Calico Ghost Town Spring Festival: Day 1

We've performed here at Calico For over 14 years. Mother's Day weekend is their Spring Festival time and over the years it has developed into a Bluegrass Festival. We saw many new faces in performers and a few old ones. It was like old home week. Belle (our poodle) saw her former caretaker, Janet, today and her former playmate, Big Boy , a black toy poodle. Belle is still people skittish but is coming long. We bring her out during the final bows even though she is not performing yet.
It has been really windy and very sunny. The mixture of the wind and sun really dries one out. We all ended up with chapped lips and dry cuticles. But that is Calico. The workers here are, and have always been, very nice. We have gone through three or four management changes over the years.
Our audiences have been big and very responsive.
Cynthia has missed show here with use the past 3 or 4 years but made it out this time. Since it is a Bluegrass festival she is singing, "Gone to the River" in every show. You can hear a pin drop when she sings and I saw a few teary eyes.
I've been off script all day today and that can play out pretty funny sometimes. At one point I started introducing Jim unlike I had ever done before. It panned out OK when I saved myself with a joke. I usually just introduce him pointing out his skills and his history. Somehow I got off script and said, "When Jim was born his mother hopped he would grow up to be an entertainer like his father. (Short pause as I realize I had no idea what I was saying. ) I was a milk man back then." The joke got a great response.....I will use it again.
Due to the wind fire-eating has been rough. Our stage seems to cause the wind to swirl and shift directions constantly. At one point I had a blow back when I did a fire blow and my face was momentarily engulfed in flames. That's why I have a towel. A photographer friend who was visiting the park snapped a shot just a millisecond after I pulled my face out of the flames. It was freaky. He will send me a copy of it and I will post it in the future. Thanks Terry. Apparently it was obvious to the audience by their reaction....the loved it. Ever notice most audiences have a slight sadistic streak?
In our last show in order to test our new condenser mics we performed the Foy routine without the costumes. Victor's Cossack dance got a great reaction as did Cynthia's "bed time story". Fun was had.
We visited my aunt and uncle in Barstow after the shows and after dinner. Belle played with their little do, Alex, as the kids played Skippo with Aunt Lucky. Back at the hotel we are watching a "Don't fotget the Lyrics" style show from Taiwan. It's hilarious.
The video blog from this trip is going to be awesome.

Video Blog 1.3 Oronaz Christian Program KFMC

We performed at Oroville Church of the Nazarine. This video has backstage stuff but even more performance footage than past video blog posts. Funny backstage stuff we did to kill time until the program started.

All Kinds of Stuff

Newest vehicle in our fleet. we bought an RV today. We will take delivery next week. This will ease our abilty to travel with Titus (in his wheel chair) and allow us to have some home cooked meals prepared by Mami.
Last week we had hail and snow in Oroville. Very rare but not a record by any means. The kids had fun making snow or hail balls and throwing them.

Normally we don't have bugs in the blog until our tour time. But his big fella (about 3.5" wide) had pink under wings with an eye design on it. But I couldn't get him or her to spread it's wing for me.

The girls all match up in the Anpanman PJs

Rice balls made fun with special Nori (seaweed) cut outs. It's a little cutting die thingy. Uncle Eddie sent the dies from Japan.

Even the cut out Nori is used.

A new video blog from our show last night and the Boys' performance and participation in the Walk for Life program at Oroville Dam (A fundraiser for the Pregnancy Resource center, a Christian alternative to planned parenthood.) They have performed at the event for many many years.

Video Blog 1.1 April 2010 Pizza Festival

We have included Video of the day, life and Adventures of the Kent Family Magic Circus on the road to the Lemoore Pizza Festival. The glamour and not-so-glamorous!

Pizza Festival Post Log: Nearly Lost a Wheel and Didn't know it!

You may have seen our video blog regarding our trip and performances at the Pizza festival. What wasn't on the video was something that could've made for a very bad trip. When we got back I smelt a metallic burning smell around the van and trailer. I walked around the units and discovered the smell was coming from a rear wheel of our trailer. I touched the hub cover and burnt my finger. After pouring gallons of water on it and creating plumes and plumes of steam for over 10 minutes I let it sit to cool.
The next morning we discovered the bearings were burned out and the wheel was sitting askew. Closer inspection showed metal on metal damage around where the hub met the axle and burnt grease and metal chips clinging to the inside of the wheel and wheel well.
When my mechanic lifted the trailer up he was able to lift the tire off without loosening a nut! There was 1" play all around the axle. We could've lost the wheel while driving but by the grace of God we didn’t. Especially if you saw the roads we had to go over on the drive.
It explains the worse than usual gas mileage.
$488 later we have a better axle, better bearings, better grease system and a lesson to always check the bearings before a long trip! Yes it's the same trailer that had a bent axle two years ago.

Never a dull moment and this adventure of life goes on!

Lemoore Pizza Festival 2010

This was our 5th or 6th year back in Lemoore for their Pizza Festival. Their first year at the beautiful campus of West Hills College. Lots of fun. Titus and Mami joined us.
Our day started by waking at 5 am, in the van by 5:30 and the long 5.5 hour drive was on. We made it to Lemoore one hour before our first show so it was a rush to get things set and ready to go. But true to form the kids did an awesome job setting up. Even with the addition of two new members (one being disabled) and a new dog (future star) the set up went well. Kudos to Jim, Miles and Victor Jr.
The audience was smaller than we were used to. This was our first Sunday performance at the festival. We were told Saturday broke attendance records for the event. Still the audiences we had were enthusiastic.
Mami performed her juggling and yes she dropped stuff but hung in there and the audience appreciated her for it.
Jim was happy to be able to get back into the stilts and stroll the grounds....one of his favorite things in the world to do.
Titus drew "first blood" a term meaning he got the first freebie (see below). We also got 6 free pizzas from Fattee Alberts out of Hanford....they were delicious (especially the Mexican pork Chili verde Pizza), a free bag of Kettle Corn, and free bags of cotton candy.
After a long day Mami and Titus really enjoyed the cotton candy and Pizza. The kettle corn bag was empty before we made Fresno on the drive home.
Fatte Alberts also hosted the Pizza eating contest: two people had 15 minutes to eat as much of a 28" pizza as they could. The winner won money for a charity. It was gross! Yet it was funny.

Post show lessons on wand tricks for kids int he audience.

Titus was given this stuffed doggy by a carnie who was touched seeing Titus there.

See a video of the day at www.victorkent.com/pizza10.wmv

Colusa Children's Festival-

This is our 11th year or so with CPAC and the Colusa County Children's fesstival. It's a small event with only about 1500 people in attendance. But they have been loyal clients having us back year after year and we enjoy performing there. We have several similar local clients. (By local I mean within 2 hours ofour home base.)
We performed our Foy routine and Titus and Mami got to perform, getting ready for the big tour this summer. Belle also made her first festival appearance and though she is still siddish towards crowds she is getting better.
The kids also got to enjoy the activities at the festival.

Where's Alf?

Miles and Sudoku between shows

Mami smirking at me.

Peanut Butter Snack between shows.

Olivia the artist between shows.

Cynthia, Belle, and Victor on a walk between shows.

Jim and Titus on a walk between shows.

Cynthia and Belle kicking back between shows.

We did three 50 minute shows today and the seats were packed with folks standing as much as 4 people deep. The last show was the smallest with all the seats taken and few standers. Still they were a gracious audience. many have grown up with us over the years and I heard "remember when" stories more than once.

Titus Rides a Horse

Those of you who don't know Titus, he is our 12 year old. Bron with a metabolic disorder he cannot walk, talk and has no fine motor control. However, when on a horse he becomes a new child. He is still unable to walk or talk but he and the horse communicate on some different level.
He has been going to Handiriders (a program offered to kids with any kids of special need, found all over the US see the NARHA.ORG WEBSITE) for a few years.



Titus has been going horseback riding at a therapeutic horse riding place 20 minutes from our house for several years. But it just dawned on me we haven't been taking any pictures of him there since his first day....sooooo here is a photo journal.
But first a picture of Mami and Victor Jr who attended an old time village where visitors have to dress up and participate in 1700-1900 living. The parents become the demonstrators (which is funny since no one knows what to do initially) and the kids get to make candles, make rope, churn butter, bake, etc.


Oh, and before I get to the Titus pictures....while I was at the horse place I took a few artsy pictures (not touched up in any way).

Getting on the horse takes work but he loves it too.

he's a new kid on the horse. His hypertensive hips relax and he's able to straddle the saddle. His hypotenisive back becomes ridged and strong able to hold him erect. It's fantastic.

They provide handler volunteers to walk along for safety.

One exercise is to put rings on a cone after riding through a course after taking a ring off a cone at the start of the course.

Easter With the Kents

Our Easter celebration, or as we prefer to call it Resurrection Celebration, took part in parts. A few days before Easter we gathered with a home school group and had an egg hunt. Uncle Eddie was still here and he and I hid the eggs. There were a lot of eggs. Fortuantely the park had been mostly mowed so the high grass was only on the fringe. The kids had a blast looking and looking. Amazingly the last ones to be found were the most in "the open"; just laying on the grass.

Even Titus, with the help of Uncle Eddie and Mami got in the game.

Part 2 of our Easter was spent performing a Christian program at a church in the North Bay Area town of San Rafael. Three 15 minute highly visual, full gospel message shows. The event was open to the public. The guests broke up into three groups. While one group watched us, one other group was hunting eggs, while the third group was doing crafts. They made bags to use to hold the found eggs and the decorated cookies as well as a number of other activities. Then we fellowshipped with the church members over lunch. My three little ones participated in the crafts but since we were performing they did not get to hunt eggs. That wasn't a big deal though since they had done so a couple of days earlier. And, with the chance of making kids everywhere angry, they had too much candy anyway.

Jim juggled in the show. Cynthia and Miles were on their drive back from a missions trip to Mexico where they built two homes for needy families.

Part 3

Easter at our home church. It was a morning filled with lots of music.

Back in the Saddle-

It has been two weeks or so since my last entry and for that I must plead laziness. When I wasn't being lazy I was busy. It seems I have only two gears.

I will cover:

Ed Rapoza's Visit to the US.

Summer Tour

Belle

Belle-

The start of March we adopted Belle. Belle is a miniature poodle (bigger than a toy poodle but way smaller than a poodle). She was raised as a human baby by her original owners and by the time she was 9 months old had lost many of her "dog skills". She never went for walks. Rather she was pushed around in a stroller. So "going for a walk" was new when our friend took over care-giver needs. A month later we adopted her and she has been learning how to be a dog again. Thank you "Dog Whisperer" TV show since many of the techniques we've been using are from that show. She is a real character and in one months time has really become a part of the family.

She did have to be "fixed". She didn't realize there was anything broken to "fix". So she had to wear the "cone of Shame", as Cynthia calls it, to keep her from licking the surgery site.

We are slowly beginning to train her to perform in the show.

Ed's Trip to the US-

I have been friends with Ed for over 18 years. We met in Japan and he joined me on many projects out there. I also want to mention he has been in Japan for nearly 28 years. he hasn't visited the States in over 10 years. During those years he grew ever frustrated with life and the cards he had been dealt. If I may stay on the card analogy, he was down to his last chips and he held a losing hand. He had reached his bottom back in November. But God did some remarkable things with him. First, in an act that can only be by His hand, Ed met a Japanese-Singaporean young man who was living in the US studying but was home in Japan for vacation, Kyle, around Christmas time. Kyle is a Christian and spoke to Ed of remarkable things. Ed also noted that Kyle was filled with an awesome Joy he had rarely seen in others.
Next, after many years of silence Ed was led to call me up one night a month ago and with tears in his eyes and sorrow in his soul poured out his heart. I invited him to come and stay with us. He did.
While here he took the opportunity to relax and recharge. But God had more plans for him than Ed could imagine. Ed spoke many times with James and Mami about his life and the comforting words that came from my family members' mouths were pure Gospel. He attended church with us and was astounded how the messages the pastor gave seemed to be speaking directly to him. Then Mami gave him a Bible and the very first time he opened it the verse he came to was a direct message to him. (That would happen many times over the weeks.) After 2 weeks here Ed Rapoza surrendered himself to God and was Baptized in the Feather River in Oroville. Pastor ken Killinger, a family friend, James, and Kyle (who flew out from Chicago) all shared in the ceremony.

Summer Schedule:

Though we are still booking shows we have a pretty full record breaking summer-fall tour.

Ten states and Canada are on the schedule. July and August are full and we are working on filling Sepetember up.

We are also on the hunt for and RV.

This year has so many new things going on. The new travel laws means passporst for everyone. Then there is the whole family traveling together for the first time. We may also be moving to KY and are working on the logistics for that. At first we may just rent a house in KY while we rent out our house in CA. Then, after a year, we will decide the final move.

Since we are adding an RV I am looking into a class A license and running down options for the actual purchase of the RV.

Incredible Two Weeks

The past two weeks have been incedible for the Kent Family. Hilarious in some cases, heart wrenchingly wonderful in other cases, and still other times earth shattering, and others charming and beautiful. There was also the weird.

First the charming. Princess Cynthia participates in a culinary class at her high school. Last week she was invited to demonstrate making suchi-rolls at a Gourmet Supply store in Chico, Ca.
Below are a couple of pictures.

Note the mirror above shows her work in progress.

It was funny because her teacher can't pronounce Japanese words very well (like most Americans...after all ask someone how to pronounce Karaoke and you get "Keree okee" when it is "Kaw Raw O Kay". ) So when Cynthia stumbled when she was speaking (on an English word) the teacher hollered the correction from the back. Since he had told the audience about Cynthia's correcting him all the time earlier it brought lots of laughs.

There was also a couple of hMong girls who showed us how to make cold spring rolls and they were so good we went to a hMong market afterwards and made them for the fmaily the next day.

We also learned to make Endive boat hor devours and likewise made some the next day.

On Wednesday JC Dunn, Ed Rapoza and I went out on a magician's day lunch but could resist to raise a little cane before going....I know it's a big cane.

When he came he was 8' tall but boneloss has made him barely able to walk with his cane.

JC Dunn (68) upside down...or is the rest of the word upside down and he the only one right side up?

Also this week poor Belle went under the knife...she's now "fixed". I don't think she is thinking anything was broken that needed fixing! Here she is in what Cynthia calls the "cone of shame".

Eddie's News-

When Ed came here from Japan he was at the end of his rope. But through a series of very interesting circumstances God had brought him to a place where he was brought to his knees and surrendered to Him. Little did he know at the time that God had been moving him towards this for many years and more aggressively these past few months. Little did he know that so many had been praying for him for so many years. And two nights ago he handed it all over to Jesus. The transformation of him before my very eyes was nothing short of miraculous. Like Scrooge when he awoke on Christmas morning and proclaimed he had become as giddy as a school boy so Ed had become but even more so. He was radiant!

He will be baptized next Friday in the Feather River.

Since it is his story I will have him share the details of the whole transformation in his own words soon.

Anyone who has not witnessed true conversion and transformation will not understand. Some of you will believe it only myth, hypnosis, mind washing, etc. But I can tell you it was none of these things. For over the years I have seen people who have come to "believe" by those methods and this wasn't the same...and in all those other cases the life and longevity of their faith always died out.

Ed did not sleep that night but celebrated his coming to the Lord all night and into all day yesterday. Praise God.

I want to add that I have met and witnessed people with many problems and heartaches who have searched out "cures", "salivations", "help', what ever you want to call it. I have seen many of them claim to find it but their eyes revealed they were still in so much pain and loss. What I see in Ed's eyes, as I have seen in so many (how I wish were more) eyes was a clarity and joy I have NEVER seen in the eyes people who have searched other paths. I marvel at what I have seen and praise God.

On the Show News front:

We have added New Mexico to our Summer-Fall tour. The Southern New Mexico State Fair Sept 29- October 3.

Michigan is in the works but not confirmed for June.

Looking to fill July 27- August 1, August 30-31 and Sept 7-15.

If you have any suggestions please let me know.

May 8-9 Calico Ghost Town
May 28-31 Wisconsin Chocolate Fest (WI)
June 12 Gold Sox Baseball Game (Marysville, CA)
June 30-July3 Swift Current Frontier Days (SK, Canada) (((then 2000 mile drive to))
July 6-July 10 Laurel County Fair (London, KY)
July 12-25 Beech bend Amusement Park (Bowling Green, KY)
August 2-15 Quassy Amusement Park (Middlebury, CT)
August 17-21 Delaware County Fair (NY)
August 24-28 Union Fair (ME)
Sept 1 New Life Neighborhood Church (Asheville, NC)
Sept 3-6 3 County Fair (MA)
Sept 16-19 National Cattle Congress (Waterloo, IA)

Sept 29-Oct 3 Souther NM State Fair

Misc and Stuff

Below are pictures of friends and the 2010 running gag Alf.

Today was spent doing two school shows. One more tomorrow.

The season is warming up with mostly school shows this month moving into festivals and fairs starting next month.

Bill Jackson with Shawn Farquar at Shawn's Lecture in Sacramento
Where's Alf.....taken at a school show we did today.

Publicity pciture gone silly...Dead-Ed.

California Sunshine for Ed

Publicity Pix 1

2

3

It's what's for Dinner with Uncle JC in the back.

Whya re all my friends bald?