Friday, August 7, 2009

Our Edinburgh Marketing Campaign

Here is the poster Stacie has created for our Edinburgh Marketing Campaign. This one is the montage of all four color schemes, but we also have individual posters of the separate colors.

34,265 performances of 2,098 shows in 265 venues


Those are the scary, exciting, and exhilarating statistics for the Edinburgh Fringe Festival here in Scotland. Stacie and I settled into our flat (very roomy with leather couches! pictures will be up soon) on Tuesday. Everything is in WALKING distance (yay!) and the city is quite accessible.

Edinburgh is buzzing as the festival officially begins this weekend. It's madness, really, with so many performers vying for audience members. It's a harsh, competitive game that Stacie and I are vicious players in! Now, to help us out a bit, I've been walking around in the bull mascot, which is definitely an attention grabber.

We're working on very little sleep but there's too much going on and things are too exciting here to spend all of our time sleeping. Will update more soon.


Wednesday, July 29, 2009

The News Line - UK - REVIEW

theatre
NOBODY KNOWS WHAT THE MASCOT'S THINKING
by

In the changing room fro the Red Pet Bulls, a university baseball team, music is throbbing through the speaker system.

Blue Moose, Bruno 01 to be precise, bursts into the space and completes a full routine of dances in his splendid suit.

He even commences a strip routine, taking off his shirt to reveal his orange curly chest hair. The accomplished act completed the incumbent inside the suit emerges--it is a hot and stuck young man who swigs from a water bottle only to hear, "Yes children, the mascot will be with you any moment" over over the speakers.

The chaos that ensues as he tries to get back into the suit in a hurry is very funny.

Eventually he decides not to bother with the appearance--hoping that he won't be sacked!

Collapsing onto a stool and discarding the suit completely, performer Jordan Herskowitz reveals that he is 22 and is the author of this autobiographical one-man show.

He had started mascotting when at school.

Four years later he had a sex change and became Bruno 01. "When I'm the mascot," he says "no one can know what I'm thinking."

He uses it as an escape from his family--his mum (called Barbie!), his father, who has a fear of broccoli, his doting grandparents, who insist on calling him pet names--even when he's asked them not to, his irritating baby sister and his elder and younger brothers, both who suffer from cystic fibrosis, the younger one having had a double-lung transplant.

Now remember it is only one actor who plays all these parts--from grandmother to girlfriend, and how wittily and deftly he does it. Superbly observed caricatures executed with precision. A performance masterpiece.

An entertaining piece of theatre with rich, thought-provoking, material and a strong message about the value of life and organ donorship.

Goodness knows what the next twenty two years of his life will contain!

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

BBC Interview Available To Listen Online

Listen to my interview with BBC correspondent Judi Herman about my one-man show! When you click the link, click the button at the top "New! JR Out Loud!" and it will take you to the page with the article/interview.

Saturday, July 25, 2009

Shut that kid up!

The London Times has released the "15 Golden Rules to Theatre Etiquette". And man, aren't they the truth! After performing to audiences around England, it would be nice if every UK citizen was required to read this article, and then to obey the rules. Go on, read it yourself, and follow the rules! (And come see the show.)




Friday, July 24, 2009

I Suck at Blogging

But that is about to change, my loyal one or two followers! I'm tired of getting slack from my friends (mostly just my cousin, Phillip) for never updating this. The truth is, I'm always writing a new blog post in my head, but I'm just never at a computer. Then, when I get to the computer, I become more engrossed in work-related tasks (like checking facebook), that I never get around to posting! But today is a new day: and you can hold me to it that I will blog much more often! Thanks for the support.


The Jewish Chronicle is a Bunch of Bull

I've really tried to refrain myself from trash-talking London critics. Actually, I've been lucky enough to not have to worry about that, since I've had pretty good reviews. But I can't hold myself back today. So, if this post pisses my rabbi off, I'm sorry, but I'm emotionally fueled right now---and Judaism would want me to express that!

I picked up "The Jewish Chronicle" today. It's a weekly publication that goes all around the country. It's a nice paper, well put together and has good stories. I've been picking one up every week to see when my review would be printed. Turns out it was today! Yay! Well, sort of. You can't read the review online, so I'll (forcefully) re-type it below:


JORDY PORDY
* *
by John Nathan

Jordan Herskowitz was born and raised in Texas and spent a good deal of his late teens as Bruno the bull, the mascot for a baseball team. It allows for a neat metaphor about identity for his rights-of-passage autobiographical solo show.

But there is scant detail here about why being a Jew in the lone star state is a big or difficult deal.

He needs to strip away the conventional teen angst stuff about himself and write more about his family--who he entertainingly performs--and his brother, who lived and tragically died with cystic fibrosis. And he needs to do it quickly before he takes his show to Edinburgh.



So, there it is. Look, it's not a terrible review. It's just frustrating to get a review like that when I'm putting myself on the line night after night performing such a personal show. The original POINT of the show was to be a self-identity piece, and the things that I share from my teenage years were formative in becoming the person I am today. And did I say that being Jewish in Texas was a BIG deal? No, I said Texas was BIG. And that it took me awhile to connect to my religion. Just happened that I was in Texas.

But, as my friend Chris always says, it's fiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiine. One bad review won't ruin me. But to celebrate the publication, feel free to post some bad-mouthing comment to jump-start your fun weekend!

Even this Jewish bull dog is confused with the review.