Roooooaaaaaaarrrrrrr!!!!!

Wow, 2 posts in one week. That's a record. This will be a quickie.

Since this blog is supposed to be about entertainment, not just MY entertainment, I wanted to reccommend a movie, Cloverfield. I saw it a few months ago in the theater and picked up the DVD today and watched it with my buddy Eddie. What a great way to tell a story. I won't give away too much if you haven't seen it, but will just say that it's about a group of friends throwing a going away party, and then SOMETHING attacks New York City. Something BIG. There are all kinds of spoilers online, but if you haven't seen it, and enjoy a good scare just take a look at the movie and see for yourself.

Vegas in 3 days!

Cute little town...

Well, it's been almost 2 weeks since my last post. I've been busy as hell. Performances of magic and music from The Hotel Hershey with a swing band to strolling magic and restaurants and corporate events. Our night at The Hotel Hershey was fantastic. A convention of PA dentists and orthodontists. What a very fun group. We were lucky enough to be joined by some great dancers from the Central PA Swing Dance Club. These guys and gals put on a great demonstration to our tunes like In the Mood, Tuxedo Junction, and some REALLY mean lindy hoppin' to Sing Sing Sing. After their demonstration, the dance floor was opened up to everyone and we saw that this group of dentists could really get down. We do our best to take requests, as I said in a post a few months ago, I'll need one of you to come to a gig and suggest a polka sometime. A few of the guys kept asking if we did any motown. Now that may seem a bit weird, but there are quite a few rock, motown and pop songs arranged for big band. We have a few in our book and have rehearsed them a bit. Well, to my surprise our leader Dale called an audible and we pulled up Proud Mary. Yes it was the Ike and Tina Turner version, not the CCR version. MAN did it cook!

This past weekend, I discovered a great little town near Trenton NJ, New Hope PA. I know one of my readers, (Hi Ericha!) will recognize this as the home of the Bucks County Playhouse. It reminded me of other places I have been like Rehobeth DE, Mt. Gretna PA, and Lake Chataqua NY. On my way in, I saw nothing but antique shops, art galleries and cute little bistros. (Oooh, I wanna stop there, and there, and there!) Of course, I was there to work and had NO time. I had been booked for a party thrown by a financial planner for all his clients. 3.5 hours of magic, I was beat, but what a great crowd. I had a feeling there were some REAL heavy duty high rollers in the room. But all of them were very down to earth. If you're ever within driving distance of Philadelphia and have some time to kill, take a spin through this little hamlet. (That is really the only way to describe it.)

The next few days see me performing my regular gigs at Texas Roadhouse and Scott's Grille. Saturday night, I'll be at the Carlisle Country Club performing for a casino night function, and then 8AM on on a plane to Vegas! I'm sure I'll have plenty of pics and video. My sidekick Scott Sullivan is attending the convention with me and we host a podcast dedicated to magic history. It would probably be boring to anyone who's not a magician, but if you'd like to check it out, do so at www.reelsinmotion.tv I'm sure we'll get lots of material there for the show. On May 3rd, I'll be performing at a fundraiser for the Jump Street organization. This is a group that promotes art and artists in the Central PA area. Their big fundraiser for the year is an event for the Kentucky Derby. I've never performed at an event like this, so this should really be fun.

Until next time, take care...
Pep

Back row politics...

What a great weekend! Well, Friday and Saturday were great, Sunday....that's another story.

Friday night at Scott's Grille was cookin'. The place was wall to wall people and everyone was in a great mood. That's my kinda gig. I had one VERY interesting table. My new best friend Gina, (insert catcalls and panting here) was so enamored with my magic. (And I like to think me.) She just shrieked over and over every time something happened, sometimes BEFORE it happened. I just love people with great reactions. But alas, she's taken. It's just as well, if her and I were together, the neighbors would really complain about all the shrieking.

Saturday I headed to Pottstown for a clinic/concert with some musician friends from the Encores band. 3 trumpet players to be exact. Chris, Jim, and Jose'. Our friend John tagged along too, his wife Tammy plays lead Alto with the band and she had to work, so he came for moral support. (Or to make sure we behaved, I'm not sure.) The title of this posting comes from a new song they did called Back Row Politics. It's a trumpet feature where all 4 guys come out front and trade solos with each other. I can not say enough good things about Gordon Goodwin and The Big Phat Band. We were lucky enough to see these guys one year ago and actually hang out with them a bit afterwards. They were excited to do it again. After the concert, we said hi to the guys and I felt so great when many of them remembered me and the magic I did for them at the bar last year. Lead trumpet player Wayne Bergeron even pulled my business card out of his wallet along with an autographed 4 of diamonds. Man I was impressed. This guy is really one of the best trumpet players in the world. That's no exaggeration. The band's schedule was a bit tight as they were having dinner with some local high school kids, so most of them did not get out for a little "hang time" with us bozos. Wayne and fellow trumpet player Willie Moreno joined us for cocktails at a great Irish pub near their hotel. As the only non-trumpet player in our group, I was a little bit out of place once they started talking shop, but Willie demanded to see some of the magic he had heard about from Wayne. Any of you guys that enjoy good jazz, check out Gordon Goodwin and the Big Phat Band. You won't be sorry. The photo at the top is Jose' with Wayne. Of course my camera battery died before I could snap one with me in it. Oh well, I'll admit Jose' is a bit swankier than me, but not by much.

This weekend, I'll be making a little sweet music of my own. Saturday night takes me to one of my favorite places in the whole world to perform in. (OK, I haven't been that many places.) I'll be with Jose, Chris, Jim and all the rest of the Encores band at the Hotel Hershey. As I said in earlier posts, I grew up in Hershey and in high school performed there a lot. I still get to do magic once or twice a year there, but it's actually been 15 years since I've played music there. I'm sure it will be a blast. The photo at the top is Jose' with Wayne.

What made Sunday so bad? One word....HANGOVER! Remember kids, lots of water between cocktails.

Vegas in 17 days!

Busy busy busy.....

What a busy weekend. It started Saturday morning as I drove north to Mifflinburg. I was to bowl in a Adult/Jr. doubles tournament with my buddy Joshua. It was a fun time, especially in the second game where yours truly rolled a 297! Yep, that's right, 297. For those not familiar with the game, that's 11 strikes in a row. Pretty damn good.

As I said a few weeks ago, I am now performing at Texas Roadhouse in Camp Hill. It's a fun place. Last week I met a lovely couple name Jean and Lee. I think I may have only done one trick for them and we just chatted for 5 or 10 minutes. They had seen David Copperfield the night before, (quite a step down huh) and were asking me all kinds of questions. They asked me to come and perform at a party in their home and, of course I accepted. That was this past Saturday. Lee had recently retired for the 2nd time and they had a few friends over for cocktails, food and yours truly. What a beautiful home and a fun time. There were a few kids there and while I've NEVER considered myself a children's entertainer, they were a lot of fun. So much fun, that I decided to give two of them, the chance to graffiti tag Lee's 22 foot ceiling. Many years ago, my favorite trick to perform was The Card on the Ceiling. This was years before I was performing much professionally. If you have never seen or heard of it, it's exactly what it sounds like. A playing card is signed, replaced in the deck and the whole deck wrapped with a rubber band. As the deck is thrown upward, one card sticks to the ceiling and of course, it is the signed card. Here's the fun part; it doesn't come down. I have had cards stay in place for years. I even have one in Hersheypark Arena, (that took quite a while). The performance included several of my favorite pieces of sleight of hand I've been performing for many years. Concluding with the cups and balls and the torn cigarette paper. Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves throroughly.

Sunday morning, I was off to the movies. I've been waiting for the movie 21 quite a while. I had read the book Bringing Down the House many years ago. This is based on the true story about a group of MIT whiz-kids who go to Vegas and take down the casinos with a complex card counting system. The book was changed quite a bit. It was a little, "Hollywooded" up, but still a fantastic story. I can not recommend this movie enough.

Speaking of Vegas, I'm in total countdown mode for my trip in a few weeks. 26 days to go!