Patrick Ferri's WRECKAGE-O-RAMA!!!

Hello ,

On Friday November 4 I did a show at the East Roswell School in Atlanta, Ga. for 40 excited, screaming kids. What a blast we all had.  I am not sure if I have ever had a louder audience and I was doing all very simple things;  sort of a Mulligans Stew of tricks and gags that I have amalgamated over the years.  Hilary, who hired me for the “Fun Friday” show, said it was one of the best performances she has ever had at the school and she is still talking about it.  I am thrilled they liked it that much.  I did too.

Here is a video from the show :

Atlanta Show

Here are a bunch of photos from my other escapades in Atlanta besides the show and Halloween :

3 Jabonies

Actual Schenectady jacket found in Atlanta by 3 Jabonies of Schenectady

lunch in Little 5 points

working on Pete and Amy's walkway

Some more grout please

Here I am in Atlanta, Georgia and it is Halloween.  I am visiting my old school buddy Pete Bursi, his wife Amy, daughter Cora and son Ben;  or “Bengali” because after all it is Halloween.   I went Trick Or Treating around the neighborhood with the Bursis on my unicycle. I even earned a full size Skybar for some fancy riding.

Here I am in Atlanta, Georgia and it is Halloween.  I am visiting my old school buddy Pete Bursi, his wife Amy, daughter Cora and son Ben;  or “Bengali” because after all it is Halloween.   I went Trick Or Treating around the neighborhood with the Bursis on my unicycle. I even earned a full size Skybar for some fancy riding.

Hello, On Friday night I went to Steve Cropper’s Birthday and Halloween party.  I had a pretty good time talking with people from all over the US and a self-revealing conversation with Steve’s wife Angel.  Below is a video of Billy Langford ( the carpenter that I have been working for in Nashville ) and his son Liam singing a ” Mob Ditty ” to Steve.

Bill and Liam threaten Steve Cropper

On Saturday we went to Percy Priest Lake; Chuck to ride his bike and me to off road uni. After my ride we went over to the Music City BMX track to run a few hot laps.  Check this out :

Riding Music City BMX

Chuck rides BMX

Wheel Walk

kick up mount

All of that riding brought on an urge for my first and only beer in Nashville at the Yazoo Brewery.

Yazoo Brewery

Saturday night saw us once again at the Nashville Predators  NHL game courtesy of Chuck’s IT and all around good guy Gavin.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

I met Terry Crisp, former Calgary Flame and Tampa Bay head coach and Pete Weber, long time voice of the Buffalo Sabres and now play by play with the Predators.

Here are more  shots from Saturday night :

Oh yeah, and here is me throwing a check on Jordan TooToo :

Me throwing a check on Jordan TooToo

Halloween photos next !

Hello,  I have been busy in Nashville ; going out getting some new ideas; stealing some old ones.

I have a new kids show written which I will be performing in Atlanta on November 4th.  It is a mix of some acrobatics, music, unicycle, and incidental magic.  Out of this I hope to cull 10 great minutes for an upcoming showcase in Vermont on November 17th.  I will try and get video up of the rehearsing and the show; plus more information about the showcase in Vermont.

In the meantime I have been soaking up the activities here.  I went to the Southern Book Festival  last weekend and met up with some writers and also picked up some books.  Here are some photos of the creative types I was hanging out with all day :

Critter and LlamaLlama, Pat and Chuck

Inspiration in all forms

I went cycling in Centennial Park where there is a full size replica of the Parthenon. Nope … Not Kidding !

I also stopped in at The Vanderbilt for Sunday Jazz night again and hung out with worldwide jazz aficionado Andy “Jazzman” Smith.  Just incredible musicians everywhere :

Vandy Jazz night video

On Thursday I saw the Cleverlys : a bluegrass, comedy band that does some originals and parodies.  Funny , funny !

The Cleverlys audio

Here is a shot of my first Korean meal ever.  Jim Owen you would be happy to know that I finally tried it.

first Korean

I enjoyed this dish called ” Bipambop Hotbowl” but I think but I would have to be taken out to Korean if I was to try it again.  I went to a great Mexican place called La Hacienda after gymnastics on Wednesday night.  Amazing rice and beans with real Guac !

Friday night I saw Kevin J. Thornton’s show.  He is a one man show performer who has been having great success on the Fringe circuit.  Very good stuff and it is inspiring to see that he is making it work.  I also went to a workshop with Kevin and his agent Carol and it was good to hear from them that most of my instincts are right.  A few things I am doing are very wrong however so…

Oh yeah, last night I saw a band that is fronted by the former bass player from Foghat , Tony Stevens.  Nothing newer than 1976 but played and sang pretty darn well :

Tony Stevens’ band at the Basement video

Alright, first post from the road in Nashville, Tennesee.  I went ice skating today ( skating and Nashville ??? ) and the broken right ankle hurts like H,E, double hockey sticks.  But at least I am skating.

Tonight was the Arctic Monkeys and they are way better live then I would have ever thunk.  Good thing the tickets were free or I would have never gone.

Loads of live music here.  Last week I met Jeannie C. Riley ; the woman who sang Harper Valley PTA in 1968.  I thought it was 1972 but I am so old that crap is starting to run together.  Not that the song was crap …  but stuff is becoming a blur.

It looks like The Vintage Motorcycle Classic at Barber Motorsports Park in Alabama this weekend.  Friday could be the Breakfast Club hockey league game in Franklin , Tenn. and possibly the Asheville Mountain Unicycle Festival at the end of the month.

And oh yeah, a couple of shows thrown in for good measure.

Arctic Monkeys VIDEO

Arctic Monkeys ” She’s Thunderstorms “

More to come !

O.K. I come home a couple of weeks ago to the sponsor family’s house , which they are now calling “Pat’s house” incidentally and there are a bunch of people just getting back from a mtn. bike ride in the Balance Rock State Forest and they are all dirty and sweaty and hot and they decide to jump in Sue and Dave’s pool, which is a 24′ above ground pool with a severely worn and patched liner. Sue starts sweeping the bottom corner of the pool with her foot and notices that the severely worn liner is coming clean. So she decides to clean it.  Well … I have been living there pretty much rent free and not doing much of anything around the place accept feeding the 2 dogs , Benson ( brown lab; very keen ) and Thor ( Black Lab; not so keen ) breakfast.  I instantly volunteer to clean the worn out pool liner and ask if there is a plastic; I repeat PLASTIC  bristle hand brush that I can use.
After the cast iron pool brush attachment is secured to the jagged aluminum extension pole with the almost completely UV deteriorated plastic press fitting,  I get to work !
Well, after 4 or 5 times of the brush attachment falling off I give up and finish it without the extension pole.
Fast forward 1 hour and Sue asks ” Is it me or does the water level of the pool look a lot lower ? “ UhOh !!!
Swinging quickly into action, Jeff Kellog ( a mtn. biker and recent pool enjoyer ) ascertains the source of the leak. We think that maybe one of the times the brush came off the extension pole, the pole went through the severely worn out liner , I guess.
I get my goggles back on and dive headlong into the pool to stop the leak with my foot while the gang gets the patch ready. Unfortunately the hole was getting bigger around my foot. Sue came out with a sponge to scrub the liner around the area to be patched. I descended down with the sponge and there was so much vacuum (technically it is termed “vacuum” on the inside and “pressure” on the outside; please do not check this for technical accuracy ;  I am a college dropout for Crissake, remember ? ) the freakin’ sponge was sucked out of my hand and underneath the pool : LOST !
” O.K. “, I yelled , ” Get me a bigger patch ! ” Jeff came out with the 2′ X 2′ patch and I went down a second time. Same result; patch sucked under the pool. At this time Sue is stuffing a pool floatie into a Hefty Bag. I go down a third time and “Presto ” the leak stops … for 12 seconds until the floatie/ Hefty Bag combo is sucked into the ever widening hole and ejected out onto the river formerly known as the back lawn.
We all stood in horror because the floatie/ Hefty was visual confirmation of the 17,000 gallons of water that was heading directly down towards the neighbors finished basement.
Again the gang swung into action : I headed down to warn the neighbors and Jeff and Sue and maybe Lisa and Amy started placing a diverter, made out of a used plywood skateboard rail, in the path of the torrent.
I knocked on the neighbor’s door and from the other side, a young girl ( the 9 year old feather headed daughter who is afraid of her own shadow, I later found out ) screamed at the top of her lungs. After much shouting through the door and explaining and apologizing the Mom finally put down the phone and opened the door. I quickly told her the circumstances and that I was not the home owner or the pool owner nor did I  really even know them that well but merely a guest and that I wasn’t sure how the river was released but that it was heading straight for her family room and plasma TV. She was as cool as a cucumber. She said
” Oh, don’t worry ; our basement never floods. ” Well we stood there, 20 feet from her basement in 6 inches of wet sod and surface water and we got to introduce Sue to her neighbor who she had not even met yet; so that was good.
The basement did not flood and the pool got a new liner which I helped install a week and a half later.
Pheww, I almost screwed that one up.

Here are a couple of shots of the hole allegedly caused by me and a video of the new liner getting a premature trial run :

Closer to the hole

VIDEO :     Refreshing Swim

Those Two Guys attempt the possible ???

It is hard to put in words what Dave and I are trying, but I will try.
Here is our act framed like an old Harold Lloyd or Laurel and Hardy silent movie comedy . Even though I am a Buster Keaton diehard I think it has more in common with those guys. Attempting to frame a live show in that style is daunting and it has cost Dave and I an incredible amount of time, exhaustion and money not to mention personal losses. It is important to understand that for all of their hard work and exquisite talent, the great silent comedians never did what we are doing.
Keaton literally fell into his Mom and Dad’s vaudeville act when he was a toddler and received such belly laughs that he had to stay. The act developed a ” bringing up baby ” theme as the parents coped with a child that created mischief. Most of this so called “coping” had to do with the Dad getting upset and throwing Buster into the scenery or orchestra pit. An old time legend has Joe Keaton sewing an old, leather luggage handle into the back of Buster’s jacket to make that task easier. A highlight of the knockabout act had Buster standing on top of the kitchen table swinging out a ball on a leash, in circles that was coming closer and closer to his dad’s head … as dad was shaving with a straight razor. Insane !
Since Buster’s mom, Myra was the musician in the act, she usually played saxophone while the beatings continued. I have experience with the beatings from dad except my mom wasn’t much of a musician; more of a cheerleader. Anyway, the act evolved and grew as Buster, Joe and Myra worked but it remained a 10 minute vaudeville turn. That was The Three Keaton’s act ! Period !
Chaplin did some performing at a young age as well. A Lancashire Clog dancing troupe, which is a little like tap. His parents were also in show business but he really started to grow when he joined plumber turned gymnast turned impresario Fred Karno’s pantomime troupe. He perfected a drunk character and that remained his schtick for the 2 years he toured with Karno.
These guys were the greatest comics that we can still watch with a wide range of talent and they could do all kinds of incredible feats. However it is important to understand that the genius you see in their movies you are seeing with the benefit of multiple takes. One of Keaton’s famous baseball scenes took something like 73 takes. Young Chaplin never performed a full theatrical slapstick show; nor did Keaton, Lloyd, Langdon or any of them.
We do ! No retakes. I like to think that if those guys were around today they would be the first one’s
buying tickets to our show.
I would like to take some time in a future blog entry to talk about the Hanlon – Lees and how even though I cannot ever see their act their influence has drifted down to the present.

I went to the North Adams, Mass. Adult Prom Saturday night and danced until 2 AM with a bunch of friends and my sponsor family, Dave and Sue Sacco. I call them that because I am staying at their house right now.
Here are some photos with the “parents” :

Hello,
Dave Cox and I will be at PS 21 The Tent again this summer. The show is set for July 2nd at 7 PM.
Because Dave and I have both been busy we are having some guests help us out this year.
Magician Adam Cardone will be performing and we will also be graced with the presence of contortionist Miss Ekaterina ( aka Miss Coney Island ).
Evil Dan and Colleen the Sideshow Queen will also be on hand.
Plus Dave and I have some surprises that we haven’t even come up with yet.
I just finished updating my CV; a fancy name for a resume and you can see it on the bio page.
I hope to see you all at the July 2nd show. Here is more info about the venue and tickets :

“Those Two Guys” Return to the Tent at PS21
Laugh Out Loud Entertainment for the Whole Family

[CHATHAM, NY] – PS21: Performance Spaces for the 21st Century is delighted to welcome back for the fifth consecutive season two of Columbia County’s zaniest residents, “Those Two Guys.” Pat Ferri and Dave Cox will combine their talents at The Tent at PS21 Saturday, July 2 at 7:30pm.

Those Two Guys unique Comedy for A New Depression incorporates juggling, unicycling, tumbling, outrageous physical feats, and dangerous stunts into a laugh out loud evening. This family-friendly show will include new skits as well as the classics. “This year we are introducing contortionist Miss Ekaterina (aka : Miss Coney Island), vaudeville Magician Adam Cardone, plus Evil Dan and Colleen The Side Show Queen!” said Ferri. “Come. You will laugh.”

Those Two Guys performed recently in Albany where they sold out WAMC’s Linda Norris Auditorium and earlier this year in Maryland they performed to more than 40,000 people at Virgin Mobile Fest. Dave Cox has appeared on Late Night with David Letterman and The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.

Those Two Guys will perform at PS21 Saturday, July 2 at 7:30 pm. Admission is $25 for adults, $20 for PS21 members and $10 for children under 14. For information or to order tickets, please call 518.392.6121 or visit ps21chatham.org. Tickets will also be available at the door until the show sells out.