Official SGT ADD thread

[delsdad]

Harlequin in 1982 at the Paramount Theatre. Saw them again last summer in a tent about 3 blocks from that theatre, they are better than ever.

[shilohmm]

Wow -- Rainbow Music Hall. That brings back some memories... mostly of stories my older brother told about shows he went to there. I went to a couple myself, but nothing too exciting.

I loved it. We were always within the first ten rows or so, so maybe I've got a skewed perception, but it seemed a good sized place to me. Do not like stadiums for music.

[delsdad]

Katie Perry is launching a new perfume today across the street from the theatre. For this very important event they are closing down Yonge & Dundas for 5 hours. This is Torontos equivalent of times square. Dozens of police at the intersections, major traffic disruption on what is already a bad weekend for traffic due to Pride, July 1 and July 4 bookending a weekend. Brilliant plan! Very glad I walk to work!

And Katie Perry wont even be performing a song at the event, according to the radio!

[BRWombat]

[shilohmm]

Friend of ours who is getting married this week Facebooked this to his best man:

http://www.qwantz.com/index.php?comic=1992

I'm now trying to convince best man that he should wear muddy torn pants to the wedding to make the groom look good. I figure it's the male equivalent of picking ugly brides maids (which I was not guilty of, but I've heard stories...).

[Big Wallaby]

My first concert was David Copperfield. Front row. I was seven.

Having been in the magic industry since (and because of that), I am convinced the guy has Asperger's, and I have friends deeper into the industry who would agree... some who are very influential in fact. He can perform magic like no one else, he can follow a script and make you believe he feels every word, after having performed the exact same script night after night after night, twice and three times a night, for the past year. 450 shows would be a really, really slow year, and if you've never been to a Copperfield show, get your rear end to Las Vegas and see him perform. He understands that the magic is not in the illusions, but in the fact that he chooses to believe what he is doing, and because of that, so do you.

But if you try to strike up a conversation with him and he's not on a script, just forget it. If you get him away from his routine you won't like the results. In fact, when you wait in line for his autograph, you are kept about ten feet away, one of his assistants takes your poster (or whatever you have, in my case a poster), hands it to him, and he takes a moment to lock eyes with you. In that moment you feel like the most important person he's ever met, but he never says a word.

When he was learning to perform... scratch that, when he was teaching himself how to perform close-up, he would keep practicing until his fingers bled.

Oh, and that whole thing about the lady who claimed he raped her? Not really possible. First, being a rock star of the industry, he has his choice. Second, he's a gentle guy, and third... he just doesn't have the social skills outside of a script to make it happen. But then, that is why he was found guilty, cooperated fully with investigators, and was never actually charged. She dropped all charges, and that with more pressure from the DA than his company.

Wow. I can't be succinct about anything, can I?

*Mumbles*
1994, Garth Brooks with Trisha Yearwood.

I would love to have gone to a Garth Brooks concert. Another person who knows how to play to and loves his audience.

When Alabama was on their last tour, my dad got tickets for him and my mom to go, seventh row, in the center. Then, his job sent him on a trip and he would not be able to do it. So he gave the tickets to my mom for her to take me, since it was the LAST time, the tickets were expensive, and he wanted SOMEONE to see it if he couldn't.

My mom forgot. I never knew until afterward. Still fries me to this day.

I went to an Emerson Drive concert at Jubitz in Portland... I was actually allowed to run around with my camera at that one. As I was shooting, the band manager came up to me and gave me his card.

[shilohmm]

Your theory that Copperfield has Asperger's is intriguing. I've always found Copperfield extremely disturbing because there seems to be a profound disconnect between the persona he's playing and who he really is, where he's "going through the numbers" somehow in putting on that persona. If he's got Asperger's, that'd explain why it feels so artificial and odd to me.

Also explains why I feel like he's got such an extreme need for control. Most magicians have a patter down, but they can adapt it to the audience or otherwise cope when things go in an unexpected direction. Most charismatic people, especially charismatic people who perform on the stage, have that adaptive ability and know it and enjoy using it. Copperfield wouldn't have that ability, so would need to have prepared for any possible contingency. And his charisma feels "off" to me because it's coming from a very different place (although the underlying confidence is placed on something more reliable, IMHO, than that of most charismatic people).

So I'm totally buying in on the Asperger's thing. :D:

Oh, and that whole thing about the lady who claimed he raped her? Not really possible. First, being a rock star of the industry, he has his choice.

That doesn't really make any difference. A lot of rapists "have their choice" of any number of willing participants -- which just seems to give them the idea that they have the "right" to any woman they want, and to believe that if they just force her, she'll change her mind.

Second, he's a gentle guy, and third... he just doesn't have the social skills outside of a script to make it happen.

A lot of rapists are gentle, or at least seem to be, around most people. And you don't need social skills to rape, don't even get that argument.

But then, that is why he was found guilty, cooperated fully with investigators, and was never actually charged. She dropped all charges, and that with more pressure from the DA than his company.

He wasn't found guilty (or innocent, for that matter), because he wasn't charged. My guess is she dropped the charges because she was dealing with a different case and her lawyers advised her to bail on the one she'd essentially lost. She also sounded like a whack job with some serious issues to me - the fugue state she described with the other case (I don't know any details on the Copperfield one) is not uncommon with women who have unacknowledged sexual abuse in their past.

[delsdad]

Having worked with the magician in question on two different tours, I can concur with much of what BW has pointed out. The man insists on his radio mic being fed into the headset system for the entire crew. And when the mic is muted, between scripted lines, the stream of profanity would make a sailor blush. So much so that you might suspect a mental cause like tourettes. But is is directed towards individual crew members and show elements. Its is conscious and directed. And literally non stop. Id love to record his show with a scanner from outside the building...
He actually fired an assistant during a show one time, telling him to be gone before the show ended, he did not want to see him in the building when he got off stage. He did this through his mike over the headset, while standing onstage doing an illusion. NOT a nice man at all.

[darph nader]

Drinkin beer works better when you open the the damn can. :(
That is all.

[techie-13]

He actually fired an assistant during a show one time, telling him to be gone before the show ended, he did not want to see him in the building when he got off stage. He did this through his mike over the headset, while standing onstage doing an illusion. NOT a nice man at all.

Wow!