Now with 100% more Seattle!

I just realized how long it's been since I blogged!

I have moved to Seattle from Atlanta, and while yes, I loved Atlanta, I love Seattle! It's nice up here and the cooler weather is great!

I've been restarting my business - so that's going well, and I'm already doing shows. Though no one knows Kudzu so I started getting reviews on Yelp - and Yelp promptly filtered them all out! So that's no fun. I'm not quite sure WHAT to do about online reviews anymore so I may just stick with Kudzu (though I can't seem to get Kudzu to say I'm not in Atlanta any more!)

El Drusso

I am now appearing pretty much every Saturday at El Drusso's - it's a magic store at Discover Mills mall with a full theater in the back. I am doing my full show there - not the kids show, but my show for adults (though it's still family friendly!) Check with me before you go just in case, though - there are a few Saturdays I won't be there.

Theater show coming up!

Details soon ... but some friends of mine and I have booked the Academy Theatre and will be doing a show there on June 4th. This should be interesting!

Library Show

I have a public show coming up on Thursday, June 17th, at 7:00 at the Powell Library in Newnan! I don't do that many public shows so I hope to see a lot of folks there. I've performed at this library before and they have a really nice library and a great place for shows, so it should be a lot of fun!

The address is 25 Hospital Road, Newnan GA:


View Larger Map

Balloons!

I went to a party at a friends house yesterday. We brought our kids, and I knew there'd be a handful of other small children there, so I brought balloons with me. I figured it never hurts to have something with me that will keep all the kids happy and occupied for a while! And there turned out to be about five little ones there, so it was handy.

A friend of mine took this picture of me tying balloons ... that's my son with the balloons sword, shield and helmet. He's always delighted when I pull out the balloons so that makes me happy to see!

Back to blogging!

I'd been ignoring my blog for a while and just doing "what's the magician up to" posts on my facebook page ... but hey sometimes it's nice to write something a little longer, so I thought I'd go back to this blog!

I have been doing a lot of Blue and Gold shows lately - I enjoy doing shows for the scouts. My son is four and I am a little hopeful he'll be interested in the scouts once he gets to the first grade. And MAN have things changed ... I remember doing the pinewood derby when I was a kid, and as I recall we put our cars on a slope and cheered them on. Now there's tracks and timers and all SORTS of cool things! So as a nerd, needless to say I'm all for that. But jokes aside, it was impressive - and you should have seen the cars these guys made!

I have become president of the Georgia Magic Club this year. I've been involved heavily with that club for a while, I met a lot of really good guys through it, and it's been fun being president so far. We are trying to set up a club show now, so hopefully in a few months I'll have a full magic show to tell you about!

Monkey Joe's

My family and I went to Monkey Joe's last night. Lots of inflatable goodness. I ended up with my three year old son, my two year old daughter, and my three year old niece in some sort of inflated ring with a pole in the center. We were running about and tackling each other. At some point two other kids came in, maybe four or five, and they just joined the game. (I looked and couldn't see their parents ... so just figured the heck with it, hopefully they won't sue me for being gleefully tackled by their kids.)

It turns out that having five kids tackle and jump on you is actually surprisingly enjoyable.

Frank again

Xander's favorite stuffed animal is a little cat he calls Kitty. We like Kitty. We have several spare Kitties in a drawer so when Kitty gets dirty we can clean it and Xander doesn't know it's been swapped. And if one gets lost we can find another one. Kitty has been his favorite for a very long time now. But Bolt (from the Disney movie) has been sneaking into the picture, and in the last week or so Kitty has been replaced by Bolt.

I like Kitty better. Well, actually I somehow just dislike his favorite being a marketed named animal, I find I just preferred his stuffed animal being more uniquely his. Or, to be really honest, I guess I just preferred the UNnamed marketed animal. I dunno, I can't justify it, I just preferred Kitty.

So in an attempt to rectify this, Kitty has been in the Frank stories lately I tell Xander when he goes to sleep. So this is where I have failed in something. The point of a bedtime story is to get the boy quiet and calm and restful. Frank stories don't do that well, but he demands them and doesn't want to be read to afterwards, so it's the last story. And the Frank song helps but still, I think we need to figure that out.

So to tie all this together. Last night Kitty went on the offensive and attacked Frank, which I demonstrated with Kitty who basically attached himself to my face Alien facehugger style and then proceeded to completely demolish me in many other ways. This made the boy laugh so hysterically he collapsed on the bed unable to breathe.

I totally stink at getting him all calmed down and ready to go to sleep.

Frank

So a while ago, around St. Patrick's Day, instead of reading a story to my son Xander I made one up. It was St. Patrick's Day, so I told the story of St. Patrick and his snake removal service. I can't remember if Frank was in the first story or not, but Xander wanted to hear it again the next night, and sooner or later Frank showed up in the stories. Frank essentially carries snakes around and throws them at people. St. Patrick stopped him. The snake throwing thing made Xander laugh, so now the stories pretty much just revolve around Frank.

So now Xander won't let me read to him any more, though he will listen to Piper's stories. But every night he runs to bed, climbs in, and waits very eagerly for his Frank story. So I make up a new one every night. Xander is in a lot of them now which he likes, and I'll ask him questions and take the story wherever it goes based on what he says (he tends to want to shoot Frank with a gun a lot. Frank blocks the bullets with a snake, usually.) The stories really aren't very good, but they make the boy happy. And now they get followed with the Frank and Xander song which also changes every night.

It's kind of challenging to come up with a story every day, but fun - sure they are terrible stories I'm sure, but it's fun. The only problem is that they get the boy worked up and excited, so I'm trying to figure out how to do this without getting him worked up. That's how the Frank and Xander song started, which helps but I'd rather he not get so excited.

On the other hand, for however long this lasts, it's really wonderful to see how much he loves having me make up a story for him every night.

Library Show

I'll be at the Smyrna Public Library this Thursday at 7 if anyone wants to come see a free magic show! I'll be in the community center. The library address is
100 Village Green Circle, Smyrna, Georgia

I think this is my last library show for the summer. It was fun doing them, I really enjoy library shows!

Star Wars Insider

I'm in the Star Wars insider with my son!

My son loves R2 and my stormtrooper armor. He's three and pretty small, so when I was repairing R2 one day I just stuck him inside. He helped. It was fun, and I took some pictures of it. And later, he saw the Stormtrooper armor and was fascinated by it, so I put it on him which just made his DAY. We sent a picture of him in R2 and another of him in the armor to the insider, and this month they printed them! We're on page 74, in the fan section, of the issue with Yoda on the cover.

My son was rather interested, but when everyone started making a fuss over the pictures he got really excited and proud. That makes me happy.

Museum event!

On July 11th, the Southern Museum is having a "Night at the Museum" event, based on the movie, for a fundraiser. Everything in the museum will be coming alive. It should be fairly cool.

Here's the web page:
http://www.southernmuseum.org/se_night_at_somu.html

There will be (among a LOT of other things) a pretty good Star Wars presence there. I know there will be several Stormtroopers, and if I can work out the logistics of it, R2-D2 will be there - that's the fully drivable remote controlled one I built. So come see us!

R2 repair

This picture amused me ... R2 burned out a foot motor at a charity event. I finally got it fixed, and have tightened the chains to boot so he drives much more evenly now (I hope!)

This picture is after the foot has been rebuilt and remounted, and I'm preparing to solder the wires back in so the remote system in the body will control the motor ... I think it's the nerd equivalent to working under the car.

Fanboys

The movie Fanboys is finally coming to Atlanta! As fanboy, I'm pretty thrilled.

Several of us are going to be doing things at the UA Northpoint Market movie theater (6500 Northpoint Parkway, Alpharetta, GA) tonight, I think from around 5 to 7. There will be several R2 units and multiple stormtroopers.

So come see us!

Antinomy

A while ago I got published in a magazine, and was bragging about it in this blog. Well get ready to hear it again about the same magazine. Just deal with it. I'm all excited still.

WEB LINKS!
http://www.antinomymagic.com/issue14.htm

Plus this one says it's articles from "some of the sharpest minds on the magic scene". They probably were not thinking of me at all, but I choose to believe they DID.
http://www.magicproshop.com/antinomy-magazine-book-p-12161.html

WOOOO! I'm all psyched!

Stormtrooper son

My armor was out ... my three year old son was fascinated by it ... so what can I say.



There are more pictures of him here. This was a pretty exciting moment for the boy I think ... he was delighted about this!

Toys for Tots

R2's first public appearance went great! We helped collect a lot of toys, R2 performed pretty well all in all, and I'm just delighted!

Here's two Marines with R2 ...

Toys for Tots - Best Buy!!

I messed up - I will be out with R2 collecting toys on Sunday, Dec 21st, but it is at the Kennesaw Best Buy, not Toys R Us! Still on Barrett Parkway, though.

Folks should be there from 11 to 4:30. I'm not quite sure when I'll be there, but I will shoot to be there from 12 to 2 at least - depends somewhat on R2's batteries!

Best Buy Store 501
850 Cobb Place Blvd Nw
Kennesaw, GA 30144

Toys for Tots

I almost forgot to post about this! On Sunday, Dec 21st I will be collecting toys for Toys for Tots. I will be at the Barrett Parkway Toys R Us in the afternoon.

The 501st will be there, so there will be multiple stormtroopers and other costumed characters. I will NOT be coming as a Stormtrooper - I am bringing R2-D2!

So if you want to come see R2, Stormtroopers, and who knows what else - I'd sure love to see you there!

(I'd been planning on having R2 talk through my normal sound system ... which won't be there ... this evening and for a few upcoming ones I am frantically trying to get a remote controlled sound system installed!)

I'm in print!

I got a magic magazine I really like in the mail yesterday. So I opened up the envelope, took a look at the cover and my name was on it.

THAT'S RIGHT! I'M IN PRINT!

I submitted a routine to these guys a while ago, never heard back, and figured that meant they thought I sucked and had no interest in my routine. So I was totally surprised to see that not only am I in the magazine, but my name is on the cover! (Along with about 10 other guys, but MY name is on top of the list!) So I'm just thrilled.

The magazine was Antinomy - I'm in issue 14 which isn't on their site yet it seems. But soon!

So that combined with me being in the Kidabra magazine a few months ago and I'M FAMOUS! WOOO!

Which basically means last night I spent 15 minutes running around the house with the magazine crowing about it while Karen tried to continue faking enthusiasm. It was a fairly awesome moment.