alexpgp | Vent comeback?

I may not watch television - especially when I have a killer deadline looming - but there was something about the announcement of who, given a choice between a singer and a ventriloquist, would walk away with the grand prize on... is the show called America's Got Talent?... that caused me to sit down and pause for a couple of minutes.

Ventriloquists, or "vents" as they're called by just about everyone I've ever hung around, inhabit that same strange fringe of show business as magicians, stage hypnotists, sword swallowers, jugglers, and mentalists. Back when I did a regular gig under Broadway at a dismal little place called the "American Theater of Magic," we had no vent on the bill (and if you ask why a magic show would want a vent, it's because the boss wouldv'e said "Why not? We've got a sword swallower and a geek!" The audition, if memory serves, involved a mirror and breathing.). At any rate, our underground enterprise was riding - or trying to ride - a wave of interest that had been generated by Doug Henning, whose Broadway hit The Magic Show was the talk of the town (or maybe we just imagined it to be).

I was pleased to see the vent win. It's about time, speaking in principle. I say that because I saw this guy perform for the first time shortly after the announcement, and - Holy Toledo! - I just about cried during the performance of Roy Orbison's Crying. This fellow - Terry I think is his name - sure has an interesting approach to the art. I wish him luck.

In other news, 3 of 4 tax returns have been reviewed, and I finally decided that since all of the changes I mentioned in my last post were "spit shine" changes (i.e., smoother wording, as opposed to corrected wording), I'm not going to sweat it.

But I do need to jump on that last document.

Cheers...