One-nighters, Movies, and meet-n-greets…Welcome to ground hog day.

Maybe I am getting old or something but damn this tour is kicking my ass.  I am lifeless and tired and miss home.  I am sure it has something to due with Katie being pregnant.  I am always worrying about her and it is tough when I know she is uncomfortable and I am not there to help her get through it.

What was I thinking when I approved all these one-nighters.  Was I on crazy pills.  We have done dates like this is the past and gotten through them fine but this time it just seems so hard.  For those of you that don’t understand the concept of a one-nighter.  A one-nighter means that we arrive in a city in the morning and load-in the show.  Load-in is normally finished around 4pm.  We almost always do 2 shows a night.  The house opens around 5pm for a 5:30 show.  We do 2 shows back to back then the crew has to load-out the show back on the trucks.  The truck doors close around 1am and then we are of to the next city to do it all over again.  Now multiply that times 7 and you have a very hard week.

Meet -n-greets are just plain driving me crazy this trip.  I want to be nice.  I want to try to help people but I don’t think that the people asking me for a meet-n-greet realize how much of my time that it actually takes.  On a normal day there are times that I don’t even go into the house once the shows start.  I have a lot of responsibility and from 5pm till the shows end there are certain thing that have to happen no matter what plus I need to be at the ready in case there is any unforeseen problem.  Some of my days are sort of like being on automatic pilot and other days are like nothing can go right.  I have mentioned this subject before and people will make comment like “I am sure that people understand when you can’t help them” or “just tell them the truth that you don’t have the time tonight and David is not doing meet and greets”  Trust me this does not work.  I have tried everything.  Being nice… Being EXTRA nice… Being nice but short and sweet.  Almost every time these people still lurk around after the show saying they are my friend and beg the crew to help them.  The crew is very aware that this happens but they also know that I have a lot of friends that come to the show so not wanting to make a mistake they hunt me down on the walkie talkie and ask .  This can get very frustrating.  I am at a loss on what to do.

Movies.  thats it just movies.  I think Homer, David and I have seen a movie almost every night the run.  Think it is the only thing keeping me from going crazy.

Till later

Chris

Just because you are a magician David does not “owe” you a meet & greet

This is the first US tour that I have been actively using facebook and twitter.  In the past if people wanted to reach me they had to either know my phone number or my e-mail address.  Now it is very easy to contact me through facebook.  I read most of my inbox messages from facebook.  I try to reply when I can but business will always come first.  With that said here is my issue.

Every day several people a show ask me if they can be put in the M&Gs.  I would say that over 90% of them are magicians.  The other 10ish percent are fans of David or magic.  I normally always go out of my way to accommodate everyone.  This tour things have gotten a tad bit out of hand.  You see, David does not do M&Gs every show.  Thats means sometimes there is no M&G to but people into.  It is that simple.  Most of the times that David does not do a M&G is because he has to do something as soon as the show is over.

Yesterday I had a problem with someone who saw me walking around in the house before the 5:30 show.  They came over said Hello then asked me if I could arrange for them to meet David after the show.  I asked Davids personal assistants if he was doing M&Gs and they said “yes” so I told them to come to the front of the stage at the end of the show and one of Davids PAs would help him.  After the show started I was told that the person David was originally going to meet did not show up so David was going start working right away after the show instead.  That meant now there was no meet and greet.  After the show I went out to talk to the person that I told to come to the front of the stage and explained that David was not able to do a meet and greet and I would do my best the next time that they say the show to try help them meet David.  Well, this guy was super pissed and told me that he was a magician and he deserved the meet and greet and I should go explain that to David.  He then told me that he was not going to leave till David came out and talked to him.  After calming him down and explaining to him that David was busy the gentleman left.  Ok, almost like someone was playing a gag on me the very next show I had gone out in the house to meet a friend of mine when some random magician comes up to me acting like I am his best friend interrupting my conversation talking about what a great magician he is and that he is a Magic Castle member blah..blah.blah.  He proceeds to TELL me that I need to put him in the meet and greet.  I am thinking this guy is a magic castle member I should do what he says.  I already knew that this was not going to happen since David, Homer and I were heading out ASAP so we could see a movie.  David was not doing meet and greets after the show.  I told the “Castle” member this and I could not believe it he got pissed.  He told me I was full of myself and David should look out for his fans.  This has bothered me ever since.

As upset as I am at this I am still always going to help people if I can when I can.  Please if you are reading this and ever ask anyone for a meet and greet please understand that anything can happen and don’t get upset if someone can’t do what you want them to.

PS  I have to run because I promised someone a meet and greet with David… No kidding

Chris is on Tour

Every time Chris goes on tour I get the same questions over and over. “Isn’t it tough?” “How do you do it?” “What if something happens?” and the best statement of them all “You must have a lot of trust”.

Usually, I have a bunch of supportive friends and I keep myself pretty busy, I’m not the lonesome housewife that sits around the house and shuts herself in and waits for her husband’s return. I’m not saying that I don’t miss him and I like when he is gone, in fact I think quite the opposite. However, we talk multiple times a day, he tells me he loves me everyday and sometimes I even get go to visit him, which is a pretty good perk when you have a someone who travels as much as he does in your life.

I think its funny when people THINK they know us both very well. The majority of these people who ask these questions and speak these statements obviously have not seen Chris and me in our natural environment. For example, I teach dance, when I tell “these people” this they look at me like I have  monkeys coming out of my armpits. Or the best one of all… “Oh you’re pregnant, I had no idea” when pregnancy is usually a big deal in a person’s life (and is in ours). Yes, since I’ve been pregnant Chris being gone is tougher than usual. But now I don’t just have work to keep me busy, I have a baby in my belly to focus on as well.

“What if something happens?” Good news. I have a phone, there is a hospital around the corner and I know the number to 911. I am 10 minutes from the airport and have a valid passport. If something happens I’ll deal…but knock on wood, nothing has been that serious. But if I do happen to give birth before Chris comes back.. he has a phone has a way to the closest airport as well. Amazing, right?

Chris and I have a different relationship that most people, we have a very strong almost perfect union. We have love, life, laughs and anyone who sees us together automatically “gets it”. No one has a love like Chris and me. We support each other, we trust each other, we are a team and soon we are going to be “Mom and Dad” which is very exciting.

Tour is tough, but its something I have to accept… what are my other options? Just please think before you say some of these things and chances are, you don’t really know the Kenner’s.

Can’t sleep on bus

I don’t know what it is about this tour but I am having such a hard time sleeping on the tour bus. It is almost six in the morning and I don’t see sleepy time in my near future. Grrrrrrr. FYI. This is the first night of six one nighters.