01/16/2018 - Milestones

Recent major achievements:

1): I taught a weekend retreat of nothing but buugeng at the legendary FlowToys! Six hours and about 26 total students. I join the ranks of such luminaries as Ronan, Drex, and Frank Hatsis in this tremendous honor. Reading that last sentence, thinking that thought, stuns me.

2): I was, along with Roux, invited to teach at a private circus school. So I taught buugeng to a class of 12 full-time circus students, at renowned school. That is pretty f-n awesome.

3): I redesigned by  staves for 2018 (on discrete design iteration 5 if you are curious, with a bunch of subtle variations and tweaks along the way).

4): I performed a wedding. No, not performed at a wedding. I became ordained and married two of my beautiful friends.  One of the biggest honors ever for me.

This January has been crazy. This year is off to a big start.

11/3/2017 -- Practice log

2:30pm - 2:45: roughly 1 mile brisk walk, 5 lb ankle weights. Finger spin wall plane drills. Alternating timings/directions/directionalities.

Halloween post mortem

     And now another of the majorly busy seasons has passed. Halloween gigs are usually a very lucrative time, but several of my gigs had to pull out due to the wildfires in Sonoma. I still did a sweet family-friendly Halloween party in Napa, and then I also had a peculiar gig Halloween night being a creepy clown.
     Let me preface this by saying clowns usually do a lot of work to distance themselves from being creepy. I had some doubts about whether I should even be doing this job. The client had cited Twisty of American Horror Story and Pennywise as what they would like for their office party. I figured why not take the chance to try something different? We can find growth in uncomfortable places.
     After a bit of research on creepy clowns I noticed some commonalities. You rarely saw explicit gore or blood. White tended to be their dominant color, unlike most scary things, though their whites also tended to be a bit dirty. Subtle details and the unchanging aspects of the makeup were the root of their creepy. Think about the plastered-on smiles, and the idea that those smiles seem so fake. I note in both iterations of Pennywise the oversize forehead tends to be one of the main unsettling details.
   My concept was to do deep scar makeup that would show through the normaliah clown makeup. I hoped this would convey that underneath the makeup something was wrong. I stuck to primaries, but rooted the entire thing in white pants and white frilly shirt. The major detail for me was to black out my teeth, so if I did smile with an open mouth you would see pointy teeth. I spent several dats redoing a basic clown poof wig into a medusa-life dreaded mess. Think Sideshow Bob hair.
     I succeeded in scaring the hell out of the office party! You can check out details of the makeup process on my Youtube channel, and lots of creepy pictures! Happy Halloween!
    Now back to being a sweet and family-friendly clown.

   The wildfires have cancelled several gigs of mine. It also looks like Ministry of Flow's Reunion empowerment retreat has been cancelled. I'm not glad for the devastation these fires are wrecking across the state, but I am sort of glad for the rest time I am getting as a result. I was a little nervous moving from a busy festival season straight into busy gig season.

Forward into Fall

     The hectic summer months are past, with them my festival season is largely over too. I taught at Universal Flow Gathering, MOPS Manipulation, Buugeng Convergence, Firedrums, Enchanted Forest, New England Flow Fest, OolaHula's Flow Camp,  and Pacific Fire Gathering. I performed at most of the above as well as at HoopCamp and Burning Man.  I attended one festival for the joy of it (Priceless). I also went to Juplaya. I still found time to hike Sonora Pass and Desolation Wilderness. I need to keep all eight of my tentacles moving.

    I have two festivals left this year. I'm attending Staff Senate in one week, where I am seeking only personal growth. I am also teaching, performing, and cohosting (with Erez Sas) at Ministry of Flow's Reunion retreat. Ministry of Flow is dear to my heart, so it is a happy way to close out the year.

   My next year is already looking stacked. CampFire has expressed interest in having me. I'm taking on a larger role, as well as teaching/performing again, at Buugeng Convergence. I will also likely keep my role as FireDrums showcase codirector.

   My planning has started for what things are of interest to me. I am returning to my home, New Orleans, for Mardi Gras and will be booking private lessons. I have dreamed about returning to Flame to teach and perform, but we will see if it is in the cards. I am very interested in looking into some kind of teaching road trip. I may also consider the spring program at the Clown Conservatory in San Francisco. I will be applying to shin for Ministry of Flow next year. MOPS in October of 2018 is a definite for me.

    I've got the skeleton of my next solo buugeng piece in my head. I've also started a partner piece with a new performing partner. I'm listening to a lot of Forest Swords and Arca for inspiration. I've got the longer dream of a staff piece in my head.

   See you on the road.

 

Beginnings of Summer

    Gosh, so much has happened. Let's break this up into digestible chunks. I'm sorry it's been almost two months in between posts! So much time begets so much to try to cover!
    I taught and performed at MOPS (Manipulation presented by Master Ong's Prop Shop). It was easily the most intimidating stage I have ever been on.  Kyle Driggs act was my personal favorite there, and Amy Wieliczka's act gets better every time I see it.
     I traveled to teach and perform at Buugeng Convergence in Austin, Texas. I had a really lovely time experimenting with weird tricks alongside Kaylie Kreatrix. We got into the pond there and did floating mandalas! I also had what I hope is the worst run-through of my "Clockwork" act I ever have. Coming off a really good run at MOPS, that was pretty disappointing. This was salvaged by the fest asking me to take an active role in organization for 2018. I've already started managing their media.
      I taught several classes, performed, and directed the stage show at FireDrums. There was lots of herding cats leading up to the event, but once there I settled into the gravity of unavoidable certainty. I had a wonderful run-through, perhaps my best yet. The work I was doing between Convergence and FireDrums to polish up my musicality really showed.
    We just made the final recording of our conclave submission for Burning Man. I proud of my section--I choreographed the finale, but the work isn't done, and we aren't accepted yet.
    I still have New England Flow Fest and OoolaHula's HoopCamp ahead to perform my "Clockwork" piece at, and to teach at. NEFF will be special since I am teaching my character for movement class. Pacific Fire Gathering is a big question mark right now--I hope to be teaching as well as performing my Flow Show piece with Roux Brulee one final time.
   Major news is that my FishSticks props are now in production and being sold by The Spinsterz. I'm also now sponsored by them!

Post Flow Show

Flow Show was a great success! We had so much positive feedback on our story, characters, and costumes. I'm so proud we brought such a well-rounded stage act.

This weekend is MOPS! It'll be great to return to that training space. If you haven't been... why haven't you?

I'm also proud to announce that I'm teaching and performing at Buugeng Convergence in Austin! This is a huge honor for me.