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Todd Robbins V.I.P. New York 2922 Posts |
I am pleased to annouce that my new theater show, Dark Deceptions: the Seance Experience will be part of this year's NY International Fringe Festival in August. The performance schedule has not been set and the exact venue is being finalized. I will post on the Café when I have this information.
The show will start of with a prologue that will give a bit of history and let people know that what they are going to be seeing in the grand tradition of all the great Spiritualist fakes from the past. It's all going to be fraud from there on in. I ask them to suspend their disbelief and take is all in as if they were a believer. I then assume the guise of Rev. T. L. Robbins, Pastor of the Church of the Parted Veil and play it straight to the end of the show. At the end of the show I will break character and do a show epilogue that will recap and will include a bit of shock at the end! I've put up a simple website for the show at http://www.darkdeceptions.net I hoping the show will be a lot of fun. More later. |
atucci Veteran user Middleburg, Florida 381 Posts |
Hi Todd, congratulations on the show. Is this the same Fringe Festival that Jamy Swiss was in a few years back? Thanks.
Tony Tuccillo
Middleburg, Florida |
Todd Robbins V.I.P. New York 2922 Posts |
Yes, that's the same festival. I also performed in the 2000 festival with an early version of Carnival Knowledge. Mark Mitton also did a number of shows in the past festivals.
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rr New user 3 Posts |
Todd,
It's great to hear that you're bringing your new show to the NY Fringe. I can't wait to see it. I'd like to pick your brain about funding such endeavors. It seems to be commonly understood that most Fringe shows are a labor of love, and in all likelihood won't be profitable. The benefits of doing a Fringe performance are extraordinary, of course, allowing new shows to find their voice and continue on to greater success. Yet it seems that even established shows don't "have it easy", and establishing a Fringe run for a new, untested and unknown show can be a costly endeavor. Do you typically self-produce, or have you been able to find sponsors and patrons willing to help offset the costs? Do you sell any adverstising space on your marketing material? How exactly, especially for a new show, does one best fund a good run at a Fringe festival? I suspect that your experience in many different markets has informed your funding of Fringe projects. I'd love to hear your thoughts! -Roderick |
Doug Higley 1942 - 2022 7152 Posts |
Todd...I hope you got your Pastor-ness from the online Church...Universal Life...that way your fringe theater can be considered LEGIT theater...
Looking forward to your West Coast tour after your raging success in NY. Yep...I am...
Higley's Giant Flea Pocket Zibit
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Todd Robbins V.I.P. New York 2922 Posts |
I haven't gotten any offical ordainational thing. No need. Anton LaVey was fond of what I do, so that's all the blessing I need.
I'd rather save my money to buy one of the World Famous Higley 'Zibits. As for funding the Fringe run, I'm doing it all out of my own pocket. It's a pretty cheap show to produce. You can't do much in the way of a set, since you have fifteen minutes to load in and fifteen to load out. The real cost will be in promotion. I may bring on the PR guy that did Carnival Knowledge. He's good and will probably do it on the cheap for me. Printed good will probably only be postcards and maybe a few posters. The good news is that the successful shows that have come out of the Fringe, such as Urinetown, have given the festival much more visablity and it make promoting a show easier. I also have some good press contacts from the run of Carnival Knowledge, so I think I have a leg up on doing well with the show. By doing it all myself, I have more control and flexiblity to see what to do with the show after the Fringe is over. |
Doug Higley 1942 - 2022 7152 Posts |
One of the "Famous Higley 'Zibits" will be yours for the asking. It would be an honor.
Doug
Higley's Giant Flea Pocket Zibit
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Todd Robbins V.I.P. New York 2922 Posts |
Thanks Doug.
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handa Inner circle Pittsburgh, PA 1357 Posts |
Todd,
I checked out the website. I like the simplicity and the directness of everything. Having never been to the Fringe Festival, I do not know the stage setup. Is it proscemium, round, or 3/4 round? And what is the size of the venue? I'm assuming that you'll have a few sitters in the stage area and the rest of the audience will play the role of "witness" to the event from their seats. Chris |
Eric Starkey Regular user Pittsburgh, PA 180 Posts |
Chris,
The Fringe Festival is held at multiple locations. As Todd Robbins wrote: "The performance schedule has not been set and the exact venue is being finalized." Todd, I'm looking forward to seeing the show. The information that you shared with me in DC sounds fantastic. Eric |
Todd Robbins V.I.P. New York 2922 Posts |
Thanks Eric. It was good seeing you in DC.
Chris, the venues in the Fringe vary in size. The show might be in a two hundred seat off-Broadway house in Greenwich Village. I envision the show being like the old Spiritualism lecture/demos of the 19th Century. This way it can play for more than just a table of sitters. Eugene Burgers Hauntings show has something I have kept in my head as I have been creating this show. Dark Deceptions will be bit different from what Eugene did, though. I do plan to bring up a committee onstage with me. |
Rick Maue V.I.P. Pittsburgh, PA 586 Posts |
Mr. Robbins,
In regard to this séance of yours, let me just say that I do not go for that haunted stuff. Please consider staying with the family-style of entertainment that you have always performed. Keep the change, Rick |
Todd Robbins V.I.P. New York 2922 Posts |
Rick,
I was just joking about doing a seance show. I just call is a seance show just to get the people in, then I do an hour and fifteen of animal balloons. Yes, it's bait and switch, but no one has complained yet. |
Eric Starkey Regular user Pittsburgh, PA 180 Posts |
Todd,
We've seen the animal balloons that you do - I'm not sure which is more frightening! |
Rick Maue V.I.P. Pittsburgh, PA 586 Posts |
Finally, we have found a person in this business with some integrity!
And from now on, when I hear someone refer to you by using the initials "BS" I will realize that they stand for "Bait and Switch" (or possibly, "balloon sculptor"). I am proud to call you my friend. Keep the change, Rick |
magicpro212 Loyal user 213 Posts |
You're great man I saw you live during the aces of magic which was a lot of fun I also enjoyed your performance on z100...kool stuff
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Todd Robbins V.I.P. New York 2922 Posts |
Thanks.
By the way, balloon sculpting was how I was able to learn how to do sideshow acts. A magician in So. Cal. named Ralph Macabee (he createed the Macabee rings that Martin Lewis has made famous. I have the original set of rings) offered to teach me how to eat fire if I helped him with his holiday shows. So from Thanksgiving until New Years of this one year, while Ralph stood onstage in his beautiful white tux jacket performing miracles, I stood in the back of the room in those VFW, Elks, Moose and other faternal order clubhouses, in clown suit and full make up twisting balloons for all the kids. We must have done fifty shows like this. At the end of this ordeal, Ralph commented that he thought I was going to bail out on him, but since I hung in, he knew I was serious and worthy of learning to eat fire. In regard to BS, in the words of Melvin Burkhart,"I wouldn't fool you for nothing. I'd fool you for something, but not for nothing." Click here to view attached image. |
DrNorth Veteran user North Starr Entertainment, Harrisburg PA 364 Posts |
Hmm, are those of us doing seances without integrity?
"For it shows things that were, and things that are, and things that yet may be. But which it that he sees, even the wisest cannot always tell" ~Galadriel "A heretic is a man who sees with his own eyes." |
Clifford the Red Inner circle LA, California 1941 Posts |
Only if you've lost your sense of ironic and sarcastic wit
That was Rick Maue after all. Todd, I love the theme of the show. Gimme that ol' time religion! It sounds like a blast. I look forward to hearing more about it. If you have any space, my late mother would like a part. I'm only half-joking
"The universe is full of magical things, waiting for our wits to grow sharper." Eden Philpotts
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DrNorth Veteran user North Starr Entertainment, Harrisburg PA 364 Posts |
BTW all, those ordinations are free if you are interested. And real. I just found out the Renn Faire I work wants me to do weddings once they found out I was a "real" Rev. scary idea, ME marrying folks.
"For it shows things that were, and things that are, and things that yet may be. But which it that he sees, even the wisest cannot always tell" ~Galadriel "A heretic is a man who sees with his own eyes." |
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