Forty days and forty nights and I'm seeing the edge of the desert far off towards the horizon.
Much has happened since I last posted in early November. In a nutshell, I've finally gripped my magic and vent concept; given it a big shake and an act is developing with two shows between now and next Sunday. Over the years I have developed and honed three long sagas which have become legendary in Victoria County classrooms. Then not long ago the penny dropped and I merged saga and illusions and vent et voila! Like me it's a work in progress and I appreciate help during the dark nights of the soul from magicians John Hopper, Ian Crawford(quite patient for a lad his age)and a vent called Steve Axtell.
I'm also training a talented, willing ,young sound man and we're on our way. Also at this point the Kidabra convention next year is beckoning and this along with the annual Portugal/Spain/England hegira is a pleasant anticipation. In the past month the best joke I've heard is from an 88 year retired play director. Avis prefaced it by saying it is her favourite a guy went into a bar joke. So he goes into a bar and see a stand up comedian at work in front of a big, enthusiastic audience. The comic yells out 74 and the audience howls. When the tumult dies down he yells 64 and the place breaks up. At the break the newcomer asks the comic to explain. the funny man says,"Well we only know a few jokes here but everyone knows them so I just yell out the number of the joke. It's great,do you want to try it at the start of the 2nd set? So the newcomer does and yells out 23. deafening silence. The comedian bounces on the stage and completes his set. At the end the newcomer asks what he did wrong. the funny man answers,"Listen, 23 is a great joke but it won't fly unless you sell it!"

Welcome back Ron! I heard the same joke told a different way by my father recounting the joke as he heard it during WWII army days. Soldiers in fox holes had to remain quiet, so they would quickly just yell out numbers of jokes they had all memorized. 47, 56, 72....all the soldiers would laugh quietly to themselves. Then one young newcomer in his first week decided to try it and yelled out 23... complete silence. He turned to the older soldier next to him and asked why no one laughed. "Son....you either got it or you don't".

Glad to hear about the new show developing. Send pics and videos as things progress.

Ax

Greetings, Ron! Congratulations on the soon coming shows. What medium did you use before adding ventriloquism and magic to the "saga"? Did you use visual aids? Sound effects? Audience volunteers?

I often think that the way to present something new to a new generation is to dust off something old. (Your joke, for example, has been around for years because of a new generation hearing it for the first time.)

Imagine a slide show for the MTV generation.
A filmstrip instead of a video for the local preschool. (Complete with beeps for knowing when to turn to the next picture.)
Music without a drum.
Flannelgraph.
Vaudeville.
The shadow operation.
Camp songs.

Greetings and ----ucinations, Tony. From the beginning I have used sound effects which reflects my radio years. Audience volunteers, of course, are a must when performing with children. This afternoon's show was a challenge since it occurred during a major winter blizzard which has pasted most of North America. Oh man, what a difference with a sound man-assistant who takes away gimmicks and hands you new ones and nails sound effects right on cue!. Tony, on this school stage I overlapped my curtain with the huge school stage curtain which allowed a hidden card table and a chance for Braden to really assist. The young man is a computer whiz-musician(he reads!) so your ideas are really enticing. The slide show is a hmm, not bad one. I found the story telling with illusions was an extended, relaxed performing moment. Now in the first half of the show I signed for applause but not with the saga-illusions as it would have broke the mood. Question Tony, do you think applause is necessary with the seven and unders? I wonder if they just so far into the experience that clapping is not even thought of? Yes, your idea of recyling old ideas is sure fire as is the idea of 2009 visuals. Sunday is the money show with an agent hovering so the astronaut's prayer(please, don't let me mess up!)is now my mantra. Ron

First, thanks Ron for your kind words. Its easy to work with an enthusiastic colleague. I like Tony's ideas for using some older technoloical solutions. Recently a clip of shadowography has been making the rounds of Youtube. Raymond Crowe has brought back an artform as old as the electric light. He closes his show with only two props, his hands and a spotlight. Pretty amazing. There were whole acts that were built around tearing newspapers, or folding felt (chapeauography). I have been toying with combining vent with shadow puppets.

Seasons greetings to all.

Ian Crawford

I have often wanted to do a one man show of "The Christmas Carol" using only two puppets in conversation at a time. The catch was the dinner at Bob Cratchit's home. However, that could be done with shadow puppetry, particularly since one can envision Scrooge and Christmas Present peering through the window at the scene.

Having said that, I did decide that it was too great a story to change the dialogue and the dialogue was too difficult for children to understand. Thus, I have happily saved myself countless hours of preparation and will stick with Frosty the Snowman, whom all children seem to understand.

Frosty: "I can't eat ice cream. It gives me brain freeze!"