Two colleges have already felt the power!

Iona College on October 3rd and Canisius College on October 9th were targets for the east-coast contingent of A Different Spin.

Result: direct hits.

The Iona College gig was about as difficult as could be---our day show was requested for 8:30pm in a parking lot and our mic randomly stopped working after 2minutes of our show, said parking lot was separated from half the audience by a 4-foot high brick wall and 3-foot high iron railing which caused a great disconnect for many audience members as well as ourselves---and yet we put on a great pair of shows under the circumstances. The coordinators were thrilled with the product which is a hugely important piece of the puzzle and we had our first 'real' gig as a group under our belts. A success for sure.

Canisius College is in Buffalo---5.5 hours each way for us---was a totally kickass show. It was a ridiculously windy day which put a big damper on our club juggling (but luckily we were not hired to do a day show so we just avoided the clubs) but the crowd had fun learning to juggle. They were also freaked out by Jeremy and my glass walking (and Jeremy's face-plant in glass while Ricky juggled knives while standing on Jeremy's head) and I made quite a few people flip out with some card magic. A great time was had during our four hours of 'circus entertainment'. The fire show was amazing, though; under the watchful eyes of a crew of a fire truck from the City of Buffalo Fire Department we performed damn near as well as possible and the audience had a complete blast. Our audience volunteer was reluctant to join the crazy performance but eventually had a good time with the four weirdos with electrical tape on their faces (ie, us). It was a lot of fun and maybe we'll even get to go back again in the future to teach and/or perform.

We've got two more gigs this month at colleges---SUNY Cortland on the 24th and Johnson & Wales on the 30th---so our plate is full of fun fire shows in October :) I think it is an overall fantastic beginning to our journey as professional fire performers!

mixed feelings

The preview show at Vassar on Friday 9/19 was pretty darn good. We were able to gauge where we were after our ten days of hardcore practicing and the readings were comforting. Torch juggling is still something we need practice with but our fire show will be really amazing once we get a few more nights of practice so that our comfort level is where it needs to be. The day show was an overall success---it has a fair amount of audience participation, some great humor, a fun finale and impressive skills throughout. The future for A Different Spin on the east coast looks great from a product standpoint. And we have gigs! (www.adifferentspin.net) Three high-paying ones are locked up with another in the works and two smaller-paying opportunities are locked up as well (they will have fewer performers, hence the smaller pay). We also maybe able to negotiate a performance for our apartment complex in exchange for our November rent. Go, Jeremy, go!

On the negative side of things, I am fairly terrified about the future of our country. The current economic crisis is extremely worrisome and the $700 billion proposed plan is downright catastrophic in it's non-reviewable, unprecedented power form. Beyond that is the prospect of a country run by McCain and the beast that is Sarah Palin. If Obama loses I may have no choice but to look to start life in another country...

>.>

So I've been M.I.A from the blogosphere and I have no real excuse. I fail. Deal with it.

A Different Spin (East Coast) started the 10-day boot camp where we become ninjas in the circus and fire arts world this past Wednesday. Day one of the boot camp was impeded by a ridiculously cute stray kitten. I am completely serious. After coaxing it out from under the leasing office (where it had been mewling for about an hour) with ham and a saucer of milk, it promptly changed from been terrified of us by being completely attached. During our juggling and poi rehearsals it would weave from person to person, mewling and rubbing up against our legs in the cutest 'love me' manner ever. Tim is allergic to cats so he was having none of it but he melted from time to time nonetheless by the overpowering cuteness of this tiny over-sized-earred fluffy animal. After a quick break for lunch we returned to find it wanting to play more but felt it was too distracting so we should move to the other grassy field...except now the kitten had determined we were the ones to stick by through thick and thin. It scampered up the hill, dodged a few slow cars and pattered after us to the other field where it continued its penchant for weaving around our legs regardless of clubs and poi that would come zooming for its head despite our best efforts to avoid it (a really cute kitten rubbing against your legs does NOT allow for your complete focus on juggling). Jeremy achieved 'mother' status with our new friend and received many the heart-melting leg-hug---basically tiny, mostly-coordinated kitten would get up on its hind legs and struggle to put both front paws around Jeremy's calf. Eventually claws became involved yet Jeremy seemed to juggle extremely well anyway. Next up...the daschund who did not make our friend flee but rather incited its ire somehow and caused a magnetic effect ending in an archbacked kitten hissing at a confused daschund whose owner eventually picked up the dog and attempted to flee, pursued by the little hissing factory. A quick scoop from Jeremy dissolved the situation until our cuddly friend was placed on the ground, looked around, found the daschund and made a beeline for him again. This time I scooped but the same result of the chase continued. We gave up, the kitten was rescued by two early college-aged girls and all was well in the world...except I miss the cutest little oblivious ball of fur I've met :(

Orangeville = Rocked

Yeah, we did it again, we showed them Canadians how badass we are. I personally sucked during an act or two and the ever-tough torch passing acts weren't *perfect* but the show overall on Saturday night was fan-freakin-tastic. The crowd of 250+ (I am awful at estimates, maybe it was more) had an absolute blast and the four of us had a ton of fun.

Then again, who couldn't have fun when one of your acts contains the dance moves from http://youtube.com/watch?v=BWiqnPIxIdM ?



I'm so bittersweet at the moment. Yes, we rocked hardcore. And no, the bitter part isn't from spending over 14 hours in the Buffalo airport overnight. It's from the fact that the Orangeville Founder's Fair showed AGAIN that the group created when we graduated was all set to go. I am really excited to start the similar endeavor with Ricky, Tim and Jeremy but part of me is dreading having to be the only one who has experienced the wonderful feeling of knowing you WILL go out there and kick some major ass and excite every last person lucky enough to see you. Blah, I'm gonna try to not be negative anymore as this was an overall great weekend. I'm sure I'll use this blog to vent my frustrations at starting a troupe all over again but look forward to that being therapeutic as well as getting to share in our successes :)

Back to the fire show at Orangeville and the scope of peoples' enjoyment:
-Middle-school aged girls asked us to sign their feet. Yes, their feet. Sharpie scribble-signature and a bold MOOCH! having been applied to two different girls' feet, I moved on...
-high-school alternative girl wanting her converse sneakers signed
-grandmother telling me how much she was impressed and how much fun she had
-young boy of maybe 5 years of age saying "those flames were scary" but when asked if he had fun he eagerly said he did!
-college-age guys who saw us last year being blown away by how they didn't think we could get BETTER than what they saw last year
-Jeff, one of the sound guys probably in his early 30s, being super-pumped that he got to actually watch us this year after having been busy doing setup and maintenance last year
-a little girl, maybe 6 years old, being coaxed by her mom to not be shy and share her personal comment spoken after the show "I really liked your dancing". Thank you, Will Smith.
-and last, but not least, a mother in her mid/late 20s asked to take a picture of me with her baby. Ok, this was the first time ever that I held a baby and it was for a photo by the baby's mother after a fire performance! How freakin weird is that!!!

IT HAS BEGUN

Yesssss! A Ricky and a Tim have been absconded from the real world by Jeremy and me to create an east coast offshoot of A Different Spin! Victory! New England colleges and festivals won't know what hit them...

here we go!

So Jeremy and I are gonna buckle-down hardcore and see what we can do to make a performance troupe a reality. The plans are being formulated, foundations laid and soon we will attempt to snare a few talented individuals into our masterpiece of madness. More to come, I swear!

yowzah

Over a month since I last posted. Wish I could say that last post was a portent of what has happened between now and then. Not so much.

I am still jobless while I muse what the next year will bring. A lack of ink for my printer stalled my putting bartending resumes out and once I got off my ass to get the ink I realized I couldn't use that printer with my laptop. The definition of fail, no? Well in any case, I can buy a lovely USB-to-olde-skool-printer-cable if I really want to do that. Who knows, maybe I will. On the plus side, I made some more delicious banana bread. Mmmm, banana bread...

Oh wow, just noticed I didn't post about the non-fire Barefoot Monkey show I spent time doing. Wow it's been a long time. That show was another good experience for me even if it didn't reach all of my hopes for a show. There was some very effective work that showed up during performances and I'm extremely happy for the BFM for branching out and pushing their circus boundaries :) Sad part would be I got to perform with people who either wouldn't want to or would be unable to perform with any endeavor I push for in the near future.

On the performance-troupe-front, I have some very solid finacial backing at my disposal if I can get a solid enough 'business plan'. And I've settled on doing the college circuit at least for a spell to gain some more experience and resume-fluffing. There are a TON of colleges out there that would be great places to put on a fire show and do some workshopping. Even if it isn't my 'ideal' performance situation I believe I could be happy and very successful doing it. So more to come in that regard I hope.