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

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.

I just got back from the Montreal Circus Festival and a very hard working weekend.
I went with Dave Cox , Viveca Gardiner and Adam and met a bunch of very talented and fun people up there.
I promise to list their names here shortly.
I worked on the freestanding ladder and had some success with it for a change. I also worked hard on handstands, trapeze, silks, slackline and of course the unicycle.
I am starting to adjust to my new living arrangements but that will be slow process.
Anyhow, I have been starting to prepare for the PS 21 show this year on July 2 with Dave and I have a strolling job at the Delmar Farmers Market on Saturday June 4.
More soon …

As usual I have been skiing and not writing. I hurt my knee very seriously on New Years Eve and that has consumed a lot of my energy. I went back to my old high school to help my cousin with wrestling. ” NUFF SAID ”
It is healing fortunately and it looks like I will avoid surgery.
The skiing this winter has been the best in 10 years at least. More on that later.
Dave Cox and I went to see Tomas Kubinec perform Saturday night in Gt. Barrington, Mass. He had a big crowd and did not disappoint.
I am working at my favorite circus camp this week with Sean Fagan at the Millbrook School. The trip is worth the lunch alone.
More soon.

I had a good show the other night in Copake. The 20 or so kids really enjoyed “Anatoli” as did their parents. The Holiday version of the Columbia Arts Team show was a big hit as usual.
Happy New Year to all !!
I am heading down to a Polar Bear Swim at Vaughn Clark’s where there was supposed to be some hockey but with the warm temps that is probably out.
On top of that, yesterday I severely damaged my left knee.
I went to my young, cousin Kyle’s wrestling practice where I typically overdid it. Not a great start to the New Year.
2010 was as trying as 2009. I wasn’t quite sure that things could get worse but I was proved wrong again.
Oh well, it is a fresh start and it will be what we make of it.
I hope that the coming year brings us more of the important things in life; like health, love and some kind of peace; if not globally than at the minimum inner.
Best wishes for a wonderful year ahead.
Pat.

Tonight, Thursday Dec. 30th I will be doing the Anatoli Gravadonut bit at the Saturday Night Liv Family Holiday Show.
It is at the Copake Memorial Park Building: Mountain View Road, Copake, NY and it starts at 6:30 PM.

Here are the articles that ran in the Times Union and the Metroland for the recent Comedy For The New Depression show at The Linda. Thank you to Steve Barnes at the Times Union for taking so much time and asking a lot of really good questions.
Also , thank you to Josh Potter for doing the same.
One last thank you to Stephen Leon at Metroland for the article as well. Steve is an old soccer buddy of mine and maybe we will get a kick around in or better still, a little hockey this winter.
Merry Christmas to everyone ! Maybe this is the year we will see “Peace On Earth and Good Will To Men”. Don’t worry ! I am not overly optimistic, just wishful.

Comedy for the New Depression , Metroland, Dec. 9, 2010

“Now, we’re on this plane with a lobster, and the lobster falls off the plane and the plane spins,” says Pat Ferri, attempting to explain one of the scenes in his upcoming show Comedy for the New Depression. “I fall through the wing and the propeller falls off and we have to try and get the thing started . . .”

Ferri, an acrobat from Austerlitz, is one half of physical-comedy team Those Two Guys, along with Dave Cox, a juggler and equilibrist from Troy. After almost 20 years of busking and performing their individual slapstick routines at street fairs, theater festivals and on late-night TV, the two finally took an audience member’s suggestion to do a show in tandem.

“It’s like silent film but without the ‘silent’ and without the ‘film,’” says Ferri. “No jokes. All gags. In most of the bits you see the guys thinking. You don’t always see that in stand-up or in theater, but you always see it in silent films.” Ferri’s idol has always been Buster Keaton, the stone-faced silent-film star, but he says the show with Cox has a lot more to do with the work of Laurel and Hardy, or thrill comic Harold Lloyd, who was known for his cringe-inducing building-climbing and girder-walking stunts. “These guys are always trying to do the right thing, but their thinking goes crazy.

“There’s a bit where we’re out a window, changing a lightbulb,” Ferri says, describing another cartoony gag. “He’s hanging on to my belt, so when I fall out the window, he falls out the window. We end up putting a big plank on a sawhorse, but need to counterbalance and the sawhorse collapses. . . .”

The show is broken into four scenes of physical theatrics, punctuated by music, voiceovers and the duo’s athletic pratfalls. Like a film, there is a narrative arc, but the fun comes in watching the two make mistake after mistake as they attempt to navigate the task at hand in each vignette. It’s a brand of nonverbal theater that has remained popular to a degree in Europe but that most Americans associate with the ’20s and ’30s.

Hence the title Comedy for the New Depression. “I coined that phrase for my own stuff about two years ago,” he says, right when the American economy started to nosedive. The hope, it seems, is that this vintage brand of entertainment will help alleviate some of the stress of our current economic situation the same way it did nearly a century ago. “I think the last depression wasn’t so bad,” Ferri continues. “I think we could use a good one to let people know they’re neighbors again. The Greatest Generation came out of that. Instead of all this me-me-me, people are going to get together and help one another again.” At the very least, watching two guys bumble their way through absurd scenarios, laughing everytime they get hurt, should provide some much-needed diversion.

Those Two Guys will perform Comedy for the New Depression on Saturday (Dec. 11) at 7 PM at the Linda (339 Central Ave., Albany). Greg Aidala will serve as host. Tickets are $20, $15 for students and $12 for kids 12 and under. Call 465-5233 ext. 4. for tickets and more information.

—Josh Potter

HIGH FLYING COMEDY , Times Union, Dec. 9, 2010

Dave Cox and Pat Ferri own a private plane. It seems unlikely that many, or any, other comedians-clowns-buskers-jugglers can say as much. Minor point: The 10-foot-long biplane, with a 14-foot wingspan, does not fly. Instead, it’s the largest, most expensive prop yet for the locally based performing duo known as Those Two Guys, whose other equipment include more conventional tools of their craft such as unicycles, ramps and juggling implements.
Given that they sit in, climb around and generally imperil themselves on the plane, perhaps it is more properly considered a piece of the set than it is a prop.
No matter. The plane gets its second outing on Saturday, when Cox and Ferri bring their new show, “Comedy for the New Depression,” to The Linda in Albany. The 90-minute performance showcases their skills in physical dexterity and balance, clowning, juggling, stunts and what they generally call “dangerous comedy” to tell the story of a pair of Maine fishermen who fly the catch of the day to their aunt’s Chicago restaurant. Calamity ensues, told largely in the style of silent-film slapstick.
The pair got their start as a duo three years ago, following solo appearances on the same bill at a variety show in Chatham. Finding similarities and complements in their performing styles and ambitions, Cox, 35, and Ferri, who’s a decade older, began working jointly. They knit together some of their respective routines, conceived and wrote new segments and, by this summer, had a full evening’s entertainment.
The title invokes both the silent-era style of physical comedy they perform and what’s going on in the economy.
“There’s definitely a ’20s-’30s feel to the show, and the title refers to that time and to now — though now they’re just calling it a recession — as well as to how people may be feeling a little down,” says Ferri. “This is a little something to lift you out of that mood.”
Among the elements they’ve incorporated into “Comedy for the New Depression” is Cox’s stunt in which he jumps into a pair of pants.
“There’s the old saying that everybody puts their pants on one leg at a time,” says Cox. “Well, I didn’t want to do that anymore.” In the bit, Cox holds his trousers in front of his waist, leaps straight upward and drops his legs into the pants. He’s done the stunt for Jay Leno on “The Tonight Show,” and after he put a video online, a Levi’s commercial began featuring a version of the bit.
“None of them could really jump into them off the floor, and they were using really big pants,” says Cox, who has been performing for 15 years and makes a living from the work, as does Ferri. Cox says, “I contacted Calvin Klein when I was going on the (Leno) show to see if I could wear their underwear for money, but they never got back to me.”
“Comedy for the New Depression” is Those Two Guys’ first full-evening show with a complete story line, rather than disconnected routines presented in a variety-show format. They envision it as a touring show that, because its humor is visual and story basic, could be performed around the world without concern about language difficulties. This weekend’s performance will be recorded and edited down to a preview version for a press kit that will be shopped to agents and managers.
To help with publicity and marketing, Cox and Ferri turned to local comedian Greg Aidala, a tireless and savvy promoter, who’s aboard as producer and host, roles he often plays in comedy shows around the region.
“We’re at a point now … where we’re asking ourselves, ‘Are we going to move forward in entertainment or basically cash it in?’ We have the attitude of, ‘Yeah, let’s do it,’ ” says Aidala. “Our hearts are behind this. We think this is the show to really go for it with. It seriously could work. Stuff like this is not going on around the country. It’s certainly not coming to Albany. We think we’ve got a real chance with this.”

The Show at “”The Linda” on Saturday night went really well. Thanks to everyone that came out and to those who didn’t, I hope to see you next time. As usual there were about 100 accidents but fortunately the show is mostly accidents; so it is hard to tell when they are unintentional.
Here is an article that ran in the Troy Record last Thursday :

Those Two Guys have physical flights of fancy
Published: Thursday, December 09, 2010
By Stephen Douglas
Special to The Record

On Saturday, Pat Ferri and Dave Cox will fly into WAMC’s The Linda with a comedy show that you’ll likely never see again. Pat and Dave — those TWO guys — are set to entertain the crowd with “Comedy for the New Depression,” which features seafood, physical comedy and yes, an airplane.

Ferri lives locally and on the road. He grew up in Schenectady and now resides in Austerlitz, but comedy has consistently taken him away from the Capital District since he graduated high school.

“I was class clown and shortly after dropping out of college, I started acting school in New York. I took some improv classes at the Improvisation in New York.”

From there, Ferri moved to Chicago where he preformed for a year in the late 1980’s before moving back to New York. In 1995 he met another standup comedian, who was into physical comedy. “Since then, I’ve been doing all physical stuff.”

Eventually that comedian moved to California, which allowed Ferri to work on his own for a couple years before he met up with Dave Cox.

The decision to work in entertainment was an easy one for Cox. “I basically started out as a juggler. At one point someone offered me money to come juggle at one of their parties. I did that and wondered why I would do any other work?”

Working as a juggler soon led to other jobs in live entertainment. “I did that for quite a bit. I did a lot of walk-around gigs where you just walk around and talk to people while you juggle. Then I started to put an actual show together. I did a lot of street performing in Boulder, Key West, California and Canada. I had a pretty solid solo show.”

Cox and Ferri met at a variety show in Columbia County. In 2006, they did a show together with each performer doing a separate hour-long set. They did the introduction and farewells together and it got a positive response according to Ferri. “People said ‘why don’t you do more stuff together. That was really funny.’”

They decided to write a couple sketches together, but went their separate ways for a year. “In 2007 we did two or three bits. Every year we did a couple more bits together and this year we combined it into a single storyline. That’s ‘Comedy for the New Depression’.”

“Comedy for the New Depression” tells the story of two guys who live in Maine who are trying to help their aunt save her restaurant in Chicago. Being physical comedians, Cox explains that the humor comes from the visuals. “A big part of what we do is our props. The first scene is with a boat. The second scene is with an airplane. It’s all about big, heavy sets and its pretty elaborate.”

The biplane has a 14-foot wingspan and spins 360 degrees. I’m not sure how they’ll get the plane inside The Linda, but they seem confident. The idea for the plane was just a joke on Ferri’s part. “When you’re still fleshing out the story, we got the idea of the restaurant and these guys changing a lightbulb and serving dinner. Something brought us away from the mid-west. I just said ‘why don’t we throw a plane in the show?’ That’ll get us from Maine to the Midwest.”

Cox agreed, but Ferri didn’t think he was seriously considering the suggestion until Cox built a model plane out of legos. The next thing you know, they had a plane with hydraulics, gears and pedals that took two months of non-stop work to build.

The end result is something both men are excited to show the world. “We’ve got so much invested in this show,” said Ferri. “I think it’s more interesting than what I’m doing on my own. Its grown into a bigger thing in a way.”

Ferri and Cox still tour separately. Ferri plays both close to home and on the road while Cox travels the country and spends a good deal of time in Canada. Ferri says that Comedy for the New Depression is something that fans won’t see anywhere else. “I’ve got a pretty good handle on who is doing what in the US and I can think of maybe three or four people that are doing something theatrical. I can almost guarantee that no one has seen anything like this in their life.”