Life as a Journeyman Entertainer

Most people believe that showbiz and entertainment are about the stars and buzzworthy people they see on Showbiz Tonight or Entertainment Tonight or the cover of People Magazine... but the truth is... MOST professional entertainers go through their lives making a good living and never being recognized by the "star maker/star breaker machine". I call these folks Journeymen. I'm one of them. We all make good livings. Live comfortably. We have cars... a mortgage... families...like a lot of other people... but our job involves entertaining people and making them forget their troubles for a little while. Over the years, I've been fortunate enough to share a dressing room with some special journeymen and journeywomen... and the Big Star World will probably never know about any of us. We do our thing and hope we left our mark and a couple of happy smiles on peoples faces when we're done. Besides... we all wear underwear when we get out of our limos. :) Peace.

Kids Making Better Choices Release Date Set

After completing or KIDS MAKING BETTER CHOICES video back in April... we finally have a release date. The 30 minute video - which teaches better eating and exercise choices for kids using magic tricks and slapstick comedy - is scheduled to mail to Alabama Primary Schools on Thursday August 21, 2008. There are cross correlated study guides and downloadable pdfs on my web site...www.stevetrash.com.

Steve Trash Eco-Magic Tricks

Some exciting news appears to be on the horizon for Concrete Dream Inc. - the official name of my entertainment company. I recently had an excellent conversation with the president of a really cool toy company. They manufacture fun toys for kids in a sustainable manner. In effect, they use sustainably harvested wood, water based paints, and all their manufacturing practices are designed to reduce the carbon footprint of the process of actually making the toys. If all goes well we'll begin licensing some Steve Trash Eco-Magic Tricks soon and have a couple to offer by Toy Fair in NY in February. Keep your fingers crossed I've never found a company before that I believed would truly walk the talk, but I think these folks are the real deal. Steve :)

Garbage Art

For years now I've been fascinated by... garbage. You know the stuff people throw away. No really, ever since I was a kid I'd travel around my neighborhood and look through stuff other people had thrown away. I would always find something wonderful. Sometimes it would be a cool steamer trunk or a velvet Elvis painting or a broken secret decoder ring. I never knew what would turn up. This fascination with other peoples trash lead me to the development of the worlds only eco-magic show done almost completely with found objects. Not only did I create magic tricks, but sometimes... I'd build garbage sculpture/garbage art with the stuff I'd found. Recently there was a festival in my home town - to honor Sam Philips the founder of Sun Records. Sam recorded many many famous singers - Carl Perkins and Elvis to name a few. A friend asked me to create a guitar art piece for the celebration. I used many many bottle caps, a piece of cool rusty tin from a barn and an enourmous amount polyurethane that had turned brown with age. I like the way it came out. What do you think? Peace & Recyclage S.T. :)

Frog Pond Style

I live in Frog Pond, Alabama. It's in the northwestern part of the state - Franklin County to be exact. It's smack dab in the middle of...well nothing. I'm surrounded by hills and trees and more trees and more hills. I have not always lived here. In fact, I have lived and traveled all over the world. I've lived in New York City, Los Angeles, California, and even spent a few crazy months living in Miami. I've worked all over the world too - Japan, Canada, Australia, Greenland... all sorts of cool places... but I love Frog Pond. I have room to stretch out and think. My stuff is there. I get to hang out with my dogs and family. Life is good in Frog Pond. I hope you have your own Frog Pond... a place you can go to find peace and harmony and help you make great choices with your life. Even if this harmonious place is only in your mind... it's good to have it. Peace & Recyclage - S.T.

Working for a living

Let me say right off the bat that I've done many many jobs in my lifetime. Some of them stunk and some of them were okay. I've delivered drugs...for a pharmacy. I've delivered auto parts. I've washed dishes in a southern style home cooking restaurant. I've swept the floor in a factory. I've even been a temporary secretary at 55 Water Street in the famous financial district of NYC. Even with all that uninspiring career experience, there are days that I start to look only at the downside of my life as a touring entertainer. Each day - especially when you're on tour by yourself - can be a real personal challenge. In most cases I'm in a town that I've never been in. I'm in a venue that I've never played in. There is no one in that town that knows me. They don't care if I'm sick. They don't care if I locked my keys in the van. They don't care if someone just sideswiped my van. They don't care if I haven't had one day off in over 27 days. They don't care if I have another 476 miles to drive and I'm already really really tired. They don't care about anything having to do with me. There is a real sense of isolation that can set in when you travel alone. The worst part is... it feels like there is no one else in the world looking out for you. This type of thinking can be very mentally very taxing and it will get to you over time. But these feelings can be emeliarated when I actually get to do what I came there for. The show! It's why I love show business. I love to make people happy. I love to hear kids cheering. I love to hear Moms and Dads laughing out loud at something I said. Their happiness... makes me happy. I guess it's why I put up with the other part. The good part is way better than the bad part. Hope your life is like that too.

Photo of no unauthorized Photography Sign

I often wonder how much of what we become - in life - is in our own personal biological chemistry - ie our DNA - and how much we actually choose for ourselves. My grandfather was a ad man, professional photographer, poet, and gun collector. He lived in Dallas, Texas almost his whole life. I'm sure that his life has had a real effect on mine... although we spent very very little time together. Now it's totally amazing to me, but I seem to be constitutionally incapable of NOT WORKING on something creative and artistic. It seems to be the thing that I chase the most... maybe I chase fame and fortune more, but I don't think so. The passion that gets me up in the morning is to tell a new story or to device something that will make people laugh, or to create something that has never existed before, or to express something that is hidden from the world and can only be revealed through my vision and expression. I suppose everyone feels this way. I don't know. I haven't met everyone yet. So here's my contribution for today... a photo of a sign dictating that no photos be taken! Cheers. :)