Viewing entries tagged
showbiz

London, England

January 8, 2021

Introduction - There isn’t any international travel happening at the moment so it’s the perfect time to revisit some wonderful memories of overseas adventures. This one is from 2016.

My Adventure - We touched down at Heathrow Airport and proceeded to grab our luggage and meet our tour bus. This was my first experience having my very own tour bus. Since we had to drive anywhere from 2 to 8 hours between shows it was far easier to do a European tour on a tour bus than any other way. Unfortunately the only time we spent in London that day was our bus driving us out of it to the first English city on our trip.

I was a little worried that our very busy schedule was going to keep us traveling every day with no time to visit London before we left Great Britain. As we spoke to our production team and reviewed our tour schedule we realized that we were, in fact, going to have a full day to visit London and do some sightseeing.

Several days later we left Alconbury on our day off and took the train to London. Woohoo!

Fellow traveler and video production guy Bart had contacted his cousin who lives in England and he found out that she was going to be in London the same day that we were. So, our first stop was to meet Bart’s cousin at the Prince Albert Memorial and Park.

After the initial pleasantries and some time for them to visit, Bart’s cousin and her family had an appointment to keep at a nearby museum, and we were on our way.

When we were planning what we should do while in London all the locals we spoke to had plenty of opinions on what would be fun. We finally decided on a “hop-on/hop-off” tour on the many buses that travel all over the metropolis of London. And while I don’t have any idea of what we may have missed, the hop-on/hop-off tour was brilliant! (as they would say in England)

Keeping in mind that we did get on and off the tour buses several times at different parts of the city to see things that interested us, it took us all day on those buses to see the entire city. Because we were there in April, the later it got in the day the colder we got. As the sun started to set, we started to freeze our tails off.

Since we spent the day as tourists we really just did touristy things. Personally, I love history and learning about all of the things that happened in the different parts of London was a blast. I mentioned to Kevin and Bart that I would love to spend about a month in London just being a tourist and taking it all in.

Since the United States is such a young country we just don’t have the history that a place like Great Britain does. I constantly found my mouth hanging open as I looked at the incredible architecture. Personal highlights included the Tower Palace, the Tower Bridge, and Buckingham Palace.

I think I’ll let that pictures tell the rest of the story…

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48 Hours in Kosovo

December 2, 2020

Introduction - Since the COVID-19 pandemic has stopped virtually all international travel, I’m remembering and reporting on some wonderful memories of trips and adventures I’ve taken over the years. This one is from 2016.

My Adventure - Well, there’s no feeling like flying and living in airports for a little over twenty-four hours until you get to your destination. And as much as I enjoy the adventures this lifestyle affords me, non-stop travel with no breaks to actually let down and chill is definitely not one of the best parts.

With that said, I had some excellent travel partners – Kevin and Bart – to enjoy this adventure with.

We landed at the Pristina Airport and proceeded to travel another hour by van to our destination. Look, I’ll be honest with you…I wouldn’t have picked Kosovo for a vacation spot. In fact, if I hadn’t been performing my show there the following night, I would have never circled this place on the map. But that is part of the fun, isn’t it?

Fortunately, when we arrived we had the day to relax and get acclimated to a completely different time zone. This was our first stop on an eleven city tour of Europe. Kevin and Bart crashed hard and I spent the day noodling around our surroundings because I was so excited about getting this thing kicked off.

The next day our host showed us around the base and then took us to one of his favorite spots for lunch. Kevin, Bart, and I spent several hours walking around the city and then we had a great steak at a very nice restaurant.

Part of the fun of performing a show on a military base is getting to experience a tiny flavor of what it is like to live that lifestyle. We definitely got a kick out of all the activities that were planned for us that day!

Our show that evening was great. We had a spirited audience who was ready to have fun and we gave them a monster of a show. Since we were in the middle of nowhere our setup was a little more modest than all of the other stops on our tour. My sleight of hand got great reactions, and Kevin’s insane mental feats drew gasps and left people wondering how such mysteries are possible.

As is normal for show business we went to bed late that night and had to wake up less than four hours later to drive back to the airport and head to our next destination. I’m just glad to still be alive to type these words. Our driver decided he wanted to audition for the Indianapolis 500 that morning. I’m pretty sure he set a land speed record for the little rickety van that we were in.

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Frankfurt, Germany

July 7, 2020

Recommended Things To Do:

Entertain the security officials!

My Adventure - Ok, let me be totally upfront. My time in Frankfurt wasn’t really an adventure, but it was very indicative of international travel and some of the crazy (and funny) stuff that can happen to you.

I actually saw Frankfurt twice, but both times were so brief it wasn’t even like being there. The first time was because I had to transfer from my flight from Kosovo to the plane that was going to London. The second time was because I was leaving after my eleven city tour of Europe was over and headed back to the United States. Frankfurt was the departure point. I’m going to share with you about the first time I dropped in.

We woke up early that morning, around 3:30 am. We had to catch a 6:00 am flight and we were an hour away from the Pristina airport in Kosovo. After a crazy cab ride that felt like the Daytona 500 we made our flight to Frankfurt.

Immediately after landing we taxied to our spot on the runway and I was immediately irritated. Sometimes when you fly on international flights you step off the flight, walk down a set of stairs, step directly onto the runway, then get on a large bus so they can drive you to the terminal.

Walking onto the runway so we could get on a bus was novel the first few times I did it, but now it gets on my nerves. I’ve flown so often in this business that I am easily annoyed when I have to travel. And stopping on the runway just adds in a bunch of unnecessary steps that tick me off. In the United States, I have only stepped onto the runway to get on a plane in the rarest of circumstances. It usually only happens if you are getting on a very small plane and going somewhere that has a very small airport.

So, I’m immediately annoyed. Then the bus drives around and under the Frankfurt airport for at least ten minutes just so we can get to customs and get our bags. Annoyance number two.

Annoyance number three happened when we got through customs, picked up our bags , and realized that we were going to have to go through airport security again (!) in order to board our flight to London.

After another super enjoyable wait in another long line (is that sarcasm I detect?), Kevin, Bart and I finally make it to the checkpoint to go through the body scanners and have our bags x-ray’ed. Kevin goes first and Kevin is told that they are going to have to manually inspect his bag. I go second and am told they are going to have to manually inspect my bag. Bart goes last and is told they are going to have to manually inspect his bag. We’re batting three for three.

At this point in the process all of my annoyances are starting to get humorous to me. Kevin, Bart, and I were all standing in a single file line as the happiest airport security agent I’ve ever seen starts to go through our bags. He starts with Kevin’s.

“Sir, do you have any liquids in the bag?” he asks. “Liquids? No. No liquids.” says Kevin. Five seconds later the security guy holds up a large clear plastic container of shampoo/soap. As he is lifting it in the air, he smiles and, in the most amused sounding German accented English, asks, “What is this? What is this?”

That’s when I said, “Yeah Kevin, what is that?” I thought Kevin was going to poop himself. He looked shocked. He stammered and muttered something about that not being his normal travel bag as the security agent told him that he would have to throw the container of shampoo away.

I was up next. The super happy security agent opened my bag and started going through all my stuff. What I haven’t explained to you, dear reader, was that my entire show was packed in this carry on bag. So, this guy is taking out all sorts of interesting props. He’s looking at all of them until his curiosity finally gets the best of him and he finally asks, “What do you do?”

I’ll be honest with you. I had rehearsed my answer to this question. I was fully prepared to tell anyone who asked that I was a comedian there to do some shows. Why tell them I’m a comedian, you ask? Because of what happened next.

Instead of telling the guy that I’m a comedian, I tell him the truth…that I’m a magician. He very excitedly asks, “You do magic? You do magic?” I said, “Yep.” And he said, “You do magic for me!” I looked at the crazy long line of people behind him that I had just been standing in a few minutes before and ask, “Right now?” And he said, “Yes! Right now!”

So I did. I took out a deck of cards and proceeded to do a card trick for this guy while I’m sure that the people standing in line who could see what I was doing were wondering why the security agent was watching a card trick while they were waiting to get through airport security.

At the climax of the trick, the guy almost squealed he was so happy. Then he looked at me and said, “This is why I love my job! I get to meet so many interesting people!” That did it for me. Any frustration that I had from that day’s travel was instantly gone.

The truth is, that’s the exact reason I do magic…to give people a wonderful moment in their day. I never know when I’m going to be given the opportunity to be a much needed bright spot in someone’s day. It was nice to be reminded of that.

That got me through security. Bart was the only one left. And after a few minutes of security guards asking him why he had so much electronics in his bag (for the show) we all got through the Frankfurt airport security and made our flight to London.

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Comayagua, Honduras

June 11, 2020

We touched down in one of the top five most dangerous airports in the world – Toncontin International in Tegucigalpa, Honduras.

My team and I met our point of contact right outside of customs and were whisked away on a ninety minute drive to Soto Cano military base right outside of Comayagua, where we were scheduled to perform a show for the men and women deployed there.

While on our drive, our host Steve, told us that the reason the airport is so dangerous is because of its really short runway. The runway is situated right after you fly over a mountain range. Basically, you have to drop straight in to land…

To read the full article and watch the video, click here.

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Jason Michaels TV Episode 6

April 25, 2020

It was great fun to visit with my friend Nathan Coe Marsh on Episode Six of Jason Michaels TV. We learned how he fell in love with entertaining audiences, chatted philosophically about being an artist and an entertainer, heard some fun stories from his time on the road, and even saw some magic! I really enjoyed his thoughts on how he works with his clients to craft unique experiences for his audiences.

I also thought it was so cool of Nathan to provide access to us to watch his full show direct from the Magic Castle. If you would like to see him work for a live audience in an exclusive Hollywood members-only club, click here watch the video.

Click here to finish reading the article and to watch Episode 6 of JM-TV.

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Jason Michaels TV Episode 5

April 18, 2020

Episode Five of Jason Michaels TV was, in my opinion, outstanding! I tried out a new video streaming software and really enjoyed using it. The technical execution on my side of things wasn’t perfect, but I think that episode five is the best so far from a production point of view.

Having one of my best friends, Stephen Bargatze, as my guest was special. We discuss all sorts of topics. We start talking about our travels together entertaining the men and women of the military deployed to overseas bases. After that, we chat a little bit about his style of comedy and magic and we watch a few of his performance clips. We also go into his personal story of triumph over tragedy and how his faith his influenced his life.

Click here to enjoy Episode Five of Jason Michaels TV!

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Booking Agent Secrets - The World Needs You

June 5, 2019

The world needs you, Mr./Ms. Entertainer. If you bring smiles and laughter, if you create amazement and awe, if you help people forget their difficult days - the world needs you. And it needs you in a big way.

I’ve traveled around the world. I’ve met soldiers far away from home. I’ve met men & women worried about how to pay their bills. I’ve met kids who were dealing with health issues that no one should ever deal with.

That’s because life is hard. Just look at the the news. Every day there are stories of difficulty and pain. The next time you’re on social media, look beyond the pollyanna-like lens that everyone wants you to think is their life and see what is really going on. Think about that conversation with your friend where he/she was dealing with doubt and frustration.

Entertainers, like you and me, are a noble breed. We are a bright light in someone’s tough day. We give the gift of happiness and child-like wonder. I’ll say it again, the world needs you and me.

Click here to read the entire article.

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Booking Agent Secrets - Why

May 30, 2019

I want to tackle three big questions today. All of them are centered around the word “why.” And although I have a lot to say about this subject, I’ll try to keep this article to the point.

Why would a booking agent or entertainment director (E.D.) hire you?
Why should you learn the skills to build relationships with booking agents and entertainment directors?
Why am I sharing this valuable information?

So, why would a booking agent or entertainment director hire you?

Click here to read the full article.

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London, England

Learn My Powerful LIVE B-I-G System for Free!

48 Hours in Kosovo

LEARN MY POWERFUL LIVE B-I-G SYSTEM FOR FREE!

Frankfurt, Germany

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Comayagua, Honduras

Jason Michaels TV Episode 6

Jason Michaels TV Episode 5

Booking Agent Secrets - The World Needs You

Booking Agent Secrets - Why

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