Where in the world am I today?: North Vancouver, BC, Canada

…Or do I???

I’ve been remarkably lucky during the 28 years that I’ve been performing. When I started I didn’t need to make ‘a living’ out of it but somehow over the course of time and by default it became my career. Opportunities lead to other opportunities and I’ve been happy to follow one thing after another for nearly three decades now. I think to some degree I’ve had a seductive amount of success with what I do. I love performing, I love the work that goes into the getting of jobs etc and the revenue that this circular cycle (promote – book – perform – promote – book – perform) has allowed me to live a very comfortable existence and provide a happy life for myself, my wife and my kids. It does become a bit of a repetitious cycle though.

I had an email earlier this week from a performer who wanted to ask me a few questions. As her email stated…

I am planning on starting a solo performing company, and am now doing some market research.  I was wondering if you would like to help me by answering a few brief questions.

Like I know what I’m talking about – Ha! So I called and we talked for about thirty minutes or so and she asked me a number of different questions related to the style of performing that she’s doing and how best to make a career out of it. I’m not sure I gave her the information that she was looking for, but it was a useful conversation for me because it got me thinking about how I’ve built my career.

Earlier this week I also got together with my good friend David Duchemin for lunch and our conversation wandered all over the map as it often does. One of the things that came up was that although I’ve had great success as a performer, success has been more a result of being busy chasing opportunities as opposed to making a plan, setting myself goals and setting out to achieve them a skill that I recognize in him.

I’m reminded of watching my kids play soccer. When they were very young the entire team ran after the ball in one big throbbing mass of excitement and enthusiasm. As they’ve grown into the game, they (and their team mates) have recognized the benefits of playing position and having a clear plan of attack when it comes to putting the ball in the net. When I relate this image to my own career I think I’m still at the stage of being that mass of excitement and enthusiasm with out necessarily the clarity of playing position and having a plan of attack.

I was impressed by some of the speakers at the Creative Mix Conference a week ago today because many of them had created definable parameters by which they channel their creativity and creative output. Amazing! Stop chasing your tail and actual construct the roadmap that allows for you not only to channel your energy but realize amazing success. Who’da thunk?

Now in some regards I think we all set about the pursuit of ‘success’ in different ways – just because I seem to have followed a less charted course doesn’t mean that my success is any less valid, but I scratch my head sometimes and wonder if perhaps I might have achieved a different kind of success had I sat down early on and plotted a more coherent direction…

I think many performers who turn to the street as their venue of choice do so because they don’t want to follow a specific set of guidelines or procedures. I totally get this, but as much as I love the street as a venue and the freedom it provides, I also recognize for myself that a bit of structure can be a very good thing so today I’m meeting with the guy who co-ordinated the Creative Mix Conference for a lunch and a bit of a brain storming session with a bit of Career Management as the general topic that I’m looking to throw at him…

I’m not sure if this will lead to self-directed career management or some sort of career coaching, training or just what, but it feels like it might be time to look at alternative courses and approaches to getting the most out of this thing that I’ve had such success doing. Onward and upward!

(giving credit where credit is due – I got the image that accompanies this post here)

Where in the world am I today?: North Vancouver, BC, Canada

I must admit that sometimes, in the heat of the moment I get excited and don’t always listen before I take action… Though this has never really gotten me into trouble I know that there are times when it’s better to shut up and not only listen, but actually hear what’s being said before taking action.

I reminded myself of this the other day when I got an email from a client that I’ll be working for later this month. I’m going to be acting as a pitch-man of sorts, a colourful host who will assist various vendors in making their presentations a little bit more interactive and a little bit more dynamic. I’m guessing that I’ll be able to incorporate many of the variety skills that I usually have at my disposal when I do my comedy juggling show, but this time around I’ll be taking on the role of a TV Magazine Show Host I suspect. The fact that I have a trunk full of skills at my disposal will make things that much more interesting which I suspect is why this client turned to me to mix things up a bit.

Anyway, I got an email from the client with a rough outline of what the script is to be for the various products that are going to be a part of this trade show situation along with the added information that I’d be getting contact information for all of the various vendors of these products that are going to be demo-ed some time in the coming week. Each of these vendors will likely have their own agenda and methods for making their presentations as successful as possible and I’m being thrust at them to help liven-up their presentations…

I’m really excited by the opportunity to partner with so many different people for this contract, but I’m also keenly aware that one of my primary jobs is to support and enhance with out diluting the main focus of the presentations. The key to making it successful is going to be to listen carefully to each presenter, hear what they’re saying, blend well with their presentation style and make each individual shine in front of their audience. I need to be able to reflect their energy, enhance their energy, encourage a bit of zaniness while at the same time not walk in and steal focus, my job is going to be to augment their focus not try to be the focus.

I think being a parent and perhaps some of the work I’ve done at the C.A.M.P. Program in Winnipeg will really prove an asset as in these other situations my prime directive is to use everything I’ve ever learned as a performer to shine the spotlight on someone else and encourage their success… It’s an odd sort of shift in focus when you stop trying to be the centre of attention and realize what the centre of attention needs to be and support it to the best of your ability.

Inevitably I’ll end up having the spotlight shone on me at times, but if I can remember to stay focused on the larger picture I should be able to ensure that the client that’s hiring me and all of the vendors that I’ll be working with will come out looking like the real heros at this trade show. If I do this successfully not only will the event be a success, I’ll also solidify my relationship with this particular client for similar opportunities in the future.

Where in the world am I today?: Ketchikan, AK, USA on my way back to North Vancouver, BC, Canada

Part of the fun of show building is seeing what sort of crazy props you can find to help tell what ever story your show is built around. Not admittedly I’ve lived most of my life as a comedy juggler and tools of that trade seem to be fairly ubiquitous… Clubs, Balls, Cigar Boxes, Juggling Machetes, Torches, Unicycles, blah blah blah… Magicians (unless they’ve created their own routines from scratch) also tend to carry similar props to one another – cards, coins, ropes, rings, etc. These things become the tools of the trade and it’s not the prop that’s important, it’s often the personality of the person manipulating the props that ends up drawing the focus of the performance.

With my latest adventure in show building, ‘The Hot Dog Show,’ I got to think a bit outside the box in terms of the tools I used to tell the story of a six inch tall stuffed Dog Toy shaped like a Hot Dog who happened to be an Unprecedented Stunt Performing Super Hero. Getting the audience to buy into the concept was the first challenge, but beyond the challenge of getting them to accept the premise of the show was the challenge of finding props that had what I refer to as ‘quirk appeal’ – that unique ability to capture the intrigue of an audience simply based on it’s appearance and perhaps people’s pre-conceived notion of what ‘should’ be done with that object.

Prior to the show’s debut I tried to get as many of the elements in place as I could, but it was inevitable that during the course of the run I came up with other ideas for things I’d like to add to the mix to increase the resonance of the performance and add funky little elements to the scene that would give me more to play with and provide an increased intrigue for the audience.

The show itself is set up around three super stunts, and prior to the show debuting I had a red flashing light that I pulled out at key moments of the show to help build tension before the execution of the stunt… Over the course of the run I wanted to find more stuff to help create this anticipation before each stunt and came up with the idea of tracking down a cymbal playing monkey that I could bring out to add not only to dramatic tension, but also a completely abstract element of ridiculousness to the scene – a stunt Hot-Dog accompanied by a demonic looking cymbal playing monkey… How great would that be…

So I turned to the worlds largest garage sale – eBay – and sure enough I came across a ton of cymbal playing monkeys… The one I’m after is referred to as the ‘Jolly Chimp’ and though I’ve put bids in on a few that have come up I haven’t won my very own ‘Jolly Chimp’ yet… I will though… Trust me… I will! I mean look at that scary looking monkey… Even if, in the end, I decide not to add him to the cast of The Hot Dog Show, he’ll find a nice place on my desk and keep me company for years to come… No if I could only get my hands on one of those dippy birds… All in good time my friends… All in good time!

Where in the world am I today?: Ketchikan, AK, USA boarding the Golden Princess

Somehow one day off between finishing up at the Pacific National Exhibition and leaving to join the Golden Princess just didn’t seem like enough time to really shift gears properly from being a Wiener Wrangler in The Hot Dog Show and the familiar world of comedy juggling as The Checkerboard Guy… Mind you had I been leaving the very next day I would have somehow made it work… It’s amazing what one can scramble to do if you put your mind to it and need to catch a plane to make the next gig happen…

Even better than the return to a world I’m so comfortable in is the fact that I’ll be doing mini 15 minute-ish shows in ‘The Piazza’ of the Golden Princess. This will almost feel like a vacation after the 17-day, 51-show extravaganza that I lived through as part of the Street Stars Program…

As I mentioned a couple of days ago my new The Hot Dog Show panned out more or less the way I had anticipated it would and the performance grew and developed enormously over the course of the run. Doing something so new, watching as it grew and evolved, was incredibly exciting and rewarding. It was also hugely exhausting. Even though my confidence with the show grew daily, I was constantly looking for ways to improve the performance and figure out how to maximize the potential of the show given the limited time that I had to work on it. This proved to be a wonderful exercise in creativity and persistence but it was also a huge drain on my energy, so it’s a bit of a relief to be returning to the familiar territory of a show and character that’s very much second nature.

I think of it a bit like a visit to a museum… I’m good at absorbing the content that your typical museum has to offer for about two to three hours after which I don’t seem to be able to ‘get’ much more from the experience. I need to let my eyes and brain have a rest so that I can process the information that I’ve bombarded myself with. In a similar vein I’ve picked up enough French and Japanese over the years to be able to listen to conversations and pick up most of what’s being said provided I stay fully tuned in and really concentrate. By the end of the day in a foreign language I need a break and all my brain really seems to be able to process is a conversation in English…

I think this week aboard the Golden Princess will be the rest I need from having lived through a pretty intense two and a half weeks with the new show at the PNE. Before leaving I put some wheels in motion so I’ve got a couple of Hot Dog Show related projects to work on upon my return. I did this deliberately as I’d hate to loose my momentum with the new show, but I think that taking a week off will allow me to return to the props, the ideas for retooling things and the video footage that was shot at the fair with fresh eyes. This will hopefully mean that the next round of work on all things Hot Dog will be more productive from having had the break.

Besides, I still really like The Checkerboard Guy Show and the work I do as a comedy juggler, so not only will this week be a nice break, it’ll also be a whole lot of fun!

Where in the world am I today?: North Vancouver, BC, Canada

As I’ve mentioned a few times already on the blog I’m currently in the middle of a run at the PNE (Pacific National Exhibition) where I’m performing a new show entitled “The Hot Dog Show” which features me and my six inch tall stuffed Hot Dog partner, Willie The Wiener. My friend Bruce Thorson came by to watch the show the other day and thankfully he saw what was likely the best show I’ve done during the entire run of the fair… Everything just seemed to work.

Bruce used to work a the Edmonton International Street Performers Festival where we first met and became friends, then moved out to Vancouver a few years ago to go to the Vancouver Film School. We worked together on one of his assignments and created a piece called “47 Dutch Lessons on Cassette.” Bruce is a long time fan of the Art of Street Performance and after watching my show, I got an email in which he asked the following three questions. I had to think quite a bit about the answers and as such, thought they might make a great post… Here then are the questions and the answers I gave…

1. – Why would an audience buy into a silly concept like the Hot Dog Show? Well I think more than anything else it’s because the performer (in this case me) appears to enjoy the concept and deliver it with such confidence and bravado that the audience is drawn into the sales pitch because of the dynamic nature of the story and the charisma of the performer. Any good pitch man can sell a sucker anything because people come under the spell of a good pitch and the delivery… There is something genuinely intriguing about watching a good pitch man at work which is why I sometimes like to go up to the Marketplace building at the PNE and watch the guys selling the magic slicer machines, Ginsu Steak Knives or what have you… There’s almost a hypnotic effect, a trance that they’re able to put you into that entices you to buy their product and the most successful pitch guys have built their careers and fortunes on being able to use these techniques to get money out of people’s pockets…

2. – How do I ensure that they do buy the pitch? Well to be honest I’m still not feeling that they do entirely I’m still fumbling a bit with this new show. That being said, a good pitch is a combination of many factors. As mentioned above, confidence and charisma play a huge role in the process and I can state that over the first 10 days of the fair my confidence with the new pitch/new show grew tremendously so that when you came yesterday – Day 11, I was no longer fumbling to get from point A to point B to point C. This is HUGE!

The hypnotic-ness of the show starts at the beginning by getting the audience to unify as a group with some simple exercises like – ‘Everyone clap when I count to three…’ The Call and Repeat game style of this technique isn’t very threatening and eases and audience into unity and encourages them to get behind what ever is to come next. I’ve long been an advocate of the ‘Hype’ style of performance. This style get’s an audience wound up into a frenzy with what ever stunt that’s being sold being representing the climax that they’re all building towards. In many ways this has become so instinctive to me that I don’t even really think about it any more, but the effect is that the audience is drawn in to the pitch and is willing to come along on the journey.

3. – What is the audience buying into? In the end it’s the performer. The audience isn’t necessarily buying the fact that the Hot Dog is a Super Stunt Hero, they’re buying into the fact that I’m going to make this journey a fun one and one that they’re willing to invest a half hour of their life into. If the audience doesn’t like the performer, then no matter how good the pitch is, be it a skill show or a show like the Hot Dog Show, then the audience will likely not want to watch. Likability is everything! The performer can be aggressive, caustic, in your face or calm and gentle, but with out some degree of charm, with out charisma and confidence, forget about it… It just won’t work.

Also, I think as a performer you really need to love your show too… If you loose the love of it, if you loose the joy of being in front of an audience doing what you’re doing then it becomes very obvious to an audience that you’re heart’s no longer in it. I think this is one of the reasons I enjoy watching Glenn Singer’s show so much. He still loves telling that story and it’s a joy to watch him taking such pleasure in the telling of it. 

I’ve got 5 more days at the PNE (including today) and am looking forward to each and everyone of them. I’m still not sure about the future of the Hot Dog Show, but it’s been an awesome work out for my performance muscles and it’s been really interesting being at the center of a show that doesn’t rely on skills and tall unicycles to make it work.

Where in the world am I today?: North Vancouver, BC, Canada

So I debuted my new “Hot Dog Show” almost a week ago at the PNE and have another 12 days of shows to go before things wrap up on September 7th. Bit by bit it all seems to be falling into place. I was more than a little bit nervous about pulling this show off and day one of the Fair things were quite wobbly, but show by show, day by day my confidence with this new show is falling into place and it’s all starting to make sense.

I’ve been describing my experience with this new show at the PNE as ‘New Show Boot CAMP‘ because I get three chances a day to try out new ideas, three chances a day for people to give me feedback. On top of what I’ve been hearing from audience members, I’ve been lucky enough to have the ears and eyes of other performers in this year’s Street Stars Program who have been fantastic about coming by, having a look at where the show is at and where it’s evolving to. I’ve had suggestion upon suggestion given to me and gradually these comments filter down from the intellectual to the practical and more and more the funny is starting to stick to the bones of the show.

Everyday I seem to discover new bits of business and a deeper appreciation of what makes this show work and the bizarre yet very tangible relationship I have with my partner in the show, a six inch long stuffed dog toy shaped like a hot dog that I’ve named William T. Wiener.

Is this High Art? Nope! I certainly wouldn’t describe it as that, but on some fantastic level I’m discovering how to make this show, that has none of the traditional juggling skills that I’ve based my show on for year, work. Better still, I actually appear to be making a connection with my audiences in a way that I never have before. It’s really rather remarkable!

Got a chance to try something new? I highly recommend jumping in with both feet with eyes wide open and enough bravery to get through the first week of the new experience. After the first week it all starts to make sense and becomes a whole heck of a lot of fun well at least this show has for me!

Where in the world am I today?: North Vancouver, BC, Canada

Not knowing what was going to happen next… Especially in a performance situation used to scare the crap out of me! I got very very good at knowing exactly what was going to happen next and didn’t stray much from the pre-established script that was working so well for me. The funning thing with sticking with the script though was that my shows became too predictable. I reached a plateau where the difference between my highs and my lows was pretty minimal and the audience reaction to what I was doing was pretty consistent.

Boring!

Around the same time that I became cognsant that my shows weren’t providing the creative spark to really keep me excited about my performance was about the same time that I realized that some of my favorite shows and favorite performers seemed to take risks with out fully knowing that the outcome would be.

I watched these shows with great interest and envied the way that the performers inside these shows seemed to be willing to throw caution to the wind somehow knowing that it would all work out. I had a conversation with Rob Torres at one point many years ago in which I indicated that I thought he knew some sort of secret that he wasn’t sharing with me that made such risk taking less scary.

I’m not sure I fully know the secret (if in fact there is one) but it’s sort of like ‘The Dragon Scroll’ in Kung-fu Panada… The secret ingredient is that there isn’t any secret ingredient. What makes it possible to take these risks and succeed seems to be the simple faith and confidence in your ability to make it work no matter what happens. The greater this confidence, the further out on a limb you’re willing to venture not knowing or having a sense of what the outcome might be.

The bigger the risk, the bigger the pay off. This isn’t an easy path to walk, but your highs will be higher even though your lows might be lower. One thing’s for sure though… Your peaks and valley’s will make for a more interesting adventure.

Where in the world am I today?: Vacationing  in Peru

A few weeks back now I had a gig performing for the Small Ritual Coffee Society, a church based group who were opening a coffee shop in Whiterock. They had hoped to open in time for the annual Tour de Whiterock bicycle race because prior to the start of the race there’s a block party/sidewalk sale and it seemed like the perfect opportunity to launch the opening of the shop. Unfortunately they didn’t quite make the deadline, but having me come out to perform was still excellent public relations to drum up awareness of the soon-to-be-open Coffee Shop.

The person who contacted me to do the gig is someone I’ve worked with in the past and when the budget didn’t quite meet with my standard rates I made an exception and agreed to the performance under the condition that my older son Koji could perform as well.

Koji’s been demonstrating some interest in doing a bit of performing, so I’ve tried to find some opportunities for him to log some stage time and have been encouraging him to work on his skills. The picture comes from an appearance he made during the annual school talent show and I was proud as punch with the performance he put in.

Practice makes perfect as they say, so I figured any opportunity I could come up with to give Koji some stage time would help him develop confidence in front of an audience and encourage him to continue working on expanding his material…

So the big day comes and we drive out to Whiterock and the performance scenario is less than ideal, but I figure this too is a good part of Koji’s education, because sometimes flexibility in these situations is your greatest asset. We do the first show while the main stage is virtually blasting us out – challenging, but we survive. Nachos for lunch to celebrate! Show #2 goes much more smoothly and we don’t have to compete with sounds to actually do the show which is a huge improvement. The client is happy, we’re happy, we get paid all is good!

On the way home Koji turns to me and says –

Dad… I don’t want to say your a slacker or anything, but people pay you a lot of money for not a lot of work… I mean isn’t it like your actually playing???

I turn to him alarmed that he’s learned the truth, hold my finger up to my lips and…

“Shhhhhhhhh… DON’T TELL ANYBODY…”

him. Cheeky little monkey got the joke right away, but also realized that there’s some truth to it too. Find something you love doing and you never work a day in your life!