March Newsletter Update

Greetings and Happy Spring!
I don’t know if the weather where you are is showing any hint of spring but I write this with my smart phone's weather-ap warning me of flood warnings in our area. The dam here in town has had to release water several times over the past few days and the forecast calls for more cold rain for at least another week. Makes it hard to practice the trapeze and tightrope when they are out in the elements. But I’m not complaining. Things could be worse....

In the above picture you can see the three race cars Olivia, Amelia, and Victor entered into the Awana grand prix. Awana is a Christian kids group like Boy scouts or girl scouts, etc. None won a race but The pickle car, by Olivia, did win for design. By the way, Grandpa cut the wood but the kids sanded, painted and decorated their cars.

Also on the home front I spent four plus hours on taxes today....but I think I got it right. The last two years I screwed up and got letters from teh IRS. The screw ups were in my favor but still two years? I can't spell and I can't do math.......thanks public schools...which is where my tax money goes right? Hehehe!

Japan-
I don’t know how many of you know that my wife, Mami, is from Japan and two of our seven kids (Princess Cynthia and Indiana Miles) were born there. We are fortunate that her family is located in southern Japan and are doing well. In fact, they tell us they feel guilty because life in Osaka is “normal” as though nothing in the world has happened when just a couple hundred miles north there is pure hellish devastation. We were living in Japan at the time of the Kobe Quake back in the 90s. We are not rescue workers, doctors, or experts in affairs that could help with rescue or rebuilding but we were and are performers so we produced a fundraiser show to raise money for the victims. That gave us the idea to do the same thing here for the Miyagi-ken (that’s the prefecture in Northern Japan that you have been seeing on the news) . On April 2nd at 6:30 PM the Kent Family Magic Circus with special guest performers from Japan will perform a benefit show at the CSU Chico BMU Theater. Here is the link http://www.chicojapan.org/Calendar.html .
By the way, I learned while watching NHK News today (love the Internet) that Japan lost quite a bit of coastline with some parts as many as 2 kilometers in are now 70cm under water (over 6feet never to be recovered as the area is now below sea level. The Pacific Plate actually rose several meters and pushed Japan a little closer the America by as much as 8 meters (1 meter is 39"). Over 22,000 dead! One American Confirmed dead, a school teacher of three years in that town.


Jugglin’ Jim turns 21-
You may have met him at one of the conventions this year. He was the guy wearing the red scarf balancing things on his face....anything and everything on his face. Well, he can drink legally now. But having relatives who have died or suffered greatly due to alcohol he is choosing not to. One relative has less than 10% of her liver use left due to her inability to moderate. But thankfully family has intervened and saved her life. Still, March 3rd was a great day for Jim, but a scary one for me. Victor Kent has two grown kids and one is 21. You know how hard that is to say, let alone believe. And what did he get for his birthday. What else? A very rare Egyptian scimitar for his juggling act.

Offers to perform in Korea and Hong Kong. Bitter sweet news here. We had two offers to perform in Asia this year. Sadly we would have had to cancel all of our spring and summer gigs and upset all of our clients to do it. The Kent Family does not do that. In our history we have only had to cancel two shows. Once, because the car broke down and the tow truck driver took 5 hours to find us. And second, due to a non-show related major injury the day before. In both cases we honored the contracts later for free. We have an ethical code we just can’t break. Beyond that we have had inquiries from England, Canada, Switzerland, and others. We will see how those pan out. We will have a Canada tour in 2012.


The BMT has arrived and the kids attack it like nobody’s business. The BMT is the “Big Metal Thing”, a freestanding static trapeze needing now guy lines. Not many venues can afford or does not have the space for the large flying trapeze. So we had a custom made BMT made that allows the kids to present their “non-flying” routines on the trapeze. It also allows us to add the dance lyra (a big metal hoop that artsy and daring stunts are performed). The weather has hampered their practice a bit but anytime a sliver of sunshine breaks through the are all over it. For second generation circus they are more eager than I have seen multi-generational circus people go at it. Our clients this year will be getting a real treat. Two young college girls from Japan who will be performing with us for the Japan Fundraiser also have taken to the Lyra. With a dance background and strong muscles they are naturals.







New original Illusion. If you like illusions you will love this new one. It was custom built for shows in South America. The first part is going to sound familiar but then it gets way out of control cool! It starts off with the “Twister Illusion” ; that’s where a person’s head is twisted round and round and their body ends up wrung out. Very visual. The twist is here. The magician removes the box containing the head and places it on a separate table...you can see under and around the table. You see the girl or guy’s head ...heck it can even talk to you. To prove it is really severed the box is moved around the table. It’s placed back on the box containing the body and then the untwisting begins. But wait, in an instant the person has vanished an is now standing amongst the audience. The props are designed as though they are made of bamboo. It’s a beautiful prop and a great trick and is part of the 2011 season.




Tour now up to 13 states with several others in the pipe line.
WI, MI, OH, TN, KY, IA, CA, OK, VA, NY, MA, CT, TX are the states we have booked at this time. Not a record but if we can book a few more maybe we can break that record this year. Though we have been doing shows over the colder months everyone in family agrees it’s the long road tours that are the best. It is amazing how much I don’t miss being a home owner when I am on the road. And how much I hate it when I came back and realize the care takers didn’t do as good a job taking care as I would’ve preferred.
April 2 (morning show and second venue evening show), 5, 8-16
May 6-8
May 27-30
June 2-5
June 14-19
June 27-30
July 1-2
July 5-25
July 28-31
August 1-5
August 11-21
September 2-5

There was a chance to add NH in there but they really wanted a tent show so too bad for us. Still a possiblity of Lousiana, and North Carolina....we shall see.

The Move. We announced we were moving to KY in January. But the weather across the country has stopped the gargantuan trek in it’s track several times. Every date we set for the move ended up having major storms along our route. So we have had to come up with a new strategy. We will be keeping the California house and buying a smaller home in Kentucky. The property we are looking for will have a large workshop and storage room. We will keep unit one there and unit two in California. We can flee weather and earthquakes whenever we see fit. It also keeps our friends and family on both sides of the country happy.

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Kent Family Magic Circus: Vaudepalooza
www.kentfamilymagiccircus.com
1-888-867-7077