Wednesday, May 9, 2012

GRNDL




By the by it’s pronounced Grendal.

Aka- Chris Cromartie.

Home pitch; Vegas

He has toured up and down sidewalks all over America.

So I did a lecture in Vegas and GRNDL was in the audience and I was tellin people how to work small sidewalks. The next day I went out to some of the tuffest sidewalks I’ve  ever worked and  he took me to school….I should have attended his lecture.

The thing is on every pitch in the world there’s a busker who has mastered that pitch. I get emails and phone calls from a lot of people asking what to do, when there’s already someone in their town who has mastered that town.

My advice is ask that busker.
In Vegas GRNDL is that master, he works Las Vegas sidewalks like they all came to see him. It blew my mind.
The way it happened is I was working a spot I had scouted out, he came over tried a show and had a tuff time, so he told me that I should go to another spot…..but I’m stubborn, I kicked off some shows there and it was work to stop them…..hard work. Then I finally went to his and he was kickin them off effortlessly over and over. To my dismay I couldn’t even get one proper one off……

My lesson that day is that Vegas had to be learned. All spots have to be learned….but especially Vegas…wow.

Any way I managed to make enough to get out of there.

GRNDL knew on the strip, that folks there were inundated with people hustling them and would only trust a performer who had someone in front of them first, so he’d stop a person first then go into his show.

My method of course is to stop the entire sidewalk, this worked on Fremont street, but barely worked on the strip, the correction was to either not work the strip or to bally one or two people before I went into my big bally.

Anyway,

GRNDL is a real magician.

What do I mean by that?

I mean that to be a magician, it’s more than doing tricks, you need to be a wise man, knowledgeable about the world and the universe, and you need to hold yourself like a magi.

I am not going to go into it here but suffice to say he meets the criteria, no question.

We talked for hours about philosophy, history, the occult, religion, science, theater presentation and a host of others things.

The biggest reason I say, he is the #1 sidewalk magician out there is because he’s not doin huge amplified productions with the type of show you might see at a corporate event, he’s doin a gritty sidewalk show....every day all day.

 There is no question in the minds of his audience that they are watching a real street guy.

It is so hard to convey this to many club magicians who are thinking to go out to the street with their slick appearance and corporate marketing mentality…..but the laymen know what I’m talkin about. There’s something about seeing a real street character, who belongs out there.

When the other -street element people- out there see him, whether they be thugs, hustlers, gutter punks, liquore store owners, cab drivers, bums, cops, or even other street buskers, they know GRNDL represents the street like their king.

GRNDL is not trying to fit in by wearing some worn clothes with a $50 dollar hair cut…….GRNDL fits in because GRNDL is the street.

Of course any true street performers out there know I just gave him the highest compliment….but some dandy business  magicians won’t get it and they will continue to come out and plague us with their high maintenance behavior…..and they’ll never get it….but us street guys will…..and most of all the lay public will.

His audience’s faces are lit up, they are finally seeing something REAL in public, instead of a canned show, or an armature attempt, or a pure a hustle.

You see…..

When GRNDL works, his character is natural, his show’s atmosphere is vivid reality, and you could tell he loves what he is doing with his life the whole time.

He’s street grime regal….he’s my people.

it is no great mystery that when we all went the magician’s meetings and magi hang outs, it was GRNDL who dragged me and Sonny Holliday out to the parking lot to drink wine and smoke cigarettes while the indoor magi went on hobnobbing and being seen with the in crowd.

Thank gad for GRNDL.
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Kris Bentz



Home pitch; San Diego, CA.

world traveler. All over the U.S. but He has worked extensively in California, Vegas, and Maryland. Presently in Europe.

Teacher;             

Jimmy Talksalot.

Usually in this blog I do a lot of profile and promo for the entertainers to try and give them the credit they don’t usually get…..

and I would like to do that a little with Kris, but since we have worked together on so many projects I would like to tell y’all a little about our friendship which I think may educate the readers to how our ancient fraternity works a little.

When I first met kris some years back in San Diego, he was running a wine bar and doing corporate gigs. Before that he was heavily in the corporate business world that his degrees had qualified him to do. But as some of you may know our country has been having a little set back in the area of business we like to call the recession. So he pursued his love which was magic.The wine bar gave him a nice little living while he broke into show business as a profession.

He saw me workin in San Diego and decided this could be a career so he started carpooling me to work every day and learnin buskin.

I have to say I was very intimidated at first instructing him because of his extensive knowledge of magic and the magic world. He knew a lot of magician celebrities, had chops, and knew a lot of magic.

 Heck he even grew up with Wayne Houchin.

With his formal education it was difficult to keep up with him in intellectual conversation, thankfully he was a humble guy and went easy on me when I would go off on my southern political diatribes.

Thing about kris is he is a perfectionist…to a fault sometimes. But due to this he is one of the best American street performers out there.

Kris adds class and wit to the busking industry. More like a European magician, he has proven that American audiences can and do appreciate a gentleman magician performing a sophisticated performance on the street…..if presented properly…and he does.

This of course isn’t to say he’s stuffy, in his show he cuts loose sporadically taking the crowd off guard.

Showing Kris the ropes as far as getting him to stop stay and pay wasn’t a problem, but as some of you know I am more of a clown.

So, it was a great relief to me when Kris had met Eric Evans who is a master magician, because I felt  it was Eric who might inspire and influence him to present this type of sophisticated show on the street and make it play in the states.

For those of you that are familiar with the instructional dvd our fraternity has out “FOUR OF A KIND” you already know how important of a performer and teacher Kris is, not to mention that him and George Gilbert spoke at the lecture I did in Baltimore at Denny and Lee’s magic studio.

Kris had also written an article on busking tactics that was so important I felt it I had to put it into my lecture notes that are still up for sale in the magic industry.

I feel that it was him that really added a lot of credibility for what we do to the magic club guys.

Sure I taught Kris, but the fact is I think I learned so much from him that I am now indebted to him.

Well, with all that said, Kris is a very successful entertainer travelling the world and living the dream. His resume is huge and he can work any venue, whether it be, indoors, outdoors, stage or stadium.

There’s a lot more to him then a amgic show, he is a speaker, he teaches classes, he teaches folks how to actually be a magician and do magic. also he knows a lot of circus skills like juggling and stunts.

A close friend.

I would hope you would take the time to check out his site and catch his show.

Here’s his site;

http://www.krisbentz.com/

here's some earier footage of him before he created the  more sophisticated show he's doin now;


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here's some sidewalk work some years back;
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                                                 KRIS BENTZ -northern Europe.


TONY BUTTON



From New York, works mainly Ocean City, but has worked most of the pitches up and down east coast to the bottom of Florida.

I first saw Tony workin the boardwalk in Ocean City last year. I had noticed him workin in small spots for people walking by and pitchin bills into his hat on the ground.

The first thing I noticed was his work ethic, he would play and sing his heart out for 8-10 hours a day. Even after the hurricane evacuation he was back on the pitch a day later.

He was livin out of his car and travelin the coast. Livin the dream.

So I made it a point to meet him. And as it has always been in my life the best have always been humble. He was especially respectful for a young guy to me and this blew me away because of his talent. So since then I have watched his progress and he now hangs with some of the biggest names in the street scene and his work has gotten even better.

Even though he’s humble about his work don’t let that mislead you, his act is a powerful and charismatic act that has a lot of street grit to it. This keeps the street thugs at bay and the tourists and locals lovin him.

He does original songs he has written. One day he discussed his strategy and artistic process to me and some old veterans and we were blown away at how brilliant it was. This of course comes from all the hours he puts in every day. Tony Button is a fanatic about his work, which is unusual to see in someone his age, he already has worked out a lot of the problems that takes buskers a life time sometimes to even figure out.

A lot of the old legends hang with him out of pure respect for his talent and work ethic; also he’s a good friend.

The thing about Tony is he is a true sidewalk guy because he can bang out a living in any condition. Bad weather and regulations bounce off him because he is a small self-contained act that can play anywhere.

Tony is the future of sidewalk performing.

He’s easy to book because of his talent and he is a great example of how you can be a success if you do what you love and do it all the time.
if you bounce around youtube looking for him you'll see him on different pitches through out the country.
here's a good song;



BIRDIE MCCLAINE

World traveler, works mainly out of Fort Myers Beach.
Left home at 18 and joined Ringling Bros Clown College, graduate 1975.
Toured Ringling Bros blue unit 4 yrs. as clown and stilt walker.
While in the circus, Birdie had often watched and admired street performers and when he left the circus decided this is what he was going to do.
Birdie Mcclaine has never had a “real job” and this alone could make every busker in the world look up to him.
Ventriloquist, mime, juggling, clown, magician, acrobat, painter, musician of any instrument, spray paint artist, comedian…..and the list goes on.
He does these things at levels that the masters of each of these art forms converse with him in respect.
In Magic I can say, Gazzo, Cellini, and Sonny Holliday all have called him a good friend and been impressed with his work and even an inspiration.
Infact many of the masters in the magic field around the world know and respect him.
And that’s just magic, this is not to mention all the other various forms of artists and performance artists who have gone out of their way to surround him hoping some of his genius will rub off on them.
I myself, am now writing about him because of his ability to work sidewalks and because of his help in my own work.
He has helped me to develop more material for my act and has taken my student Chanz under his wing and has made him an incredible silent performer.
Birdie is probably most famous amongst street performers and venues that hire live performers for his silent juggling act……a master piece.
I silent juggling act is very common in Europe and in many other countries, but I would urge the reader to look for an American street juggler doing a silent act in the states, I doubt you will find many if any at all.
The reason for this of course is that, it is extremely difficult to do a silent act of any kind in the states and still make a living on the streets…..but Birdie can.
Birdie is a perfect example that a quality performance instead of hounding the audience with ego and money lines will get the audience to appreciate and pay for the value.

Don’t get me wrong, even in his silent shows he has hat routines to get the money, but the difference is that the audience absolutely loves the hat routines….it’s all part of the fun.
What we are dealing with here is a master, a legend, and a busking icon.
So why don’t we hear more about him?
Simple, he has spent his life perfecting his craft as a street entertainer and has picked up gigs purely on the quality of his show. Birdie is the real thing, he is not an internet celebrity.
This blog was set up to try and give credit to sidewalk and street performers who have not gotten the credit that they deserve. You will hear about a lot of other performers because they are master marketers and that is where they have focused their all of their creative energies, but birdies spent his life focusing on his work.
This is not to say that he has not worked huge high paying and famous venues, because he has worked thousands of these.
He has worked festivals, cruise ships, and huge theme parks… Disney loved him.
I could go on and on about him, but what I would suggest is to ask around about him the next time you’re out workin the street some one’s always got a funny story about this wild man, because he has lived his life much like his show…by the seat of his pants.
I am putting up a video of his recent show this show of his many is spoken. I have put it up so you can see what kind of caliber of performer he is.
It’s a short circle show but please watch it till the end and see if you can feel the atmosphere at the end.
Also notice that the hat routine strategy it’s brilliant watch close how the audience pays in the beginning then comes after the finale……brilliant.
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birdie mcclaine, friend