2009 Vent Haven Ventriloquist ConVention

Well the 33rd Vent Haven Ventriloquist conVention has come and gone but the memories made and the inspiration from other vent will carry me thourhg until next years gathering. Tis year as with the past it was SO night to catch up with old friends and make new ones. The group that attend this convention are truely genuine nice people. This year also saw Jay Johnsons appearance(Super nice), Kevin Johnson was in attendance (Great guy!!), Sammy King presented his final performance for those in attendance and his partner Fransisco will retire to the Vent Haven Museum. Jeff Dunham was there friday night for a saturday lecture he presented on originality. As always his advise is gold for those of us wanting to learn to be better performers.

CJ with Kevin Johnson

Buster and I meet Jay Johnson

Busters new best buddy Sammy King.
CJ with Jeff Dunham

Satruday after Jeffs lecture he also announced he had made tickets available for those who would like to go see his show Sunday night in Louisville. Sooooo..how do you not take him up on that. And we went to see his show and it was a good time.

I also made a new publicity photo for Buster and I. Here is a quick one sheet I made for Applebees to use to advertise our appearances on Tuesdays.

I will be posting a page on the website soon so keep your eyes peeled..and if you don;t want to peel them..you can just keep an eye out for the new pages..or..if keeping an eye out sounds painful..just remember to check back from time to time..I will let everyone know when the new stuff is up. ;)

Take care!

CJ and Buster

Age Activated Attention Deficit Disorder

Age Activated Attention Deficit Disorder.
This is how it manifests:

I decide to water my garden.
As I turn on the hose in the driveway,
I look over at my car and decide it needs washing.

As I start toward the garage,
I notice mail on the porch table that
I brought up from the mail box earlier..

I decide to go through the mail before I wash the car.

I lay my car keys on the table,
put the junk mail in the garbage can under the table,
and notice that the can is full.

So, I decide to put the bills back
on the table and take out the garbage first.

But then I think,
since I'm going to be near the mailbox
when I take out the garbage anyway,
I may as well pay the bills first.

I take my check book off the table,
and see that there is only one check left.

My extra checks are in my desk in the study,
so I go inside the house to my desk where
I find the can of Coke I'd been drinking.

I'm going to look for my checks,
but first I need to push the Coke aside
so that I don't accidentally knock it over.

The Coke is getting warm,
and I decide to put it in the refrigerator to keep it cold.

As I head toward the kitchen with the Coke,
a vase of flowers on the counter
catches my eye--they need water.

I put the Coke on the counter and
discover my reading glasses that
I've been searching for all morning.

I decide I better put them back on my desk,
but first I'm going to water the flowers.

I set the glasses back down on the counter,
fill a container with water and suddenly spot the TV remote.
Someone left it on the kitchen table.

I realize that tonight when we go to watch TV,
I'll be looking for the remote,
but I won't remember that it's on the kitchen table,
so I decide to put it back in the den where it belongs,
but first I'll water the flowers.

I pour some water in the flowers,
but quite a bit of it spills on the floor.

So, I set the remote back on the table,
get some towels and wipe up the spill..

Then, I head down the hall trying to
remember what I was planning to do.

At the end of the day:

the car isn't washed

the bills aren't paid

there is a warm can of Coke sitting on the counter

the flowers don't have enough water,

there is still only 1 check in my check book,

I can't find the remote,

I can't find my glasses,

and I don't remember what I did with the car keys.

Then, when I try to figure out why nothing got done today,
I'm really baffled because I know I was busy all day,
and I'm really tired.

I realize this is a serious problem,
and I'll try to get some help for it,
but first I'll check my e-mail......

Princess Bride-love this movie

Charlie McCarthy Detective Movie Trailer

Watch CHARLIE McCARTHY DETECTIVE TRAILER 1939 in Comedy View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

Go detroit Red Wings!!

It is exciting to say that our Detroit Red Wings are returning to the Stanley Cup Finals this year. Not only that they will be reliving the finals last year with Pittsburg Penguins.

Will be a great series!

GO WINGS!!!

In other news:

I have been performing Tuesday nights at the local Applebees restaurant in White lake MI since April 8th and it has been going great. If your local stop in and say hello.

Went to Greenfield Village over memorial day and had the great pleasure of catching up with the 17th Mi Co. E civil war reenactors and began the steps for Nick and I to rejoin the group after several years hiatus due to work/family oblgations. Look for more to follow once we get the wool back out and start popping off the muskets.

I hope everyone is having a great spring/early summer!

Keep checking back for the latest and greatest ..ok maybe just the latest..well some are sorta great..well...YEah it ALL great!

=)

Memorial Day

Please take a moment this weekend to remember those who gave all for us.

Spending time outside, grilling and playing horse shoes is wonderful but please take a moment to acknowledge the reason for this wonderful weekend.

Have a Great Holiday.

Be safe.

J.J. Abrams Star Trek

WOW!

ok I know this is a geek post but still! Went to see the new Star Trek on Saturday night..umm..GREAT MOVIE! I watched some of the original show when it was in reruns (really, I am not that old =P )as well as the next generation show..and enjoyed most of the movies..but hold the bus..this new film refreshes the whole "Final Frontier" for what looks to be a great ride. You don;t have to be a Trek fan to like this film, you don;t have to be a sci-fi fan to like this film...if you like a good story, and a stunning visual, coupled with great acting..this IS the film to see.

Plus..a very cool appearance of an old enterprise crew member we all love.

Worth the price of admission.

Terry Fator- Ventriloquist

Truely a talented entertainer.

If you get the chance you have to see him live...DO IT!



He is appearing at the Mirage Hotel in Las Vegas.

1776

A musical classic. William Daniles, Ken Howard, and the reast do a great job in this 1972 classic.

a laugh a day....

Keeps the Doctor away.

Chris Farley always good for a laugh.

Have a great day!

From Crackle: tommy boy - fat guy in a little coat

Jeff Dunham Videos

Jeff Dunham is such a talent. Love revisiting his DVD's for a laugh and inspiration.

If you haven't watched his comedy specials, pick em up and settle in for some great laughs. He creates such fun characters and the materials is fresh.

This 'n That

Well Tuesday night was week number 2 doing walk around magic at the local Applebees and it went well. It wasn't as busy as the previous week so next week we'll try 6:30 instead of 7:30 in hopes of more families. It was fun though and I kept busy with the folks that were there. It is good experience and exposure ..........
NOT THAT kind of exposure people!! Sheeeeh!! =P (hehe could not resist..you know me)

Also just found a cool thing on the Fangoria website. It's a live streaming viewer of the weekend of horrors vent going on this weekend. Should be cool.

As for some other things..I have not given up on Busters animated adventures and I recently built my new counter/table on which to put my animation table. Space is at a premium so i am working on ways to double duty the space I have.

Oh I was at a Dollar tree store recently and found 2 dvd's of Davey and Goliath episodes for a buck! Being as they are stop motion and since alot of folks from stopmotionanimation.com have talked about them and animated ON them..I could not pass it up..a buck each! Woot!

Tonight marked the first of what will hopefully be many nights of walk around magic at a local family restaurant. It was well recieved and I had a great time. I am slated for Tuesdays from 7:30-9:30 and will be mixing magic, ventriloquism and balloons. Tonight I brought along Buster but he never made it out of the bag as we were having too much fun with the magic and balloons.

It will be a fun challange to have new material to add each week as well as learning new short routines suited for walk about ventriloquism as well as new quick and easy balloon creations.

Of course this also showed me the importance of gettgin a better picture for these applications. Will need to do that at the conVention in July if not before.

=)

The Great Buck Howard

I ordered this last night on pay per view after hearing about it on the radio. The Amazing Kreskin was on the Jay Thomas show last Friday and they were talking about this movie. Sounded interesting so last night I watched it. I enjoyed the movie over all. It was well played by John Malkovich. Buck Howard is a mentalist(not to be called a magician LOL) hwo has seen his better day but is trying to revive his career. Check it out here for more.

this is Good!

Very accurate observations!

Grand Torino

Great movie! If you have second guessed whether ot not to see it, see it. If you like Clint Eastwood he's as good as ever in this latest film. The movie was filmed here in Michigan and last week I was by the house that was used in the film. Here is a picture. I am VERY excited about Michigans Tax rebates to film makers and how it is impacting michigan and the the available jobs in the film industry.

Wallace and Gromit 20th Anniversary DVD's

Wallace and Gromit 20th Anniversary DVD's

Wallace and Gromit 20th Anniversary DVD's are appearing on the shelves. I was in a video department at a large chain store last night and saw the Wrong Trousers version for sale. I didn't see any new features added to the release but the cover art is new.

I also went online hoping to find the latest W & G outing, A Matter of Loaf and Death, and could not find it available in the states. Amazon UK has it but the shipping and such typically gets kind of high.

It is cool however to see W & G going strong and still coming out with "Cracking"new product.

Stop Motion Animation is strong and here to stay! =)

Wybie

Today I added a page to the web site for the Wybie costume my son and I made for a costume contest. take a look and tell me what ya think.

Al Roker on Howard Stern

Was listening to the Stern show today while at work and heard Al Roker comment on taking his 10 and 6 year old children to see Coraline. He said he liked the movie but it is too scary for young children. Thought it was interesting that here it is the Stern show and even they were talking about Coraline.

Coraline Debut and Victoria Rose

This weekend saw the opening of the Great new Stop motion animated movie Coraline and Tim and I saw it on Saturday. AWESOME movie!

On Sunday we went to the Emagine Theater in Novi, MI for a Costume contest, which we decided Saturday night at 7 to be part of. We rushed to home depot for supplies and created his Wybie costume in 3 hours. Still need to add the crank handle to the helmet and the LED's for the eyes but for a 3 hour turnaround I an satisfied.

We had the opportunity to meet Victoria Rose at the event as well. Victoria handled puppet maintenance for the film. Such a nice person and her stories were fun to hear. =)

more review to follow but for now here's a pic of Tim and Victoria.