Archive for the ‘Thoughts’ Category
 Where in the world am I today?: St. Thomas – Antigua – Toronto – Vancouver (a very long day of travel!)
My friend North Darling (formerly of ‘The Three Canadians‘) sent me a link to and Obituary in the New York Times… It was for Donald Goeke, creator of SpaghettiOs.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/14/
business/14goerke.htm
The obituary sums it up nicely with this short paragraph…
Introduced in 1965, SpaghettiOs has been a fixture in the American pantry ever since. Its memorable advertising jingle — “Uh-oh, SpaghettiOs!” — sung by the pop singer Jimmie Rodgers, is indelibly lodged in the public consciousness.
I certainly grew up hearing that jingle and this product, though I can’t ever remember eating any, is certainly lodged into the annals of my pop culture references…
Getting this obituary elicited a strange sort of sadness… Like a part of my pop culture lexicon had died… It’s weird having never eaten the product to feel this way, but there was an unmistakable connection to the TV jingle and memories of my childhood. The product, for what ever reason had been indelibly imprinted on my psyche, and hearing that it’s creator had died, well… It gave a whole new meaning to the catchy jingle ‘Uh Oh…Spaghettios!’
Spaghettios don’t really have much to do with performing, though I suppose you could create a really fun (albeit messy) routine with them if you wanted to (somehow I’m reminded of the Blue Man Group’s use of Captain Crunch). But this idea of the iconic status of certain products, people or things is something that’s worth considering as one builds a brand and reputation as an entertainer.
I feel pretty lucky to have stumbled across the world of performance and the checkerboard motif that has been a part of my on-stage persona for coming up on a quarter of a century. There’s something magical to finding something you love, pursuing it and finding a way to make a living at it. Tap into a visual aesthetic and an image that helps people identify you in the sea of other performers and stick with it long enough and who know… You might just become a part of someone else’s pop culture lexicon…
Posted in Marketing, Thoughts | Comments Off on Uh Oh…Spagetti-os!
 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?: North Vancouver, BC, Canada
It was one of those days when I seemed to be reaching out and staying connected with various clients, friends, potential employers, service providers, you name it – I had a crazy busy day, but as with so many things in business, it was all about creating, maintaining and nurturing good relationships with people.
The work I’ve done with the PNE Street Stars Program over the last five years has kicked up a gear or two as I’m looking at what I want my role in that position to evolve into… I have the sense that there’s something bigger on the horizon, but I can’t quite put my finger on what it is. I do think it’s important to continue to gather names of people interested in performing at the event and keep the names organized so I can successfully find those ‘connections‘ when I need them, so part of my day was spent working on the systems for that and starring at my computer screen…
Had a meeting with a performer who contacted me as we have several mutual friends and it just felt like we needed to meet face to face and ‘connect.’ It was an awesome meeting during with the conversation flowed incredibly easily and what I first thought might have been a chat that would last an hour or so ended up not being done when we absolutely had to pull the plug on it two and a half hours into the yap-fest. We talked about a huge variety of things and I felt like we had a lot to offer each other though what would very clearly become not only a business relationship, but a friendship.
Yacked on the phone for about a half hour with (and I have to admit it feels weird to say this on some levels) my new MANAGER. I originally met Corwin Hiebert through my friend David Duchemin. Corwin then asked me to be involved with the Creative Mix conference back in October and I was so impressed with the job he did running that event and with some of the work that he’s been doing with creative professionals in Vancouver that I knew this was going to be a guy who could help me stay current, revamp some of my systems and help me stay ‘connected’ to clients and friends. We’ve got a few projects in the works already, and many more floating around in the percolating stage as we like to call it. Fun stuff.
Touched base with Lee Zimmerman and Martin Ewen about writing guest blog spots for this blog and have a sneaking suspicion that I may end up migrating this blog over to it’s own web presences that is less branded by my Checkerboard Guy persona… As I wrote in an email to Lee, I’d love to morph this blog into something like the Rolling Stone Magazine for Street and Variety performers… Have guest bloggers contribute content, continue to generate content myself, but build this into more of a community so that I have a vehicle for staying ‘connected’ with the industry that I get so much from.
Sent a Facebook message back to a guy who has asked me to be an administrator for the facebook Jugglers and Magician group on Facebook. In his message to me he talked about wanting to grow the group so that we’d have a stronger presence in numbers. That all being ‘connected’ could bring some very real benefits, and as I both agree with and support this sentiment I indicated that I’d be happy to be a part of the admin team.
I think in this day and age when social networks like Facebook and Twitter have become semi-addictive, people’s need for these connections has grown and will continue to grow. Successfully finding ways to grow these connections and build relationships will mean greater success in both your personal and professional pursuit, so here’s to saying connected!
Posted in Technical Tuesdays, Thoughts | Comments Off on Staying Connected…
 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. 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!
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Posted in Thoughts | Comments Off on CBG World Report Archive
 Where in the world am I today?: CocoCay, The Bahamas aboard the Monarch of the Seas.
Three hundred and thirteen posts made up the content of this blog during 2009… At the beginning of it all I set out to get some of what floats around in my brain out because I thought it might be helpful to other performers who work in the field that has been so good to me over the years… The blog was a place to collect bits and pieces of information that I attempted to organize into a somewhat cohesive weekly structure that I established at the beginning of the year and managed to follow fairly successfully over the course of the year… Sometimes the posts were delayed in being uploaded because of the irregular nature of how I connect to the internet when I travel, so some posts got up a bit later than I might have liked, but technical issues aside, I’m looking back over the year feeling rather amazed by the fact that I accomplished what I set out to do and stuck with it for the full calendar year.
Huge thanks go to all of the performers who participated in the weekly ‘Interviews from the Inside‘ segment that I created for Fridays… 52 weeks in the year and 52 different performers generously contributed answers to the questions I posed… Had a few people decline when I asked them to participate in this, but far more people said yes than said no when I asked them if they’d be willing to do this for me. Those who said no had pretty specific reasons for not wanting to be involved, reasons I both understand and respect, but to those who did play the game I say Thank You!
Huge thanks to the many famous people who’s words I borrowed for the weekly Saturday Quote as well… I had fun with the addendum in each case as it helped me articulate an something in each quote that I thought was relevant… I’m not sure if I was entirely successful with each week’s effort, but as with many things in this creative world, the exercise of generating content I feel has some value… Consciously making an effort on a daily basis to do something more than just respond to emails has been a good stretch for my writing muscles… And hopefully with any luck I’ll be able to use these well stretched muscles to be a bit more diligent about working on my show in the New Year…
Goals in 2009 were –
- Write a blog – check!
- Take the idea for “The Hot Dog Show” that had been floating around in my head for about five years and perform it – check!
- Travel to Machu Picchu, Peru – check!
- Continue to do all of the other things that I already do to stay engaged and creative – check!
I’m a touch behind on a couple of things… Haven’t finished assembling the journal I wrote with the pictures I took in Peru which I’d still like to get to and still need to compiling a video from the footage I assembled of the 2009 PNE Street Stars Program. Ideally I would have loved to complete both of these before the end of the year, but what’cha gonna do… There are only so many hours in each day and if I put my nose to the grind stone any more I’m not sure how much nose I’d have left to stop and smell the roses from time to time. As with all things in life, finding a good balance seems to be key.
If you’re reading this or have ready any of the posts over the past 12 months, thank you. I think in maby ways that this was primarily an exercise for myself, but if some of what I wrote was of interest or in the least way useful, then I’m pleased that the blog ended up serving a great good as well. If you have any ideas or suggestions as we head into 2010, I’d love to hear from you. Either leave a comment in the comment’s section or send an email to: cbg@checkerhead.com. I haven’t run out of things to say yet, but always welcome any feedback that you care to contribute. And so… Onward and upward into 2010!
Photo Credit: David Delnea
Posted in Thoughts | Comments Off on Reflecting on 2009…
 Where in the world am I today?: North Vancouver, BC, Canada
There is no doubt in my mind that the difference between a good performer and a great or gifted performer on some level comes down to their sense of timing… The most obvious context when this gets seen is when a performer steps out onto stage, but timing when you’re off stage can be just as important. Knowing when to pursue certain opportunities and when not to… Having the right line at the right time to convince a client of the value of your show in the negotiation process, knowing when to keep your mouth shut… (always a tricky one for me).
Years ago when I first met Rob Torres I got the feeling that he knew some sort of secret because he really impressed me with his comedic timing. After years of thinking about it and bumping into Rob on a few occasions I realized that for him it’s not necessarily only about his ability to be patient for the right moment to strike with his comedy, but also that he has an inane faith that the right time will make itself apparent… The comedy gods will give you the answer if you’re eyes are open enough to actually see the opportunity. It’s almost as though he’s a tour-guide for an audience opening the door to opportunity and encouraging that opportunity to have a life of it’s own. From there he simply nudges when it needs a little help, but never gets in the way of it’s natural flow…
I’m well aware that for years I’ve gleaned strength from a perhaps misguided sense of being able to control comedic situations… I’ve crafted routines for my show that allowed for tangents to be taken when appropriate, but that always ended up returning back to ‘the script’ eventually… Sometimes leaving the script is more important than sticking to it, but sometimes my faith that the comedy gods will provide me an ‘out‘ scares the crap out of me and I run screaming back to the comfort of the familiar as opposed to really pushing the envelope and running with what ever the situation is presenting…
Perhaps the mere exercise of writing these thoughts down is helping me articulate a burning desire to take bigger risks with what I present on stage. Taking the huge step outside my comfort zone that was The Hot Dog Show was great in terms of forcing me to not rely on the tried and true and to search out new ways to articulate my version of funny for an audience, but I think perhaps I want to go even beyond that… This quest for improvement, this desire to make things better, this thirst for moving forward hopefully keeps me creative and makes every chance to step in front of an audience an opportunity to grow not just to run through the motions… I think if I get to the stage of just running through the motions it’ll be time to do something else, but thankfully I’m still motivated to move forward with not just the fun of the familiar, but combatting my own fears and uncertainties about the unknown…
I know that I’m not as aggressive in my approach as some, but this too is a question of timing… The pursuit of opportunities as the pace that feels right. Success may be longer in coming as a result, but the balance between relying on what’s familiar and stepping towards the unknown is a journey that ends up being very specific to each individual I think… Hope you all have had a good journey with this process during 2009 and that as we approach 2010 you look at the New Year with eyes wide open for chances to learn, grown and gain a better understanding of the timing that’s appropriate for you.
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 Where in the world am I today?: Bridgetown, Barbados aboard the GRAND Princess.
Enjoyed watching Peter Gossamer and his assistant Carol Maccri perform in the Princess Theatre last night and ended up taking a bunch of pictures of their second show. After the show wrapped up we headed up to the Buffet on deck 14 and hung out for an hour or so, grabbed a bite and just enjoyed a great post show hang. I’ve really been enjoying hanging with these two while I’ve been aboard the GRAND Princess this contract so when they asked if I’d like to join them at the Beach in Barbados today I said sure!
The ships engines woke me up this morning and by the time I’d checked my email, grabbed some breakfast and sort of got myself together it was time to head out. Met up with Carol and Peter, walked off the ship and out the cruise ship terminal buildings and hopped in a cab to the beach. Today’s beach was the Boat House Yard which is a private beach about a ten minute cab drive from where the ships pull in. Paid the crew price cover charge of $5 to get in and tipped the guy who brought us some chairs, but beyond the that, it was just a great day of hanging out at the beach! The water was amazing, the rum punch went down super smoothly, the conversation was fantastic and the free shots at the bar – the sort where you open your mouth and the bar tender just dumps a shot into your mouth… Well… Somehow I suffered through.
Got back to the ship several hours later having had a fabulous day. The 45 SPF Sun Block seems to have worked as I didn’t get back to the ship burnt to a crisp and man…it was just one of those quality of life days that make the whole cruise ship industry so much fun. Other venues and other markets often pay more than what the Cruise Ship industry is willing to pay performers, but on a day like to day the reasons why one pursues this particular avenue become immediately apparent.
The Hang time with fellow performers is also a blast. The conversations, the exchange of information, the camaraderie – it all makes for a richer life and great friendships! When I started performing and touring my priority used to be more on the pay check, but I think things have shifted a fair bit in recent years, especially after days like today I realize that money, although at times incredibly useful, isn’t what it’s all about. The adventure along the way and the people you get to spend it with, that’s what really counts. Even if the pay check is great, if the hang isn’t good well then I’ll often reconsider whether I really want to take the job. Likewise, if the money is poor, but the hang is going to be fantastic, I’ll often jump at the opportunity for a specific gig.
Everyone has their own priorities, and keeping things in balance is key, but the longer I’ve been at this game, the more important the friendships that I’ve develop along the way have become.
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 Where in the world am I today?: North Vancouver, BC, Canada
Crazy busy day today… Actually today was so busy that it quickly became tomorrow which is Friday which is actually the day I’m sitting at my keyboard writing this… Still in the interests of maintaining my daily blog posts based on some misguided sense of maintaining control (what a joke) over the universe I’ve created in this little corner of the internet, I’m back-dating the post to yesterday and will get a second one up on Friday which will follow the standard Friday Interview deal-y.
Anyway… Ya gotta vent sometimes…
The day was made busy with a number of things a mini show at the Head Offices of the Canadian Tourism Commission, a video shoot for a guy I met at the Creative Mix conference, pick up of my 2010 trading cards from the printer (they look great!), ongoing challenges with what to do to sort out my microphone challenges, scrabbling to get things in place for the annual Christmas Card Project which included trips to Canadian Tire, Staples, Michaels, and lots and lots and lots of printing…
Oh… A word about printing… If you’ve got a color laser printer and it’s a model that can handle printing onto card stock it’s great, but if you do any kind of volume of printing the rollers in the printer will heat up and the toner won’t saturate into the paper properly – the toner ends up flaking off and looking like crap. Short runs are OK, but for anything over about 10 or 20 copies, you’re likely better off to take the job down to the print centre at your local Staples or Office Depot or some such… Wrestled with that issue for a good chunk of the day… GRRRrrrrrr…
The show for the CTC was funny because much like the concept of accountability I posted about yesterday, the CTC is a government run organization and it was like walking on egg shells anytime people thought that something I was doing could possibly be taken the wrong way… Political Correctness to the a degree the likes had me enjoying messing with people’s heads a bit… Nothing too over the top as my show doesn’t push the limits that much anyway, but I chuckled to myself when I dropped a couple of innuendo sort of jokes that raised a few eyebrows… The guy who invited me was very pleased with the performance and I think he too enjoyed shaking things up in that office a little bit.
Oh.. And of course I had to pack because tomorrow (which is actually today) I head to the Airport and start the long journey to join the GRAND Princess in Brazil…
Got all of the packing done and ended up staying up until about 4:00 am working on the Christmas Card list and figuring out exactly who to send things too… Even staying up that late I didn’t quite get everything done and left three specific tasks standing by to do on my way to the airport in the morning…
So Thursday became Friday and Friday is quickly turning into a blur too… Hopefully I’ll be able to get some sleep on the plane…
Posted in Thoughts | Comments Off on Venting about the day…
 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…
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 Where in the world am I today?: St. Thomas -> Newark, NY -> Toronto, ON -> Vancouver, BC!
No two ways about it… Today will be a very long day of travel for me. Up to clear customs and Immigration in St. Thomas around 7:00 am. Time for some breakfast, then the short jaunt from the EMERALD Princess to the Airport in St. Thomas. Continental Flight 1883 from St. Thomas to Newark, New York. Air Canada Flight 771 from Newark to Toronto and finally Air Canada Flight 151 from Toronto to Vancouver. I’m ‘scheduled’ to arrive at 00:47 am on Friday morning. And lets not forget that there’s a three hour time change which will make that 00:47 am feel more like 3:47 am when I arrive… Hmmm… Fun! Then clear immigration in Vancouver, grab my bags (hopefully they’ll all arrive) and the cab ride home… If I get home by 2:00 am I’ll be doing well making it about a twenty-two hour commute…
I’ve gotten pretty good at going into ‘travel mode’ and living through days like these. I can usually get some sleep on the flights which I’m very thankful for. I’ll often stubble across a free wifi connection at an airport that I can tap into for a quick email-check. I’ll also look after the admin-type paperwork that I do after every gig – a thank you letter to the cruise line for the opportunity, the reimbursement form to go along with the excess baggage charges that I can never see to avoid, along with a thank you to my agent for the gig in the first place. I always have my iPod on hand to listen too and am slowly working through a series of podcasts by Alan Cross called ‘The Ongoing History of New Music‘ which are great.
I view these travel days as a chance to shift gears as well because my reality when I’m on a cruise ship is significantly different than my existence when I get home. This trip in particular for a variety of reasons will have me hitting the ground running upon my return. Birthdays, and wedding anniversaries, and prep for Christmas etc… There’ll be no shortage of things to keep me hopping upon my return.
I had a couple of great conversations with hypnotist/mentalist Joshua Seth and his wife Suzie while I was aboard the EMERALD Princess… They were nice enough to come and watch a couple of my shows in the Piazza over the run and seemed to have a long list of questions about how to make it all work when balancing a family and a performance career. It was funny to be considered some sort of authority on the subject, but I think really all they were after was a performer’s perspective because they’re talking about starting a family and wanted to get a bit of a sense of what they were getting into… I didn’t really have a simple answer beyond… This statement…
“Somehow it all works.”
- Is it ideal to leave my family for three weeks to do a couple of cruise ship contracts? – No.
- Could I stay in Vancouver and still survive as a performer? – Maybe.
- Am I able to keep things fairly balanced between family and career? – I hope so…
Life tends to be messy and there are no absolutely right answers to questions like the ones above, but I work reasonably hard to craft a scenario that works reasonably well for all of the parties involved – Me, my wife and my kids. Being away allows me to make a decent enough living so that the home team is well provided for. When I am home I try to be there for my wife and kids and save up work on various projects (when possible) to do while I’m away. It’s not perfect, but I try to approach all aspects of this imperfect reality with a positive outlook and an enthusiasm which seems to smooth any rough edges reasonably well…
So… A twenty-two hour commute today. Not necessarily the way I’d most like to spend the day, but after three weeks away from Emiko, Koji and Owen, I’m very much looking forward to getting back to the happy chaos that is life at home!
Posted in Thoughts, Travel | Comments Off on The Long Flight Home…
 Where in the world am I today?: St. Thomas boarding the EMERALD Princess.
I was trying to come up with a clever image to go along with this post and I’m not sure dental floss is really the best thing I could have tagged to go along with the thought that’s buzzing around in my head for today’s post, but it’ll work to demonstrate the point I’m trying to make…
Back when I was in middle school, I must have been 14 years old or so I convinced myself that I needed to have better dental hygiene. It might have been a particularly bad check up at the dentist or a visit to the school from an oral hygienist, or some other freak thing that just tweaked in my head, but from that point forward I determined that I would made a habit out of regular flossing. At the time I learned that it took between four to five weeks for most things to become ‘habit’ so I set about the task of flossing religiously for a month and by the end of the month it had indeed become habit. Something I didn’t even think about and something that has, ever since, meant that my visits to the dentist are far less expensive than had I not set about developing this habit reasonably early in life.
I keep going back to how impressed I was with Jim McDonald and the discipline he demonstrated to the craft of writing comedy while we were working together on the ISLAND Princess last week. Every day he’d sit down to write and every time he went up on stage he’s try out two or three new lines that he’d written either that day or that week. I was just really inspired to try and get into this habit of daily work on improving my show. The post I wrote about ‘Scrivener’ spoke of my initial efforts to organize my thoughts so I had places to put ideas and bits that pop into my head that I think would be good additions to the show and I’m moving slowly towards making a habit of more diligent efforts on my show which feels good.
This blog is another example of getting into a regular habit. When I started at the beginning of the year I had no idea if I’d run out of things to say or topics to discuss and would certainly welcome ideas from anyone who happens to be reading as to content suggestions or questions that they might like answered, but somehow, even with out too much feedback I’ve managed to come up with things that I was able to write about for the last ten and a half months and the well doesn’t seem like it’s even close to getting dry yet, so I’ll just keep generating content…
I’ve mentioned Mike Wood’s Funny Once A Day project that he mounted on Twitter… Another great example of setting a goal and making a habit out of it. There’s great strength in creating these work habits as it generally separates the people who succeed and are able to continually generate material, content, new works, what have you, and those who get complacent and stick with what works with out ever really pushing past a certain creative plateau… If possible, escape the seductive lure of such complacency and keep pushing forward with new challenges and new habits that keep you looking to improve on what you do. The sooner your able to get into the habit, the more you’ll benefit from it over the long haul!
Posted in Thoughts | Comments Off on Getting in the habit…
 Where in the world am I today?: Miami -> St. Thomas, US. Virgin Islands
I got an email from an agent that I hadn’t worked for in ages recently about a Christmas Gig. The gig wasn’t offering very much in the way of a salary which got me to wondering if it was one of those scenarios that I’ve encountered in the past when I do a gig for an agreed upon fee, then find out that the agent actually charged the client twice what I was getting paid… On the one hand I agreed to do the gig for the prescribed fee, but on the other hand I feel like I’m being mis-represented to the end client if the agent is taking such a huge cut off the top before I see my fee.
So… Before agreeing to anything I asked about how the agent was now operating and in my experience it tends to breakdown into one of the following scenarios –
- The Agent gets a fee for the performer then tags a commission or finders fee on top of that for themselves?
- The Agent determines what the client can afford, pitches it to you as an act then takes a certain percentage commission out of the total payment.
- The Agent charges a fee to the client, pays the performer from this fee, but keeps all of the details confidential.
I always get a bit nervous about business dealings when the talent broker or agent operates under scenario #3. I feel like I’m flying blind which I always find a bit unsettling. In scenarios #1 and #2 all of the cards are laid out on the table. I see what transactions are taking place and agree to the terms of the transactions before I go into them, nothing is hidden.
I certainly don’t mind paying for the service that is provided by and agent because I am getting a direct benefit for the service that they are providing. They’re getting me a job that I didn’t get myself. They have established a relationship with that client, they should get paid for brokering the gig.
Some may argue (some agents anyway) that the same scenario is in place in the third scenario as well, but in the third scenario the details are kept from me in a way that feels borderline deceitful or at the very least somewhat dubious. If this is how the agent operates I’m quite happy to not work for them and thankfully I’m in a position where I can choose not to take gigs that fall into that sort of a scenario.
In the situation of this recently offered Christmas gig, the response that I got back from the agent was that they operate under the #2 scenario which is my personal favorite. The client pays the agent, the agent takes the commission and then I get the balance. Commissions rates vary from agent to agent and I’ve heard figures that range from a commission figure of 10% all the way up to about 25%. In this scenario the agent is taking a 20% commission which is on the higher side of things, but the gig itself isn’t a huge huge money gig so the 20% doesn’t amount to a huge salary for the agent and he’s gotta make a buck too, so I didn’t have a problem with it. That being said, knowing all of the details allowed me to feel good about how this deal transpired.
Posted in Job Opportunities, Thoughts | Comments Off on Three Little Questions…
 Where in the world am I today?: At Sea aboard the Island Princess
“This is like deja vu all over again.”
–Yogi Berra, US baseball player, coach, & manger (1925 – )
Addendum…
“Sometimes I make the same mistake three different times and I still don’t learn my lesson.”
–David ‘checkerhead’ Aiken
I picked this quote not because the Yankees won the World Series, but because I just like the irony of it… I was also reminded of finding myself scratching my head a certain times in my life wondering how I had stumbled into a scenario that I seemed to have lived through before… It reminds me of another quote –
“Those who ignore history are bound (or doomed) to repeat it”
This is actual a mis-quotation of the original text written by George Santayana, who, in his Reason in Common Sense, The Live of Reason, Vol. 1 wrote –
“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
Sometimes I look at my kids making the same mistake over and over again and wonder if somehow it’s genetic… Hmmmmm…
Posted in Quotes, Thoughts | Comments Off on Yogi Berra – Quoted
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