Entries tagged with “marcus-monroe”.


It was a little cooler yesterday so my audiences were a little happier than they have been, and that was good.  No other crazy stuff to report.

The count so far:

  • 3 ears of corn at the fair
  • 1 giant State Fair brownie (plus some mangled extra brownie bits that one of the other performers scored)
  • no deep-fried cheese curds or cream-puffs yet… I’m not sure what my problem is.

I saw the first night of the Shoebox Tour (sponsored by threadless) last night and it was really, really good.  Of course there were the expected first-night minor problems, but all in all it was an amazing show.  I really like the casual feeling that the guys created, and the Japanese guys are incredible.  Do everything you can to get to one of their shows.  I can’t wait to see it again in Pittsburgh.

Behold the Mega-Wagon!!!

I saw these guys last year too.  Maybe next year I’ll have the patience to actually talk to them and find out what the story is here.  That HAS to be heavy and hard to pull.

Today is the start of the Shoebox Tour!  I hung out with the guys last night as they were rehearsing, and I’m REALLY looking forward to the show.   It starts at 7:00 tonight at the Nicolet High School theater here in Milwaukee.  It goes to Madison WI next for a show on Sunday night, and then off to Chicago on August 14th.

Yesterday we finally had a great weather day at the WI State Fair, and happy fair-goers mean happy audiences and better shows.  Last night I hung out with Marcus and we ended up at Kopps for a late-night snack. (see photo below)

We do love our cows in Wisconsin.  Look closely and you can kind of see the one black cow.

It’s been going well so far, with only a little rain. Today is overcast again, but at least it’s cool, and there’s not supposed to be any rain.

The tally so far:

  • 2 ears of corn
  • 1 giant State Fair brownie

No cream puffs or deep-fried cheese curds yet, but that will come with time. The Shoebox Tour is coming to town in a few days and I plan on making the Japanese guys eat State Fair food until they are sick.

Yesterday, as I was setting up to do my first street show at Summerfest in Milwaukee, there was a big camera crew standing in front of me. I went over to ask what they were doing, and to see if they were going to be staying right there for long since I wanted to do a show. I didn’t go over to talk to them to try to get on TV, but they offered, so of course I said yes.

I did a little interview with Mark and another guy (whose name I forgot, sorry) for the Nickelodeon show Slime Across America. I did some yo-yo tricks while they asked me questions, and at some point Mark asked me if I wanted to have a dance-off with him. I didn’t want to at all, since I can’t dance, but I said, “Do I EVER!” So the other guy did a little beat-boxing and we each got 5 seconds to dance. I won. Of course I had the upper hand since the producers said I could do some yo-yo tricks as part of my dance.

The show is what they called an “interstitial” which means that it is a short show that is shown between other shows. If they use the footage of me, it will be aired on July 26th. The problem is that it’s not a show that will be listed in TV Guide, so I’m going to have to record the entire day of programming on Nickelodeon. I’m pretty excited about being on the show, so I really hope they use the footage of me.

My buddy Marcus Monroe walked by as they were interviewing me, and got interviewed too when I was finished.

This last weekend I was in Ithaca NY to be the MC for the Cornell Juggling Club’s public show at their Big Red JuggleFest. It was a great time. First of all, juggling festivals are always great. If you don’t spend your time hanging out and talking with people, like I usually end up doing, you can just juggle ALL DAY. What a great way to spend a day.

I was hanging out with some of my New York City pals: Sean Blue, Marcus Monroe, Paris, and Sean’s non-juggling buddy Herman, who turned out to be a cool guy despite that fact that he’s not a juggler. Ithaca was really hard to navigate for most of the out of town guests, and we got lost every time we went anywhere. It was not awesome.

The show was on Saturday night, and was really high caliber. It took place in a former top quality theater that has been converted into a lecture hall on the Cornell campus. I understand that a university probably needs a lecture hall more than a theater, but as a performer it was really hard to look at what obviously used to be a great theater, and was now just a shadow of its former self. It still had the orchestra pit, but the new wall was only six inches back from the edge of the pit, and there was no longer a backstage. Strangely, there was a brand new greenroom with a bathroom, but that was it.

My sets in the show went over great, and the show went very smoothly. Thomas Dietz, from Germany, was the headliner and we had a whole slew of other great acts. See more (and download the poster!) here: http://rso.cornell.edu/cjc/festival/performers.htm

Yesterday, Vader (my dog) and I left Indianapolis around noon Eastern time. We stopped briefly at the library to get what turned out to be a boring audiobook. I’m actually still in the middle of listening to Dune by Frank Herbert (and it’s AWESOME!) but it’s on cassette and I wanted to take the good car this time, and it only has a CD player. The plan was to drive up to Milwaukee, stop at Lynn’s house (my mother-in-law), drop off Vader and then head off to the gig at the Milwaukee Zoo. Unfortunately, leaving later than we should have (my fault, not Vader’s), coupled with unusually bad traffic in Chicago (we lost an hour), meant that we had to drive straight to the Zoo, and Vader had to wait in the car for me while I did the gig. For lunch I had packed a sandwich, some blueberries (that I got on Saturday when I performed at one of the Indianapolis Farmer’s Markets), some carrots and two cookies. Good thing too, since there was not time to stop for dinner before the gig.

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Today will be my last day of Summerfest for this year. Last night Marcus Monroe had a barbeque at his house. It was a lot of fun. They even surprised me with a birthday cake. Andrew and Wayne were there and Andrew was in his full glory. He was hilarious, and at times it was like we were watching the Andrew show.

After my shows at Summerfest today, Vader and I head off to Madison for a few days since my brother Kent and his new fiancee Lissa are in town. I’m really looking forward to it.

Yesterday was the first day of Summerfest in Milwaukee WI. I had already done my two street shows for the day and was getting ready for my 4:00 appearance on the Children’s Stage when the power went out for the entire Summerfest grounds and surrounding area. But of course, the show must go on.

Instead of using the now dead in-house PA, I just hooked up my portable battery-powerd PA and we were off and running. I got one of the best cheers I’ve ever gotten at Summerfest when I announced that “Summerfest may not have power, but I DO!” It was followed closely by a woman saying, “You must be the Cool Yo-yo Man!” “Yes I am.”

Right after I finished my set, my ventriloquist friend Wayne Francis, pointed out that out of the 75 acres and 10 major stages, I was the only powered act on the entire grounds. As it turns out, he wasn’t exactly right… I was one of three… all variety acts. After my set I let the Dance School use my PA for their big public showing. Without me they couldn’t have done their show at all. That’s right, a juggler, a magician, and the yo-yo guy SAVED Summerfest! Maybe now the big dogs will once again see the value of having us there, but somehow I doubt it. Don’t worry though, I’m going to milk this for all it’s worth… and then some.

Tomorrow I go on the road for a week and a half.  I’ve got an audition for the Center East performer showcase up in Skokie IL, and then 5 days at Summerfest in Milwaukee WI.  I used to perform there for the full 11 days of the festival, but since the management changed two years ago they don’t like us variety performers as much as they used to.  I will get to hang out with my buddy Marcus Monroe though, so that should be fun.