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2010 Summer Tour
Photos: Sarah Hanes, Allison Erickson, Jeff Calafato |
2009 & 2010 Briefing and Eye-Candy
The nature of Tour Now & Then is in its name. It might happen sporadically, now and then, but it will always span the past, present, and future. Thus, while TNT’s 2009 operations were not blipping all over the media radars, covert agents were still carrying out the mission across the planet. This is the year in review.
We signed off on our last tour video update after traversing 26 states and crash-landing into the just desserts of any post-tour rock stars: unemployment. Unlike other mega-popular-teenie-bopper bands appealing to the same pre-teen age demographic, we were dead broke after our international tour. Like any good story, this was just the cliffhanger at the end of a chapter.
We were back to square one with thousands more friends and a few more skeptics. We disbanded to cover more artistic ground and to forage greener pastures in Oregon, Pennsylvania, and Hawaii. Taking a bullet for the team I chose the Aloha State until teaming up with Zan, Aurora, Ryan and Jeff later in the year.
Initially I went to Hawaii to assist at the winter youth circus camp at the Seaview Performing Arts Center for Education (SPACE) on the Big Island. My month-long stint with a plethora of professional entertainers and circus performers landed some future gigs at the neighboring islands’ resorts. Thinking I was about to move to the East (not China this time… just Philly), I flew in for one last West coast diabetes event to try out a new hour-long solo show for the Diabetes Society’s Stanford Family Camp. Engaging solo performance – Check. Renewed appreciation for performing with a troupe – Double Check.
I returned to Hawaii for the resort performances and to coach at SPACE’s Spring circus camp. Having an entire week to build skills with local youth had always been my dream, as we were forced to speed from camp to camp every couple days on the summer camp tours. The concentrated dose of instruction allowed the kids do the bulk of the empowering final show with a minimal amount of babbling from yours-truly.
My corporate performances with Cirque Pacifica led to a partnering with Annetta Lucero, a world-champion baton twirler and circus performer / choreographer. This in turn led to my teaching circus arts and break dancing at a Hawaiian charter school. These events snowballed (despite the climate) into my fear of flying off of the Hawaiian Islands and I was naturally forced to stay until mid-June.
Tsunami on the Square in Prescott, AZ, united me with a contingent of 2008’s tour for an epic night of performance. In June my brother Zan, and Aurora, met Annetta and myself, to orchestrate a half-hour of fire performance that taunted the state-wide, drought-induced fire ban. Several of the vignettes can be seen on Zan’s Youtube account: Zan00. Our official tour video editor had also devoted his time to pumping out a New Instructional Poi DVD after the 2008 tour.
I stationed myself in Seattle for the bulk of the summer to teach circus arts at Teatro Zinzanni’s Summer Camp sessions. Far-and-away the most professional circus outfit I’d been associated with, many of the cabaret’s performers had worked in Cirque du Soleil and other acclaimed international troupes. Watching act after act of mind and gravity bending performances from the Director’s booth, reaffirmed that there are no accidents in life and that I had to train harder. Even a clown sometimes dreams of being be taken more seriously.
After a month with Teatro Zinzanni I took a red-eye flight to Philladelphia to perform at A.I. DuPont Children’s Hospital, as the Diabetes-Day alternative to the Jonas Brothers (no joke here - I was honored to be next in line). It was right back to the good-old making juggling toys, teaching tricks, and empowering via performance and ridiculous costuming. A testament to the 2008 tour appeared as audience members who had seen our performances at camps in New Jersey and Maryland the year prior.
That evening I was able to meet Jeff Calafato, from TNT 2008 and perform with a rogue band of street entertainers at Rittenhouse Square in Philly. Street performing is always the true test of how entertaining one really is, but we passed with flying colors and enough one dollar bills to make anyone double-take our profession in “entertainment.” Jeff had been staying busy dancing and performing on the East coast with the black-light dance/theater company, ArcheDream for HUMANKIND (TNT’s 2009 non-profit fiscal sponsor), and had just recently finished a cross-country tour with the amazing musician, Shpongle.
Returning to Hawaii I followed my brother’s lead and edited an Instructional and Biographical film of Annetta Lucero’s career for an audience of any type of performing artist or athlete. Any baton twirler or fire spinner would learn more than the average brain is capable of processing, but then that’s a common trait in the video’s target audience. Our sleeper agent Ryan Reeves, from TNT 2008 supplied a huge number of tracks for the 2-DVD set.
With the video out of the way, the most exciting offer of the year could be capitalized upon. The HICCUP Youth Circus was created by Graham Ellis and ran for 20 years, touring the Hawaiian Islands and the United States before morphing into the hub of performing arts that SPACE is today. The offer was to start up the HICCUP circus again, with access to the decades of groundwork laid by Mr. Ellis. The end of 2009 saw the rebirth of the youth circus efforts with four weekly, after-school classes for local at-risk youth. The particular rural area of Hawaii is well-known for substance abuse, and the addicting quality of circus arts was set to level the playing field.
The HICCUP youth classes have been going strong in 2010, and will continue while I visit the West coast USA for a small summer tour of camps, events, and children’s hospitals. To all would-be donors who want to see TNT 2010 succeed: NOW is your chance to alter the course of history and make this year's tour a reality!
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“I truly believe we made the right decision in supporting all of Noah's efforts to reach out to camps serving children with diabetes. When we all decided to take a chance on this program, we were all too aware of the risk involved. I believe that some risks are worth taking and I applaud DECA for believing in this program.”
Rocky Wilson, Ph.D.
Executive Director, Camp Conrad-Chinnock
President, Diabetes Education & Camping Association |
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