Crossroads in Columbia – The Hardys in South Carolina
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| Melanie Hardy – You Can't Pick Her Up |
From the upcoming 16-Part PBS Series, The Hardys in
America. Teachers may request the classroom guide to help students
better understand the series.
Introduction to The Hardys in South Carolina
South Carolina has a special place in the Hardy Family's history. It was nice
to be back in the state responsible for many of the more important incidents and
eras in America's First Family of Psychic Entertainment. We were in Columbia,
the state's capitol for the South Carolina Association of Magicians convention
and had a great time.
But our experience could not compare to those of our three relatives in the
same town. Uncle Tubby, Aunt Melanie, and Aunt Sixtus came to Columbia for
different reasons but all left profoundly affected by their stay.
Tubby Hardy – Little Big Man
Tubby was actually the ironic and hurtful nickname for our uncle Todd Hardy
given to him by Tom Hardy Sr. to ridicule his unfortunate life-experience. He
entered the Hardy business of magic after a career riding and then handicapping
horses.
Jockeys, in his era, were expected to "make weight" for each race by being at
least ten pounds lighter than the lowest weight allowance on the circuit. In
1959, the Chicago – Louisville – Lexington circuit required the riders to be no
more than 93 pounds so that with their tack and fancy silks, riders added no
more than 103 pounds to the back of the horses.
Tubby was able to make weight for his first two seasons. He was a gifted
rider. He broke his maiden and lost his bug status at the end of his first year.
Those are good things. Breaking one's maiden means he won his first race. Losing
his bug meant he was no longer considered an apprentice jock.
Coming off bug status made him less attractive to owners and trainers who
were willing to hire the apprentice designated in racing forms with an asterisk
(or a "bug") by their name.
Bug riders were allowed extra weight allowances and could often enter a race
with ten to fifteen pounds less than any horse in the field. This weight benefit
was often crucial in the non-sprint events.
Once a rider lost his bug, he was forced to compete against the other jocks
directly.
Tubby entered the 1959 season at Arlington Race Course outside of Chicago
weighing exactly 93 pounds. He was able to pick up some mounts from kindly
trainers but had little success with the less-than-promising horses. In 1958,
his winnings topped $22,000 and made him the highest-earning bug rider on the
circuit. In the first three months of 1959's season, he struggled to make ends
meet with just two rides in the money — and one coming because of a
disqualification of the two horses well ahead of him.
He began to gain weight half-way through the season and by the time the
circuit moved south to Louisville, he was just less than 140 pounds. Some
rail-birds claimed the weight-gain was due to his depression. Others suggested
he decided…
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Penn Jillette Branches Out, Close to Roots
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| Aristocratic Friend |
Penn Jillette’s Advice: Make Sure Your Manager is Filthy Rich
Disclosure: We think Penn Jillette is funny, smart, and entertaining. If you
don’t think the same way, that’s alright. That’s America. If you do, that’s okay
too that means we’ll soon have a better America where everyone thinks like
us.
BankRate .Com interviews Penn Jillette in their latest on-line edition. He
talks about his love of Magic, performing, creating, entertaining, and poker. He
does not profess or exhibit a love of money in his interview and thereby remains
true to the magician we love (along with Teller).
Most recently, he has released a wonderful book titled “How to Cheat Your
Friends at Poker.” You can read our review later on Quinlan’s Inside Magic. He
also embarked on an additional career as radio broadcaster for CBS.
We gave a glowing (and flowing) review of his outstanding film The
Aristocrats where top comedians gave their rendition of a bawdy, rude joke.
BankRate .Com notes comedian Sarah Silverman caused a stir over her iteration in
which she claims Joe Franklin acted in an improper but funny manner with (or
near) her.
If you didn’t have a chance to see The Aristocrats at the theaters – or you
didn’t want to be seen walking into the theater to view an NC-17 rated film –
you’ll have a chance to watch in the comfort and privacy of your own multi-media
room soon. The DVD version is due out soon.
Those who saw the theater version, recall the invitation to submit their own
twist on the twisted joke.
The response was apparently overwhelming and Mr.
Jillette says the new release could have overwhelmed purchasers. “The
Aristocrats” is insane, because the movie itself was an hour and a half, and the
extra features are two hours.”
Mr. Jillette is right to be excited by the response to his movie.
“This is the second best movie of the year on The New York Times list, and it
was done without any studio involvement whatsoever, zero. It was not rated by
the MPAA.
“I’m not saying every person in the country can come up with enough
money to buy two midrange DV cameras, a Macintosh and a Final Cut Pro — I don’t
want to be the way Hollywood is and act like, “Why doesn’t everybody have a
chauffeur?” But at the same, when your budget can be $50,000 instead of $5
million, you made a big change in what that art form is.
“The fact that “The
Aristocrats” was done as cheaply as it was is a huge breakthrough in film.”
Bankrate: Was $50,000 what it was done for?
Penn Jillette: Really hard to say. No one knows. It was my
money, and I wasn’t paying attention. – advertisement -Bankrate: But it was in that ballpark?
Penn Jillette: Yeah. And, huge amounts of money were spent
to clean up the sound and the video and make it so it could be released without
embarrassment. But I’m not counting that. I’m just saying, what it took to sell
it to Sundance was five digits. And it doesn’t matter whether it was $90,000 or
$20,000, five digits is the important number there….
Read more…
Categories: Magic News Tags:
Jay Johnson Back in Two and Only
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| Jay Johnson – Critical Hit |
This morning’s edition of the LA Daily News features
renown ventriloquist Jay Johnson’s move from Broadway to Los Angeles.
Mr. Johnson is known for his high-profile gigs including a run on the classic
ABC Prime-time lampoon Soap.
The 55 year-old performer credits his friend and magician Harry Anderson for
the show’s name, Jay Johnson: The Two and Only!
The show incorporates his vent figures Bob, Darwin, Squeaky and Nethernore.
Mr. Johnson is quick to point out dummies do not like to be called “dummies.”
They consider it politically incorrect and prefer the more accurate and
less-hostile “wooden Americans.” He explains the reason for the new nomeclature.
“In the show, I tell the story about how the word became associated with
ventriloquist puppets, but it just didn’t seem like an apt description. BB King
calls his guitar Lucille. He doesn’t use some ‘dummy’ word.”
“The old term was ventriloquist’s figure. I always thought that was too long
to say, and I used to joke that the only ventriloquist’s figure I knew was Shari
Lewis’.”
Mr. Johnson has been doing what he does with the wooden American’s since he
was six. His current show received impressed the usually cynical Broadway critic
commune. The show sounds excellent in style and substance. Mr. Johnson uses an
array of characters to entertain and provide his view of history and legacy of
ventriloquism.
There are few new ventriloquists on the circuit, Mr. Johnson said. He “claims
to know most of the ventriloquists on the performance circuit, but he hasn’t
seen any new blood in a long time.”
He is undeterred, however. He’ll keep the dream of all wooden American’s
alive. “I’m sort of militant about ventriloquism anyway,” Mr. Johnson said. “In
the past, rarely has it been performed well for my taste. A lot of times, it’s
passed over as the magic trick you buy at the magic store and practice three
times and that’s it. I don’t believe that’s true of magic or of
ventriloquism.”
You can catch the show through February 19th at the beautiful Brentwood
Theatre on Wilshire in LA.
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