Pizza Festival 09

Notice the pizza hat!

First off let me say that Lemoore has some of the best audiences in California. We always fill the seats and have rows of people watching the show. The organizers at the Pizza Festival are fabulous and do an awesome job. The vendors, for the most part are great people. (I know you hear a but coming......No not really but since a blog is like a diary and for me it's a place to put my thoughts down before I forget them....in case I write that book about us someday I will share everything.)

April (and sometimes March) is when things start moving faster here at the KFMC. After a week and a half of serving God doing outreach Christian programs we spent this Saturday in a little town south of Fresno called Lemoore. For a little town they have a big heart and a big love of pizza. This is our 4th year at the pizza festival and true to form it starts off with us setting up our stage. It has been at 4 different locations over the past four years. This year we were set at the entrance of a Parking Lot where we ended up partially blocking some cars....fortunately most were there for the day. One ,however ,I ended up negotiating out of the parking lot for the owner....our trailer and stage blocked her.....in the picture it's the white car to the right.

The Festival is no the biggest in the world...we only brought 4 of our 12 4X8 stage pieces. Still it was big enough for this event.

One thing you can count on at every festival everywhere in the world ...there is always someone unhappy with something. Last year the hardware store, whose parking lot entrance on the festival street side (that section was closed to traffic) was the sight of our stage... complained at first but came around when they realized the city gave them no choice. Three years ago a shop owner didn't like all the noise out in front of their shop.....I think they were against the festival to start with. 2 years ago the city had hired a grumpy ol' sound guy (who wasn't old at all) who didn't want any of the acts to use his stage....you know the stage the city rented from him for the acts to use. Fortunately the only complaint was a woman (a vendor) who complained we were blocking her car (Not in the picture...since she was able to move it). When she went to move it she had no problem at all....but complained anyways.

Festivals are always filled with people like these who complain about their vendor space, the parking, the security, the noise, the trash, the electricity, the sun, the rain, the "whatever"....it's one of those things you have to get used to. The best advice I have for performers is don't become one of them. Be cordial, be kind, be gentle, apologize even when it's not your fault, smile a lot, and if it's not that big of a deal remain quiet. If you can't do that don't expect to be hired again....no matter how good you are....that grumpy sound man learned that.

We pulled in good audiences and filled every seat at every show. And like I said there were always rows of standers. We were scheduled to perform three shows but we ended up adding a show when it became apparent our stilt walker, Jugglin Jim wasn't going to be able to do it due to a severe intestinal rejection of sushi he had two nights before. A 9' man throwing up on a festival goer would not be the publicity we needed. Still we had Magic Mouse stroll and I made balloon animals for the kids at the festival. I still felt that since we contracted for and they expected Jim to stroll as a stilt man we owed the festival something more. So I talked it over with our client and we added an extra show. Glad we did too because that show had the biggest audience.

Magic Mouse gets a high Five and above that Jugglin Jim trying to cope with Bad Sushi!

We met a few new people this year including a fireman- amateur photographer. He took the picture below and emailed it to me this morning. We also met a very nice vendor who made jewelery out of all silverware...real silverware. He's out of Bakersfield and he introduced himself in a very interesting way. He came over after our first show and told me he admired how I work with the kids and include them in the show. Then he said we were blessed and we must be Christians because the Holy Spirit is just bubbling out of us. (I should add here we had nothing going on or spoken that related to Christianity or God in general. ) It further convinced me of something I have noticed for many years. Brothers and Sisters in Christ can recognize each other through the Spirit. I have experienced it towards us many times and towards others as well. If you are truly in the Faith you don't have to say a word or do a thing you radiate God. (That doesn't mean we don't slip up or a bit of the world doesn't slip in...we started off as fallen humans after all.)

I suppose I shouldn't forget about the pizza. The most popular pizza there was from the Fatte Albert Pizza shop. The owner's daughters were regulars at our audience. It constantly had long lines and had several traditional and gourmet varieties. Domino's, Little Cesar's and a local shop Boston Pizza were all represented too.

Police Dept. Supporters sell Strawberry Pizzas!

The Princess' posing with Pizzas from Boston Pizza Shop.

The Pincess' in the town square.

Domino's Pizza being devoured by festival goers.

Little Cease Getting a hug from the crew!

Every show has it's stories and so did this gig. I notice a big boom in skateboarders. In fact, I think this is the only festival where skateboarding wasn't prohibited. As a result problems did arise. For example during our second show a couple of tween boys started walking through our staging area, mid way through they dropped their boards and rode between me and the audience laughing and reveling in disrupting the show. I didn't break beat as I was introducing a Miles for a routine I said, "and there are a couple of morons." It got laughs. In fact, the boys must of thought I was talking about them (I was). They turned around and by their actions I could tell they were going to do it again. I turned to them and said, "Hey morons, if you are thinking about doing that again you better look", I pointed to a uniformed policeman in the audience (he was watching the show with his family). He waved to them. The boys still looked like they were going to go> I really think they believed the cop had no power over them. I was astounded. So I said, "If you do it again he's going to take your boards, and call your parents and tell them what morons they have for sons." (The cop shook his head.) Then I said, "OK then he will hand the phone to me and I will tell your parent about how their boys are morons and how they are lousy parents for raising such morons...." I looked at the audience, who were being entertained by this. "...and the audience will support me", I concluded. The audience roared with laughter and clapped very loudly. It was awesome. (((I should point out I am the only performer I know that can get away with talking to jerks and hecklers this way...don't try this at home.)))

We also notice a couple of full fledged gangs while there. An Asian Gang in full gang colors walked through the festival at one point. The Mexican gang-bangers weren't as flaunty and just kind of blended into the crowd for the most part. Last time I saw this many ended in a riot at the Riverside Orange Blossom Festival a few years ago. They never held that festival again due to the property damage, security costs, and personal injuries. Our sound man was badly bruised up the next day. Fortunately, in spite of this being a beer garden event...no riots or problems occurred. Still seeing so many made us cautious. I think the real worry of the day was the high number of tween and teen grunge. We felt we had to had to keep an eye on our stage and equipment a little more than in the past.

The artisan vendors had some beautiful stuff out there. Many pieces of jewelery and art that you can only get at the Pizza fesitval and if you are into thatyou would be remissed not to come someday.

In one of Princess Amelia's routine I use a joke I learned from a British magician, Wayne Dobson. As part of the routine I make small talk and ask one of the audience volunteers, "I know it;s rude to ask a woman her age...so How much do you weigh?" The line is used in this routine all the time and I save it for the first woman who gets the cards that were tossed to her. Well, this woman was a bit heavy...OK she was fat. (But she wore it well....she looked good with the weight.) AS ususal there was laughter and even though no answer is required (remember it;s a joke) this woman said, "I know I'm fat." "OOPS", I thought to myself. I didn't mean to be inslulting so I said, " No darlin, you are perfect. You are a beautiful woman." Thenshe yellled out, "200 pounds"...Eveyone laughed. "I really didn't expect an answer".

Over all, the high number of nice folks outwieghed that of the grunge and the festival turned out to be fantatic from our perspective.

Oh yeah, Jim is feeling much better now.