Wow! Just looked over the past 3 months' schedule and I've performed in 12 states already. I'm not sure if that's a lot or not, but it sure feels like it.

This last weekend, I performed at St. Martin's University in Lacey, WA and at Maryville University in St. Louis, MO.

The show in Lacey, WA was a little ways south of Tacoma. This was my first trip to the Pacific Northwest and I loved everything about it. Here's a shot from the airplane:



Soon after I saw this mountain range and snapped this photo, we flew over Mt. Ranier, but for some reason I didn't get a picture of it. Had I taken a picture, it would have looked something like this:



The only things I would have liked more are a) clearer skies and b) more time to enjoy it! When I stepped out of the SeaTac airport, I immediately could feel there was something different about the air. It just felt and smelled fresher and cleaner. I had an urge to wade in a stream - possibly go mountain climbing. I decided to just get some Chinese food instead. But my fortune was pretty interesting:



The show at St. Martins was a great time - I played in a tiny little Student Activities Center to a crowd of about 50.

I woke up the next day to catch an EARLY flight out of a rainy SeaTac Airport. Had a layover in Salt Lake - my first time flying through there. I was amazed at the beauty. Mountains completely surround the airport. It's impossible to get the beauty in a phone picture from the airplane:



It was a strange thing waking up at the crack of dawn in Seattle, getting on a plane, and getting off the plane in St. Louis only to find that it was almost show time. The fact that St. Louis was cold and rainy just like Seattle only added to the time warp feeling!

The show at Maryville College was for Sibz Weekend. Great crowd - somewhere around 200-250 I think! After some last minute shuffling around of lights and sound (they had to completely rotate the chair/stage setup to face a different direction an hour before the show!), we had a great show with great reactions and some cute kids onstage! The program board people at Maryville are super nice and a lot of fun. This was our third time hanging out and I hope there will be more!

This week, I head to Rochester, MN to hang out in the booth at NACA Northern Plains on Thursday and Friday, then I fly to Connecticut to perform at Western Connecticut State University's sibs weekend!

In other news, I was recently accepted by Armed Forces Entertainment, an organization "dedicated to bringing our troops stationed overseas the very best in up-and-coming entertainment." They will send me on a tour to perform for men and women in the US military stationed overseas when they have an appropriate request and slot. I am really looking forward to the opportunity!

peace, love and time warps,
mk

I grew up visiting Greenwood, SC at least once a year. My grandparents moved there when I was a kid, so the small town outside of Greenville, SC was very familiar to me when I visited to perform at Lander University last night.

I was scheduled to arrive the day before so I could spend some time with Grandma and Grandpa and my aunt and cousins who live there as well. I missed my flight leaving Columbus, which put a damper on the hanging out with family. I thought I was early, but it turns out, I looked at the ticket wrong and I was actually 1 minute too late. When I arrived at the gate, the plane was sitting there, they had JUST shut the door and they were pulling the bridge away. So I got on the next flight out 3 hours later.

Little fact: I always sit by the window. I'm not a big guy, so I rarely feel cramped. And I like to lean my head against the side of the plane if I'm taking a nap. But my seat to Greenville sucked. Here's an example of a bad airline seat:



Arriving in Greenwood was pretty neat, as I recognized a lot of the buildings and establishments I had been to as a kid. My hotel was across the road from the Blockbuster where I remember picking out movies with my cousins to watch at Grandma and Grandpa's house.

Everyone at Lander was really friendly and into what I was doing. We had a pretty good turnout and the auditorium was nice. Here's a shot of the auditorium when I arrived:



And here's another shot of the theater right before doors opened:



I'm looking forward to spending the weekend at home - possibly some St. Patty's day debauchery before heading out to perform at Albertus Magnus in New Haven, CT.

I would love to write more, but I'm absolutely exhausted.

Peace, love and sleeping on the plane,
MK

This week, the Showoff Show and I headed up to Big Rapids, MI to perform at Ferris State University.

I drove 4 hours up to Lansing, MI the night before to pick the guys up at the airport. We stayed the night there in Lansing, then drove the 2 hours to Ferris State in the morning. Here's a brief video of the trip:



I was performing my rope trick and must have gotten into it too much. Either that, or someone sharpened my scissors when I wasn't looking, because they sliced through the rope much easier than expected and cut right into my thumb! I felt it happen, but tried to hide it because I didn't see any blood. I had two people onstage with me. I'm not sure if they saw it or not, but I looked down and there was blood all over the rope and it was dripping onto the stage. I think at that point, I laughingly told the girl to my right "I cut myself." She immediately was worried but I told her "I think it's okay." Then I asked the stage manager for a band-aid over the microphone. No one came for awhile - after the show someone told me this was because they thought I was joking. Meanwhile, I went on with the show. Several more props became stained. Then the stage manager brought me out a band-aid and all was good. The cut's not that bad - just in a tough place - turns out it's kind of difficult to do my act with a band-aid on your left thumb. Who knew?

The show was a hell of a lot of fun. The Showoff Show was great and people really loved them. I really enjoy performing with them.

Here are some photos that Evan Young took from the show:
[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="The Rope Trick"][/caption]
[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="The Chicken Trick"][/caption]
[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="A Serious Talk"][/caption]

Another quick funny story. This was a college-appropriate show. In other words, it wasn't the show I perform for sibs weekends or corporate events. Near the end of the show, I heard what sounded like a little kid. I said, "Wait - did someone bring a three year old to the show?" Everyone laughed. It got quiet. From the back of auditorium: "I'm FIVE!"

Peace, love and childhood education
MK

Hey Everyone!

It's been forever since I've written on here and, sitting in a diner with a couple friends in Hartford, CT, I decided I needed to be a little more diligent about it.

Last year ended really well with the Blue Angels performance and there are lots of things to be excited about in 09.

First off, voting is JUST NOW ending for the Campus Activities Magazine Reader's Choice Awards. I was nominated for two awards. In addition that excitement, I had a showcase at NACA Nationals, which is kinda like the Disneyland of Campus Activities. I had a great time - more about that later. This blog is starting to sound like a clips show on a sitcom when the writers were on vacation so they turn the whole episode into a bunch recaps of funny stuff that happened before. Let's talk about some shows I've done so far this year.

I drove up to Alliance, OH in the snow in January to perform with the Showoff Show, good friends of mine and fellow BigName Entertainers at Mt. Union College. I performed my show first, and the Showoffs performed second. Here are a couple photos:




Then after my show, the Showoff Show surprised me with this:

It was a great time and I can't wait to get back to Mt. Union!

After that I headed out to Massachusetts to perform at Bridgewater State College. This is the largest commuter campus I've ever seen. 10,000 students and most of them commute! So I was worried that having a weekend show there wouldn't draw a crowd, but thankfully I was wrong. We had a great turnout and had a very fun show. The A/V tech told me a story about the last magician to perform there. They wouldn't let him bring his appearing motorcycle in the building. When the performer was asked why he didn't tell them about the motorcycle before hand, his answer was "It's supposed to be a surprise!" hahaha Here's a review from the Bridgewater State News about the show.

When I returned home, I immediately showered and headed downtown to perform for my friend Ricky's going away party. Ricky was an athletic trainer for BalletMet in Columbus and left for Las Vegas to be a trainer for Criss Angel's new show, beLIEve. Met some really cool folks and had a lot of fun performing in my home city for a change.

A day later, I flew down to Jacksonville, FL to perform at Jacksonville University. I got there early so I had time to have lunch downtown. I sat at a little microbrew on the river and ate outdoors on the patio. It was overcast but 65 degrees and NO one was eating outside. For Floridians, that's FREEZING. The only other two guys on the patio were also from Ohio! Jacksonville's campus was really pretty.


Now imagine that in the early evening on a hazy night. Before my show, I stepped outside and just kind of took it in. It was really nice to be out of the 10 degree Ohio weather for a day.

I almost didn't get home the next day. Half the airports on the east coast were shut down. I had two delays and one cancellation, but finally made it home after spending most of the day in Baltimore.

It was a good thing I got back in time, because I had to drive 6 hours the next day to perform at Lock Haven University in Lock Haven, PA. The folks at Lock Haven are super nice. I really enjoyed hanging out with them. They did a great job of promoting the show, too. So much so, that my show was the most highly attended event of the year! We had more than 500 people come out! Here's a video I took backstage:


Met a lot of really cool people in Lock Haven. Some of them, I even got the chance to hang out with again in Nashville a few weeks later:


From PA, my next show was at Rutgers University in Camden, NJ. This was my second time performing here. The first time was about a year ago. I saw some familiar faces and friends that I made a year ago at the show. Here are some photos of the show:





The sound and lighting at Rutgers Camden is done by Sonus and they do a hell of a job, as you can see from the photos.

The next day, I performed at Greene St. Studios in the Germantown area of Philadelphia. The venue and attendance was small, but I still had fun at the show. The audience was full of a combination of professional jugglers, magicians and mentally disabled adults. A challenging show to say the least. Here's the entire show compressed to 01:35:


I had a lot of fun at this show. It was nice to do something different - different type of audience and venue. And had an amazing time after the show too.

After a couple days off, I performed back in Columbus, Ohio for a networking event. It was heavily tweeted about. Read some of the comments about this show on my Twitter Favorites. There's a blog about it with photos and video here. Feel free to follow me if you use Twitter!

Funny story - If you've seen my show, you know about the box inside a box inside a box, etc. Airport security (TSA) had fun with me with these coming back from Philly. They put an inspection notice in EACH box. Too funny.


I know this post is getting long, but there are a few more things to write about!

I flew to Nashville, TN to showcase at NACA Nationals. I was the roving artist the first day of the conference. It was held at the Gaylord Opryland Resort, which was incredible!


I went to the conference represented by LGA and had a great time hanging out in the booth with the Showoff Show, Jeff Civilico and Dale K - showoffs, a juggler and a hypnotist, respectively. There was even a full page ad in the Conference program! Here are some photos!




I left the conference a day early to perform in Hartford, CT at the University of Hartford. Christian and Harris at Hartford were really nice guys and brought in an awesome crowd for me by using University-based opening acts that everyone knew. I have to say - both acts were top notch. Hawkapella is an all-male a cappella group who incorporates a lot of comedy and personality in their arrangements. I was impressed and they were a great opener. The second opening act was Stop Laughing Mom, a student improv group. They did several sketches and really got some great laughs - the perfect warmup for my show. The crowd at Hartford was really warm and laughed a lot.

From Hartford, I flew to Birmingham, AL to perform for the American Foundry Society's Southeastern States Conference. The hotel was cool. I didn't see any of Birmingham whatsoever. My hotel was connected to a mall and the show was held in the hotel, so I literally saw nothing else. The AFS people were really fun and we all got drunk in the hotel bar after the show.

The next show was Pittsburgh, PA at Duquesne University for their Casino Night. I don't have any photos from this show yet, but the stage was big and the crowd was kinda splotchy at the beginning. By the end of the show, it was pretty full. All of Duquesne's show choir was in the audience because they were performing after me. At one point the entire show choir got up in the middle of the show. Then 10 minutes later, they came back. Only MILDLY distracting. haha Some good friends in Pittsburgh got to come see me perform, which was nice. And my hotel had a cool view of the soon-to-be replaced Mellon Arena, where the Penguins play.

So now, I've had an ENTIRE WEEK off, which is MUCH NEEDED. Tomorrow, I leave again to meet up with the Showoff Show again in Lansing, MI. From there, we head to Ferris State University in Big Rapids, MI to perform together.

And if you haven't seen my latest video, take a look!



There. Now you're all caught up on 2009. I will try to blog more often from now on. I promise.

peace, love and novel blogs,
MK

Hey!

Thanks to your support, I have been nominated for TWO Campus Activities Magazine Reader's Choice Awards!  It's a huge thrill for me to be nominated, but now I need your help!

Will you vote for me?

I am up for awards in BEST SMALL VENUE PERFORMER and NEWEST RISING STAR categories.  Vote for me in both of those categories!  Also, don't forget to vote for my good friends, the Showoff Show, for Best Live Novelty Artist!

You have to fill out all the info too - I PROMISE they won't spam you or sell your info.  It's really all just to make sure you're a real person.

To vote for me, go to http://campusactivitiesmagazine.com/awards

Thanks SO much!  If you vote for me and I win, I will buy you a drink next time I see you.*

Sincerely,

Michael

*This statement may or may not be the truth.

WANT TO HELP EVEN MORE?

Copy the text below, paste it into a bulletin, title it "please help out a friend" and post it!

##
Help my friend win a Reader's Choice Award!  My friend, Comedian and Magician Michael Kent, has been nominated for TWO Campus Activities Magazine Reader's Choice Awards!  Help him by going to http://campusactivitiesmagazine.com/awards and voting for him for BEST SMALL VENUE PERFORMER and NEWEST RISING STAR - then fill in your info (they won't spam you or sell your info) and click submit!  To check out Michael, go to http://myspace.com/kentmagic.  Pass this on and help him win!
##

Hey Everyone!

I sure am looking forward to Thanksgiving! I've already had a couple Thanksgiving Dinners - a couple more to go. Interesting note - the following question has come up twice this week: What's the difference between a yam and a sweet potato? My guess was that a yam is a yam until it goes to prison and gets a nickname. But that's just a guess.

One of the things I'm most thankful for this Thanksgiving is all the love and support I've received from fans and friends. All of the great people that have expressed interest in my work have made it so much fun to do what I do. I have just ONE more small favor to ask of you this year.

Campus Activities Magazine is holding their annual Reader's Choice Awards. Will you vote for me for 10 - NEWEST RISING STAR? I'd be forever grateful! Don't forget to put your name and info at the bottom or the ballot won't be counted!

Link: http://www.campusactivitiesmagazine.com/rca1.html

VOTE MICHAEL KENT for NEWEST RISING STAR!


Thank you SO much!

ALSO - Vote for my friends - the Showoff Show! for 8 - BEST NOVELTY PERFORMANCE/ LIVE!

Gratefully,
MK

Shows at ECU, LSC and IUP. All three shows were nice theaters, so it was nice to be out of the multi-purpose rooms for a week!

Flew into North Carolina and drove out to Greenville to visit the campus of East Carolina University. East Carolina's mascot is the Pirate. And when I asked the audience what the school mascot was, they all answered in unison: "The Pirates! Arrrgghhh!" It was as if they had rehearsed it - VERY funny.

The show went well with an excellent turnout. ECU does a cool thing where they make a slideshow of all of their upcoming campus events and play it before the show. i tried to take a photo from the wings before the show.



After the show in Greenville, I flew to Manchester, NH and drove to Lyndonville, Vermont.

Here are some photos taken while driving. Not safe to do, but I was overwhelmed by the beauty of the fall leaves and had to take them.





Lyndon State College was another really fun show. Another nice theater and great people! I was realy impressed with their broadcast production studio behind the theater. They do live local news broadcasts from there! After the show, I was invited to a big party that ALL the students were going to. One student even myspaced me the directions to the party! But I had to fly out of Manchester EARLY the next morning and it was a 4:30am wake up call, so the smarter MK prevailed and I went back to the hotel after the show.

I flew into Philly and drove to Lancaster, PA for the NACA MidAmerica conference. Stayed there for a day and hung out - then drove to Indiana, PA for a show at Indiana University of Pennsylvania.

When I got there, I learned that I was one of the first acts to perform in the theater in over 2 years because it was under renovation. The theater was absolutely beautiful and the tech crew was awesome. Top notch. The other acts schedule to appear there this year were Creedence Clearwater Revival and Ron White - that's some pretty good company! The show had 400 or 500 in attendance and was a LOT of fun. Sold some posters and keychains and drove home.

One thing that's tough about doing three or four shows in a week is when I go to think back about them, I get the details confused. That's one of the reasons I started writing here. When I get to a school, I usually only really get to see the theater or room I'm performing in. Every show is different because the audiences are all different, but usually the easiest way to remember about a school is to remember the great people who brought me in and put the event on. So thanks this week to Jacob Tidwell, Laura McNaughton, Stephanie Tyler, Dave Surtasky and Rick Kutz for making the shows more memorable and being so welcoming.

peace, love and good people,
MK

Hey Everyone! I got a call from Laura last night that I was selected o showcase at the NACA (National Association for Campus Activities) National Convention Feb. 14-18 in Nashville! I'm SUPER Excited!



I was selected to be a roving artist which means I get to perform for an entire day of the convention. This is a pretty big deal to me, so I'm really pumped!

I've had a few days off and some fun times and now it's back to the grind! This week, I:

Fly to Raleigh, NC,
Drive to Greenville for a show at East Carolina University,
Fly to Manchester, NH,
Drive to Lyndonville, VT for a show at Lyndon State College,
Fly to Philadelphia, PA,
Drive to Lancaster, PA for NACA and to hang out with the Big Name Entertainment dudes,
Drive to Indiana, PA for a show at Indiana University of Pennsylvania (IUP), and finally --
Drive home.

It will be a busy week! Still beats sitting behind a desk.

I had a funny experience at the airport leaving Columbus on the last trip. One of the props for my show that I carry on the plane with me is the "box inside a box inside a box etc." I've been told by TSA that it looks exactly like what it is when it goes through the scanner. In fact, they'll usually ask me "Is this just a box inside a box inside a box?" Sometimes I feel like putting a little mint or candy or something inside the smallest box for when they want to open them all. Leaving Columbus on Thursday, the TSA screener said to me "Geesh, how much do you TRAVEL? I see this thing ALL THE TIME." haha Also, one of the blue parking lot shuttle drivers knows me by name now.

Last week I performed in Texas at UTPA (University of Texas Pan American). Usually branch campuses are small and I don't expect much in the way of audience size or facilities. But WOW, was I wrong about that at UTPA. This school is huge, like 30k enrolled!

When I flew into Harlingen, TX, the rental car company gave me the biggest truck on their lot (I usually always just get the economy, but they were out). I'm not really good with trucks. In fact, the last time I drove a truck, I knocked over a brick wall in an accident referred to by friends as "The Kool-Aid Man Incident."

When I got to Edinburg and arrived on UTPA's campus, they had flyered th show pretty well. Here's one of the posters:



The show went really well. My friend Norman Ng had performed there a couple weeks prior and had performed a snowstorm routine, as evidenced by a couple flakes around the stage. This actually made me kind of happy because my performance is so different than Norman's and the students got to see a completely different form of entertainment. Also, because I close my show with a spoof on the snowstorm routine! hehe

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TogBivhs290&hl=en&fs=1]



After the show, there were lots of cool people that came up to say hi and I was flattered by all the pictures, autographs and friend adds. Thanks.



More photos from the UTPA show here.

Flying home, I took a picture of the gulf coast that was really amazing looking:



This week is going to be a tough-one travel wise, as noted above, so I really appreciate everyone's support and love. Write me a note to read while sitting in an airport, backstage before a show, or in the hotel. I usually respond to just about everything. I can't wait to visit North Carolina, see the fall leaves on the drive from NH to VT, hang with Jon and Evan in Lancaster, and finally see the famous campus of IUP that everyone seems to know about.

Finally, make sure you're registered to vote and get out and VOTE! It's the youth vote that is so important in this election. The majority of my readers are college age and you're the ones that can be the ones to determine the future of this country. And while I'm on my election soap box, please educate yourself on the issues.



I have a ton to do before the next trip, so I will leave you all here!

peace, love and fall weather,
mk

Last week I did two things: Performed at Mercyhurst College in Erie, PA and attended NACA South in Chattanooga, TN. Well, I did more than just those two things, but those are really the only two that have anything to do with anything related to this blournal.

NACA South was great. I didn't get to attend the entire conference, but I met some cool folks and went to the Tennessee Aquarium. Here are some photos:






My pictures aren't all that great - they're just from my phone. But Evan Young, one half of the Show off Show, took a ton of great photos. I'm sure some of them will show up on Evan's Flickr Account.

Mercyhurst College was a school in Erie, PA. I had never been to Erie - just driven by it on I-90. Erie was a cool little city. The students took me to an Irish pub before the show. I wish I could have stayed in Erie so I could hit up the pub after the show.

The show itself was a lot of fun Friday night. Notice from the photos below, they made the stage pretty by putting fake plants around it. Awesome. I met a lot of the Mercyhurst students after the show, so that was cool.




More photos from Mercyhurst here.

Have you been to YearbookYourself yet? It's pretty funny. Here are some of my results.






Then I wondered what it would look like if I used my dog, Keela.


Here are the results:






The next show is a full day of close up magic for a local heavy-hitter corporate giant, then a show Thursday at the University of Texas - Pan Am. On Saturday, I'll be going to the Buckeye Football game! Go Bucks!

peace, love and homeroom,
MK

I know - "What? Turd Rainbow?" Hold on. I'll get there.

It's time for FAMILY WEEKENDS in colleges. The last three shows were all performances for family weekends. Last week I returned to Shepherd University to perform for their Family Weekend. It was an 11 o'clock show for their program, "Late Night in the Zone." We had a pretty full crowd and it was a really fun show. Shepherd University is in Shepherdstown, WV which is a really eclectic little town near Baltimore/DC. Driving in from BWI Airport you pass Harper's Ferry and cross the Potomac which is absolutely beautiful.



After the show, I stopped by Harper's Ferry on my way back to Baltimore. I've driven by it before and I wanted to check it out. It's a little town with a rich civil war history that's been designated a national park, but still kind of operates as a town too. They've kept the town virtually the same way as it existed back then. Lots of notable things happened there (due to it's placement and importance, it changed hands a handful of times during the war between the North and South). There was a large arsenal there and it was the site of John Brown's raid. Here are some photos I took of the town:















This was one of those places that I would have probably never been to had I not had a show nearby. I rank it among Gettysburg and Niagara Falls in that respect. Those are two other places I may have never visited had I not had a show nearby, but am very glad I did.

This week I traveled back to New Hampshire for a double header: Keene State College at 2pm on Saturday and Franklin Pierce University at 8pm on Saturday. I flew in Friday night and after a 4 hour delay due to wind and fog in Philadelphia, I finally got to Keene around 3am Saturday morning.

The show at Keene was great, but before we go there, you're probably still wondering about the title of this post.

I woke up Saturday and got in my powder blue Mercury rent-a-car and there was poo on the windshield. Not kidding. Not bird poo. Not even like small animal droppings. Poo. We're talking full on brown log here. Unfortunately, I didn't see the stinky log resting on my windshield just above the wiper blade. Also unfortunately, there was water on my windshield and I had to use the wiper blade. The result was a brown smear in an arc across the windshield. That's right...a Turd Rainbow.



Absolutely disgusting. I really am perplxed as to how a poo got on my car. Did someone put it there? There was a car wash across the road, do they sneak out at night and put poo on cars to drum up extra business? Then I started thinking about some alternate theories:



The thought of a dog squatting on the upper hood of a car is hilarious to me. What kind of dog would do that? It's absurd - but I suppose there are stranger theories:


I shared this story with my audience at Keene. They enjoyed it. Probably not as much as I did. The show was a ticketed event and sold out! They even made more room and sold a few extra tickets right before the show! The students were great and very nice. They decorated my green room:



I left wondering if the students would talk about me after the show. "He was funny, but he talked about poo a lot."

While I enjoyed the novelty of poo on my windshield, I didn't want to get NEAR it. It was staying right where it was. I don't touch poo. - kind of a personal rule, I guess. So I left the log resting comfortably on the bottom of the windshield and decided to get lunch. I guess I underestimated the smell of a Turd Rainbow. When I went through the drive through at Wendy's, I had forgotten about the brown smear on my window and I kept smelling the most awful smell. "This Wendy's smells like CRAP!" I kept thinking. I considered telling the lady at the window that they need to clean up outside or something, because the place really did smell awful. It wasn't until I was halfway to Franklin Pierce University that I realized what I was smelling was the Turd Rainbow. Taste the Rainbow.

Franklin Pierce University was beautiful. It's in the part of New Hampshire that always reminds me of the movie "What About Bob" with Bill Murray.



I'm happy I snapped this photo out of the car window while driving in. The colors on the leaves were amazing and the anchored sailboat just added to the scene. The university is placed right on this large pond nestled in the mountains of New Hampshire.

Franklin Pierce had another large crowd - more than 150 - and they had to add chairs. I love to hear them tell me that. So flattering. I look forward to coming back sometime.

I sold my first few posters at these shows, which was cool. If you can't get to a show, you can buy them here.

That's all I have for now. I'm stuck at an airport for about 3 more hours before I can get home. So if you are a facebook or myspace friend, write me a note or something to help pass the time!

peace, love and (you guessed it) Turd Rainbows™,
MK

I'm feeling much better. Whatever vile illness existed inside my gut last week is much less painful this week. Still not 100%, but feeling much better. This weekend I flew back to Manchester, NH to perform in New London, NH at Colby Sawyer College.

First, let me say something - When I got to the Manchester Airport Sunday, John McCain's "Straight Talk Express" was there. I didn't take a photo because my camera was put away in my bag. Apparently he was christening a Nascar race or a gun rally or something. In any case - everyone made a big deal about Barack Obama's plane because he took the American flag off the tail when he repainted it with his campaign colors (red, white and blue). If that's such an issue why isn't anyone pointing out that McCain's plane is blue and yellow? No American flag, no red white and blue. Just sayin:


Anyway, I drove about an hour to New London, NH. I wanted to grab a bite to eat when I got there, so I used the "Food" option on my Garmin. The only places that came up were Mom and Pop joints, so I instantly knew I was in a small town. I was craving some Applebees or maybe Red Lobster. The only thing on the map I'd ever heard of before was Subway and it was closed on Sunday! So I headed to "Pizza Chef" and had a hot sub. It was actually pretty good. The girls behind the counter were nice and made a joke about how they accept every kind of currency except IOU's.

Then I arrived at my motel. The Fairway Motel. I walked into the office (which was really just a hallway in someone's house), and got the key to my room (which was a real key) and proceeded to room 5 at the creepy Bates Motel like place. It was actually really nice and clean and had TV and wireless Internet, so I was fine. Really, if ANYWHERE has TV and wireless Internet, I'm pretty much set. That said, the place was rather quaint:


I got to Colby Sawyer and was shown around by Megan and Noah. The teaser went really well - lots of interest in the show already. Colby Sawyer only has about 1,000 students, so the expected crowd was somewhere around 100-150. At 5 minutes until showtime, the room was FULL and they had to put more chairs out until they ran out of chairs. In total, about 248 students came to the show and they were an awesome crowd. Super excited. Here are some photos from the show:






There are more photos HERE.

Apparently while I was performing in New Hampshire, they were having 75 mph winds back home in Ohio. My friend who works in the energy industry said that 60% of Ohio was without power on Monday. Flying into Columbus at night, it was interesting to see all the dark spots. You couldn't really tell where the highways were like you usually can. You could only see the cars themselves. Getting home wasn't too difficult although there were several traffic lights out along the way. I was happy to see that my house didn't lose power. My patio furniture is ruined, but we've got power and hot water, and for that I feel grateful (and like a spoiled brat). Most of our electricity crews are in Texas helping with the the Hurricane Ike damage down there, so many places in Columbus won't regain power until as late as Thursday! I really hope people don't eat spoiled food. Also glad it's not 100 degrees out - I can't imagine not having AC!

My next show is at Shepherd University in Shepherdstown, WV. Shepherdstown is a neat little eclectic town near Washington DC with a rich civil war history. I remember having a blast there last year - can't wait to go back. I'm really flattered that so many of the schools are re-booking me year to year. I try my best to constantly improve the show so even if some of the bits are the same, they're funnier and better.

Also just announced is an Oct. 21 performance at Eastern Carolina University in Greenville, NC. Check out my performance calendar for more dates.

peace, love and tree limbs in the road,
mk

Hahaha. That title's gonna get my blog tons of hits. I'll explain. It's not as dirty as you think, perverts.

Turns out I contracted some sort of foodbourne illness from the last string of shows. Who knows where it came from - could be the raw oysters or the snapper or the Philly Cheesesteak for all I know. I got pretty sick - the kind of sick that makes you ache from head to toe and makes your mouth go numb. Went to the Dr. and his guess was that I was suffering from an illness that...well I won't get into the gross details, but the nickname of it is "The Beaver Fever." Pretty funny. I'm feeling much better now (still not 100%) and back on my feet. Oh wait, I was never off my feet. Let's see - what all did I do during the time I was sick?

Last Friday I performed at Ohio University's Baker Center Theater. This was my second performance in this room, as I performed there for the ACUI conference earlier this year. The new Baker Center is an amazing building. Anyone visiting OU should see it to see what a campus center should look like. State-of-the-art EVERYTHING. The turnout was phenomenal. I think we had between 175 and 200 (full house) with students standing on the sides of the auditorium. They promoted the show really well:



A local stand-up from Athens, Matt Karp, opened the show. Funny guy. Takes a lot of flack from his folks about impersonating a vagina onstage.

After the show, despite having a fever and sweating bullets, I drove back to Columbus so I could go to the Buckeye game the next day and kick OU's butt again! :)

Sunday was a fun day - performed at an outdoor wedding reception for a really fun couple. They wanted something eclectic for their wedding reception (they had gotten married in a helicopter in Vegas two days prior) and my show was perfect for it. I had a lot of fun with their friends and family performing. Again, after the show went home and tried to sleep and feel better.

Tuesday I had to get a fill in for a two-man strolling gig that I was scheduled to do. Hated to do that, but it was for the best - I was a mess. But that ended up being the worst of it.

Wednesday was a performance at St. Anselm College in Manchester, NH. I've performed at St. Anselm quite a bit in the last couple years. GREAT folks there. Laura, who is the new agent working with Big Name Entertainment, lives in Manchester so she picked me up at the airport and took me to lunch before heading to the college. She also showed me the world's largest LEGO display, which was just a display of a bunch of old factories in Manchester.





The show at St. A's was great despite it being really HOT in the room. The crowd was excellent (more guys than I remember at St. A's) and the students took me to the pub that is in the middle of the campus. This is a popular spot for St. A's students and you'll regularly see the monks and priests from the college indulging after a hard day of teaching.

sidenote: I really like the Hampton Inn in Bedford, NH where St. A's puts me up. It's always really clean and nice. But outside of my window, I saw this:



A little scary, but I didn't see anything out of the ordinary. Maybe the rodent catchers just needed a place to stay for the night?

That's all I got for now. OH - two more things! The new routine is coming together! I won't say too much until it's completed, but here's a sneak preview:



The other thing. My good friend Leah Cunningham has been working on posters for my show. I've got a rough draft of the new poster and because you're nice enough to be reading my blog, here's a sneak preview of that:



Let me know what you think! I'd love your input! That's all for now I believe!

peace, love, and a healthy beaver community,
MK

It's been another week full of excitement. Despite the lack of sleep and missing home, this job has been more fun in the last two weeks than I can ever remember. This will be a long entry - hang with me!

I wrote about last week's shows and the absolutely amazing crowd at the University of Northern Colorado. This week took me to Indiana, Massachusetts, Ohio, Florida and Pennsylvania.

I started by driving to Kokomo, Indiana for a show at Indiana University - Kokomo, which is a 100% commuter campus. I sometimes get scared about performing at non-traditional campuses like this because you never know who will show up and the audiences can be so different from the traditional 18-22 year old audiences that I'm used to in colleges. I started the day performing close-up for a BBQ outdoors.



Turned out that we got a fair size crowd to the show (for a commuter campus on a Thursday night) and I had a good time. Even the Chancellor of the University came to the show with his wife. Here's a photo of the show at Kokomo.


More photos from Kokomo are here.

After the show, I drove 5 hours to Cleveland. Before the Cleveland Air Show, however, I had a performance in Paxton, Massachusetts. So by the time I got to Cleveland, I got about 2 hours sleep before getting on a plane to Boston. The show at Anna Maria was cool. The people were a blast. My host for the night was a student named Danielle who was about as big as my pinky but was a firefighter - pretty impressive.



The auditorium at Anna Maria was perfect for my show - a great size with a red carpeted stage. Some enthusiastic guys from the bball team came and sat in the front row. They freaked out a lot. It was great. More photos of the show here. After the show, I drove back to Boston where I stayed and slept a few hours before getting up EARLY for a flight back to Cleveland.

I've been getting HD video from EVERY show so hopefully one day I'll edit it and put it up somewhere where you all can see it.

So I arrive in Cleveland early Saturday morning and was ready for my day with the U.S. Navy Blue Angels at the Cleveland Air Show. I was given the best treatment by these guys - sat in the VIP section, hung out with them - you name it. There are lots of photos up at Flickr, but here are a few:







After the airshow, it was a late night at a western bar with my new friends and then bright and early, it was off to Florida.

I flew into Ft. Lauderdale airport and didn't have a show Sunday night, so I headed out to Ft. Lauderdale Beach to spend the day. The water was AWESOME and beach was beautiful. It was REALLY windy and there were a lot of people kite surfing - something I hadn't seen people do before.





I ended up sitting at a little beach cafe enjoying a plate of fresh snapper for dinner as it started to get dark.

On Monday I had lunch at an AWESOME Chinese Buffet called "Crazy Buffet' in West Palm Beach. One of the nicer ones I've ever been to. Then went to the beach again - this time at West Palm - and then got ready for my show at Northwood University.

Northwood is a small business school with a fence all around it and a moat. After being stopped by the gatekeeper, I wondered how welcome I'd feel until I saw this:



So nice of them. We had a good turnout at the show -- it was a really nice venue for a show my size! Photos here.




Before the show started, I had to get a beer bottle (the one that I break in the show), so James - a student showed me how to "break out" of Northwood. Because of shopping cart theft, they literally had to build a wall between the local shopping center and the college. So students climb the wall to go shopping, go to the bars, hang out, etc. Not to be denied the full Northwood University experience, I happily climbed the wall to get my much-needed show supplies! I wish I had a photo of that!

The next day I flew to Philadelphia for a show at Penn State Abington. PSU Abington does noon shows, so I like to fly in the night before to make everything easier. I spent some time at the King of Prussia mall which was AMAZING. I had raw oysters for the first time and did some power shopping.

The show at PSU Abington was great - this is one of the best noon shows a college performer can do. The students are eager to come to the show because they're on a common break and the performance space has windows all across the back so other students can see in and become interested.


We had another record crowd - something like 215 or so - standing room only! The show was a fun one - one of the people throwing the deck of cards hit the ceiling pretty hard and scattered the cards everywhere. I ended up completing the trick with a 4-card deck. During the "improv magic" bit, someone yelled something pretty nasty, so it made it funnier when I decided we should probably just do the bit with a piece of rope instead of what they yelled.

I appreciate all the facebook and myspace adds I've been getting lately - it's really been incredible. Keep in contact with me - I love hearing from people.

Tomorrow I perform at Ohio University, then at someone's wedding on Sunday! Then another week of shows and traveling after that! I'm sure I'll have more photos and more to talk about!

peace, love and blue angels,
mk