Harry Anderson Magic Act

 Harry Anderson is one of my top 3 favorite performers... in fact, he's at the top of the list.
Here is a link to one of my favorite performances of his.
Every once in a while I watch this video, then try to convince Kathy to let me teach her the rope escape.
Some day I would like to find myself a partner and put together a stage comedy show.
Enjoy the video.

Look What I Made

Here are the first of some pictures of the dress on a real live person.
I'm afraid that I only have my camera phone, but I was lucky enough to be able to talk with the photographer that was at the event.

He took some pictures of the model in the dress for me and hopefully I'll be getting them from him in a few days.

My First Balloon Dress

So, I finished the dress for the fashion show tonight.
Here are some pictures of it.
I also made a hat, handbag, and bracelet for the model to wear.
I'll post some pictures of the outfit on the model after I get home.
I'm going straight from this charity event in Hudson to another charity event in Kent.
There is a relay for life happening on campus from 10AM Saturday till 10AM Sunday trying to raise money for cancer.
If you're up for walking in what I'm hearing will be rather inclement weather, please stop by.
I'll be making balloons and entertaining the people as they finish their shifts.

Busy week

This week has been crazy. Had to deal with some stressful car issues... and have begun the hunt for the new vehicle to get me to class and shows.
This Saturday I will be showing the balloon dress I designed for the Charity event in Hudson.
I will take pictures durring the building process, and perhaps some video as well to post on the YouTube Page.
I'm thinking that If I can free up some time, I may try to make a second dress for display as well.
We'll see how things progress for the rest of the week.
Tonight is Kids Night in Hudson, and then I'm going to try to make it to the Akron Magical Arts Society Meeting after.

It must be a sign.

Imagine my delight to see this when I arrived for my Wednesday night Kids Night. Donato's Pizza in Hudson had a sign made to advertise the evenings I'm there entertaining.
I have been entertaining there every Wednesday for over 9 months now, these guys really know how to make someone feel welcome.

Kids Night

Wednesday is upon us again, and you know what that means.

KIDS NIGHT!

I'll be at the Donato's Pizza on 91 in Hudson from 5-7 PM making balloon mischief and entertaining the masses.

Kids eat free at these kids nights. So long as the parents get themselves something to eat then the kids eat free. the child can get a personal pizza or chicken fingers, then the family can enjoy a crazy balloon creation.

I hope to see you there.

Practice Session

Today I sat down with a dress makers dummy and began doing the calculations for how many balloons I'll need for the dress. I also had to experiment to determine the size of the links I'll be using to make sure that the real dress looks nice and that there are no large holes.

I'm confident that I got a good idea of what I'll need to do for this dress.

Here are a couple pictures from the practice session.

Balloon Fashion Show

Many of you have seen the "China Email", or possibly saw this new fad showcased on one of the recent Victoria Secret fashion shows... Now Mot is throwing hit hat into the ring.

I will be building a dress to be a showpiece for a charity fashion show occurring at the end April that benefits Hudson Schools Special Education Program.

I will be uploading photos and updates as I work my way through the process ending with some pictures of the final product being worn by a model at the actual event.

This is a very exciting project for me. It's a great new challenge that has my creative juices flowing, and this is for a cause that is important to me.

I have already drawn up several concept art images of different dresses I could build, and the model that will be wearing them is working with me to decide what would be the most visually appealing.

I hope that people enjoy seeing the process.

Here are some examples of the dresses. Mine will not be of this high a caliber, but I do hope to get myself to this level some day.

Peace

Mot

YouTube videos

I've been making instructional videos for the YouTube over the last couple months.

I've got around a dozen planned and I'm always looking for ideas of something new to post.

the goal is to teach the more intermediate and advanced designs since there are already hundreds of videos out there showing you how to do the basic stuff.

Once I can figure out how to get an imbed code for the channel I'll have it linked on this page, but for now here is a video on how to make a fun balloon flower. 

I guess I need to learn some basic HTML so I can figure out how to adjust the size of my videos so they don't cut off other things on the site.

Day off! Hoody Hoo!

Today the only thing I need to get done is reloading my balloon apron.

Kathy has the day off aswell, so perhaps we'll spend the day together.

I found a bunch of my old N64 games and she was interestted in seeing what 12 year old Mot was playing.

I need to spend some time updating over at the ol' www.magicmot.com also. Need to keep the contend fresh...also, they don't know I even have a blog over there yet.

Here is an Easter bunny decoration I was making for various business in the area. 

What's up with those adds?

I'm trying out the Google Adsense program.
I will have it enabled for a little while because I want to see what kinds of ads are selected to go along with the content I provide, and I want to see just how intrusive the program is.

The summer of 2005

For any of you that have been on stage before, you know the feeling you get right before you go on.

Some people describe it as butterflies in their stomach, others say they feel light headed or cold. Well, on a warm June evening back in 2005 I felt something new... I feared for my life.

The show was at the 05' Gathering of Juggalos at Nelson's ledges in Garretsville Ohio.

I was part of a stage show that was going to be presented all 3 nights of the event. 

If you aren't familiar with the group ICP (Insane Clown Posse) then you can count yourself lucky. The event was their labels yearly celebration and it was packed with fans of their music and the other similar bands that also worked for the label.

When we arrived we had to wait for nearly 20 min as they tried to get three AMBULANCES out of the parking area. It seems that right before we got to the park there had been a brawl. The aftermath of this fight had two concert goers rushing to the hospital with stab wounds and dozens remained with scratches and bruises.

Heck of a first impression.

While we were setting up back stage I struck up a conversation with one of the sound crew that was helping me run some wire. He explained to me how to read the crowd. 

"If they throw things at you, that means they like you. If they throw things at you and hit you, that means they don't like you."

I looked out onto the main stage and saw it littered with broken bottles and half empty soda containers, "what did they think of the last act?" I asked gesturing to the trash littered stage.

"Someone hit the guitarist while he was too close to the front of the stage, broke a bottle on the side of his face... try not to get near the crowd if you can... and keep moving."

I shook the guys hand and thanked him for the advise before going back to setting up the props for the show.

In the end we didn't get that much thrown at us, but we also got a very positive response and applause at the end of our shows. I'm not sure how to read that.

I wish I still had video or other pictures from that weekend. It was a learning experience for sure, and I have a few other good stories to share from it for another time.

The picture ran on the front page of the local paper the Monday after the festival. I'm the guy on the right with the clown makeup on dressed like a carnival barker.

I'm thankful for the lessons I learned working in such a hostile environment, but I've never worked with that group again.

A brand new day.

So... I've decided I'm going to try out this blogging thing.

I'm told that this is a good way to help drive traffic to my other projects.

The plan is to also use this page as a single place I can post pictures of my balloon sculptures, links to my instructional YouTube videos, and in general keep track of my adventures.

I have a lot of projects in the works right now, on top of my regular entertaining I'm also working on filming a new promotional video, I have been compiling information and concepts for a book idea I've been kicking around, and I'm thinking about developing a comic strip that I may post every once in a while.

As you can see, I've got a lot on my plate these days. School isn't getting any easier, and it will remain my top priority, so I need to find a way to work all these ideas in around my class schedule.

So, for those of you that decide to check this blog out. Thank you. I'll do my best to keep the information updated and interesting.