In Like a Lion, Out Like a Klutz

March certainly began normally enough. Corporate clients this month included Pfizer and Northeast Utilities. I also had the chance to do a fund-raising show for a local high school which turned out to be a lot of fun.

Later in the month, however, during a performance for a regional convention of the Future Business Leaders of America, I lost my balance on stage (the back wall immediately behind the stage that I went to lean on to pick something up wasn't a wall at all but a projection screen) and took a bit of a tumble. I managed to return to my normally vertical orientation and finished the show, thinking at the time that my only injury was a bruised ego. As it turned out, however, two days later every muscle in my lower back decided to play freeze tag, which totally incapacitated me for the better part of four days. Needless to say, not fun at all.

I managed to block off an evening to take my daughter, Rebecca, to see Bernadette Peters in concert with the Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra. Rebecca has very eclectic musical tastes for a 21-year old and while Broadway show tunes are not my favorite form, the concert was very enjoyable and it was good to have some Dad-daughter time. (She's pictured here just before showtime in front of the beautiful Providence Performing Arts Center.) Rebecca is a big fan of Ms. Peters and it was fun just to see her face when the star of the show took the stage. I believe she had a similar look when I took her to see the Backstreet Boys some years ago but, as the mind tends to erase horrible memories of the kind that only ten thousand screaming teens and tweens can create, I can't be totally sure.

A big highlight this month for me was the release of a long-forgotten recording of Simon & Garfunkel on their 1969 tour. This tour was significant for a couple of reasons. First, it was the only time they had ever taken a full band on the road with them and second, it was their last tour before they would split up the following year.

This tour was undertaken after they recorded the Bridge Over Troubled Water album. However, its release was still months away so no one in the audience was familiar with the new material, including the title song. In fact, Art Garfunkel introduces the song as a new one as the now-familiar piano chords begin. Now, I've seen Simon & Garfunkel together and separately a number of times and every time the intro to Bridge begins, the audience goes wild. However, on this recording, the song is met with silence; nobody had ever heard it. Art Garfunkel then proceeds to deliver a rendition that rivals the studio version and when he brings the song to its conclusion, it's total pandemonium. The audience's approbation literally roars out of the speakers and you realize that the audience at that time and place knew they had just witnessed the birth of a timeless song. It's an amazing moment and we're fortunate that someone dug this tape out of the vault and made it available.

The new CD is called simply Live 1969 and is only available at Starbucks right now (which makes me want to go into a music store and order a latte...) but it'll be in regular stores (i.e. ones that don't serve coffee) sometime in the fall.

See you in April...

Toy Story

February is usually a quiet month and this one was no exception save for the three tumultuous days I performed at Toy Fair '08, the Toy Industry Association's annual trade show at the cavernous Javits Center in New York City.

I was representing Melissa & Doug, whose quality products grace the shelves of high-end toy stores all over the globe. In recent years, the company has been moving into the magic set market. This year, it's introducing four new sets aimed at kids 8 and older that are more sophisticated and evolved than perhaps any magic sets since the legendary Mysto Magic Sets last seen in the 1930s and '40s.

My job was to demonstrate items from these four new kits to some of the more than 35,000 attendees from all over the globe. Of more than 1500 exhibitors, Melissa & Doug had the largest booth so, needless to say, things were busy, busy, busy for nine hours a day. Buyers who watched the demonstrations ranged from small buyers such as a lovely couple I met who owned a toy shop in a suburb of Dallas to heavy hitters from such companies as Amazon.com, Hewlett-Packard and others.

It was truly a great experience, I was treated exceptionally well, and I hope to be working on some future projects with the company.

Earlier in the month, I did a show for a school in North Haven that was celebrating its 50th birthday. However, due to some kind of miscommunication between the agent who booked the show and the client, they were expecting a clown to show up.

After I arrived and set up the show, the contact at the school asked me if I was going to change. Thinking she was kidding, I asked, "Into what?" Not to be deterred by something as banal as a joke, she said, "You're a clown, right?" Still thinking she was kidding, I replied, "It depends who you ask..." Her continued lack of amusement at my witty banter told me that she wasn't kidding in the least. I told her that there probably had been a mixup of some kind and that I was not, nor have I ever been, a clown. This news bulletin caused the contact to enter a mild freakout state. By the way, this is about ten minutes before showtime and children had alreadly begun to file into the auditorium. Since she had no choice but to let me go on, I decided the best revenge was to do a great show. You can read about the results here and here.

We'll talk again next month.

Nothing To See Here. Please Move Along...

January has always been a relatively slow month, show-wise, and this year's edition has done nothing to dispel that notion. On the plus side, it always provides much-needed time to recharge, work on some new material, and even spend time with a favorite new Christmas gift. (I heartily recommend Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08 and Assassin's Creed, by the way...)

I did get the opportunity to do a show for a corporate group in New York City last week that was quite fun, despite the fact that it was 8 o'clock in the morning. The audience was far more receptive and enthusiastic than anyone has any business being on the left side of noon so it was a gratifying experience for everyone involved. I'll be returning to the city in February to represent a major toy manufacturer at Toy Fair '08 and I'll fill you in on that next month.

Sandy and I got the chance to see Cloverfield on its opening day. I'm a sucker for huge-monster-comes-out-of-the sea-and-destroys-a-large-city movies (and there's a surprising number in that genre, even if you take the Japanese monsters out of the equation) so this was a must-see. We enjoyed it immensely though the erratic camera work (the premise of the film is that it was supposedly shot with a handheld video camera) reportedly is making some audience members queasy. However, in my opinion, it was everything that the cheesy remake of Godzilla in 1998 should have been...and more.

In case you're one of the two or three that hasen't seen any of the viral marketing for the film, check out the trailer:

See you in February...

Is It Over Yet?

Kill the turkeys, ducks and chickens,
Mix the punch, drag out the Dickens.
Even though the prospect sickens,
Brother, here we go again...

— Tom Lehrer, A Christmas Carol
from An Evening Wasted With Tom Lehrer

I performed twenty-seven shows in the last 30 days and while it was an exhausting schedule, just about all of them were quite enjoyable. The shows certainly ran the gambit, though. I performed for corporate groups in country clubs and hotels, car salespeople in the middle of their showroom and, in one particularly attractive instance, people so drunk by the time I arrived that they could barely find their way back to the apparently oft-visited open bar.

I criss-crossed three states and managed to even get rear-ended by some psychotic woman as we were both stuck in a traffic jam. There was not a lot of damage to my vehicle (though it will still require a brief sojourn at the auto body shop) but, as if to prove the laws of karma do indeed exist, the front of her car was totally demolished. (Note to self: never buy a Mercury anything...)

One of the things that made some of the longer trips shorter was listening to the audio CD version of Steve Martin's new book, Born Standing Up: A Comic's Life. Read by the author, it brought me back to the days when Steve first burst upon the scene. I was in college at the time and still remember guys walking around the dormitory halls exclaiming, "Well, excuuuuuuse me!" The book was also revelatory to me personally as Steve started his career as a magician and his experience with magic informed a lot of his later work, including his movies. It's an excellent book, even if you're not a Steve Martin fan, as it's a fascinating glimpse into the creative process. I recommend it very highly.

The shows were actually the fun part of the month. The not-so-fun part is the Christmas craziness that must be dealt with in the short intervals between shows. The shopping, obligatory visits to distant and quasi-relatives, more shopping, the traffic, still more shopping, and just the general mayhem that ensues at this time of year...it can really wear you out! Some years, all of this nutsiness goes smoothly and other years, it doesn't. This year fell squarely in the latter category.

I have one more show to do tonight, then it's home in time to watch the ball drop and ring in 2008.

Happy New Year, by the way.

The Dog Days of November

November is usually a very quiet month as people tend to hoard their entertainment dollars for the holiday parties in December but this year was an exception. I criss-crossed four states this month doing shows for corporate groups, colleges, night clubs, health care organizations and a charity fund-raiser or two.

The month began with some walk-around magic for a very noble cause, the CUREChief Foundation. Anyone who has been touched by cancer or knows someone who has (and that would be just about everyone) should really check out their site. It's hard to explain what they do but I believe you'll be touched by what you read.

I also got the chance to work with Jay Rodrigues again this month. I opened a show for him at a country club and we both received standing ovations from a truly great (and apparently very discerning) audience. Though I've seen his act a bunch of times (as he's had to sit through mine, also), he still makes me laugh out loud. Check out this video clip (but be warned that this is not safe for work or for those with delicate sensibilities!):

Also in November, Sandy and I had the chance to see John Fogerty. He was appearing at the Mohegan Sun Casino Arena and the show was amazing - particularly from third row seats! A tireless performer (in his 60's, no less!), he was on tour promoting his new CD, Revival. He performed most of the new album in addition to busting out most of his CCR repertoire. Great music that brought back dozens of wonderful memories. It also didn't hurt that I managed to walk away from the Blackjack tables with a hundred bucks more than I started with. All in all, not a bad night.

I probably should explain the screwy title for this post. The month ended with us adding a new member to the family. Ollie is a four-year old Brittany Spaniel that we adopted from a rescue agency in Tennessee and so far he's been a perfect gentleman. He's not too sure about me yet but has bonded with Sandy to the extent that she can't go anywhere in the house without Ollie being right behind her. We had been thinking about getting a dog for quite a while but quickly decided against going the pet store/puppy route. Plus, there are so many great dogs like Ollie out there just waiting to be adopted. He's only been with us for a few days now but I'm quite sure we made the right choice. Ollie's a keeper!

Two more days and I'll begin my descent into Christmas Party madness. If I survive, we'll talk again next month.

October Musings...

October began with an appearance at the Harwinton Fair. It's one of the last country fairs on the Connecticut agricultural fair calendar every year and it's been a favorite venue of mine for quite a few years now.

I also managed to squeeze in a few corporate shows this month. I did two afternoon shows for the employees at Stanley Tools at their world headquarters in New Britain. I also had the chance to work for Insurity at a very posh event held at the Mohegan Sun casino.

The balance of the month, particularly for the last week or so, featured both stand-up shows and walk-around magic for Halloween parties for both family groups and adults. Almost every one of them was a blast except for one family show at a very upscale country club in Westchester, New York. The adults were under the misconception that the entertainers (there were several other performers there besides me) were there to babysit for the children, freeing them to swap the latest gossip in the back of the room. This created a noise level that made it just about impossible to perform. (At one point, even the children turned around and asked the adults to keep it down!) This isn't the first time I've run across this particular phenomenon and I know, in trading war stories with other entertainers, that it happens fairly often. This level of rudeness always leaves me puzzled but, of course, I was raised indoors.

Sandy and I got another chance to see Loreena McKennitt as she extended her tour through New England. We managed to score second row seats and it was quite a difference experiencing the show that close in a smaller venue than much farther back in the cavernous Radio City Music Hall. Check this out:

I also got the chance to watch the guy in front of me do some research on his iPhone during intermission regarding the various odd instruments in use. It was such a cool gizmo that I ended up picking one up several days later. I know this puts me dangerously at risk of shopping at the Gap or frequenting the local Starbucks but I'm just going to have to chance it.

On to November...

September's Gone

Fall is rapidly becoming more evident in these parts and as we have annually for the last five years at this time of year, we bid a fond farewell to the amusement park today for another season. I am happy to report that Sandy and I went out on a high note this year with four standing-room-only shows, a marked contrast to last year's final day which was totally rained out. We're looking forward to taking the family show to the Harwinton Fair this coming weekend with two shows each day at 1 and 4 PM.

September was busy for me with a number of private shows, including one for Verizon in the heart of Boston's financial district and another at Eastern Connecticut State University. It wasn't all work, however, as Sandy and I got a chance to get into New York City and spend some time with Louis Falanga, the president of L&L Publishing (he publishes my books) and also Joshua Jay, one of the finest young magicians working today (Louis produces Josh's instructional DVDs). We were able to take in an exhibition at the American Museum of Natural History that Sandy's been dying to see and also, thanks to Louis' ticket procurement skills, we were able to get 5th row orchestra seats to see Wicked literally five minutes before curtain. It was truly a great day.

Speaking of difficult tickets, thanks to our good friend, Jim Spinnato, we were able to attend an invitation-only concert at one of the local casinos to see Heart last week. The Wilson sisters were in fine form with Ann featuring a number of songs from Hope & Glory, her excellent new solo album. Speaking of new albums, I'm really looking forward to Bruce Springsteen's new one, releasing on Tuesday. It's going to be great if its first single, "Radio Nowhere," is any indication of the quality of the rest of the tracks.

By the way, the new album's title? Magic, of course!