Colusa Family Festival

The weather man said that the storm of the century was going to hit today.  So we were worried that the heavy rains and gale force winds would keep people away let alone make driving to the Colusa Fairgrounds difficult. Well, it turned out that the whole thing was a bust. Heavy rain fell for about 10 minutes and we had already loaded the show into the venue before it hit. The sun would poke it's shiny little smile out from behind the clouds more often than not and the crowds came.   It was a beautiful day and the shows were awesome.  Victor performed his 55 gallon drum  escape  and it went very well.  

Spring Update: Shows, New Stuff and More

A couple of months back I published a picture of Victor Junior  standing in his new escape, the 55 gallon drum escape. At that time we were thinking of having him just escape from the sealed drum. The problem is that it would not really be an escape because there was no  way he could reach the locks to pick them. Sure he would have to pick the leg and hand cuffs then manage to dematerialize  and  somehow reappear outside the sealed drum.  The first thing the modern audience would think is "Trick drum".  We actually went through ideas of gimmicking-up the drum somehow to allow that to happen.  It would be like Houdini's Milk Can Escape that has been revealed by multiple people on TV and is all over the internet and in books.  A Houdini biographer, Walter Gibson, even described how it was done over 60 years ago.    In fact, we actually thought of buying one for thousands of dollars when my kids asked me what a Milk Can was.  Oh, yeah, outside magicdom and old farm equipment collectors nobody knows what a Milk Can is. And truth be told no milk can was ever made big enough to hold an adult.   That is why we went with oil drum. But instead of trying to gimmick it up to facilitate a magic trick we decided to make it a full  tilt escape. Victor's hands come up out of two 3 1/2" holes and are cuffed with real police handcuffs that can be fully inspected by the audience. The drum likewise, the whole thing...lid, locks, clasps,  top bottom, dolly, etc can be inspected to the audience's content.  Victor wears a skin tight bike-tard (a leotard with bike shorts cut, like in wrestling). He is fully inspected for keys. Even if he had one his hands are chained outside the  barrel so he couldn't reach it anyways.  I give him a hair pin.  That is all.  He  will attempt the escape by picking the cuffs then the locks, which are barely within reach through the holes...all while trying to hold his breath with that hair pin.    

 So you can see this is going to be an exciting stunt.   He will present it without the water this coming week end at the Colusa Family Fair at the Colusa County fairgrounds.

 That segues us into the up coming shows. We perform tomorrow 10 am -2pm at the Colusa County Fairgrounds at the Family fair in conjunction with Western Days.
We will be at San Rafael's Trinity Lutheran Church on the morning of April 7th and at Stockton's First Baptist Church Easter Sunday Morning for two big shows.

To celebrate World Circus Day on April 21 we will be at Oroville's Feather River and Recreation's Gymnastic academy to perform our circus stunts and have hands on demonstrations and activities.  It's Free.

 May 11 at 5:30pm after the Feather Fiesta Day's Kiddie Parade we will have our Big Theater Show at the Historic State Theater.  Guest strolling magician JC Dunn will perform strolling magic in the lobby prior to the show. Tickets are $10 for adults and $6 for kids.

We have more events coming up and I will be posting our full tour in an upcoming blog.

www.antimonkeybutt.com

Jim Balanced a suit of armor on his face today!

India Celebration Show

In spite of the fact that India's independence day is in August today we helped the  Indian Community in Yuba City, CA to celebrate this 1947 event. There were poets, singers, dancers, a couple of plays, music, and us. About 10 or 11 years ago I taught the son of the organization that hired us magic.  So they thought of me when they started planning the event.   In fact, it was around 2AM in Nashville back in January when I got the first contact call from the organizer.

 James and Olivia came along. It has been a while since I performed a straight magic show by myself. Grant it...I said the two came with me and yes Olivia did her snake trip and Jim juggled. But most of the show was me performing magic, mentalism, and side show stunts.  I think I might have been nervous but I did something that changed my perspective less than four minutes into the show.  As you know my shin was damaged  a couple of weeks ago at a show.  It was pretty serious and was really on the mend. Until today. I accidentally banged my shin again....in the exact same spot.  I felt the blood dripping down my leg all through the show. 

Very cool costumes.

 Amelia played Mary in a play her and Olivia did last week.

Last week Olivia dressed up and did a show for the family just for fun. 

At the AWANA car derby Olivia took 2nd place.  Here she is posing with her friend, Sarah,

Three faces of Olivia on the drive home from today's show. 

And a face of Jim on the drive home. 

And my face.

Show: Sierra Ave School

Two days ago we had a fantastic show with about 1000 people and a standing ovation. The only downfall was when I tripped over a rope and bashed by shin on the corner of the stage.  It wasn't until after the show that I looked at the damage. I had a gash and a baseball sized bump on my shin.  A few years ago seven sheets of plywood fell on the very same shin and did some major damage. The  stage edge and my old injury met on that fall two nights ago.  The swelling spread around my lower leg and since I had a show scheduled for tonight I knew if I spent any amount of time vertical my shoe would not fit and I would have to go on stage in my socks. I stayed off it and the shoe fit.  

Today's show was on a smaller stage than the last show and the audience number a few over 200 people. But they were a hardy and happy crowd and the show rocked.  My leg was stiff and sore but I didn't bump into anything so I am happy. 

Victor did his rope tie very well. 

I introduced my knew water from the air illusion. The audience made rain noises with their hands (claps, rubbing, snaps, etc.) while the two empty bowls in my hands slowly filled with water. It was very petty and got a great response. 

This young lady has been our fan since she was a baby. She and her mom made a t-shirt expressing love for us.  That heart is our show poster. BIG Fan ...Tanessa. 

Amelia also did a new mind reading mentalist routine where a balloon exploded on her command. It was cool. 

Talk about Weird Days!

OK, so somehow, through some kind of weird magic time went back an hour on Sunday and it has been a Dr. Seuss Wacky Wednesday ever since.
Outside some personal news within our church family, which was weird enough, Jim had the tags stolen off his car.  This amounts to the fourth time his car has been violated. However, this was the least damaging to the car.  He found out by being pulled over by a CHP who informed him and gave him a ticket to fix it. Fix it tickets in Cali used to be no fine but now range from $28-$48.  Not to mention he will have to pay the DMV some $$ for the new tag.
The next weird thing is insurance related. A week or so ago I took Olivia to the dentist and we were told to make another appointment because during her cleaning, x-rays, etc they found a cavity. The insurance worked fine. But when I drove all the way over to the dentist (remember gas is at $4.20/gal here) the dentist said her insurance wasn't working. A computer foul-up.  But it will take a few hours on the phone to fix it.
And it just wouldn't be weird enough unless there was a banking problem.  Someone hacked by debit card.  Thankfully the bank caught it and emailed/phoned me.  But when I tried to get back in touch with the bank  I had to go through their computer-phone maze.  it took nearly 15 minutes to get to a person. then she had to transfer me to anther person which actually sent me through that other person's personal maze.  Long story short. I'm getting anew card. UGH!
SOOOOOO, since the cosmic chronographic occurance on Sunday things have been weird.....I'm afraid to go outside.

What Jim did on his birthday

Well, today James turned 22 and instead of drinking and partying.....he went and balanced 100 things on his face...here is the video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SfAZ5ga48x0
Oh yeah....and he balanced his cake too.

Happy Birthday Jugglin Jim (Updates too)

Hello! Sorry I haven't blogged in a while. I was asked by a loyal blog-reader yesterday why he keeps seeing Feb. 9 each time he comes to the blog...why haven't I written anything.  Well, since we are at the home front and everyday seems to just roll into the next without any major excitement I didn't think there was much to write about. Then I thought about it and I suppose there are a few things I can write.

First: Twenty-two years ago a little boy was born to our family, James. Mami labored 36 hours to get him into this world and out of the comfort of her womb.  She is a tiny lady and he had inherited my big ol' head and at one point they had to use a suction thingy, briefly, to help pull him out.  He made it out and at that moment I became a father for the very first time. Mami became a mommy. Thirty Minutes later while showing him off to my family waiting outside the delivery suite he peed on me.  We were inexperienced new parents and James was our lab. It's hard to believe that this once helpless baby is now a 22 year old man who can balance things I can't even lift on his face daily. Happy Birthday Jim.

 Here is a picture of the 22 year old two days prior to becoming 22. OK, it's just his legs...he weed-whacked without long pants or boots...some say it's a little foolish. he would say, ch ch chia!









In other news, Tator-tot is no longer that furry ball that made him look like a walking Tater Tot. He got his first haircut and looks like a French Poodle now. Well, he is. Anyway, the plan was to keep much of the fur but his sensitive skin kept the groomer from getting some of the tiny mats out of his hair and so the consensus was to take his hair all the way down and letit grow out, keeping in mind to keep the hair from matting.

Princess Olivia is modeling her princess dress hand made by her mom (No Walmart Disney dress here.)  AWANA had their princess party yesterday. Of course she is already billed as Princess Olivia in the show so it wasn't a stretch for her to dress as a princess.













On other show news we have booked shows in IN, MA, CA, AZ, KY, TN, IA, and other states for the summer. We start our tour late because Miles will be graduating High School and we can't miss the ceremony.  The high fuel costs makes it silly for us to start the tour in April then stop and come back for the ceremony then head out again so we are booking close to home until the middle of June.

We will be doing our full theater show May 11 at the Oroville State Theater during the week of Feather Fiesta Days.  Our show will start right after the big kiddie parade down town.

If you haven't caught it yet, Jim is balancing something new each day. Here is the Facebook album:http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.381190598559913.96367.302455399766767&type=1

I think he has started a blog and when I find out the url I will post it here.