December 19, 2007 One last cruise ship contract for the year, this time around aboard the Royal Prinecess. Another long trip to get me and all of my stuff down to the Caribbean. This time around I flew Vancouver to Los Angeles, took a Red Eye from LA to San Juan, Puerto Rico then a short hop from San Juan over to Dominica which happens to be the island where Disney shot the Pirates of the Carribean Films. Overnight stay in Dominica before joining the Royal Princess for a short four-day run up to Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale. Day two of this contract for me was spent exploring part of the island of St. Barthelemy. Luck was with me as I hopped on the tender ship to take me from the Royal Princess in to the Peer because I hooked up with the drummer from the ship's orchestra. Together we figured out how to get to 'Shell Beach' which, as the name implies, was covered with a fantastic display of brownish/orangeish sea shells! Spent a couple of hours at the beach then on the way back to the tender wandered up to see Fort Karl, then stopped to take this picture on a huge anchor which has been identified as the type of anchor used by British warships from 1700 to 1825. A fantastic day!  December 10, 2007 So... Fly Vancouver to Houston, then Houston to San Juan, Puerto Rico on December 7th. Overnight in San Juan. Join the Crown Princess at the San Juan Peer around 3:00 pm or so on December 8th. Shows in the Explorer's Lounge the next evening, December 9th, as we sail away from St. Thomas. Off the ship by about 12:00 noon in St. Kits on December 10th. Fly St. Kits back to San Juan, then up to Miami. Overnight in Miami, then fly Miami to Denver, Denver to Vancouver on December 11th. All up well over three days getting to and from the ship for less than 48 hours on the ship itself. Amazing! Apart from all of the flying around, I did have a fantastic trip and thoroughly enjoyed getting to hang out with comedian Scott Wyler and Magician Tim Hill, and was blown away when I got to the ship to discover that my very good friend and wonderful keyboard player/vocalist Heather Sullivan (who I hadn't seen since my last contract on the Crown back in 2006) had also joined the Crown in San Juan. Fantastic to make some new friends and a totally unexpected treat to reconnect with a friend that I hadn't seen in over a year! To top it all off, I had a total BLAST with my shows!
November 9, 2007 Following a hugely successful run a the China International Travel Mart I was asked to join the Canadian Delegation in Shanghai and Beijing where I focused more on performances for the delegates and specific Chinese partners in both cities. These two, two-day intensives were a real treat for me because though I was quite busy on the first day of meetings I somehow managed to tag along on a couple of fantastic guided tours with Gisèle Danis, Executive Director, Global Brand Integration for the Canadian Tourism Commission's Vancouver Office. Over the course of our days in Shanghai and Beijing we became great friends and got to tour around and see some of the landmarks that make both cities world class destinations. I hadn't expected to get to see the Great Wall this time around, so it was a huge thrill to not only visit the wall, but also juggle on it!  November 4, 2007 If you scroll down the page to the April 1st entry, you'll see a shot of me performing a the Guangzhou International Travel Fair. Based on the success of my performances in Guangzhou, I was asked by the Canadian Tourism Commission to return to China again for the China International Travel Mart in Kunming. This time around my duties were similar to what they had been in the Spring. I performed twenty to thirty minutes shows to gather convention goers to the Canadian Exhibit Space. Following my performances spectators would then stroll around the rest of the Canadian Exhibit Space and discover what a wonderful destination Canada is...all part of luring the emerging middle class to come to Canada and discover not only the natural beauty of my 'Home and Native Land' but also all of the exciting attractions and events from coast to coast. Though the space was somewhat limited I was still able to gather a couple hundred people every show I did and was once again delighted with how well my performances were received by audiences in China!
My friendship with Glenn Singer dates back to our first meeting at the 1988 Halifax Busker's Festival well before he became El Gleno Grande and started riding around on his mighty steed Sigfrido. We've had the pleasure to perform together at festivals around the world, and I've always been amazed by the delight he takes in telling the story that is his show. A couple of years ago when I happened across an ostrich Halloween costume based on a similar illusion to Glenn's zebra I simply had to buy it because I knew some day I'd convince Glenn to let me join him on stage. This chance finally came at the StreetStages Festival in Atlanta Georgia. By the time the Saturday evening performance rolled around, Glenn had done his act a few times, so when I rode out next to him on my ostrich the crowd (many of whom had already seen and loved Glenn's Act) found a whole new reason to laugh. It was without a doubt the highlight of the event for me and a real treat to share the stage with such a legend of the variety arts world.  October 8, 2007 Quite a trip to get to Aruba to join the Coral Princess! First step, fly from Vancouver to New York and overnight in a hotel near JFK Airport. Step two... Get to the airport the next morning early to discover that my 8:50 am flight to Aruba had been delayed until 3:00 pm. Had I waited for the original flight the Coral would have left the peer without me - DOH! A phone call to the travel agent and some quick negotiating at the check-in counter and I was booked on a different flight via San Juan, Puerto Rico and still made it into Aruba in time to join the Coral Princess. I even had enough time to pop out and take this picture half way up a coconut palm before the ship left. Needless to say I was feeling slightly coconuts by this point in the day.  September 18, 2007 Well here I am back in Skagway less than a week since I came here aboard the Serenade of the Seas. Not much has changed in the six days that have elapsed since my last stop here... Well that's not exactly true. I did make it home for about two days which was long enough to do laundry and get jumped on by my boys which was fun! Also got to enjoy a few more episodes of "Lost" which my wife and I have gotten hooked on. Pretty quick turn around though, not that I'm complaining. These two ship gigs back to back are great and it's nice to catch a couple of Alaska Runs before the season comes to an end. I'll be on the Golden Princess until September 23rd when I'll hop off the ship in Vancouver and make my way out to Thunderbird Stadium out at the University of British Columbia for another gig... Good to be busy!  September 12, 2007 Had just about enough time following the PNE to get organized for a contract aboard the Serenade of the Seas. Boarded the ship in Vancouver on Saturday morning and will be aboard for one of the last Alaska Cruises of the Summer Season. Great to join the ship in my hometown as so often I have to fly to where ever the ship I'm working on happens to be. This time around I'm actually getting on and getting off the ship in Vancouver... Such a treat! Today we stopped in Skagway and I enjoyed a pleasant walk from the ship into town. On the way I stopped to grab this shot in front of the Skagway Fish Company, a great restaurant close to the peer where I've enjoyed a great lunch or two with friends on previous contracts. Didn't stop for lunch this time around, but if you're ever up in Skagway I highly recommend it - hard to find sea food that's much fresher!
Into the home stretch at the PNE and before things wrap up I wanted to make sure I got a couple of group shots of the Cast of the 2007 PNE Street Stars. Our final picture was taken in front of a Cotton Candy Vendor. I sprung for Cotton Candy for everyone to hold for the picture as I thought it Cotton Candy was synonymous with what the PNE is all about and wanted to capture the Street Stars Crew embracing the experience. After the group shot John Ullyatt snapped this shot of me taking my first taste of Cotton Candy in about thirty years. I made a valiant effort but couldn't finish it... Just too sweet. I take this as a dead give away that I'm getting old. I think in my prime I could have knocked back a couple of these, but not any more.  August 21, 2007 I'm a meat eater and was intrigued last year when a couple of members of the PRP Team went to the 4H auction at the PNE and bought a lamb. Apparently I wasn't the only one who was intrigued by the process because this year a group of eight of us got together and bought a cow. Well a steer really. It was a bit iffy as to whether we were actually going to have the winning bid as all of the steer seemed to be above our pre-determined spending limit. As it was we did end up going a bit over what we had originally budgeted, but it was really cool to be there when we were bidding at auction and pretty cool to be a part of the experience. Curtis (the guy in the cowboy hat) was the guy who raised the steer and was hoping to get $2.00/lb live weight for his Steer Bullseye. We ended up spending $2.50, so he was pretty happy that he got more than he was hoping for and I'm pretty excited about steaks on the BBQ in a couple of weeks.  August 17, 2007 The Pacific National Exhibition starts tomorrow and once again I'll be both performing in and managing the PNE Street Stars Program. We've got a great crew in for this year's Fair including OzStar Airlines, El Gleno Grande, Mike Battie and Johnny 'Rains' Ullyatt - The Human Fountain. This is the third year for the program and my third year as the point man or "Man Friday" as I've called myself this year. To kick things off properly I throw a BBQ party at my house for the Crew and this year was no exception. I didn't have enough time to get everything ready, but everyone pitched in and leant a hand and we ended up having a fantastic dinner and a great evening. Hopefully it'll be smooth sailing for the next seventeen days!  August 11, 2007 I've been a Mac Fan for years and years and years. My friend Uesugi-san is also a huge Mac Fan. In fact that's how we met. Over a decade ago when I was doing a contract at Canal City I was having lunch at a Don Buri Restaurant in the complex and noticed that the guy behind the counter had a Powerbook. We started talking and soon became friends based in part over our mutual appreciation of our computer of choice. As Uesugi-san puts it, Windows PCs are like stationary...they do the job, but that's about it. A Mac becomes your friend and people who like makes also seem to become friends... Years have past since we first met, and my friend now has a restaurant in a different part of town, but when Emiko and I came down to Fukuoka to catch a 'Dreams Come True' concert we made a point of stopping in for a visit and a few drinks!  July 28, 2007 Quite a day today! I had a show at noon followed by a juggling workshop at around 12:30. The workshop lasted about forty-five minutes after which I had almost enough time to catch my breath and have a drink before my next show at 2:00. Then at 4:00 my third show. This was a pretty cool show because half way through my performance the staff switched my regular show music and put on "Happy Birthday To You" and gave me a birthday cake...right there in the middle of my show. This interesting tangent didn't seem to phase the audience all that much and they all joined in to sing me Happy Birthday which was pretty cool. Wrapped up my third show of the day and packed up my gear for a bonus show at the SaiSei Daini Kindergarten. I had a good show there, my fourth of the day following which the crew from Riverwalk and I stopped at the Tobata Gion Matsuri to check out this really cool Lantern Festival. Back to Riverwalk after that where we sliced up the birthday cake that I had been presented earlier in the day (the one in the picture) and toasted everyone's efforts on making it through a very busy day!  July 22, 2007 My plan for the end of the day today was to meet up with my friend Nishijima-san and his wife and have a fun evening checking out the "..." I had no idea that 'their' plan was to show up dressed in traditional Japanese Summer Festival Wear to watch my last performance of the day at the Riverwalk Shopping Complex nor that they had brought me a yukata (robe) and geta (traditional shoes) so that I could really dive in head first and enjoy a more authentic Japanese Summer Festival Experience. We enjoyed the smells, the tastes, and the atmosphere of the Kokura Matsuri (Festival) and I got to sample some fantastic Yakitori and some Kakigori (shaved Ice) as walked around amongst the other festival goers. Early in the evening I was posed in front of Kokura Castle in my traditional Japanese Clothes for this picture. A great evening!  July 14, 2007 For reason's not entirely clear to me my wife's Aunt felt that it was really important for Koji, Owen and I to participate in the Shigino Danjiri Matsuri. She made all of the arrangements including contacting the Danjiri Team Leader, finding out all of the details and arranging/paying for our custom-made Danjiri Matsuri Red Festival Garb. A Danjiri is a big parade float of sorts that's entirely made out of wood including the big wooden cylinders that act at the wheels - sort of like the wheels on Fred Flintstone's Car. It's incredibly heavy and requires a team of about fifty people to pull the thing around. Danjiri Floats are usually associated with a shrine in a certain district of a town and ours was a part of the Shigino area of Osaka. Early in the day Koji, Owen and I dawned our Festival Wear and headed to our pulling position in front of the Danjiri. Oh... I should probably mention that right as we started pulling the Danjiri around it started raining. I was totally blown away by the fact that our boys managed to hold out for about two hours of dragging the Danjiri around various streets in Shigino with out complaining and really making a good showing for Emiko's Aunt and Uncle - I kept smiling because I was given beer. Fancy checking out a bit more of what was involved? We posted a video to YouTube which you can check out by clicking on the link below. There's also some footage in that video of another festival we enjoyed the next day. http://youtube.com/watch?v=RHFqZpFY3eg 
July 1, 2007 A bit odd to not be in Canada on Canada
Day, and the first time in twenty six years that I opted not
to have a gig on this particular day of the year, but a very good
day none the less. Emiko, Koji, Owen and I took a day trip to Nara
where we met up with a friend of Emiko's and enjoyed walking around
the TODAI-JI
Temple. Nara is know for the
June 23, 2007 Came to Japan with out a thing booked work-wise and somehow managed to land a few gigs. Amazing! Today I hoped in the Shinkansen down to Hiroshima then took a local train to Kure which is just outside of Hiroshima for a gig through Fukushima-san at the Take-Up Agency. The gig was a corporate ordeal at a hotel right next to the Kure Station for the 30th anniversary of the Electrician's Union. A room full of semi-lubricated (with alcohol) Electricians (99% Male) ranging in age from their mid-twenties to well over fifty. An interesting room to work to be sure, but the show came off with out a hitch and a good time was had by all. Well before I hit the stage I had the chance to visit the Yamato Battleship Museum which was really cool! The Yamato was built in Kure and was in it's day the largest battleship on the planet. It became an icon of Japanese War technology and later was the namesake of a Japanese animated series. Prior to the trip I knew none of this... Interesting how one picks up an education.  June 21, 2007 Thanks to the fearless leader of the C.A.M.P. program in Winnipeg I've learned to appreciate some of the finer points of scotch. I'm no expert mind you, but I appreciate a good single malt now and again. One one of my trips to Japan I picked up a bottle of 12-year-old Yamazaki which is made by the Suntory Company in Japan and took it with me to Winnipeg for the general consumption. Neal Rempel who I would say "IS" a scotch confessor was a bit befuddled by the Yamazaki. Apparently it tasted too good to have not come from Scotland. As I'm in Japan for a while at the moment I thought I'd go visit the Suntory Yamazaki Distillery and hooked up with my friend Ko Ishihara to take the free tour. Not only was the tour free, but at the end of the tour they also handed out free samples of the very same 12-year-old that I had taken with me to Winnipeg. As our wives don't drink Ishihara-san and I got bonus beverages... Ah... Scotch!  June 1, 2007 Along with performing a couple of shows at the Festival I was also asked to take part in some of the additional activities that were being hosted by performers involved in the festivities. I got the chance to perform a bit with my relatively new Pineapple Flea Ukulele. First during the Children's Flower Parade and next during the Maid/Butler Cafe. The fact that I really only know how to play "Happy Birthday To You" at this stage didn't really stop me from having a whole lot of fun strumming away on my little Pineapple. Next to me in the picture are fellow performers (and beautiful Maids) Iori Mikumo and Akira Watanabe. Our lovely customer is actually Mrs. Watanabe... I've had a great time at the festival and thoroughly enjoyed hanging out with all of the performers in attendance - good fun! June 1, 2007 Came to Japan with out a lick of work lined up but quickly let people know that I was around and going to be around for a while. Shortly there after I got an invitation to be a part of the Harumi-Triton Performance Festival June 2 & 3 in Tokyo. The Producer, Yasuko Takeuchi, is a long time friend and when she asked if I could take the Shinkansen up to Tokyo early on June 1st so I could make an appearance on the U LA LA TV Show I said sure. Arrived in Tokyo Station around 10:30 am and needed to be at the Studio at 11:00. The fact that Yasuko and I couldn't find each other at the train station made things interesting, but eventually we made it to the studio, I got changed and up to the tiny little studio space in time for a little mayhem! I don't think the studio will be the same! Ha!  May
23, 2007 OK I admit it I'm a bit Apple Nerd... Ever since I was introduced to my first Mac back in 1991 (a Mac Classic with a whopping 40 megabyte hard drive and hey... I upgraded it to 4 megs of RAM - Sweet) I've lived and breathed a portion of my day in front of the one Apple model or another. Mostly these days I use it for email, listening to music, building/editing videos and of course all of the promotional sort of stuff that goes along with being a performer... It boggles my mind sometimes to think about the first Mac I bough over 15 years ago and how far computers have come in that time. Sufficed to say I'm a HUGE Apple Fan and made a special trip to visit the Apple Store here in Osaka. Didn't have anything I wanted to buy, just wanted to swing by and soak up the atmosphere... Yeah... I know... I need to get a life. May 4, 2007 Golden Week is a Holiday Period in Japan that contains six different public holidays and wraps up with Children's Day on May 5th. Koinobori are flown during Golden Week, but are really symbolic of Children's Day on the 5th. We were off by a day, but the weather and the day lent themselves to taking a short train ride over to Takatsuki and walking from the train station to a Koinobori Festival that was taking place. There were literally hundreds of Koinobori flying over a local river and we thoroughly enjoyed spending the day enjoying the festival atmosphere and amusing ourselves. I took my video camera along and afterwards put together a video with Emiko that we posted on YouTube. Should you care to have a look head over to - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9QnD3d8WNvs  April 28, 2007 Flew to Japan on April 23 and was very happy to be reunited with Emiko and our boys Koji and Owen. They had flown to Japan about a month earlier and the boys had started school in Japan at the beginning of the Japanese School year which starts at the beginning of April. I had my surgery to deal with so arrived a bit late after I'd been given the all clear by Dr. Lewis. On my first weekend in Japan we took a trip to Mino which is known for the waterfall we're standing in front of as well as a population of wild monkeys. Emiko and I had visited this spot when we first got married over 10 years ago and at the time there were tons of monkeys. This time around we only ran into two... The first one we encountered was very bold indeed... I was carrying a plastic shopping bag with some snacks in it - the perfect target for a bold monkey on the prowl... He came around the corner, saw me, saw the bag and I could tell by the way he was looking at me that the bag was the target. So I put the bag behind my back and made it clear that it wasn't an option... Then he turned towards Koji who seemed to be a more manageable size as humans go and did a short charge in the hopes that Koji might drop a similar bag... Koji wasn't carrying a bag however and the charge was more startling than anything else... Koji was a little freaked out, but not as much as Owen who decided he'd had enough of this place and was ready to head home thank you very much... I picked him up to comfort him and let him know that we should keep going and he stated to everyone's amazement and amusement - "That Saru (monkey) had really freaky TamaTamas (Tama is literally ball, TamaTama refers to the Testicles)" Koji, Emiko and I all started laughing at which point the scary monkey became the source of comedy not fear and the day continued... 
April 5, 2007 Got home from China on the 2nd and had just about enough time to turn around before going in for surgery on an inguinal hernia I seem to have acquired in the last few months... Fun! I had set up the appointment with Dr. Lewis's office several weeks earlier, but because this wasn't a life threatening condition there was some debate as to whether my appointment would get bumped or not. Thankfully it wasn't and the surgery today seems to have been a textbook procedure. Textbook procedures are boring, but much better than complications. I need to lay low for about the next three weeks or so to allow things to heal up and I probably won't be back up on my unicycle for another few weeks after that. Don't really remember much about the actual procedure even though they only used a local anesthetic... I think there was more too that local anesthetic than they were letting on... All I really remember is that I seemed to be making the surgical team laugh a fair bit with what ever it was that I was saying... They do call it a Operating Theatre, so I guess I was just trying to do another show... 
April 1, 2007 Had to leave C.A.M.P. a wee bit early this year to take a gig at the Guangzhou International Travel Fair in Guanzhou, China. The Canadian Tourism Commission based in Beijing hosted the Canadian Delegates at the show and my job was to take the stage five or six times a day and present a 15 - 20 minute show to gather a crowd in front of the Canadian Exhibition Space, then send the crowd in to find out how great a tourist destination Canada is. There were representatives from Tourism Montreal, Tourism Ontario, Tourism Alberta, Tourism Whistler etc. etc. etc. There were also representatives from various tour operators who could help make arrangements for anyone interested in visiting the Great White North. This was my first trip to China and I was amazed at how well what I do worked for the audiences that I was performing for. Even with out the ability to speak Chinese I was able to make a connection with the crowd and had a ball with all of my shows!  March 23, 2007 Well, it's certainly a change from Puerto Vallarta and the Dawn Princess a couple of weeks ago... My word! That's me in front with the red jacket on. Once again, Artistic Director of the Winnipeg International Children's Festival, Neal Rempel gathered together an eclectic group of performers and set them free as instructors as part of the Circus And Magic Partnership (C.A.M.P) Program. The C.A.M.P. program is celebrating it's eleventh year and does a week in a northern community in Manitoba, then a week in Winnipeg. This year we traveled to Berens River and enjoyed the hospitality at the Barra Inn. The daily trip from the Inn to the school was made in the back of a pick-up truck - rather chilly on the ears! I've been associated with the program since it's inception and it's a pleasure being back teaching unicycle with such a great group of talented whackos! 
March 5, 2007 I had two jobs today... Number one, track down a bottle of Don Julio Anejo Tequila for Neal Rempel in Winnipeg and number two, find an interesting picture in Puerto Vallarta somewhere reasonably close to where the Dawn Princess was docked. I managed to pull off both remarkably successfully! The Don Julio I acquired at a grocery store that I could see from the ship... It was still a bit of a hike to get from the ship past all of the tourist stalls through various vendors across a couple of parking lots and over to the store, but by making the trek I suspect that I saved more than just chump change on what the same bottle would sold for at one of the traditional tourist booths... On the way back to the ship I had a few pesos in my pocked and there was a guy advertising 'Donkey Adventures' and taking pictures with a very young burro right next to the ship, so I handed over my few remaining pesos for a chance to grab this shot... Done and done!  February 19, 2007 In all I'll be spending about three weeks on the Grand Princess and I seem to be hanging out a lot with Cary Long. Today we walked from the ship past the port of Costa Maya and on to the town of Mahahual where there's a bit of a beach resort area - lots of restaurants, souvenir shops, and bars... Want a Corona... No problem there were plenty of places to pick one up and it was a perfect day for one. Hot, Sunny and a brilliant day to be at the beach. Before we actually got to the beach however I found three coconuts that had fallen from various trees beside the beach and I thought I'd give juggling them a shot... I was going to try more than three, but they're surprisingly unwieldy and the coconut husks aren't very forgiving on your hands if you catch them the wrong way... After a quickly assessing all of this I revised my plan and went back to a simple three coconut cascade.  February 15, 2007 Got off the Grand Princess with comedian Cary Long today in Cozumel and Cary seemed to have more of a plan than I did, so I just sort of followed along. We ended up walking from the ship up to Papa Hogs for a great lunch then strolled across the street with Dylan (The Dog) who wanted to go for a romp in the ocean. Cary would throw a ball out into the ocean, Dylan would swim out to retrieve it... Highly amusing for both dog and man. I found a perch on one of the deck supports and just enjoyed the beautiful day and the warmth of the Mexican Sun! 
January 19, 2007 Back in 1991 I unexpectedly had Ed Robertson from the Barenaked Ladies plonked himself down in the front row of one of my shows down on Granville Island. I wasn't really sure if it was Ed and made some flip remark about a Barenaked Lady sitting down at the beginning of my show... After the show I found out that it was actually Ed and we ended up talking and becoming good friends... Fast forward to December 2005 when the BNL boys stop in Vancouver while on tour in support of their 'Barenaked for the Holidays' CD. Ed and I go out for lunch and it comes up that the band is considering a Fan Cruise I mention that it would probably be a good idea to have a juggler aboard... Flash forward to today and I get to open for the band in the Follies Theatre aboard the Carnival Legend - then, to make things even better they call me back onstage during their encore and I do a juggling solo in the midst of their hit song "If I had $1,000,000 - Sweet!  January 7, 2007 Only a few more days left in my contract aboard The Sovereign of the Seas. I joined the ship back on December 27th and have been having a ball every since. This ships itinerary starts off in Port Canaveral, Florida and heads down to the Bahamas with stops in Nassau and Coco Cay. Coco Cay is an Island owned by Royal Caribbean Cruises and set up as a Caribbean playground with snorkeling, jet skis, beach volleyball, great beaches, waterside, ocean playground etc. Guests get off the ship in the morning and play all day on Coco Cay. Right in the middle of the day they serve a killer BBQ lunch. My personal favorite was the ribs... I've always been a bit of a sucker for nice BBQ ribs! Had a great day and only have a few to go before I head home. Looking forward to getting back on the 10th! Want More News? |
October
20,
2007
August 31, 2007
