Monday, February 05, 2007

Whacky Super Bowl Weekend

Friday afternoon, after getting an oil change and filling up my gas tank, I got on the road to Las Vegas, where I would be meeting the Waxler and Weinstein clan for a high roller Super Bowl Weekend. 70 miles into the trip, it was not to be, so I turned around and headed back to Los Angeles.

I worked the City Walk on Friday night as well as Saturday afternoon. While doing my thing at the City Walk, I was honored to see Rick Merrill, Gene Anderson and Steven Bargatze in my audience. It was nice to see these guys again, and Gene was nice enough to give me a little constructive criticism. I had a pretty good day Saturday, and it just got better.

Earlier that morning, I remembered that the Copperfield Show was playing at the Kodak Theater Friday and Saturday, so I put in a last minute email to my old friend Chris Kenner (now Executive Producer of the show) saturday morning, asking if there was any way to hook a brother up for the 8PM show. He said, he would see what he could do. He said that I might have to watch from the sound board, but 10 minutes before show time he set me up with a front row seat. Chris came out to the box office personally to greet me. I gave him hug and told him how much I appreciated his time. As Chris is always busy, especially right before show time, he handed me off to one of his guys who walked me quickly through the back corridors of the Kodak Theater. I was told to wait minute. While I was waiting I felt an old familiar presence. I turned around, it was Homer Liwag. Having know both Chris and Homer for 25 years, it's been exciting to watch them rise to the pinnacles of show biz. I'm so very proud of them both. Even at an early age their talent and drive was undeniable.

I've always been a Copperfield fan and feel like a little kid each time I see the show. Before the show Homer commented that he had done all the editing for a pre-show and mid-show video presentation. It was a great show and I scored it high on freshness. That's probably one of the most important things I rate a show on. Did it look like the Copperfield was engaged with the audience? Did it look like he was having a good time? A big yes to both of those. This was the 5th show in 2 days here in LA at the Kodak Theater (Where the Oscars will be broadcast from).

I was struck by the beauty of this state of the art theater. Homer told me a bit about the architect and then the show was about to begin.

Afterwards, I would have loved to hang out with the guys but they looked tired after the 3rd show of the day, still having to load out and get on the road for Vegas; so we said goodbye and I left. . . . my heart all warm and squishy.

I had a great time!! Thanks Chris and Homer for the memories.

This pic was taken at last years World Magic Seminar.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hey Tom, sounds like you had a great weekend. We watched the superbowl and were excited that the Colts won. It is super cold here. love, Caryn