May is National Pet Month and to celebrate it here’s a little video of me performing with Daisy my daughter’s pet rat:
Rat’s make really cool pets, and they are very smart and easily trained. The thing with them is they need constant companionship so if you aren’t up to spending a lot of time with them they probably aren’t the pet for you. Also Daisy is a rescue rat, so we didn’t get her at a pet store, she’s 1 1/2 years old (rat’s live to be 2ish years old) and Daisy proves that you can teach an old rat new tricks!
I just scheduled a performance on 8/4 for the West Seattle Outdoor Movies on 8/4/12 at 7:30pm. I don’t know what movie I’m doing the preshow entertainment for yet, however once they have the movie line up you can find it at http://www.facebook.com/WSOutdoorMovies.
Last year I performed before the movie Airplane and had a great time and this year should be a blast!
I’m leaving today to head out on the road performing shows in Eastern, Washington State for the next four days. I’ll be performing eight shows in four days, so I’ll have a full schedule! This week I have my only public show that’s happening the entire month (the rest aren’t open to the general public) at the Akin Center Theatre in Yakima, WA on 5/19/12 at 1pm. If you are in the area come out and say hi!
If you call or email me while I’m away you may not hear back from me until Monday 5/21/12 when I’m back in the office. Sometimes when traveling cellphone reception and wifi can be hard to find. Please be patient, I’ll return everyone’s call or email by the end of the day Monday.
Today is Leprechaun Day and it made me remember an old trick that I used to sell a long time ago. It was three pieces of card board with pictures of Leprechauns on it and you switched the two pieces of cardboard and one disappeared. The puzzle looks like:
You can try to print this out and cut it out along the lines. Set it on the table and count the number of Leprechauns then switch the two top pieces and count them again. Did you get the same number?
Is this a magic trick? Well not really, it’s a puzzle however puzzle principles are frequently used in magic tricks.
A lot of people don’t know that in addition to performing my One Man Side Show I also hand cut silhouette portraits. A silhouette portrait is a cut of the profile of a person’s face on black paper that is then usually mounted on a white background. You might have had your portrait done in school where they taped a piece of paper on the all and shined a light on your head and traced the profile of your head on the paper then cut it out. The way I do silhouette portraits is very different, I cut them by hand and eye, here’s an example:
This style of portrait cutting is a lost art, very few people in the United States (and the world) do this anymore. It’s so low tech when you consider that everyone has a camera in their phone that they carry around and can use computer programs to get different effects with. That said whenever I cut silhouette portraits at an event I’m always amazed at how quickly I get a line of people and how many kids are amazed that you can even do this! I guess skill can still trump technology and it’s appeal is how low tech (and cool) it is.
In preparation for this summer I got a bunch of new mounting cards for my sillhouette portraits. In the past I’ve used a white card, but I recently ordered some with a fancy board and my info on the back. Here’s the card without a portrait:
And here’s the card with a silhouette (not mounted):
Finally here’s the portrait on the card:
For more information about having me cut silhouette portraits at your next event feel free to contact me!
Recently I contacted to try to break the record for the fastest time to pull the tape out of a 60 minute audio cassette tape. This record was set by a host on a TV show in Spain. Her time was just over 48 seconds.
My first attempt that I submitted was 38 seconds and honestly the hardest part of doing that was finding a 60 minute audio cassette tape. I found a ton of 90 minute tapes, but 60 mins are rare! So they played a video of me breaking the record on the television show Otra Movida.
Then I they tried to break my Lego stacking record which is 24 Lego bricks in 15 seconds. Here’s their attempt:
The best they did was 17 Lego’s! I’m looking forward to their next challenge…however instead of beating them via tape from the USA, I’d love to do it in Spain (hint hint).
One thing that I like doing is trying to think up a little magic trick for holidays each month. These usually don’t make it into the show, it’s something fun that I do for myself. Here’s something that I came up with for Cinco de Mayo last year:
It’s May first and that means that I just finished updating my public show calendar. This month I only have on show that’s open to the public (but many more private engagements) for you to come out to see. My public show this month is at the Akin Center Theater (ACT) in Yakima on May 19th.
I also have updated the public show calendar for this summer and you’ve got a ton of chances to catch me live. I’ll be performing at three fairs, six festivals and ton of libraries! That’s in addition to a lot of private shows which aren’t open to the public for summer camps, company picnics, etc.
