Today we conclude our nine part interview with Mark Wade by discussing the Terry Fator show at the 2013 Ventriloquist ConVENTion.
Next up – my interview with Ian Varella. Ian has passed away, and I will always treasure this interview with a good friend!
Video Transcript:
Terry Fator’s event. Um,
yeah,
that’s a that’s kind of a bonus thing
he’s doing. You say the show is at the
Taft Theater.
Taft Theater. It’s in downtown
Cincinnati and we’ve got right now
reserved 12 buses to pe pick people up
at the door, take them over there, drop
them off, come back and pick them up and
bring them back after the show is over
with. Now, in order to get a free ticket
to that show, you have to be registered
for all four days. Some people say,
“Well, I’ll just register for Friday and
get the free ticket.” Well, it doesn’t
work that way. You know, it’s too
expensive. They can buy a ticket over
there and they go between $40 and $60 a
piece. So, it’s quite a value for them
to be registered for four days and get a
40 or $50 $60 ticket to go to the show,
but they have to register for all four
days of the complete full registration.
Okay.
And uh and they can do that.
That’s that’s valuable advice for them.
What to do if you dont get a ticket
And uh there there is nothing if they
don’t get a ticket, if they just
register for that one day and they don’t
get a ticket, uh there’s not anything
going on at night at the hotel, is
there?
Nope. It’s pretty much pretty much a
dead issue there. they can get something
to eat and just kind of talk to each
other. But no, it’s pretty much where
everybody’s going to be gone. Um, and
some people don’t go to shows. Some
people come and just want to chit chat
with their friends and that’s fine, too,
if they want to do that. I have have no
problem with that. But why would they
turn down a chance to see that Las Vegas
show which would cost you hundreds of
dollars to see in Las Vegas and also
it’s free was part of the registration
and the bus ride. So, what are you gonna
do? You know, it’ be great for them to
go.
Terry’s show is awesome. Is he bringing
his band in or do you do you know if
he’s doing all that or
I don’t know all the details of that.
His people are working all that out.
I’ve kind of kept out of that because he
knows what he needs to do.
Yeah.
So, um I’m not sure. Maybe it’s a band
union thing. They’ll have to use some of
the local musicians. I I don’t I don’t
really know.
Uh his show is, like I say, it’s
Clinton Detweiler Memorial Scholarship
incredible. Uh seeing it out in Vegas. I
can’t wait to see it, you know, in in uh
Cincinnati. So, that’ll be
right. He’s uh he’s been more than
generous and and easy to work with. Oh,
something new that that he and I worked
on last year together and worked on a
little bit this year. You know, he gave
a scholarship last year
to two people. Well, this year increased
it to three, two juniors and one senior.
And he has named the the scholarship
this year, the Clinton Debtweiler
Memorial Scholarship.
And I I’ve given free registration as
part of that package to the three
winners of it. Um he’s given I think
$2,000 each uh to help them. I think
that uh well you Tom, you’re involved
with that with your your course.
Junior Senior Open Mic Contest
Yeah, I’m giving away nine memberships
to the learn ventriloquism course.
Um last year the winners were uh Cole
and Peter who came out there and they
were just a delight uh to hang with
their families and and talk to them.
Oh, one thing I do want to add in that I
didn’t talk about and and there’s so
many things going on in my head. We have
revamped our junior and senior open mic.
Uh I don’t want to call them contests,
but they’re actually just a session. And
what we’ve done this year is kind of
taken it more toward the American Idol
uh type situation. And we’ve got three
judges. They’ll video the people doing
the shows doing their act. Eight. It’ll
be eight and eight. And with we’ll have
some people in reserve in case somebody
gets cold feet or gets sick and drops
out. And what they’ll do is in rotation,
one of the judges will go on stage with
them and explain to them good things
they’ve done, some things they might
need some corrective work on. And that
whole thing is going to be filmed. We’re
going to film them giving the critique
and also their their act as well. So
when they go home, they can play those
those things back. Um, now some people
really don’t want that. You know, they
don’t want anybody going on stage and
talking to them. We will do it by the
old paper method as we did before. Mark
the things and they’ll get their sheets
to take home with them. But we’re
planning on trying it this other way to
see. We’re going to experiment to see
how time consuming it is and and and how
it works. So we’ve cut it from 10 down
to eight this year and also cut their
time off by a minute or so to see if
that helps. So that’s kind of an
experiment, but I’m kind of anxious to
see how it works out. Dan Horn, Jerry
Lane, and Liz Von Sean worked really
hard putting all those ideas together to
revamp this. So I’m excited to see how
their work has progressed. Well, that
Conclusion
that’s a nice learning experience for
everybody that comes out there. Uh the
fact that, you know, you can watch
another act and you might pick out some
little things, but to see it from a pros
point of view,
it’s a wonderful gift you’re giving to
everybody that’s out there, including
the person that’s getting critiqued,
even though they may not feel that way
at the time.
I know. Well, you know, it’s it’s this
is the bridge between a full-blood
contest, which we used to have years
ago, and uh just a open mic situation.
We want the people to feel comfortable
enough to come and try the material and
try things there
without having the onus of having to
beat somebody else down to do it.
Uh we are going to have a people’s
choice award. Now, the people there that
come in, they have to be there. They
can’t go away and vote and come back.
they have to stay there and watch. They
can vote on their favorites junior and
favorite senior. They’re going to give
two of those away. And u so yeah, it’s
kind of like bridging the gap. In the
olden days when we had contests just
flat out where they gave money and
prizes and ribbons and all kinds of
stuff got kind of bloodthirsty. We had
some stage moms and dads there for the
juniors and we had some adults that
would even sabotage somebody else’s act
before they went on. This is back 20
years ago. So, when I was executive
director, I kind of ended that when I
took over. But, uh, this is kind of a
little different step and we’ll see how
it goes. I think it’s going to work out
okay.
Next Article: An Interview With Ian Varella – Part 1
Previous Article: An Interview With Mark Wade – Part 8
Start of Interview: An Interview With Mark Wade – Part 1
Can I do something in 11 days?? Gee I’m feeling unprepared, feeling shy, and self-conscious… maybe I should get over it one day. When though, that’s the question. 😀
Thanks for all the clips uploaded, Tom, and the all the work behind them!