Tour Schedule Update

Hey! Here’s another look at some shows we just added to the fall schedule! Let me know if you’re interested in bringing me to your school or event and we’ll add you to the list!

6/11 – Pullman, WA
6/12 – Philadelphia, PA
6/25 – Albany, GA
6/28 – Thompson, PA
6/30 – North Dartmouth, MA
7/17 – Mansfield, OH
8/7 – Omaha, NE
8/15 – Mt. Pleasant, MI
8/22 – Beloit, WI
8/23 – Lexington, KY
8/27 – Clarion, PA
8/28 – Manchester, NH
8/29 – Towson, MD
8/30 – Bowling Green, OH
9/5 – Potsdam, NY
9/8 – North Adams, MA
9/11 – Monmouth, IL
9/12 – Philadelphia, PA
9/25 – Pella, IA
9/26 – Moorehead, MN
10/2 – Oxford, OH
10/3 – Reading, PA
10/21 – Murray, KY
10/22 – Richmond, KY
10/27 – Arnold, MD
11/12 – Lyndonville, VT
12/4 – Beavercreek, OH

For a complete list of shows, visit http://michaelkentLIVE.com/tour

Imitation the Sincerest Form of Flattery

I knew when I decided to start putting clips of my show online that unoriginal performers without the ability to create their own material might start trying to perform my original material. That’s sort of the risk that goes with the reward of giving millions of people access to my performances. In the case of my “close up street magic video,” it’s the card to shoe that people haven’t seen. Card to shoe is an old principle and has been performed many ways. I’m not sure if my method is 100% original or not but I came up with it on my own. Almost 80,000 people have watched the video at the time of this blog. Since then, I get emails from young magicians saying “hey, that’s a great idea – I think I’m going to use that.” Why not just come up with your own way to end the trick?

Then we come to today’s topic of discussion. A friend called and told me someone online was doing my “Stars” routine word for word in a new YouTube video. I immediately had an idea of who it was, because last year I had a bunch of students facebooking me telling me that this performer was performing the routine word for word – right down to the geisha father and “I’ll never forget what my father said to me next. He looked me straight in the eyes and said ‘Now get a broom and clean that shit up!”‘ Word for word. Verbatim. Word for word. Well it turns out this performer was so proud of his performance of my routine that he decided to put a video of it online. Since I had asked the performer to stop doing my routine a year ago, I still knew where to get his number. I called and left a message and within an hour, the video had been taken down and replaced with a version that had any of the accompanying monologue to the trick omitted. No call back, no admission of guilt.

Let me be clear. The “Snowstorm in China” is a magical effect that has been around for a very long time – centuries old. I’m not claiming that other performers can’t perform it. It’s been performed by thousands of magicians throughout time. Badly by many of them. Many performers feel like they need to add it to their show because its beautiful and they saw another performer do it. This was the motivation for my routine. In case you haven’t seen my routine (you can watch below), it’s a spoof on the effect. I’m making fun of the magicians who feel as if telling a story about their childhood and doing beautiful magic somehow enables them to connect with the audience. My routine was written years ago with a comedy writer friend of mine. The routine – right down to every line of it – is mine, and I’ve performed it for thousands upon thousands of people in the last however many years.

I would love to share the original version of the other magician’s video with you. I have it saved (thank you, vixy.net). He really looks like an idiot performing my line. But I think I’ll take the high road on this one. After all, no one’s going to perform my original material as well as I do.
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I only ask that you help me through your support. The people that visit my facebook and read my blogs are the most supportive group of people I’ve ever seen. Show the below video to as many friends as you can. Post it to your wall, submit it to other web sites, do whatever – just let some more people see my video. I’d really appreciate it. Here’s the stars routine.

To put this video on facebook or link to it, here’s the URL to use: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TogBivhs290
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Thanks for your support. In closing, I’d like to ask you. What would you do? Do you think I’m doing the right thing?

New College Tour Dates Announced

Hey! Here’s a quick look at some college shows we just added to the fall schedule! Let me know if you’re interested in bringing me to your school and we’ll add you to the list!

6/25 – Albany, GA
8/15 – Mt. Pleasant, MI
8/22 – Lexington, KY
8/27 – Clarion, PA
8/30 – Bowling Green, OH
9/2 – Westville, IN
9/12 – Philadelphia, PA
9/25 – Pella, IA
10/2 – Oxford, OH
10/3 – Reading, PA
10/21 – Murray, KY
10/22 – Richmond, KY
10/27 – Arnold, MD
11/12 – Lyndonville, VT

For a complete list of shows, visit http://michaelkentLIVE.com/tour

New Mobile Notes Category

After WordPress, the software I use to write this blog, updated their iPhone app, I’m compelled to start blogging from the road more often. So Ive created a category called “mobile notes”. The mobile notes section will be filled with a different type of notes than usual. Many mobile notes will be microblog style brief thoughts and observations. Others will be longer notes to relieve boredom on the airplanes. Less links and photos. Just observations and notes here and there.

I’m writing this note at 20,000 ft on my way to Minnesota for NACA Northern Plains where I’ll spend a couple days hanging out with friends before flying to Hartford to perform at Western Connecticut State University in Danbury, CT. This trip marks my first as a Southwest Airlines A-List Member, which pretty much just means I get better seats and shorter lines. In reality, it means that I fly way too damn much.

I just had a conversation with the guy next to me who has two sons that have played football for Penn State, one of whom is a also a starting pitcher there. Really interesting guy. Also a pilot. It’s always interesting and awkward e ding airplane e conversation. If you don’t end the conversation, you spend the entire flight talking, which I can’t do – especially on the way to a show. But there has to be some “marker” that the conversation is over without being rude. In this case, I picked up my phone and he picked up his reading glasses at the same time, so it wasn’t awkward. I’m really stsrtingto associaten with Tyler Durden’s “single serving friend” philosophy.

Also, my mobile notes won’t have any sort of salutations a
or goodbyes.

12 States Already This Year

Wow! Just looked over the past 3 months’ schedule and I’ve performed in 12 states already. I’m not sure if that’s a lot or not, but it sure feels like it.

This last weekend, I performed at St. Martin’s University in Lacey, WA and at Maryville University in St. Louis, MO.

The show in Lacey, WA was a little ways south of Tacoma. This was my first trip to the Pacific Northwest and I loved everything about it. Here’s a shot from the airplane:

Soon after I saw this mountain range and snapped this photo, we flew over Mt. Ranier, but for some reason I didn’t get a picture of it. Had I taken a picture, it would have looked something like this:

The only things I would have liked more are a) clearer skies and b) more time to enjoy it! When I stepped out of the SeaTac airport, I immediately could feel there was something different about the air. It just felt and smelled fresher and cleaner. I had an urge to wade in a stream – possibly go mountain climbing. I decided to just get some Chinese food instead. But my fortune was pretty interesting:

The show at St. Martins was a great time – I played in a tiny little Student Activities Center to a crowd of about 50.

I woke up the next day to catch an EARLY flight out of a rainy SeaTac Airport. Had a layover in Salt Lake – my first time flying through there. I was amazed at the beauty. Mountains completely surround the airport. It’s impossible to get the beauty in a phone picture from the airplane:

It was a strange thing waking up at the crack of dawn in Seattle, getting on a plane, and getting off the plane in St. Louis only to find that it was almost show time. The fact that St. Louis was cold and rainy just like Seattle only added to the time warp feeling!

The show at Maryville College was for Sibz Weekend. Great crowd – somewhere around 200-250 I think! After some last minute shuffling around of lights and sound (they had to completely rotate the chair/stage setup to face a different direction an hour before the show!), we had a great show with great reactions and some cute kids onstage! The program board people at Maryville are super nice and a lot of fun. This was our third time hanging out and I hope there will be more!

This week, I head to Rochester, MN to hang out in the booth at NACA Northern Plains on Thursday and Friday, then I fly to Connecticut to perform at Western Connecticut State University’s sibs weekend!

In other news, I was recently accepted by Armed Forces Entertainment, an organization “dedicated to bringing our troops stationed overseas the very best in up-and-coming entertainment.” They will send me on a tour to perform for men and women in the US military stationed overseas when they have an appropriate request and slot. I am really looking forward to the opportunity!

peace, love and time warps,
mk

Albertus Magnus and Wilmington!

I recently flew to Connecticut to perform at Albertus Magnus College in New Haven. The show was fun but a couple challenges may have opened some doors.

First, my road case has 4 catches. 2 on each side of the lid. This apparently presents a problem for the TSA, because after the last 3 or 4 flights my case always seems to be unlatched and OPEN when I get it. Here’s a shot of the case on the carousel in Hartford:

So I took the case to Cabbage Cases to see what advice they had to offer. We redesigned the case to solve the problem, so some good will come out of it! ALSO – they replaced the bent catches on my old case free of charge. Cabbage is awesome!

Also – there was a glitch in the sound system at Albertus Magnus that prevented me from using the wireless lapel mic that I always use. So I did the whole show from a handheld corded mic on a straight stand. I normally don’t do this, but I’ve been wanting to make it a goal for some time now. I learned that almost all of the show works just fine from a handheld mic on a stand. The only thing that causes problems is the multiplying bottle trick. So what was adversity at face value could be a valuable lesson in that I can perform my show from a handheld mic if I need to.

Upon returning to Columbus, I attended the premiere of my friend Ty Pierce’s first feature-length film, Misdirection. I was blown away at what a great job he did with this movie. With a limited budget and lots of friends as talent in the movie, he really made it work. I was proud. Here’s a shot of me at the premiere enjoying a nice imperial stout at Studio 35.

Last night I performed at Wilmington College in Wilmington, OH. I was fortunate enough to perform there just last year for their sibs weekend, but they had me back last night to perform for the students. And since its only about an hour and a half from home, a lot of friends got to come see the show too!

I debuted a new trick during the afternoon in which I borrow a cell phone or an ipod and magically get it inside a balloon! It’s been a ton of fun performing the trick! I’m working on a way to fit it into the show!

There was a slight mishap before the show involving the glass from the multiplying bottles trick:

But we got the glass replaced and we’re all good! I can’t believe the support I’ve been receiving on Facebook lately. I really appreciate all the love. Here’s a link to my Facebook page if you’re not already a fan:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Michael-Kent/16270130518

Later this week, I fly to Seattle to perform in Lacey, WA at St. Martin’s, then the next day, playing Sibz (yes they spell it with a ‘z’) weekend at Maryville in St. Louis!

So excited for both shows! Until next time,

peace, love and shards of glass,
MK

A Neat Trick for the Office

This is unrelated to anything. But I just stumbled upon it while trying to abuse the crack that is Red Bull to stay awake.

Go get a binder clip – you know the little black clips with the metal “wings” that you use to hold thick stacks of paper and opened bags of potato chips together?

Now fold the clips back like you’re about to clip some paper with it.

Put the open end – the black end in your mouth just inside your lips.

Squeeze the clip open.

Inhale.

It makes a neat sound. That’s all.

You’re welcome. Now back to my Red Bull.

Lander University in Greenwood, SC

I grew up visiting Greenwood, SC at least once a year. My grandparents moved there when I was a kid, so the small town outside of Greenville, SC was very familiar to me when I visited to perform at Lander University last night.

I was scheduled to arrive the day before so I could spend some time with Grandma and Grandpa and my aunt and cousins who live there as well. I missed my flight leaving Columbus, which put a damper on the hanging out with family. I thought I was early, but it turns out, I looked at the ticket wrong and I was actually 1 minute too late. When I arrived at the gate, the plane was sitting there, they had JUST shut the door and they were pulling the bridge away. So I got on the next flight out 3 hours later.

Little fact: I always sit by the window. I’m not a big guy, so I rarely feel cramped. And I like to lean my head against the side of the plane if I’m taking a nap. But my seat to Greenville sucked. Here’s an example of a bad airline seat:

Arriving in Greenwood was pretty neat, as I recognized a lot of the buildings and establishments I had been to as a kid. My hotel was across the road from the Blockbuster where I remember picking out movies with my cousins to watch at Grandma and Grandpa’s house.

Everyone at Lander was really friendly and into what I was doing. We had a pretty good turnout and the auditorium was nice. Here’s a shot of the auditorium when I arrived:

And here’s another shot of the theater right before doors opened:

I’m looking forward to spending the weekend at home – possibly some St. Patty’s day debauchery before heading out to perform at Albertus Magnus in New Haven, CT.

I would love to write more, but I’m absolutely exhausted.

Peace, love and sleeping on the plane,
MK

I Cut My Thumb at Ferris State

This week, the Showoff Show and I headed up to Big Rapids, MI to perform at Ferris State University.

I drove 4 hours up to Lansing, MI the night before to pick the guys up at the airport. We stayed the night there in Lansing, then drove the 2 hours to Ferris State in the morning. Here’s a brief video of the trip:

I was performing my rope trick and must have gotten into it too much. Either that, or someone sharpened my scissors when I wasn’t looking, because they sliced through the rope much easier than expected and cut right into my thumb! I felt it happen, but tried to hide it because I didn’t see any blood. I had two people onstage with me. I’m not sure if they saw it or not, but I looked down and there was blood all over the rope and it was dripping onto the stage. I think at that point, I laughingly told the girl to my right “I cut myself.” She immediately was worried but I told her “I think it’s okay.” Then I asked the stage manager for a band-aid over the microphone. No one came for awhile – after the show someone told me this was because they thought I was joking. Meanwhile, I went on with the show. Several more props became stained. Then the stage manager brought me out a band-aid and all was good. The cut’s not that bad – just in a tough place – turns out it’s kind of difficult to do my act with a band-aid on your left thumb. Who knew?

The show was a hell of a lot of fun. The Showoff Show was great and people really loved them. I really enjoy performing with them.

Here are some photos that Evan Young took from the show:

The Rope Trick

The Chicken Trick

A Serious Talk

Another quick funny story. This was a college-appropriate show. In other words, it wasn’t the show I perform for sibs weekends or corporate events. Near the end of the show, I heard what sounded like a little kid. I said, “Wait – did someone bring a three year old to the show?” Everyone laughed. It got quiet. From the back of auditorium: “I’m FIVE!”

Peace, love and childhood education
MK

Starting off 2009 With Some GREAT Shows

Hey Everyone!

It’s been forever since I’ve written on here and, sitting in a diner with a couple friends in Hartford, CT, I decided I needed to be a little more diligent about it.

Last year ended really well with the Blue Angels performance and there are lots of things to be excited about in 09.

First off, voting is JUST NOW ending for the Campus Activities Magazine Reader’s Choice Awards. I was nominated for two awards. In addition that excitement, I had a showcase at NACA Nationals, which is kinda like the Disneyland of Campus Activities. I had a great time – more about that later. This blog is starting to sound like a clips show on a sitcom when the writers were on vacation so they turn the whole episode into a bunch recaps of funny stuff that happened before. Let’s talk about some shows I’ve done so far this year.

I drove up to Alliance, OH in the snow in January to perform with the Showoff Show, good friends of mine and fellow BigName Entertainers at Mt. Union College. I performed my show first, and the Showoffs performed second. Here are a couple photos:

Then after my show, the Showoff Show surprised me with this:

It was a great time and I can’t wait to get back to Mt. Union!

After that I headed out to Massachusetts to perform at Bridgewater State College. This is the largest commuter campus I’ve ever seen. 10,000 students and most of them commute! So I was worried that having a weekend show there wouldn’t draw a crowd, but thankfully I was wrong. We had a great turnout and had a very fun show. The A/V tech told me a story about the last magician to perform there. They wouldn’t let him bring his appearing motorcycle in the building. When the performer was asked why he didn’t tell them about the motorcycle before hand, his answer was “It’s supposed to be a surprise!” hahaha Here’s a review from the Bridgewater State News about the show.

When I returned home, I immediately showered and headed downtown to perform for my friend Ricky’s going away party. Ricky was an athletic trainer for BalletMet in Columbus and left for Las Vegas to be a trainer for Criss Angel’s new show, beLIEve. Met some really cool folks and had a lot of fun performing in my home city for a change.

A day later, I flew down to Jacksonville, FL to perform at Jacksonville University. I got there early so I had time to have lunch downtown. I sat at a little microbrew on the river and ate outdoors on the patio. It was overcast but 65 degrees and NO one was eating outside. For Floridians, that’s FREEZING. The only other two guys on the patio were also from Ohio! Jacksonville’s campus was really pretty.

Now imagine that in the early evening on a hazy night. Before my show, I stepped outside and just kind of took it in. It was really nice to be out of the 10 degree Ohio weather for a day.

I almost didn’t get home the next day. Half the airports on the east coast were shut down. I had two delays and one cancellation, but finally made it home after spending most of the day in Baltimore.

It was a good thing I got back in time, because I had to drive 6 hours the next day to perform at Lock Haven University in Lock Haven, PA. The folks at Lock Haven are super nice. I really enjoyed hanging out with them. They did a great job of promoting the show, too. So much so, that my show was the most highly attended event of the year! We had more than 500 people come out! Here’s a video I took backstage:

Met a lot of really cool people in Lock Haven. Some of them, I even got the chance to hang out with again in Nashville a few weeks later:

From PA, my next show was at Rutgers University in Camden, NJ. This was my second time performing here. The first time was about a year ago. I saw some familiar faces and friends that I made a year ago at the show. Here are some photos of the show:

The sound and lighting at Rutgers Camden is done by Sonus and they do a hell of a job, as you can see from the photos.

The next day, I performed at Greene St. Studios in the Germantown area of Philadelphia. The venue and attendance was small, but I still had fun at the show. The audience was full of a combination of professional jugglers, magicians and mentally disabled adults. A challenging show to say the least. Here’s the entire show compressed to 01:35:

I had a lot of fun at this show. It was nice to do something different – different type of audience and venue. And had an amazing time after the show too.

After a couple days off, I performed back in Columbus, Ohio for a networking event. It was heavily tweeted about. Read some of the comments about this show on my Twitter Favorites. There’s a blog about it with photos and video here. Feel free to follow me if you use Twitter!

Funny story – If you’ve seen my show, you know about the box inside a box inside a box, etc. Airport security (TSA) had fun with me with these coming back from Philly. They put an inspection notice in EACH box. Too funny.

I know this post is getting long, but there are a few more things to write about!

I flew to Nashville, TN to showcase at NACA Nationals. I was the roving artist the first day of the conference. It was held at the Gaylord Opryland Resort, which was incredible!

I went to the conference represented by LGA and had a great time hanging out in the booth with the Showoff Show, Jeff Civilico and Dale K – showoffs, a juggler and a hypnotist, respectively. There was even a full page ad in the Conference program! Here are some photos!

I left the conference a day early to perform in Hartford, CT at the University of Hartford. Christian and Harris at Hartford were really nice guys and brought in an awesome crowd for me by using University-based opening acts that everyone knew. I have to say – both acts were top notch. Hawkapella is an all-male a cappella group who incorporates a lot of comedy and personality in their arrangements. I was impressed and they were a great opener. The second opening act was Stop Laughing Mom, a student improv group. They did several sketches and really got some great laughs – the perfect warmup for my show. The crowd at Hartford was really warm and laughed a lot.

From Hartford, I flew to Birmingham, AL to perform for the American Foundry Society’s Southeastern States Conference. The hotel was cool. I didn’t see any of Birmingham whatsoever. My hotel was connected to a mall and the show was held in the hotel, so I literally saw nothing else. The AFS people were really fun and we all got drunk in the hotel bar after the show.

The next show was Pittsburgh, PA at Duquesne University for their Casino Night. I don’t have any photos from this show yet, but the stage was big and the crowd was kinda splotchy at the beginning. By the end of the show, it was pretty full. All of Duquesne’s show choir was in the audience because they were performing after me. At one point the entire show choir got up in the middle of the show. Then 10 minutes later, they came back. Only MILDLY distracting. haha Some good friends in Pittsburgh got to come see me perform, which was nice. And my hotel had a cool view of the soon-to-be replaced Mellon Arena, where the Penguins play.

So now, I’ve had an ENTIRE WEEK off, which is MUCH NEEDED. Tomorrow, I leave again to meet up with the Showoff Show again in Lansing, MI. From there, we head to Ferris State University in Big Rapids, MI to perform together.

And if you haven’t seen my latest video, take a look!

There. Now you’re all caught up on 2009. I will try to blog more often from now on. I promise.

peace, love and novel blogs,
MK