A Day In The Life Of A Peanut Butter Cup

Listen Up!
Well, my sick is over, I'm rested up, and ready to fill you in on all the details you missed out on from last week's non existent post!

I made another batch of uploads to DeviantART.com and they got really good responses already. Links are at the bottom of this section, and I've already got a dozen more photos that I'm going to wait to upload.
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The Fall semester for Tech.MCC (Computer Club) seems to be shaping up nicely. I've got to work the numbers for the budget from last semester and receipts out of Gordon, but all seems well so far.
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I know that Ive still not given any words, preview, or anything for either JoJ 3 or my next [Juggling] series video. Trust me, I'm working on them. I just recorded the preliminary stuff for JoJ3's first episode, and some more footage my next juggling video.
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What else, uh, My site, it';s at a bit of a standstill in actual updates that I'm implementing, BUT! I am working on my new bio page, juggling page, and another page I can't remember right now.
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So I've confirmed the 3rd appearance I'm making at Goddard of NB juggling, and now that I actually HAVE a planned out and fully scripted show, I can make things just a little bit better in terms of job returns.
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OH! Also, if you're a non-juggler (chances are you aren't, so just don't pay attention to this), I've produced a DVD with a video teaching you how to juggle and over 30 minutes worth of footage. Only $5 dollars, PLUS I'm putting in a set of 3 juggling balls with it. Just email me and I can mail it to you.

DeviantART stuff

-- Music Release --
Ok, I haven't been doing anywhere near as much music mashing as I really should be doing, so here's a new one that I was hoping to do more work on, but I really don't think will get any better. Fort Minor vs Analog X. I always thought since I started doing some mashing that Analog X would be the perfect artist to use for a background/underlayed track because he always makes really stripped down, not overly complex electronic songs with no lyrics. So I thought about what songs I've heard that I thought needed a big electronic bit that was entirely absent. I immediately thought about Linkin Park, then after trying one or two mixes with LP songs, I remembered how Fort Minor REALLY didn't have anything electronic in any tracks. So I then did this and thought it still felt really stock, so I threw in a couple effects and samples and this is the end result. A bit crude, definitely something that'll be forgotten about soon enough, but good enough that you won't feel like you wasted your time.
Fort Minor vs Analog X - Over Belief

Daily Life:
Not all that much happened last week. I basically stayed home and tried to get sleep because of my cold, and then on Friday was the Panera Bread Meeting, which was awesome. Otherwise, absolutely nothing happened really worth talking about. So I'll just go right past all that and talk about the big giant gig at the Iselin Fair.

So, let me tell the story of how I landed the gig first, because I don't think I talked about that yet. I realized sometime near the end of June that I had not booked ANY gigs for the summer at all. Summer is basically, if you couldn't figure out, prime0-time for jugglers to get paid jobs. So I come up with my new promo video and flier to hand out and put up. I still don't get anything, so then I start looking through craigslist and I happened to stop on the help wanted ad that said it was looking for magicians, performers, and etc for the Iselin Fair. It said right there that it's a charity gig and that you won't be paid for it. I wasn't getting jobs at this point, so I thought at least it'd be great promotion for me. So I jumped in and called them up. Immediately they say yes, and tell me what day I want to perform. Now, since i juggle every day anyways, I say that I'm able to do whenever they want, except for Thursday because I'd be hosting the Tech.MCC Meeting, and that I could perform more than once a day. So they say yes and I wait for the schedule.

While I'm waiting, I had a brain wave. If I'm not getting paid, and I'm going to be hanging around the fairground before and after my performance anyways, why don't I sell something to make the money? I realize I don't have anything to sell, so I start working on a few things for a new DVD that I'd be selling at the fair. I start doing that, and record a few exclusive little routines (nothing other jugglers haven't seen out of me before) and a 3 ball tutorial, design a cover, and before you know it, I have a DVD to sell. The DVD itself isn't really anything spectacular to jugglers, and in fact, half of the 48 minute disk is higher resolution remixes of my old videos from the [Juggling] and "The ___" youtube series'. But the cover is awesome. So I got a bunch of covers printed, bought a bunch of DVD case, and burned the disk to an image file and burn a crapload of DVDs from a spindle I have sitting right next to me that, except for last week, I haven't touched in months. The funny thing was, the DVD cases I bought, I got them while I was waiting for the covers to print, and so I wasn't looking that closely, they turned out to be dual disk cases. SO everyone that bought the DVD when they got back home was probably going, "Where's the other disk?" Cruel (yet unintentional) joke.

So besides realizing I had nothing to sell, I also realized that I basically was going to be performing at least 6 times, and I did not yet make up an act at all. All of my shows before now have been completely improvised. So I spent a little while at home coming up with jokes, facts to tell the audience, and figuring out what tricks go where. Basically, I went from nothing, to having setup a 15 minute, 30 minute, and 5 minute show that I'll be using for the rest of 08 at least.

So all that was done and it was the week before the fair was going to start, and I still hadn't got a call back to when I'd be preforming, so I called them up, and right as I was listening to the dial tone on the other end of the line, I visited the website (which hadn't been updated within the past 2 weeks) and saw my schedule to perform. Right as she picks up I find it, and I say "Oh, well I was about to call you about my stage times and you've already told me." So we talk a little bit about the plans and everything, and so now I know that I'm going to be shown 8 times, and am basically the most performed act of the entire time the fair is running. Every day except Thursday and Friday I'll be preforming at least once, and there's really only 2 people that are being promoted more than me. Yay, pressure.

So I basically get there, and it's right next to the spot where I used to go to boyscout meetings back in the day, and it's only about 10 minutes away from me to get there. So day one, I set everything up on my section of the sales table and make myself a quick poster thing for the prices. I didn't sell a single DVD on day one, however, the first run of my new performance went great. I had only 2 drops the entire routine and the first group of audience volunteers I got was almost perfectly what you want. A person that will try to upstage you but can't, yet also willing to follow what you say. Absolutely perfect for providing comedy and quick witty remarks during the show. So I had one show that day, and things weren't that bad. It wasn't that hot outside, and the only real problem I had was that I had to use a mic stand for the entire audience participation segment, so I'd be leaning into it as I'm trying to juggle 3 balls and make banter. Fun.

Day two, everything improved except the weather. The worst part about where the fair was held, was that right before I'd get to the fairground, there'd be a bank that displays time and temperature. It was 94 degrees the second day. Regardless, I set everything up again, go perform, and drop like MAD. I couldn't go for 5 tricks without dropping, it was absolutely the worst show I ever did in my life that first performance. Luckily it was a short one, only 15 minutes, but it was hell the entire way through, and the volunteer sucked, and everything was just horrible. But as I believe, the Neutral Day Theory kicked in afterwords and the second performance was absolutely the BEST show I'd ever done. I went dropless the entire routine, and the volunteers were decent. I even sold a DVD after the show. This was around 8:30 or so when things were starting to cool down, so I think that may have been the reason. BUT also, I said EVERYTHING was better, and it was, because the DJ that was handling all the music and audio for the stage the entire fair, came up with a microphone headset that I was able to use for the rest of the week, and that thing was so awesome, I'm thinking about buying one.

Now, on the third day, I had the great idea to bring with me my laptop and use it to show clips from my DVD at the sellers table, and I also reduced the price of the DVD there from 5 bucks to three. I actually sold every copy of the 5 that I brought with me. The show wasn't bad, and the night show I had was a good one too, not dropless again, but there were only about 4 drops per 15-20 minute show. It was amazing to me, because the temperature coming in, was a hundred degrees.

So after that I had 2 days off before coming back on Saturday for my grand exit performance which was to last for a full half hour. I had another brain wave during that time off though, and brought with me sets of 3 mini-juggling-balls that I got for free from my dad (which I talked about last year somewhere), and decided to sell them with the DVD for 5 dollars again. I literally sold every copy of the DVD I had left (a total of 20 DVD's) and made a profit off of them! It only cost me about 15 dollars for the DVD cases and the printing, and I had the DVD's already, and I took in 38 dollars in sales. Awesome. Oh, and my last performance wasn't as spectacular as I'd hoped, but I did bring my boxes and diabolo with me, and was able to go through them relatively well. I has maybe 4 drops through the entire show, one of them in the audience participation segment, but it's all good. Overall, everyone was great with the show, and I even preformed a quick improvised show between the ending of the last planned stage performance and the final drawing of the 50-50 raffle. All good things. I'm definitely going back next year, if only to sell DVDs.

A Day In The Life Of A Peanut Butter Cup ~ Reeses2150