Page 16 October 1981
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...Geno... I notice you're doing some dance, too - some disco.
...Bounce... We're trying to professionalize and spice up all aspects of the show. Cyrus is doing a lot of dance these days, taking a lot of jazz classes and filling his time in the show with it.
...Geno... You've gone from two to three to four people in your group. Which do you find best? What advantages and disadvantages do you find?
...Bounce... The advantage of having more people is that you have other people to talk to, other people to work with and share the driving. But there are occasional difficult times. Having as many people as we do now, we can sort out personality problems by shuffling our seating in the vans.
...Geno... You tour now without the help of agents, don't you?
...
Bounce... Yes,
we've worked twice with agents and both times they've gotten us less
money for less work than when we did it ourselves.
But doing it yourself is time consuming and difficult. We have huge phone bills - $400 to $700 a month sometimes. But by doing that, we're generating capital in terms of future work to cover it.
... Geno... Do you do your own promotional materials too?
...Bounce... We design some of them. Our main visual consultant is Douglas Barr, who also puts together material for Slap Happy. When you try to sell a show for a lot of money, you need to present a professional package - sharp, clean, good photographs, good paper. You should also have posters, publicity and press releases. lt all takes money, but if you have an amateur package it will rellect badly on you.
...Geno... Do you find you're doing mostly one-nighters?
...Bounce... That's
the way our business is set up. We are probably going to try to get into
places for a couple of weeks at a time in the future to lessen the
burden of travel and lower our overhead.
Now we do one-nighters to generate money to cover our overhead. Anyone who goes out on the road wants to come back with a bit of a bankroll. You don't want to go out for four weeks and break even.
...Geno... Did you work the streets much when you first started ?
...Cyrus... The
streets were our baptism. Five years ago you could find us in the
...Geno... Have the streets changed since you left? What do you see out there now?
...Cyrus... Well,
my personal view is that in a lot of places the streets have turned into
a whole different scene. It's no longer so spontaneous.
So
many people have caught on to the kind of a living that can be made in
the streets that now there's competition to get the good spots. I'm not
downgrading all the acts out there, but some aren't quality.
Some people are out there just putting a hat down and expecting to get remuneration for a painted face or a few general props. But it's not for me to say they shouldn't be able to do that, because street performing comes under freedom of speech in the First Amendment. I predict many more people will get into the streets. There'll be much more competition in the future.
...Bounce... That
also makes it much more difficult for us and other established acts.
We're the ones who actually helped establish the strong street scene.
Like
...Geno... If you had to name the six best locations for street work, what would they be?
...Bounce...
Then
there's
...Geno... Rodger, how did you get involved with LocoMotion Vaudeville?
...Rodger... Actually,
I have known Cyrus and Bounce for a long time. They taught me to juggle
at the 1976 N.E.C. convention in
...Geno... What is your role in the show?
...Rodger... My
role is mostly to play music and act as M.C., although I do some club
passing in the four-man routines. The shows are pretty easy and a lot of
fun.
My musical style on the accordion is well-suited to Loco-Motion's show. However, the travel gets pretty rough... It would be much easier if we played longer runs instead of one-nighters.
...Geno... What was the reason for Loco-Motion's name change from Circus to Vaudeville?
...Jan... A few years ago, we started trying to move the show into more of a theatrical context. With the name Circus, people invariable programmed the show outdoors and in situations where the focus of the act wasn't always uniform. There were too many distractions. Anything from bright, sunny days to things blowing around. As the show progressed and as it moved it toward a theatrical framework - that being my background - we decided there had to be a name change so people would begin to think of the show as more of a stage act.
...Geno... How often do you teach other people to juggle?
...Jan... We
teach people to juggle all the time. I wasn't around in the days when
juggling was supposedly a secret art. One of the things that turns us all
on is that juggling is a way for people to learn about themselves. My
own feeling is that you learn about your place in the universe.
It's a very Zen activity for me, in terms of concentration, defocusing on yourself; being able to concentrate purely on what's going on. We try to learn new things from jugglers who are better than us and teach things to jugglers who are not as good.
Somehow if everyone shares and raises the level of all of us, it's not competition. There's nothing more exciting than teaching a novice who really wants to learn. It's a great joy for us, something that helps us find meaning in life. |