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There was a comment on the Facebook thread that was pretty much asking when you knew
that you had made it. Whether it was as a performer or, you know, as an agent or whatever
it is that you were doing. And one of the defining moments of my career as a performer,
especially with Ringling Brothers, one of the first times, there have been many, but
one of the first times I really knew that I had made it...was, I was in Washington DC
and we had played the DC armory the night before, and I used to do, in the circus to
start the show, the number is called the blow-off, so it takes you into the show and gets the
energy going. Gets people really, really excited and gets them hyped up and then, one big ***
and one big laugh, and here starts the show so you can go from there. And I used to do
tricks with basketballs and my ending trick, I would throw it up in the air, let it bounce
and then catch it on my head and then balance it, you know, then get the applause and head
out.
So the next day I had to go get a new basketball for some reason and went to a sporting goods
store, and I noticed a little boy over by the basketballs and he was kind of messing
with the ball a little bit and he put it up on his head and like, trying to let it go
and balance it. He was trying to get his Mom's attention, so I kind of sat back and watched,
Wow, is he doing what I do in the show? But I was like, nah, you know, who am I? Just
a clown in a show. And then his mom finally turned around and saw him, and said "What
are you doing? You trying to be that clown from the circus?" And I was just like, I,
was very emotional at that point. Thinking this little kid had no idea who I was because
I wasn't in make-up obviously at the store and I was watching him imitate me and it was
very surreal. So I watched him a little bit longer and he was doing it a couple more times
and he saw me watching and I clapped for him and stuff like that. And then I actually ended
up showing him the trick and doing it, and kind of letting him in on it, you know, not
that he would recognize me because I was out of make up, but letting him know it was me.
And then actually spun the basketball on his finger. It was kind of cool and kind of weird
at the same time because I wasn't in make up and I didn't want his Mom to go "hey!"
But I think she understood too that I was that person. And it was awesome, it was awesome
to see that you touch people's lives and you don't realize it because there are fifteen
or twenty thousand people in the audience and you know, you don't realize that each
one of those people are people that take your experience home. And it was amazing to have
it come full circle and see the benefit of it.
Man, that is just a powerful story, and I appreciate you, I'm glad we were able to redo
this call because that is going to really make people go WOW! It's a real wake up call.
Yeah, ultimately, as a performer, yeah you want to make money, you want to make a living,
but that is what you are in the business for. You are in the business to entertain people
and to touch their lives even for a minute, I mean there is so much craziness going on
in the world. If you can just make people stop for that hour and a half or two hours
your in the show, and just let them relax and enjoy their life and kind of forget about
the bills at home, that stuff is always going to be there, it's always going to be there.
Unless you win the lottery the next day, you're going to have to deal with it. So for those
hour, two hours, we have you and it's our job to kind of take you off to another place
and just let you be a kid again. So it's powerful stuff and sometimes we lose sight of that
as performers and it is good to be reminded why we are actually in this business.