We're off to Moose Jaw in the morning to help my mother prep her house for sale. In our absence my sister in law will be bunny sitting. This means pen life for both until we get back. As you can see Augustus is less than thrilled at the prospect.
Quick update here - thought I'd show off the new promo photos I had taken recently by photographer Jason Verschoor. Some wonderful images here! The Japanese fellow in some of the shots is magician Atsushi Ono, my occasional performing partner.
I had an idea a while ago for a magic routine for my Cabinet of Curiosities show involving matryoshka dolls. It turns out you can buy blank unpainted doll sets so I ordered a few and set about designing and painting them. I went through a bunch of different options - composers, artists, a melting sequence of cyborg dolls - before settling on silent movie comedians. Yes, it was tempting to go for the pop-culture Star Wars theme but I restrained myself. Barely.
Buster Keaton was always my favourite when I was younger so he got to be the biggest. Now that I remember it, for my stag party we rented a 16mm film projector and got some old celluloid film reels for the night that included Buster Keaton ("Cops") and the Wombles. Ah, good times.
After Keaton, then Chaplin, Marx, Laurel and Hardy, and finally Fatty Arbuckle and Harold Lloyd. Yes, Lloyd did that iconic hanging-from-the-clock-tower scene but he was never my favourite. Too many sports-related bits, perhaps. Not sure.
In two months' time I'll be doing a pair of shows at the Glenbow Museum in Calgary (why, 1pm, I believe! Certainly, you'd be most welcome to come along). Family-friendly event on 22 and 23 June 2013 and - now here's the cool part - the reason I've been asked to do this is because the museum is having an MC Escher display for a couple of months and they want entertainment to dovetail with the theme of mathematical magic, optical illusions and perception.
Yay!
I met with Ty Larner of the museum recently and that triggered a few ideas for the show. One was something I saw performed about 20 years ago called the Gozinta Boxes (or In and Outer Boxes). I'd forgotten all about them and hadn't actually seen anyone do them since then so I looked them up on Youtube (bless Youtube), figured out how they were meant to work, drew up a plan on a scrap of paper and spent yesterday afternoon building a set.
Here's the result! Not yet sure exactly what the routine's going to be like for the show, but I've got the prop so I'm on my way to getting it performable.
And for no other reason than that I haven't posted rabbit photos in a while, here's a little video clip from this afternoon. Augustus is just getting over a bout of GI stasis but he's pulling through and is finally wanting snacks again. We think his guts got completely blocked up with hair from grooming Snowdon. Rabbits usually don't get hairballs...but we got a model that does, it seems.
The Cabinet of Curiosities is finally done! After four months of thinking (over...and over...and over again...) about how to make it, seven solid days' work and it's ready for use. Well, nearly - still a couple of touch-ups.
Oh, and I need to finish writing the show. I suppose that's quite important too. Not many people want to sit for an hour and watch me polish the thing on stage. They want a show.
So I've got most of the show written already but I'm still working on it. I'm pleased so far, though.
The cabinet itself is a mix of Baltic birch, walnut, oak, hemlock and maple. And about a pound of brass fittings.
Here are some more photos.
Oh, right - and a photo of Nadine holding Augustus in the nail-clipping pose. He hates this. Not fond of human contact at the best of times and really not fond of being held upside down to have his feet played with.
So Professor Elemental, hybrid beast-creature offspring of Marie Curie and Charles Dickens, the Apollo of the comedy chap-hop (...hmmm...think Steampunk Victorian/Edwardian comedy rapping) scene, has been releasing chunks of a mini-film called The Chronicles of Professor Elemental.
Here's part one...
Don't just sit there, people! Click on the little TV-shaped box with the arrow in it - that's the only way you can enjoy this as much as I did.
I discovered the Professor almost by accident. Well, not accidentally at all. A friend posted a link on Facebook to the deliciously irreverrent and cleverly-lyricalised (is that even a word? I've used it, so it is now) song 'Fighting Trousers', a song which is still to my mind the zenith of chap-hop smartiness. See last month's blog posts - I think the link is still there.
He's got a brilliant bunch of folks working with him on this, it would seem - director, camera people, actors, gorillas (I assume he has at least two to comply with local labour laws. Professor?) - and the result is half an hour of pure comedy indulgence, a pastiche of Sherlock Holmes, Jules Verne and the entire Steampunk movement. Well-worth watching over a cup of sugary tea in a proper china cup.
So Calgary is set to have its first ever magic festival, thanks to the efforts of a man who calls himself Ryan Pilling, probably because it's his name. Yes, folks, only six weeks to go. It happens on February 22 and 23 and is designed to allow the public to see a variety of types of magic in a short time - close-up, stage and parlour magic. The performers will be top-notch and it's well-worth getting tickets to. Have a look at the website above.
The format is meant to mimick that of Hollywood's famous Magic Castle and although the planned venue may not have a secret entrance and password, he'll likely hire someone large to stand in the doorway until you say please.
So if you're in Calgary or anywhere near, please come and join in! Not only will you have the time of your life but you will later be able to tell your grandchildren that you were there at the inaugural night. Or tell your neighbours. Or anyone who'll listen. Strangers love to hear that kind of thing while waiting for a bus.
Pull up a chair. Put on your slippers, have a cup of tea and take a look around. And once you're done, have a look at the website: http://www.malcolmrussell.net/
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