Thanks, Danny. And, yes, Ken, I've been performing at the Maryland festival since 1989 as a member of Shakespeare's Skum, several years as half of the Pickled Punks, and having been doing the Swami YoMahmi show for, I dunno, more than 10 years, I think.

Maryland is a terrific festival to work, with very supportive management and director(s), and I believe the quality of variety entertainment is overall very high.

I'm surprised to hear that the things you mentioned (particularly the bawdy humor) would not go over in the UK; I've always thought the US was much more uptight about seckshual material than the UK.

You gotta be jokeing,,if we had axe and knife throwing, sword swallowers without a public written and verbal warnings, walkabout entertainers without a CRB check and goldfish as giveaways we would be tarred and feathered. At the entrance to the fair with bawdy remarks about come inside before we drink all the ale and virgins to the left with children to the right etc etc ,,,, the powers that be would be on us like a ton of bricks. Let alone a live two headed turtle,,,the RSPCA would go mad and the anti`s would be there in force.

Our last visit was around four years ago in October time,,,to be exact it was the week the Coney Island Freakshow did their final show of the season.

Yes we can get away with coloured humour here but not in a family enviroment.

Once more it was the tops for us and we made several contacts and friends when we were there.

On the whole the US is far more open than we are and they serve larger food portions`at sensible prices as well !!!

Ken.

Bump!

Just came across this WOD vid!

http://www.kontraband.com/videos/21970/M......th/#show

That was very interesting,,,thanks.

A very large wall indeed,,,with the daylight showing through the slats it must have been like riding over concrete humps,,,,sore saddle for sure.

Ken.

Hello forum, I am a member of a Wall of Death show in the US. American Motor Drome Company http://americanwallofdeath.com. Stephon made mention of us as friends of Tyler Fyre and Thrill Kill Jill. They have actually performed their Lucky DareDevil Thrillshow right on our stage. not boasting, just so ya know I'm not a wacko.

To date there are five dromes in the US and one in Canada. The drome Ken visited and the one most recently built do not hold a candle to the craftmanship that went into shows of the past. Kens living conditons were not bad compared to stories I have heard and actual experience. The wall from Canada is built with aluminum and an oak riding surface. The building that Rhett rides was built around 1940 and is in bad conditon. The California Hellriders out of Swansea, Mass. own the last building built by Joe Boudro from 1958? They are a family show with the sons of the owner now runnig the show. Then there is our building, it began construction in late 1998 and saw its' first show in 2001. The owner rode the wall in his youth and owned with a friend two different buildings. In 1998 Samantha was injuried during a show and was out of riding for the foreseeable future. While she was healing, she and Jay decided that there needed to be another drome. and the story contnues...

As for coming to observe UK shows to gain experience, you did not see the right execution of the show. We have the knowlege to run the show but as others stated in this thread " bad shows reflect on everyone" we have been working to overcome the poor showmanship and business practices. don't get me wrong nobody is perfect I still manage to show my a** form time to time.

I do have a copy of Ken Foxs' DVD I would love to see him ride in person. He rides with such grace, Samantha had that same flowing style.

We are making progress, six spots this season that are paying us to do free shows and several more where we sell tickets. None of them are on a fair or carnival. The carnivals still think that we sould be paying them. We have played one fair, the fair board hired us to come and do free shows but the midway operator screamed so they put a ticket booth next to us and told us we had to sell their tickets to our show. we haven't been back.

We do get inspected, mostly from the fire department. Extinguishers and fuel storage are usually their concern. The inspector in Daytona, Fl. actually brought other officials to our drome to show them how it's suppose to be done. Public Saftey is our main concern, if anyone ever gets hurt we're done. We do have Liability Insurance for the public and all of our equipment.

Thanks for the info,,to compare your wall from the vids on the site, it is far superior to the one Ken worked for (Note no daylight showing through the slats) The riders had a good smooth as possible trip.

I consider Ken Fox to be the best trick rider around today, he worked at the start for Allen Ford on his Motor drome, then built his own and now has two sets on the road with his son manning the number two unit. I feel with time Luke will surpass his father with the stunts and take trick work to an even higher level.

Of course private fee paid work is fairly limited but free rent in return for the attraction of a wall at UK shows is often the case,,this makes it a very viable venture.

Yes, I was well impressed with your unit, good luck to you all.

Ken.