Just got my Mer in the mail on Friday. The thing looks awesome! I work as a EMT in Baltimore city and picked it up between calls. Our last call of the night was a paranoid schziphrenic(sp?.

Pt: Hey man, whats in the box?
Me: Uhhhhh. Ummmmm. I don't know, maybe you could could tell me....

Glad you found it...uh... useful in your work...

Now read the How-To for the 15th time and make some $.

Doug,

How can people make money with this thing? Just joking!

Guys, after only 3 trips out to flea markets, my zibit is paid for! And the fairs are still ahead!

Follow the advice in Doug's How-To. It really works! I've had people show up from who-knows-where because they saw the banners and HAD to see what "it" was. (If you don't know what I'm talking about with "the banners", get Doug's How-To manual!)

That's right, without you saying a word, people will come up and hand you money!

KeithM

Got my zibit today and it is going to work right away! Saturday and Sunday we will crank it up and see what happens. I love the creature, only I forgot to ask Doug how you tell if its a boy or girl??????

Ambiguity is good. It leaves people asking more questions.

Leave that to Albert Alberta.

Done and done.

Mine's a girl named Marvin.

I'll be sending you a reply soon UFO. It's going to be a great weekend!

E

I think weve decided to name our zibit Stewy.

My wife and I took "Stewy" out for the first time last week to a flea market. We had a great day with it. The only real problem we had was getting our butts kicked by the wind... Everybody who saw it really enjoyed it. Some people instantly new it was fake, other people thought it was real, one guy spent 10 minutes staring at its nose hair. We had another guy who took one look at it and went running for it!

The one group that had almost NO interest at all was the "punks." I was kinda surprised by that. Does anybody remember the "Got Art" kids from the commercials from a few years ago?

Were setting up again tomorrow, and we have a carnival or two lined up over the summer, so it should be fun!

They may have decided it was faked based on their knowledge and common sense but I doubt they knew it was a fake version of a real object...big difference. The hope is they left wondering but not saying.

For the punks - just stage whisper this to them:

"I know you guys are too cool to fall for this. Just between us, yea, of course it's fake. But I bought it from Courtney Love 'cause it used to belong to Kurt Cobain. He used it in the background in a couple of his videos."

They'll pay their buck and ooh and ahh like the rest of the rubes.

The punks aren't where the money is these days especially at Fleas and in a Carnival, you want to be on the Independent not the ride midway where the punks are. With my show, you are going for the Family types. Teen Punks will wander in anyway. Zombie5225, put some milage under your belt before making your mind up what works and doesn't. And stick to the plan. By doing so you will find a much more pleasurable go of it than dealing with punks anyway and make more money with not a beef ever. The purpose of the new show idea I devised was to get away from the punk clientle as the sole customers like the old shows. You might get them but you turned away the Families and especially women. That is your audience with this...it also gets the punks as well so no one is turned away but that is all part of the How-To and not for here to discuss.

And no you don't tell them it's fake...you just carry on...you don't TELL them anything...but you know that.

Doug

Just sharing what I observed doing the show. The only thing I tell them is that I picked the thing up in an auction, and I have no idea what it is. I don't say anything about it being real, being fake, that's for them to decide.

Understand. I just want people dropping in to the thread to know there is more to the process than just putting a weird object out there...I know you know the score...it's all these other geniuses I have to balance like that airship character.

Oh...eMail me and I'll tell you why I would NOT say it's from an auction.

I was kidding. I kid.

I certainly didn't imagine anyone would lend any credence whatsoever to my ramblings. After all, they never do.

Doug is the master of this stuff. Listen to him.

Haha...you have Credence! I'll bet you have the 8-Track!

I really wanted to "get creative" with my presentation, but Doug is right about the experience factor! I had it all figured out after the first day, then the second day came around which was completely different. In one day I had "doubled" my overall experience.. I have resigned myself to the plan, no variables. When things are bad, I know what to do. When things are good I know what to do! Less stress means more fun, and more fun is good for the plan. You could probably show a working 8-track player to someone for a dollar though...

Wow a WORKING 8 track .... you pay for the plane ticket ... I'll pay the dollar!

Doug, you worked in radio back in the prehistoric era like I did.

Remember those huge single-track cartridges we used to record spots on? They would rattle and stretch worse than an 8-track. And they were as big as a dinner plate. A square dinner plate. And you could record a whole minute-long commercial on one.

Ah, good times.

You probably COULD charge a buck to see a working 8-track, especially if you related the tale of its crazy inventor, Earl "Madman" Muntz.

On my first station inlate 1968 I used a MONSTER called a 'Spot Master'. This was a dinosaur even then. It had a WIDE piece of Tape (I think over a foot wide) and it was a continuous roll like a piano roll. In fron the there was a knob with an arrow on it and you positioned the arrow in the notch of the number of the spot you wanted to play. (or record). What a clunky beast! This was at KIBH Seward Alaska, December 1968.

The carts you speak of went up to 60 minutes as I used to edit my Talk/Interview shows on those. Last time I was on the air was in 1995 and they were still being used. I also worked at a semi automated station where ALL the music was put on to those carts and spots as well in huge floor to ceiling carosels programed with Paper Tape!. Total crap.