Video Surfing

Oh Boy, so as ya'll can probably presume, there's a whole mess of videos up and around of and by circus folk. I've taken the liberty of sifting through some and putting them up for all of the 3 or so people I'm sure visit this thing ....

a co-worker of ours, er ex-clown I guess I should say, has got a youtube page which i just recently came across after this gem of a video floated around our band rhsl today. It's Chuck Wagner, our ringmaster on 136th ad 138th editions of the G.S.O.E. singing Dancing Queen before pre-show in Auburn Hills at the close of last year's tour. Now, i wasn't there, but it's a fun video and shows off Chuck's fun side. man, he had a great voice. In TWO years on that tour, out of about 800 shows he sang all but 1 weekend! that's amazing for a vocalist. there's an emergency backing track in case a singer gets sick out here .... some "get sick" more often than others.Chuck Wagner- he's just the man.

that clown, Aji, I believe his name was, (I didn't get to know him really, he was new as I was headed out and he's not back this tour) he's got some great video's on his page so check him out - Here's a great one of him putting his clown face on and one of the Bouncers act practicing. Great act, lots of folks' favorite. tough act, these guys are no Joke. That's Sereban there. awesome guy. the only dude I know who can pull off an all white get up and keep his mojo.

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oh yeah, so Nintendo Wii put out a Ringling Bros. game of you haven't heard. Some friend put up a link on Facebook not too long ago while i was still back in San Antonio, and it was wild seeing all these people on a TV commercial that I worked with. First you see good ol Chuck coming through the door, then it's all real, quick but there's Boo Booand Laurel behind him. Then the Flyers, and some dancers. Fulkerson's wife is in there. (they even got a free copy of the game if they were in the shoot. He's giving it to his nephew as a gift. ) Cricket's there in the back, he's the one with the green, crazy wig.
Anyway, it's nutty.

in the opening freeze frame - the clowns in the back are Sandor (see Boo Boo link) and Coochie (real name: Henry. My old neighbor on the 90 car)

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As you might you might imagine, the circus, both Ringling and Circus as an institution, has a following. Fans, if you will, that know the show dates, collect memorbilia never miss the Red OR Blue Units coming to town. maybe even take some juggling classes and take pictures with all the clowns whose names they've memorized.

maybe even build homemade reproductions of every edition's sets and portals in their bedrooms while singing covers of the ringmasters' song to a video playback with their shirts off.










Chuck used to sing "Over the Top," the theme song for this past edition. We'd play and he'd sing, and it was so nice .... He sounded great. we all had fun playing this song ... sigh...

Winter Quarters 2009

so, I'm back. we're here. it's the end of week 1 - got my card up and running. the elephants are in, the acrobats are practicing. set's looking good - the welcome back's are done and train living slid right back over me a LOT easier than I thought it would.

we're at the same place on the Florida State Fairgrounds in the same back as last time - only this time it's really muggy and hot instead of really, really cold.

The cast of characters is a little different this time around as well. Shawn (drummer) is gone and so is Mullen(sax), replaced by Steve and Tony.
Tony is our sax guy now and is from the Jersey area, like Mullen and I think Steve is from Buffalo, NY.

Nice guys, I met them a couple of times



while out here subbing a couple of times this past year.

geez, so It's been a year ... I've been in San Antonio, TX for the past year back at the Magik theatre. It was a good year. A show I scored and
Dave Morgan wrote, Jungle Book went out for a 2 month National tour this past summer and that was exciting. read all about it
HERE

so how's the new show? that's what everyone's asking me these days. It's looking to be cool - i haven't been able to get any shots of actual runs and rhsl cause they keep a tight watch on that sorta thing. I've been "strongly advised" not to film or shoot in the house ... but i've got a couple of us rehearsing the back, sure.
But I can write about it! ... I think ...
got the same motorcycle act, no horses anymore, though we do have some llamas, i think ... i could've Sworn I'd seen llamas around there somewhere ...

got a couple of high wire walker ladies, who also do a duo Lyra act (also known as aerial ring/hoop) which I've never seen before here, but i looks great from what little I've seen. The Tiger act is back and there's this pretty cool looking trampoline act by the new Chinese troupe. There's also this teeterboard act that looks CRAZY! This guy's on some kind of Uni-Stilt thing on one end of a see-saw teeterboard. and this other guys jump off this landing and launch him in the air where we flips and twirls and , Ideally, sticks a landing. Pretty cool, and some of my favorite music in the show.

Different composer this time around the music is composed by Michael Picton and it's proving to be good and tough in a couple of spots. It certainly does seem a lot more cinematic this time around.

And that's about it. Tonight was Clown Night where the clowns showed off new acts for consideration. No pics cause I suck, but I will get clown pics for ya'll ASAP. We've got a bunch of new faces and some old ones, and some gone which i'm bummed about. No more Boo Boo, Ketchup or Laurel, and I will miss them. More on that later.

For now, here's a new video made up of completely boring footage of getting ready for work made somewhat interesting by means shown to me in the iMovie tutorials and music.
Enjoy!

going BACK!

So..... I'm headed back to the Blue Unit, back to the train, back to the circus but just for a few months. A fella named Matt Richard
(ri-SHARD) replaced me this past year after the December break, and I guess he decided the train wasn't for him. So,
Tim Eaton calls me a couple of months ago or so and tells me this news asking if I'd come back for
Winter Quarters and on through New York which is late Feb/Early March-ish, I think.

anyway, it took some prodding and me clearing a lot of schedule and working it out with my current job at the
Magik Theatre but it worked out and here I am in the San Antonio International Airport waiting to get to Tampa.
It might take me a bit to get an internet card set up, but I'll be blogging back up here. To all those back home, stay tuned for WQ and circus blogs. Take care


Circus!