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Copyright © 2006-2010 Waterloo Arts Festival All rights reserved. Waterloo Arts Festival Waterloo, Ontario, Canada ph. 519-897-4997 fx. 519.888-7165 OCN 1781215 E: info@waterlooArtsFestival.com logo created by www.eyelight.com website and hosting by Montana Publishing www.montanapublishing.com |
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World Expos in Osaka, Japan, Seville, Spain and Tae Jon, Korea, North American representative on the inaugural World Street Festival tour of Australia, invitations from producers around the world, a performance for the Prime Minister of Canada, The Checkerboard Guy's career has spanned more than two decades and four continents.
David Aiken credits his success with the fact that he loves what he does. This love and joy for making people laugh transcends culture and language. Hey, the fact that he can do his show entirely in English, French and Japanese and dabbles in Spanish and Korean also helps.
Even though this guy studied theatre in university and has performed literally thousands of shows all over the globe, he still gets the biggest kick when the audience throws him a curve ball. Like the time he was performing his Evel Knievel parody The Flaming Leap of Death on his mini-motor scooter and a guy drove into the center of his audience on a very large, very loud Harley Davidson to contest who had the cooler motorcycle.
The ability to roll with the punches and leave them rolling in the aisles time and time again may explain why The Checkerboard Guy is in such high demand wherever producers are interested in making people laugh!
Award winning clown Fraser Hooper has built a huge international following delighting audiences of all ages with his unique brand of contemporary clowning. After a glittering career in menswear and two years on the London cabaret circuit in the late eighties in the popular double act The Hoons, Fraser Hooper decided to go solo. Twenty years on he is still playing to sold out theatres across the UK and at comedy and street festivals worldwide.
Highlights include The Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, Gwacheon Theatre Festival Korea, The National Theatre London, The QE2, The World Buskers New Zealand, and nearly every major street festival in Europe.
With a nod to the great silent clowns he uses mime, audience participation, comedy juggling and eccentric dance delighting all ages in hilarious shows that receive rave reviews wherever he plays.
At present there are no plans to go back to menswear.
Hailed by the press as a “gifted musician” with “the soul of a poet” and “a voice of
tremendous power and whimsy”, Toronto-based Rob Szabo is a tireless touring troubadour,
an acclaimed songwriter and in-demand record producer. His self produced(co-produced with Scott Cooper)
breakthrough album Like A Metaphor (2006) got rave reviews, both in Canada and the U.S., where he’s been called
“Cobain-worthy”. Canada’s CBC Radio 1 and 3 championed his music on shows nationwide, and videos for the singles
Breaking Even and Good Son got major airplay on the MuchMoreMusic and Bravo networks, where Breaking Even peaked
at #2 and went top 10 on Much More Music’s viewer request countdown. Rob's 3rd solo release Life & Limb(2008) has
been met with glowing reviews nation-wide and frequent play on CBC radio 1, 2 and 3 both on regional and national
shows.
Born in Australia of Sri Lankan Tamil and British descent, in 1978 Andrew, at the age of 17, traveled to India,
where he spent two years in remote villages learning the traditional skills
and feats of the Indian fakirs.
Fakirs are Indian magicians, said to have supernatural powers, and able to do wild physical feats that defy the maxims of Western science.
These include charming deadly snakes in large baskets with the use of musical instruments, sword swallowing, lying near-naked on a bed of sharp nails without incurring any injuries,
levitation and the infamous Indian rope trick. Over the last 28 years Andrew has maintained a very special relationship with a group of gypsy magicians in northern India known as Madari. They are a group of nameless performers who have travelled the county performing in village market places, festivals and tourist towns for hundreds of years.
Through his experiences living, performing and travelling with these performers Andrew has developed a charming, witty and entertaining character named Jardu.
The unhappy clown, "Lurk", is a self aware clown, this self aware clown is tragic,
yet comic by necessity. A pointless group delusion but very funny...
Self sufficient, white faced, 3 meter mercenary street based clown.
Eccentric, scurrilous, yet engaging mime. Unique character based
idiocentricity applied to corners, pedestrian flows and audience catchment.
"Lurk" is timeless, authentic theatrical performance. His canvas is the general
public, forcing them to look at him. Martin has been working with "Lurk",
his present stilt/mime/eccentric for close to fifteen years.
Arguably the worst experience anyone has at any outdoor festival is going to the bathroom, the can, the privy, the plastic booth of smell.
We turn the worst experience into the best and funniest. Instead of a bunch of these plastic smelly boxes sitting aside from the action we put them right in the middle.
Rob Williams is a multi award winning performer, writer, and producer. He can be seen on tour around the world with his current show which is a mix of physical comedy stunts and audience interaction. As part of this show, Rob makes a baloney sandwich using only his feet. Jay Leno has eaten this sandwich. Donny Osmond has eaten this sandwich.
You are more than welcome to eat this sandwich.
Combining two of Canada's main exports, comedy and natural resources, Mike Wood is a comedian with a degree in mine engineering.
He has been making people laugh for money since 1994. From 1996 to 2003, comedy put food on the table and paid for an engineering degree. Mike Wood's comedy and engineering careers are now themselves part of a clever balancing act that may someday pave the way for home ownership.
Starting out as a street performer at outdoor festivals in Canada, Mike developed a slick outdoor stunt comedy show, and has since moved to indoor stages all over the world. He is a successful stand-up comedian, MC/host and actor, but it is Mike Wood's "Catapulted Cabbage Catch" that has taken him around the world. From Toronto to Singapore, Dublin to Christchurch, Bruges to Barcelona, Mike has performed in every province of Canada and 13 different countries.
Mike's comedy is dry but affable, wry but off-beat. His smart sense of humour is informed by years of pop culture immersion and a love of language. He demands little of his audience except their attention and a willingness to connect a few dots.
Hi, I'm Vinyl Burns.
People often ask me…. why do I know you? How did we meet? Why are you dressed that way? Let me clear all this up, once and for all…
I'm a man of good looks, charisma, charm and easy vibes. I hold court like Jordan jumps across it. I enjoy imparting my genius to the ladies, and sometimes the men are close enough to pick a little of it up as well.
I like to write the names of my lovers on the sand at the beach, but often there are too many people on the beach for me to finish the list.
I like to eat.
In Korea, I ate a dog. They told me it was the local custom, and because I know how important it is to honour the locals and show respect for their little customs, I just wolfed that puppy right on down.
They started whispering to each other, and then the one who spoke English said that it was also customary to eat my hat. I don't wear a hat, but I said I'd eat my shirt, if it would please them.
He said it would please them very much, so I ate my shirt. I was pretty full by the end because it was winter time, and it was a heavy woolen shirt.
The Winter thing also made being shirtless quite uncomfortable.
I'm a diplomat and an cultural icon and figurehead. I'm a figurine on the giant porcelain chess board of pop culture. I dabble in politics and I write for some magazines that prefer to remain anonymous.
You like me. They like me. I like me.