A look into the life of someone else.
I wanted to keep everyone updated on my King of the Nerd’s statues. They have dropped down to just the top 10 in the voting. I was number 13 so I didn’t make the cut. I have included my video with this post in case you wanted to see it and learn a little more about me.
The amazing visual effects creator, writer, and producer Ray Harryhausen pasted away today (May 7, 2013) at age 92.
During those 92 years he was able accomplish some amazing work including helping create “The 7th Voyage of Sinbad” (1958), “Mighty Joe Young” (1949), “Mysterious Island” (1961), and many more classics.
I have a clear memory of sitting in school watching “Jason and the Argonauts” (1981) and being fascinated with the special effects. Ray Harryhausen was the main man behind those warrior skeletons and an appearance of the Kraken.
For those interested in animation, especially the use of stop-motion animation with in live action films, Ray Harryhausen is a pioneer and a sad loss for film making.
As usual, I have a strong interested in how celebrities, performs, or other people I look up to get their start and for this Penn and Teller article I am not making an exception. For those that do not know, I am currently a full time magician. With Penn and Teller being the most famous magicians out there today (maybe behind Copperfield) I find it important to write something on them.
Teller was born 1948 inPhiladelphia,PA. He was interested in magic at an early age and performed throughout college including a show for one of his classes as a final project. It was doing shows at fraternity parties that Teller started performing silent. With drunk frat boys yelling and trying to talk over him, Teller found they paid closer attention if he refrained from speaking during his show. After college, Teller became a high school Latin teacher. After meeting Penn he quit his teaching job and vowed to make money only as an entertainer.
If you can’t find a way to really enjoy what you’re doing, why do it?Jim Henson has been described as a shy, sensitive, and creative performer, writer, director, businessman, creator, artist, and visionary. That’s a lot of titles and descriptions for one person, but Jim Henson was all of these and more. Jim got his start in puppetry on television before he was 18. He worked for almost nothing but was given a lot of freedom to explore puppetry on television; as well as writing funny skits, and just funning around.
At age 19, Jim Henson’s show “Sam and Friends” became a regular gig for him. One year later he was appearing on
The beauty of the Might Boosh as a blueprint for future performers is that they had to work their way up through different medias to get a TV show and they delivered every time. Most stand-up comedians are wondering when they are going to get a call from a TV producer for their television show, but the truth is it will never happen; or at the very least very, very unlikely to happen. It didn’t happen to the comedians of the Might Boosh. Instead they
It is interesting that for the last five years I have been infatuated with the idea of looking at the lives of my idols and trying to figure out their secret. I have explored the biographies of what must be close to a hundred individuals in a variety of fields but mostly individuals in comedy, film, magic, and animation. What I learn from these studies is that I am statistically less likely to figure out what area/niche I will excel in or become famous for as I get older.
Woody Allen, George Lucas, Houdini, Walt Disney, etc. all knew what they wanted to do by the age of 20 and focused their lives around those ambitions. Some even as young as 16 (Woody Allen & Houdini) were already working in the field they later became famous in. That leaves
Here I am working at my day, well night job (3rd shift), and I finally figured out the way to go with my life. I know what you are thinking, “What is this guy talking about”. I don’t blame you because I only know half of what I am saying or in this case writing.
So, let’s start from the beginning. I was born in Racine County of Wisconsin, I currently live in Racine County of Wisconsin, and as things are going I will die in Racine County of Wisconsin (this would be sad only to me and maybe my wife and cat). To make a short story long,
