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I truly thought that I would never see the day when I was performing again in Coney Island. There were a number of reasons for this, not the least of which is that I am working on a new show for off-Broadway. It’s called Play Dead, and my co-creator and director of the show is Teller (of Penn & Teller). We have reinvented the old spook show and put a few touches on it that have never been seen onstage. The only sideshow bit in the show is me eating glass.
But Coney Island is back in my life. I am one of the producers of NY’s longest running magic show, Monday Night Magic, and our production company also provides entertainment for a number of venues including the summertime kiddy amusement park at the Wolman Rink in Central Park, Victorian Gardens. The people that run that spot got the nod from the city to redevelop much of Coney Island. The first step was putting up a new amusement park called Luna Park on the old Astroland site.
Man can not live by thrill rides alone, so when they wanted to add in live entertainment we got the call. In addition to the family entertainment during the day on Saturday and Sundays, they wanted “classic Coney Island” style entertainment during the evenings on Friday and Saturday nights. I jumped in and started the series off with a bunch of performances during June, and then was followed up by Johnny Fox and a bunch of other great entertainers. I was very flattered to hear that Lynn Kelly, the head of the Coney Island Development Corporation, was pleased to see me back out there performing.
The shows felt good and it reminded me that I built my act onstage in front of the crowds in Coney Island.
I’ll be back out there for a few performances in August before I take off for Las Vegas for the month of September to mount the full workshop production of Play Dead. And after we open the show in NYC (tentatively scheduled for November), who know what the future will bring. It is very possible that I might push for a new permanent performance venue out in Coney Island. The area could use another live show. We’ll see.
For more information about Luna Park, go to http://www.lunaparknyc.com.
Showing posts with label glass eating. Show all posts
Showing posts with label glass eating. Show all posts
Sunday, July 18, 2010
Sunday, June 22, 2008
In the Beginning...
The last thing the Internet needs is another blog. But we can't always get what we need...so I thus start this blog. You will find here posts filled with such important information and opinions that this blog might cure cancer!
We begin with how I got to be known as the world's preeminent glass eater.
I grew up in southern California. That's enough of an explanation for some as to why I do the twisted things I do, but it goes further than that. Youthful years were spent in a suburban community. The place was filled with a subtle and persistent insistence that this was not A way of life, it was THE way of life. What more could you want? No need to ask questions. Clean, safe, quiet and the liquor stores opened at 6:00 am.
We have all gone through moments when our private world shifts. Our outlook on life is changed forever. I was twelve years old. A carnival came to our community. On the midway between the crooked games and the rides approved by bribed safety inspectors, there was a large white tent. The front was festooned with colorful banners depicting unusual people doing remarkable things. In front, on a small stage, there stood a man, not the Barker, that's a term only used by Marks. The correct term is Outside Talker. He was doing a Bally. Its short for Ballyhoo, a little performance that makes people want to see the show inside. He used a dollar to build a Tip, that is, to gather a crowd. If his Opening, his sales pitch, worked he would Turn the Tip, this means to get the people to buy a ticket.
I bought a ticket and went inside. I wanted to see that master of magic the talker spieled about on the outside. The magic bug had bitten me a few years earlier. I had learned some sleight of hand. What I had learned was a bunch of tricks, but I had a desire for more. I would seek out all the magic I could with the hope of seeing the real thing, something extraordinary, not just deceptions.
Unfortunately, the magic act in the sideshow that day was the first act of the show, just a time killer until the crowd had all bought their tickets. The rest of the show, however, delivered in spades the very thing that I desired most. There, on that narrow, high catwalk stage were low-life crusty carnies performing miracles. Fire eating, sword swallowing, feats of strength and endurance. And it was all real. Not an ounce of trickery in any of it. They demonstrated abilities beyond the capability of the average person, and that my friends, is the definition of real magic. With my amazement came a hunger to learn and perform these feats of wonder.
As fortune would have it, one of our neighbors had a secret. He was a retired carnival performer. I pestered him until he finally said, "So you want to learn all the dangerous stuff, huh kid? Okay, I can teach you. Just don't tell your parents." And I thought, "Cool". I learned it all. With each skill I acquired there came with it an understanding of the principles of physics and secrets of anatomy that make it all possible. It took hard work and persistence, to say nothing of burns and bleeding flesh. It was all worth it.
Along the way, I picked up the skill of eating glass.
Learning these skills opened up a new part of our universe that I didn't know existed. The world of the carnival. Learning what that is all about has been quite an education in human psychology. I put all of this to good use first working at the last ten-in-one sideshow left out in Coney Island, Sideshows by the Seashore. I was associated with that show and the organization that runs it, Coney Island USA for fifteen years. I was the Executive Director and the Chairman of the Board of Coney Island USA and the Dean of the Coney Island Sideshow School. I no longer am associated with that fine group and a future post will talk about.
Thoughout the years I performed in just about every venue imaginable, from gritty rock and roll clubs like CBGBs to the stage of Carnegie Hall, and everything in between. I have purveyed amazement at events, tradeshow and presentation for major corporations like Fujifilm, Amtrak, Salomon Smith Barney, GE and others. I've also spent a goodly amount of time on the college and university circuit, and have performed on countless campuses from coast to coast. In addition to all of this, I have trouped with the Big Apple Circus, am one of the producers and featured performers of NY's longest running magic show, Monday Night Magic; been the host of the Ripley's Live! show that has been presented around the country and created an award winning theater off-Broadway show called Carnival Knowledge.
We begin with how I got to be known as the world's preeminent glass eater.
I grew up in southern California. That's enough of an explanation for some as to why I do the twisted things I do, but it goes further than that. Youthful years were spent in a suburban community. The place was filled with a subtle and persistent insistence that this was not A way of life, it was THE way of life. What more could you want? No need to ask questions. Clean, safe, quiet and the liquor stores opened at 6:00 am.
We have all gone through moments when our private world shifts. Our outlook on life is changed forever. I was twelve years old. A carnival came to our community. On the midway between the crooked games and the rides approved by bribed safety inspectors, there was a large white tent. The front was festooned with colorful banners depicting unusual people doing remarkable things. In front, on a small stage, there stood a man, not the Barker, that's a term only used by Marks. The correct term is Outside Talker. He was doing a Bally. Its short for Ballyhoo, a little performance that makes people want to see the show inside. He used a dollar to build a Tip, that is, to gather a crowd. If his Opening, his sales pitch, worked he would Turn the Tip, this means to get the people to buy a ticket.
I bought a ticket and went inside. I wanted to see that master of magic the talker spieled about on the outside. The magic bug had bitten me a few years earlier. I had learned some sleight of hand. What I had learned was a bunch of tricks, but I had a desire for more. I would seek out all the magic I could with the hope of seeing the real thing, something extraordinary, not just deceptions.
Unfortunately, the magic act in the sideshow that day was the first act of the show, just a time killer until the crowd had all bought their tickets. The rest of the show, however, delivered in spades the very thing that I desired most. There, on that narrow, high catwalk stage were low-life crusty carnies performing miracles. Fire eating, sword swallowing, feats of strength and endurance. And it was all real. Not an ounce of trickery in any of it. They demonstrated abilities beyond the capability of the average person, and that my friends, is the definition of real magic. With my amazement came a hunger to learn and perform these feats of wonder.
As fortune would have it, one of our neighbors had a secret. He was a retired carnival performer. I pestered him until he finally said, "So you want to learn all the dangerous stuff, huh kid? Okay, I can teach you. Just don't tell your parents." And I thought, "Cool". I learned it all. With each skill I acquired there came with it an understanding of the principles of physics and secrets of anatomy that make it all possible. It took hard work and persistence, to say nothing of burns and bleeding flesh. It was all worth it.
Along the way, I picked up the skill of eating glass.
Learning these skills opened up a new part of our universe that I didn't know existed. The world of the carnival. Learning what that is all about has been quite an education in human psychology. I put all of this to good use first working at the last ten-in-one sideshow left out in Coney Island, Sideshows by the Seashore. I was associated with that show and the organization that runs it, Coney Island USA for fifteen years. I was the Executive Director and the Chairman of the Board of Coney Island USA and the Dean of the Coney Island Sideshow School. I no longer am associated with that fine group and a future post will talk about.
Thoughout the years I performed in just about every venue imaginable, from gritty rock and roll clubs like CBGBs to the stage of Carnegie Hall, and everything in between. I have purveyed amazement at events, tradeshow and presentation for major corporations like Fujifilm, Amtrak, Salomon Smith Barney, GE and others. I've also spent a goodly amount of time on the college and university circuit, and have performed on countless campuses from coast to coast. In addition to all of this, I have trouped with the Big Apple Circus, am one of the producers and featured performers of NY's longest running magic show, Monday Night Magic; been the host of the Ripley's Live! show that has been presented around the country and created an award winning theater off-Broadway show called Carnival Knowledge.
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