Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Wowzers! Magic Castle H1N1 Canada TV

"Wowzers", as the gang from Scoobie Doo might say.

First "Wowzer": I am heading south to Hollywood this coming Sunday through Tuesday (Jan 31- Feb 3) for my once a year pilgrimage to the Magic Castle with my good friend and magician buddy, JC Dunn, life time member. It's always a treat to see old friends and make new ones and catch the wonderful acts. If you are in the area please let me know so we can meet up and share a little magic at the Castle.

Second "Wowzer": While down in Hollywood it was my hope that JC and I could go to the Children's hospital down there and cheer a few sad faces up with some tricks. But, just moments ago, I was informed by the Volunteer Services at the hospital that due to the H1N1 virus all activities like oura are currently banned. The woman explained that they didn't even get to do Christmas...No Santa Claus due to the H1 N1 hysteria.

Third "Wowzer": Things are shaping us for us to perform our show in Swift Current, SK, Canada the last day of June through the first weekend in July. There are a few hoops to jump through to get our animals through...turns out our snakes and bunnies are fine but our doves and cockatoo will have to be "papered-up" (health and import documentation) and possibly vet inspected at the border. Then there is the whole tax thing. And for our first time I might asked to be paid in Canadian dollars since the US dollar has fallen through the basement....thank you Mr. Bush, Obama, and Bernehke. I just read that many countries are choosing the Canadian dollar over the American dollar as investments. OK, I'll stop whining.

Fourth "Wowzer": A production company, once again, has expressed interest in using our family for a possible Docu-drama TV show. It would be blast to do a TV show, not to mention the exposure for our show and a boost for bookings. We are doing some home video taping of our rehearsals, practices and show related stuff for the producers. Even some interviews....we learned a lot form our past experiences that might help make this one's results better. I've learned, like a puppy whose had his nose slapped a few times too many, to not get my hopes up since TV is a very fickle media. We may still be "Too Sweet for TV".

Fifth "Wowzer": On the note of "Too Sweet for TV": I written a manuscript that we will either send off to be published or self publish via lulu.com about our family, our show, and our travels; the ups, the downs, and everything. Our family history and story is weaved around the thread of our four days with Discovery Studios and their taping of our family and show only to be left on the cutting room floor because we were "Too sweet for TV". Imagine that, by those standards most of the 1950s-early 1960s TV shows, and the Brady Bunch would never have been allowed on TV. Unless of course Greg was a drug addict, Marcia and Jan were lesbians, Cindy had a part time prostitution thing going with Peter as her pimp and Bobby was rock star who was struggling with his weight while Mr. Brady was having an affair with a guy (wait....never mind too easy) and Mrs. Brady was a closet drunk who had relations with Gerhaldo the pool boy...and they didn't have a pool. Boy do have an imagination! I should be a network boss.

On another note: our most ambitious expansion in a long time is going very well. Our new show for our three show rotation is going very well....Mami has been added to juggle a plunger, a spatula, and a baby doll (representing a wife-mother juggling life) and perform a very cool Seance Illusion, Jim is adding some new balancing and more extreme juggling, Amelia has added that new Mind reading affect I discussed in my last entry, Olivia is making TWO snakes magically appear, Miles will be doing more with he walking globe and adding a couple of new bull whip stunts and lasso tricks, Titus will make animals appear with specially made props to compensate his disabilities. We will also do a three man fire-eating routine. We have put our Impaled Illusion into the show and Cynthia gets to be the lucky one to balance then get impaled by a sword. And finally we have the whole salute to vaudeville with our tribute to the Seven Little Foys...dancing, singing, 1910s jokes, and original Foy music with some music rewritten by James as the Sheet music for certain songs are no longer available.

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