THE CELLINI STORY

when i was learning to street perform in new orleans.

i remember standing on my pitch for hours with nobody stopping to watch and wondering, if that was normal, if the other guys went through this {by the way if your on a bad pitch yes its normal but stick to it}

i was having trouble getting people to stop {new orleans is tough} so i asked people doug conn, elliot gordon,kozmo, johnny balloons,jugglers, crack head statues, and any body who had seen cellini work, how it was that he stopped people and everybody said the same he taps the wand.

now one of my mentors dante i knew was a sceptic of just about everything so asked him cuz i thought this was a case of heroe worship.....so i asked dante he said," oh, right he taps his wand like this." tap tap. " and they just stop and crowd around."

i got mad i said "no he don't, not here he don't, not in new orleans, i been workin here months and they don't do that."

so dante said, "what ever, you asked a question!"

couple of months later cellini came and watched my show it took about 10-20 mins to build a crowd.

when i was done with my show,he said,"that was the most original show i've seen....but you don't look at the people! you have to look at the people!" so when he was done bitching me out i said,"would you do somthin now?"


he wasn't in costume he looked like an average person and told me,"well i wasn't really prepared"

so i urged him, i almost insisted, thinkin i had em.

so he says, "alright but i'll need to borrow a stick"

at that moment i knew i didn't have em.

he was kinda up in age and years of the street had takin its toll so he slowly bent to the ground tapped the stick twice slowly rose and there was 40 people waiting for him.

i was dumb founded.

he did some stuff and they looked at him like he was a real magician.

you see thats the thing about him the people in there heads say,"wait honey we have to see this guy he's a real magician, we'll never get a chance to see a real one in our whole life we gotta see this" "don't worry its not that cheese guy we saw at the bar the other day."

and then cellini delivers.