a person, then striking a balance between commerce and creativity is critical!
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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?: North Vancouver, BC, Canada
This post is in part tied into the post I made yesterday about crafting an appropriate Introduction for your show. If you’re in a stage show situation where the audience arrives in advance of the show and spends some time in the theatre/venue waiting for the show to begin, then having some show appropriate music playing before the show begins can really set the stage for the performance people are about to see.
Music has a way of unifying an audience or suggesting tone and mood. Why not take advantage of this before the show even begins? Doing so will make your job as an entertainer easier because you will have already developed the right energy in the room before you even step on the stage… This was pointed out to me a couple of years ago at which point I sat down and created a 30 minute pre-show CD that I hand to the Sound Tech in the rooms where I work or put on myself if I’m self producing the show.
In my own case I’ve gravitated towards jazz and big band instrumental tracks because I feel they are particularly well suited to the energy I craft in my show and have avoided the distraction of lyrics because if peoples attention is caught by listening to lyrics they may get distracted from paying attention to what ever it is I’m presenting. This is my theory… Completely lacking in any sort of documented evidence, but it has worked well so far.
A friend of mine uses a soundtrack of what sounds like old phonograph records before his show starts. This is a brilliant set up for his quirky character and the ‘vintage’ feel he so successfully creates in his performance.
Classical? Pop? Jazz? Hip-hop? Country? Rap? What sort of music best represents the style of show that you present? Now it’s reasonably important to make sure that the demographic you’re playing to can on some level appreciate the music you’ll be playing for them and you may choose to craft your pre-show musical selections with them in mind. If for instance you were playing on a Cruise Ship that caters primarily to an older crowds and you opt to used Death Metal as your pre-show music, well you might just chase people out of the theatre instead of welcoming them in, but chances are if you show is based around the Heavy Metal vibe you may not have landed the gig on a ship in the first place.
Successfully marry your show style to the right demographic audience-wise and make the appropriate musical selections that get people tapping their toes and on the same page rhythmically, and you can tap into an almost hypnotic effect that will unify the audience even before you step on stage. What you do with them from that point is completely up to you.
Posted in Performance, Technical Tuesdays | Comments Off on Preshow Music
 Where in the world am I today?: At Sea off the Coast of South America aboard the GRAND Princess.
When I first started performing in the Byward Market I always faced the inevitable truth that performing outdoors in Canada was a rather seasonal pursuit. Although I can remember getting some weekends in as late as November in the Byward Market, more often than not late October signalled the end of the outdoor performance season. Thankfully it wasn’t the only season during which I was able to perform.
Performing in the Byward Market most of the summer season meant that people knew where to find me and I’d often hand out tons of business cards to people interested in hiring me to perform a private parties. The biggest season for private parties and company parties for me at the time had to be the Christmas Season. From late November right up until the weekend before Christmas I’d be booked solid performing for company parties, private functions and quite often did more shows per day than some of my busiest days as a street performer.
This year I only had one Christmas party on the books, but that was likely due to the fact that my schedule was so full up with cruise ship work. I was away on the biggest weekends of the Christmas Party season, and I must admit to not really have pushed to book shows at this time of the year. I’ve been quite happy to take what comes and not really stress too much about it, but I know some performers who have turned the Christmas Season into the mainstay of their performing business.
I know of one guy who got into the gift/toy end of the business and with one call a company could book him to do the show, provide the gifts, enlist the Santa and provide a one stop shopping solution to the Christmas Party challenge. He went as far as to have contacts for the following year ready to go so as he was wrapping up another successful event for company A they’d be signing up for the following year’s Holiday Package… Amazing.
I know another guy who decided to become a Santa and crafted a brilliant system to use at shopping malls. The kids would be greeted by elves who would talk to the children before they went in to see Santa and ask some pertinent questions. What’s your name? How old are you? What do you want for Christmas? Did you write to Santa yet? The whole time the questions were being asked the conversation was being sent to an ear piece that Santa wore (much like in the film ‘Leap of Faith‘ with Steve Martin) so that when the child came in to see Santa he would be greeted by name and Santa would know all sorts of ‘inside’ information that make the magic of Christmas come alive for the kids who were visiting Jolly Old St. Nick… Brilliant!
Now although I recognize the brilliance in both of these ‘Seasonal‘ businesses, this was never really the kind of approach that appealed to me, and although I was quite happy/am quite happy to do private shows at this time of the year, I always enjoyed other sorts of work more. Still… If you approach this season correctly and you’ll have plenty to put into your stocking before December 25th!
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 Where in the world am I today?: North Vancouver, BC, Canada
I consider myself reasonably tech-savey when it comes to things like computers and the sound system I use when I perform. I’m quite capable of pulling my computer apart to replace the hard drive should I need/want to and am fairly adept at keeping my gear functioning properly and like I wrote about on Tuesday, I try and stay on top of the regular TLC of my props and equipment, but sometime, inspire of my best efforts something goes sideways… This is one such story…
Back during the PNE while I was debuting The Hot Dog Show I was using my regular mic set-up which consists of an old Sennheiser G1 100 series body pack and receiver coupled with a Countryman Isomax Headset microphone… For just about 10 years the system had worked flawlessly with only minor repairs needed to the system. Well day 15 of a 17 day run something finally crapped out. I suspected that it was the connector where the microphone plugs into the body pack and had techs at the Fair make an attempt at fixing it, but to no avail… I limped through the last two days of the PNE by borrowing microphones from two other performers when they weren’t doing shows and managed to make it through the run with out having to dive into the confusion of sorting out exactly what went wrong…
After thing wrapped up a the PNE I took a closer look at everything and noticed that the shielding on the 10 year old cable on the mic itself was starting to crake, so I contacted Countryman to see if I could get the connector and cabling fixed. Sent the mic in for repairs then headed off for some cruise ship work. I also decided that I should perhaps order a second Isomax Mic to have as a back-up, so I contacted B & H in New York and ordered up a duplicate microphone. Eventually got both the new microphone and the one I’d sent in for repairs plugged them both into the system but the problems still persisted. I wasn’t upset about spending the money on the microphones, because it was time to have the insurance policy of a back up in place, but having hoped that this was going to solve the problem it was frustrating to have the problems persist… Doh!
Right… It must be the connection in the body pack… Grrrr… So… I took the whole system in to my favorite local pro audio shop, ProShow, to see if they could diagnose the problem properly. Turns out that there was a circuit board level issue that needed attention, the problem was/is that because the unit is several generations old, Sennheiser is dragging it’s feet about whether they’ll be able to service a product that has long since been discontinued.
OK… So perhaps it’s time to look at replacing the wireless components of my system as well and get a newer version of the system that had served me so well. So I order up the latest G3 version of the ew100 series from Sennheiser and took delivery of it earlier in the week… It’s very nice but even an entirely new wireless set-up didn’t entirely solve my my mic related problems… When I plugged the Countryman microphones into the system one worked and the other created this incredibly white noise… Turns out the G3 wireless set up from Sennheiser requires a slightly different wiring configuration when the cable connects to the plug that gets inserted into the body pack… One of the two Countryman microphones had been set up correctly, the other hadn’t grrrrrrr…
The next issue came from the fact that the receiver for the new G3 system is significantly bigger I’d say about 25 – 30% longer front to back than my original G1 receiver… Though this doesn’t effect the functionality of the unit, it does mean that I’ll need to get a new carrying case made for the new system which is a another frustration.
But wait there’s more… The AC adaptor that plugs into the back of the receiver looks more or less identical to the standard connector that was used on the G1 series, but it’s not. It appears to be just a hair bigger. This becomes an issue because of the way I plug the system in when I’m using my Anchor Audio Liberty System… The Anchor runs off of batteries and has a power out connection on the back of the amp from which I’ve traditionally powered the receiver for my microphone. When I set things up the way I normally would, I discovered that though the little cable that runs between the power out and and the back of the receiver still fit, it was loose which caused the power to the receiver to cut in and out… To craft another mini cable for the amp I’ll need to order another power supply from Sennheiser and create a new plug as well.
After several failed attempts, I decided to try the new body pack with the old receiver as Sennheiser had indicated to me that the new body packs were backward compatible. So I set the old receiver up the way it normally connects to the amp, hooked up the Countryman microphone that is wired properly to the new body pack and fired the system up and Presto… Things seemed to work. This is the configuration I’ll use for a show I’ve got this weekend, so I’ve got a functional system for my purposes, but will likely go back to my guys at ProShow early next week to have a really good look at everything and determine what the best course of action is really going to be…
It’s never easy is it…
Posted in Performance, Thoughts | 1 Comment »
 Where in the world am I today?: North Vancouver, BC, Canada
You can chalk this one up to the sort of work that’s ‘Good for your Soul.’ I first became aware of Clowns Without Borders through some benefit shows that I did many moons ago in Winnipeg while participating in the C.A.M.P. Program. Actually, come to think of it, the C.A.M.P. program in Winnipeg came about as a direct result of a trip that the artistic director, Neal Rempel, took with Clowns with out Borders to Guatemala in the late 90s.
The way I remember Neal describing it went something along the lines that as a performer he felt like he was taking more out of the system than he was giving back. To make one’s living from the pursuit of standing in front of an audience eliciting applause and energy seemed to be a pretty one-sided equation, so he took the trip to Central America with Clowns with out Borders as a way of giving something back. When he got half way around the world he realized that he could apply the ‘Thing Globally, Act Locally‘ train of thought and returned to Winnipeg and created the C.A.M.P. program as a way to give back to the kids in his own community who needed smiles and exposure to a different sort of adult role model just as the kids in Guatemala had.
When the C.A.M.P. program started, we did an annual benefit show to help raise funds to send ‘Funny’ to zones of conflict and help fulfill the mission statement of Clowns with out Borders –
‘No child without a smile.’
There are Clowns with out Borders organizations in nine countries around the world all dedicated to (as the website says) –
…offering laughter to relieve the suffering of all persons, especially children, who live in areas of crisis including refugee camps, conflict zones and territories in situations of emergency.
To bring levity, contemporary clown/circus oriented performances and workshops into communities so that they can celebrate together and forget for a moment the tensions that darken their daily lives…
Sound like you’re cup of tea? More information can be found directly on the Clowns With out Borders Website here.
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 Where in the world am I today?: St. Maarten aboard the EMERALD Princess
I was working on the ISLAND Princess last week which is one of just two ships in the Princess Fleet (The CORAL Princess being the other) that are home to The Universe Lounge. This is one of my favourite venues to play on Princess Ships and ironically the cruise director had me work exclusively in the Princess Theatre… A bit odd, but what’cha gonna do?
So what makes The Universe Lounge one of my favourite venues to play? Well, for one, it’s a great space for jugglers as the ceiling height is significant enough to allow you to do just about everything you could possibly want to do. The lounge is set up rather like the Explorer’s Lounge on other ships, but the Universe had a second level of balcony seats and the ceiling goes up a full two decks which is awesome! The stage (although it’s a bit hard to see from the image because the curtain is down, thrusts out into the audience as well which puts you right in the middle of the audience which, coming from my street performance background feels completely intuitive and natural.
Like the stages in the VISTA Lounge on other Princess Ships, the stage in the Universe Lounge can be raised and lowered. There are actually several different sections to the stage that can be raised and lowered independently of each other and have been very effectively incorporated into a show featuring Broadway/Television Actor, Adrian Zmed. Unlike other venues however, the ceiling height is such that there’s no need to lower the stage in the Universe Lounge when I pull out my tall unicycle. There’s plenty of room to work even with the stage at normal height.
The seating on the main level of the lounge are arranged with tables and chairs as well as sofas providing a cabaret style experience for the audience. This is means a slightly lighter audience density than in the traditional raked rows of seats found in the main theatre, but it also lends itself nicely to a slightly less formal setting which is well suited to the style of show that I perform. Drink service is also provided by a bar at the back of the room, so after a drink or two people are usually in a pretty good mood by the time the show starts.
Technical support in Universe Lounge is usually provided by three individuals much the way it is in the VISTA Lounge on other ships. You’ve got one guy back stage to assist if needed, one guy who runs the sound and lights and a third who acts as the over all watch-dog of the show, usually the production manager who ensures the overall smooth running of the show. Although I never really put to great a demand on the production team, they are there to make sure that the shows are the best that they can possibly look and that everything runs smoothly.
For about the last week I’ve been aboard the EMERALD Princess working in the Piazza, which might well be my favorite venue to play, but any time I’m offered the chance to play on either the CORAL or the ISLAND I jump at it and keep my fingers crossed that I’ll be playing in the Universe Lounge.
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 Where in the world am I today?: Limon -> San Jose (Costa Rica) -> Miami, Fl, USA
Almost a year ago when I was working on the GRAND Princess the image that accompanies this post was created to promote my show in the Princess Theatre. The technical staff of the theatre asked me for a photo then took that image and created a Powerpoint slide to project on the side screens of the Princess Theatre before the show began. The ability to quickly provide them with a jpeg to use in the slide meant that they had an image of my selection to use for the slide and at the time I was happy to have them create the slide that got used to promote the show.
I’m now thinking that with a little bit of effort I could come up with something far better in the way of a Powerpoint or Keynote slide or perhaps even a full slide show that could run for the 15 – 20 minutes prior to my show starting much like those trivia contests that run in movie theatres before the feature begins. People are in the theatre, if the side screens are available people will get sucked into watching them… Why not take greater advantage of this as a resource for not only promoting the show, but also engaging the audience, and prepping them for the nature of the show to come?
I’ve just finished a contract aboard the ISLAND Princess and thoroughly enjoyed working with comedian Jim McDonald who, to my mind, has taken the concept of using a slide show to a whole different level and has incorporated it into his act. The slides get such a strong reaction from the audiences that this is what he uses to close his shows.
Now stand-up comedy is quite often an art form that primarily appeals to the sense of hearing. Sure the gestures a comic makes on stage ad a certain visual component to the act, but it’s amazing to watch the audience get sucked in to not only the words that Jim is saying but also the visual clues that are provided by the slides and video that he has prepared for the end of his shows. By increasing the scope of the visual appeal of his show, he increases the overall resonance of his show.
This notion of audience appeals is discussed in a great book geared primarily towards performers of magic called Showmanship for Magicians by Dariel Fitzkee. Though this book is now decades old, it does a fantastic job of discussing various ways to appeal to an audience and suggests that the more ‘appeals’ you can incorporate into your performance the greater the impact you’ll have on your audience…
All this from the original concept of projecting a slide (or slides) before your show to promote to the audience what’s to come. I’m fully prepared to admit that I haven’t taken full advantage of this appeal to the audience and view it as a potential gold mine opportunity to market myself, my website and my sense of funny to each and every audience that I play to when projected images are possible prior to the beginning of the show. It’s not possible in every venue to be sure, but where it is, why not take advantage of it.
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 Where in the world am I today?: At Sea aboard the ISLAND Princess.
When thinking of taking comedy and clowning in to Hospitals you may instantly think of the 1998 Film staring Robin Williams “Patch Adams.” The real Patch Adams started the Gesundheit Institute in 1972 at least partially based on the notion that ‘Laugher is the best Medicine.’
Since the beginning of my career some 28 years ago I’ve had the chance to take my brand of funny into various care facilities. Some specifically set up for the elderly, others for children and various organizations and facilities around the world. Some of this work has been motivated by people who contact me directly from these health care facilities, others have been outreach programs that are associated with various festivals that I’ve had the pleasure of working with.
At the Edmonton Street Performer’s Festival this outreach program is given the title ‘Comedy Cares‘ and the image that accompanies this post was shot at a show I did Cross Cancer Institute this past Summer. I got to work on the fringes of the legendary ‘Clown Care Unit‘ set up by the Big Apple Circus when I attended a Street Performers Festival set up by performer Tim Settimi in Atlanta back in 2007. I’ve worked at various care facilities in Vancouver after people have approached me at the PNE and asked if I could do shows for them…
I think there are times as performers when we get so much from or audiences that there’s a certain social responsibility to give a little something back. Most times when I’ve worked for care facilities the payment takes the form of some sort of honorarium, but these small acknowledgements of payment are less important than the contribution that funny provides to people who are in these care institutions. It’s not easy work and you may have to adapt your material to adhere to various hospital’s policies, but bringing laughter to people in these situations is some of the most rewarding performing I’ve ever done.
I got an email this week from an organization that I had never heard of before called ‘Dr. Clown‘ who are looking for acts in the Toronto area to establish the work that they do there. If this sort of work has any appeal what so ever, this might be a good place to start. Even if you’re not specifically in Toronto, this organization, or others like Comedy Cares or The Clown Care Unit may be able to help you figure out how your brand of funny can bring laughter to those who need it the most.
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Where in the world am I today?: Vancouver, BC, Canada
