The Life of a Professional Performer

How to Make Christmas More Memorable than Ever

2010-12-26T07:28:00.007-06:00

How to Make Christmas More Memorable than Ever
without Spending any more than you had planned

This year my 8 year old daughter asked for many things but several of them were “spy” related (walkie talkies, secret book safe, etc.). Other items on the list could also be grouped into the “spy” category even though they were not really espionage items per se (lap top computer, camera, etc.)

So this year I decided to incorporate two important psychological principles into our Christmas ritual. The first was the fact that children have a better time remembering and recalling events that are unique rather than comprehensive. That is, a child will remember the year they had the firetruck birthday cake and visited the fire house on their birthday MORE than they will remember any of the string of five birthdays where they had a moon bounce and a pinata. The idea is to create a “theme” so that the child has an emotional hook upon which to hang their memories.

The second principle we tapped into this Christmas was the idea that a big build up deserves a big finish. Weeks of hype leading up to Christmas can only lead to let down when all the gifts are opened in less than 30 minutes.

But how do you prolong the opening of the gifts?

The idea came to me when I realized that my daughter wanted spy related gifts. So I'll share with you what I did. This plays well with a spy theme, but can easily be applied to any childhood holiday theme. Think treasure hunt meets Amazing Race. Here's how our morning unfolded.

At 4:25 my daughter woke us up to open gifts. She asked for some spy gear and a notebook among a few other gifts. Under the tree there was a pink spiral notebook and an invisible ink pen. That's it. Nothing else. Some gifts from grandparents wrapped off to the side, a stocking of fruit and candy, and a notebook and pen. Rather anti-climactic, eh? She's not upset, but she knows something is up. She insists that we open a gift from her and we do. Then she flips through the notebook and discovers a page with symbols on it. She recognizes it as a cipher from a book on codes and ciphers I gave her for her birthday last May.

She has to remember about the book, find it, then decipher the message. When she does it reads: “Look in the big brown treasure chest”. I was actually surprised at how long she searched the house before realizing that our coffee table is in fact, a big, brown chest. She opened it to find a single walkie-talkie and a manual.

"What good is ONE walkie-talkie?" she asks.

"Exactly!" I say. But she doesn't get the clue and decides to abandon the trail and check her stocking for more gifts. She finds a few little things, some fruit, a few mechanical pencils. Not much. A dead end. So she flips through the notebook again, then looks at the walkie talkie and begins thinking.

"There's got to be another walkie talkie…" she says thinking out loud. "Wait! I could talk into this one and hear where the other one is!"

This is not exactly the outcome I had hoped for. I wanted her to read the manual, learn to use the "Call" function and use that to locate the other walkie-talkie. But I like solutions to problems and all of us enjoyed seeing her creatively solve each level of the mystery all by herself. It was very empowering to her. Using her method she was able to track the other walkie talkie to its location in the guest bedroom. It was sitting on a charger on top of a box with a bow on it and her name in big bold letters.

She found the walkie talkie but was so focused on finding it, she didn't even see the package. Instead she looked at us. "Now what?"

I shrugged and asked "Have you noticed any patterns?"

She thought deeply. "Um…each present sort of leads to the next one."
"Yes, so…"

"So these walkie-talkies should lead me to the next present?"

"Maybe they already did."

"Huh?" Then she began looking around and laughed when she saw the gift literally under her arm. "Oh my gosh! I can't believe I didn't even see it! I am going to have to keep my eyes open better!"

She opened the box to discover a lap top computer! (one of the items on her list and since it was refurbished it cost less than $200). She was ecstatic. She doesn't notice or care that it is refurbished. She gets the power cord, plugs it in and opens it up. We sort of expected her to watch streaming Netflix (which she does instead of television) but by this time she knew there was probably another gift waiting if she could find the clue the laptop represented.

She opened the computer, found a folder on the desktop with her name on it, opened it to find a folder labeled "Spy Stuff". She opened that to find a photo clue. It was a spread of groceries on our kitchen counter with the caption "Something is wrong with this picture".

Again, I thought it would take her some time to figure it out, but it was less than two minutes before she said "We don't eat THAT brand of food item! I gotta find it!" and she ran for the kitchen pantry.

In the pantry she found the jar, opened it to discover it was a secret hiding place. Yes, I visited a “head shop” and bought my 8-year-old an item that most people use to hide illicit items. I suppose that when she's in college she'll recognize what she got, but I hope she doesn't figure it out BEFORE then. Right now it is “spy equipment” not “drug paraphernalia”.

She opened the container (that will remain unidentified so that she can effectively use it to hide espionage data from my Facebook friends and blog readers and possibly pot from her RAs once she goes to college) to discover a USB SD card reader and an encrypted message. The message says “Use code #11” and so she pulls out her birthday code book to begin deciphering the message.

She spent about 5 minutes deciphering the message which told her to check in the ottoman for the next gift. She wasn't sure what an "ottoman" was so she got on her computer and did a Google search.

She figures it out and she finds a digital camera (one of the big items on her list) that we have had for years. We recently bought a new one and even more recently upgraded our cell phones to machines that have better cameras than any that we own. So we were happy to give her an old, used, digital camera with all the accessories. And she was ecstatic to have it and use it.

Again, we thought she would begin taking pictures with it and get sidetracked for a while, but by this time she recognized the pattern: "one gift leads to the next". So she almost instantly says "Can you show me how to look at the pictures that are already on here. I'll bet there are some clues." And of course there were. A string of pictures that were a sort of visual map leading to a single CD on a spindle in the office. The CD was homemade and labeled "Lady Gaga Music".

"I'll bet there's not even any music on this thing" she said and I thought, She's going to get through this whole thing in less time than it took me to set it up!

"Dad, can I put this in the CD drive in my computer?"

"Yes." She did and sure enough, there was no music, only a text file that explained about fonts and how to change them. There was then a sample of various fonts including a very long passage written in a font of symbols which made it totally unreadable. So she re-read the instructions on how to change fonts, did so and was able to read the passage.

The passage was a set of instructions about how an SD card can be used to store more than just pictures from a camera. It can also be used to store documents, movies, and other computer files. It went on to tell her that there were hidden files on the SD card in her camera and that she was going to have to use the SD card reader to access them.

So she excitedly got three of her previous gifts (lap top, camera, SD card reader) and used them together to find THIS video:

After laughing hysterically at her crazy dad and the lengths he'll go to, she ran to the library, located the giant book safe and withdrew the next gift along with another message (not enciphered this time!). The gift was a craft project (she LOVES crafts) to build a book safe. The note said to look for a book gift in the library.

"There's a million books in this room! How will I know which one it is?"

"What do gifts normally look like?" I ask

"Wrapped in paper."

"Okay." And in less than 4 minutes she found a book wrapped in Christmas paper. She ripped it open to find a copy of "Harriet the Spy", the story of a young girl who wants to be a spy and writes her thoughts down in a notebook. "This is just like ME!" she says.

Now, for some reason, at this point she sort of dropped the ball. She set the book down and decided to begin playing with some of her stuff. Don't get me wrong, her and her mother had been communicating everything through the walkie talkies all morning even though they never left each other's side. But now this was different. She had reached a point where she just paused for a while. She didn't want or need any other presents just yet. She wanted to go back and absorb what had happened so far. And with good reason. At this point she had been awake solving mysteries, deciphering messages, and finding hidden presents for more than two hours straight.

Annie started to prod her and I gave her a look that said "NO!" We had a pact to let this unfold naturally. And it did. After about a 15 minute "rest" she came to us and wondered out loud if there were any other presents. Then she announced that she was going to start looking for any more. Five minutes of random searching led me to ask her "How did you find the other gifts?"

"Oh, yeah…each one leads to the next. What was my last present?" She rushed back to the book, flipped through it three times before finding the folded note inside. It was coded in an interesting way. Each word in the note was a string of 3 numbers. The first is a page number, the second is a line number, and the third is the number of the word on that line. So I had to go through and find all the words in my next clue INSIDE the book in order to write the note.

There was no word "pink" in the entire book, but fortunately there was a character named "Pinky" which worked close enough.

It took her just seconds to locate the USB flash drive in the shape of a pink pig that had been hanging on our tree unnoticed for days. She almost immediately realized that the nose came out and knew the USB would fit into her computer.

On the drive was another text file in a strange font. By this time she knew exactly what to do and the next clue told her to check the hall closet for a present wrapped in plain white paper.

She ripped it open to discover a secret agent fingerprint kit. She wondered for about five minutes how she was going to use the fingerprint kit to find her next gift and I realized that she was losing the trail so I cheated a bit. "That's weird that all your gifts were wrapped in Christmas paper except for this one. Just plain old white paper. Normal old regular paper. Nothing special there."

"Wait a minute!" and she ran back to her growing pile of spy gear to get the invisible ink pen that was originally waiting for her under the tree. Using the UV light she flashed it on the shredded wrapper and saw that there was writing on it. So she had to carefully reassemble the pieces and then read that she could find her LAST gift in the garage. It was a remote controlled helicopter that she had wanted.

A little over two and a half hours of active searching before she was able to get down to playing with it all! Of course the search was as much fun or more fun than the toys. More importantly, it created a THEME upon which her memories will hang forever.

There are three Christmases we experience every year (and also 3 birthdays, 3 vacations, etc.). The first is the ANTICIPATION of the event. The planning, the dreaming, the hoping, the list making, the talking about it all with friends and family, marking days of the calendar, etc. This buildup is powerful before any major event, but it seems that when it comes to Christmas it has been really blown way out of proportion. That's not good or bad, but it is important to recognize.

The second holiday is the ACTUAL experience itself. Opening gifts, realizing you got just what you wanted, the delicious treats, the funny coincidences when someone get you the same gift you got them, the tree falling over, the regifting, all the sharing and laughing and joy and disappointment and everything else that comes with experiencing the actual holiday (whether it's Christmas, a vacation, a birthday, or whatever).

Lastly, is the MEMORY of the event. When we look back and recall the funny things that happened, and the joy we felt during the holidays.

The fact is that for most of us, the third holiday (the memory) will be the one that lasts the longest and yet it is often the most neglected. Our brain is just not evolved to remember lists of gifts or specific dates. We do better recalling themes and categorical events. So when you give your holiday a specific and unique theme your brain has a much easier time storing the memories of what happened.

I don't think that the spy chase I created for my daughter increased or decreased her anticipation of the event since she had no awareness of it prior to Christmas morning. I think it probably added a little bit of fun to the event itself. I'll be the first to admit that opening gifts is fun no matter what and putting the gifts into a scavenger hunt sort of gauntlet won't dramatically change any of that. It won't make crummy gifts magically more desireable. It won't make 3 gifts seem like a room full of presents. It won't save you any money or remind anyone of "the true meaning of Christmas" whatever that might mean to you.

All it really does is set up a mental and emotional peg upon which my daughter will be able to hang the memory of this year ("The Spy Christmas"). Twenty years from now she will probably not remember the helicopter, the fingerprint kit, or maybe not ANY of the specific gifts. But she will always remember HOW she found them. She will always remember the chase from one clue to the next. The specific gifts become less important as time goes on and the theme becomes more critical in the remembering process.

Life Shouldn't Be This Good

2010-11-13T22:23:00.002-06:00

I spent last week camping in San Antonio while I was doing educational motivational school assembly programs in Northside ISD.

And on an unrelated note, why is Northside ISD on the WEST side of San Antonio while North East ISD is on the NORTH side?

Anyway, I got to spend some more time camping in the new RV and loved not having to run the AC. I actually had to run a little space heater for a few minutes each morning to warm the place up a bit!

I am a morning person, and I am a cold weather person. I even take cold showers from May through October. I'm a polar bear at heart. I love the cold weather and I love being able to camp in it while still getting to do a job I love so much.

I leave tomorrow for a few days in Huntsville ISD and I'll be camping at Huntsville State Park. My family and I have several upcoming trips planned including a short stint at Galveston Island State Park, another trip to Huntsville State Park, a trip to Falcon Lake state park (near Roma, Texas on the Rio Grande River).

All this before the end of the year. We have even more trips planned for the spring and summer.

Maybe we should just sell the house and live in the RV?

Camping With Coyotes

2010-10-23T11:30:00.002-05:00

I just spent a week camping in Cedar Hill State Park just outside of the Dallas, Texas metroplex. The park sits on Joe Pool Lake.

I was in this part of Texas doing a week of motivational speaker school assembly programs in Mansfield ISD and Family Literacy Night activities in Fort Worth ISD.

I blogged last month about our new RV and how I was using that instead of staying in a sterile (or NOT so sterile!) hotel room whenever I travelled out of town. Well, this past week was hands down, the BEST week of work I've ever had.

Not just because it was a very busy week (and I LOVE my job!). Not just because my business continues to grow during this recession because I have such loyal clients who continue to hire me and continue to tell others about me. Not just because the kids in the audiences were well-behaved and seemed truly excited about learning.

Yes, all those things are true, but this week, as I stayed in our little RV every night, cooking some meals over the camp fire and others on the stove; as I lay in bed every night with the windows open basking in the glow of the full moon this week; as I listened at night to the howling of the coyotes in the distance and the soft, steady hum of ten thousand chirping crickets while the cool wind drafted in and kept me just cool enough to want to snuggle deeper under the thick blankets on the bed; as I drifted in and out of sleep to various sounds of nature including the lone coyote who ran straight through my camp site at 1:06 AM yelping and barking I knew that somehow I was home. Even though I was hundreds of miles from my house, and hours of driving from my family in a campsite I had never been to before, in a park I had never visited before...I was still at home.

New Business Travel Strategy

2010-09-12T11:05:00.000-05:00

Every year I spend about 80 nights in hotels as I travel around doing educational school assembly programs in Texas. This is great because I rack up lots of hotel points that I can use for vacation with my family.

Unfortunately, my family and I prefer to go camping and stay in cabins rather than hotels. So every vacation we've been on for the past three years I've told her "When I travel for work, I'd rather stay in a campground like THIS than to be in a hotel somewhere; even if it meant I had to drive a little farther each day to get to my school".

So after years of talking about it, we finally decided to bite the bullet and buy an RV. Nothing fancy, mind you. I tow it behind my truck, set it up for the week, then drive the truck back and forth to work each day and return "home" to a familiar bed and beautiful surroundings.

We bought the camper this summer and broke it in on a 3 week vacation to west Texas and southern New Mexico. This week I was in San Antonio and I got to stay at Guadalupe River State Park. There was horrible rain, tropic storm force winds, and a few scattered tornadoes. The river was totally flooded.

The good news is that I had the whole park to myself!

I'll be back next week to San Antonio again, but I'll be trying out a different park. I want to sort of get the feel for some of the places available. I'll keep you posted.

Is there anyone out there?!

2010-08-09T12:04:00.002-05:00

I was wondering if anyone ever read blogs any more. I used to spend a lot of time checking out blogs and posted on mine much more frequently than I do now. I had a blog early on (for almost 5 years now!)

But it seems that Facebook and Twitter have taken over the role blogs used to play. Shorter, faster, more interactive, less cumbersom, and easily integrated with the current smart phones.

So, if you are reading this...thank you.

But you might want to also catch me on the "trendier" social networking sites:

http://Facebook.com/JulianFranklin
http://Twitter.com/JulianFranklin

Hope to see you there!

Wrapping up another Summer

2010-07-29T11:56:00.003-05:00

I still have a few more shows to go before the end of the Summer Reading Club programs in Texas. It has been a great year. Normally I complain regularly to my wife about the heat and humidity, but for some reason it didn't bother me so much this summer. Maybe the A/C in my new truck blows colder than the one in my old truck?

Anyway, the show this year turned out really well. I introduced a new puppet (Nigel, an ape with an English accent). His personality has developed quite nicely and I really like the reactions he gets with audiences.

I'm looking forward to some time off in August and really excited about the new school year.

Most of the summer of 2011 is already booked for our show "Work Smarter" which is a perfect tie in with the theme for Texas Libraries in 2011: Dig up a Good Book.

A Really Short Shadow

2010-06-21T13:14:00.002-05:00

Okay, I'm a geek and I know it. I'm proud of it. So here's the deal.

Today is the Summer Solstice--the longest day of the year. The sun is as high overhead as it will ever be today at noon (15 minutes ago since we are talking Solar noon, not Daylight Savings Time).

So I went outside and drew an outline around my feet with sidewalk chalk and then had my wife draw an outline around the shadow my body cast and the shadow was SMALLER than my footprints!

That's cool...if you're a geek.

New Truck

2010-04-06T15:02:00.002-05:00

Well, I finally had to do it. I didn't want to, but after 267,000 miles by old truck just couldn't pass the Harris County emissions inspection required to remain legal to drive.

She still runs great but if I can't legally drive the old pig, I was forced to buy another one.

My family is glad. The old dog was more than ten years old and had been rear-ended so badly two years ago that it was totalled. But the truck still ran so good that I kept pushing it in service thinking I would trade it in when I got to 250,000 miles.

But at 250, she just kept cranking up like she was brand new and running great like she always had.

I've rather enjoyed not having a truck payment these last seven years. I've gotten spoiled, in fact.

But my new ride promises to spoil me in new ways. V-8 (compared to my old V-4) makes for really quick starts when I need them (I never do). A diesel engine provides far more towing power than I'll ever need. I have to mention these engine things because I am a man, but I really appreciate the cabin.

Four doors, leather seats, power everything. This is all new to me. I've been driving a stripped down, bashed-in model for more than a decade. My wife assures me that I deserve it, and I allow myself to enjoy driving now even more than I did before. But I still sometimes feel a little bit out of place in a truck that is almost twice the size of my old faithful.

It will take some time for me to learn where everything is by touch, the way I used to access things in my old truck. But it will come with time. My brother tells me that because diesel engines last much longer than gasoline engines and that because I'm notorious for driving a car until the wheels fall off (the truck BEFORE my last one had 252,000 miles and ran great when I sold it), he's quite sure that this will be the last vehicle I ever own.

That would suit me just fine.

NOT a choice weight loss system...

2010-03-02T17:53:00.002-06:00

I am recovering from some sort of really nasty flu virus. I don't think I've ever been that sick before. You don't need (or want) details, just know it was bad.

But after 6 hours of vilently purging my body of everything I had consumed over the previous 24 hours...followed by 36 hours of virtually uniterrupted sleep, I woke up to realize that I lost 2 days of my life along with 5 pounds.

Trust me, there are better ways to lose weight!

Don't Mess with Me!!

2009-12-28T17:01:00.003-06:00

A spy made a comment on my blog that bothered me so I put them in their place. My wife said I "ripped them a new one" but I don't think it was that bad. I'll ask you what you think, but first, here's the basic scoop:

In addition to being a motivational speaker for children, I'm also a professional speaker for adults. In fact, many of you are aware that I offer Teacher In-Service and Staff Development programs that are as fun for adults as my Texas reading school assembly programs are for children.

So I have this blog where I write about things related to school shows and summer library programs and I have another blog (JulianSpeaks.com/blog) that is directed more at the clients who hire me for my speaking engagements. So I wrote a blog entry and this guy made a rather snarky comment about it.

But the guy isn't a client, he's a spy. He's another performer using an assumed name and he's no doubt bothered by the fact that my business continues to grow even though we are in a really bad recession.

Enough chatter, here's the link to the other blog entry: CLICK HERE

Scroll down to read what he wrote and then you can read my lengthy response. Feel free to comment either there or here (or both) about whether or not you think I was too hard on the guy. I promise that no matter what you comment, I will NOT be in the least bit mean to you.

Just don't mess with me...

Earliest Snow Ever!

2009-12-04T16:46:00.002-06:00

So it's snowing now, like it has been all day. Several districts cancelled classes and even more had early release in an attempt to get the kids home before the streets got icy.

Library Rat productions was at two schools today (we have four performers so this is not impossible to be in two places at once). Both of our schools decided on an unscheduled early dismissal due to the snow. In Wharton ISD we were able to group everyone into 3 shows and finished up in the nick of time. In Spring ISD we were not so lucky and so one of us will be going back next Friday to finish up for the students who missed the show today.

But I feel partially responsible for this whole thing.

Back in 2004 I debuted a show called "Arctic Express" and that year it snowed on Christmas Day from Dallas all the way down to the Rio Grande Valley. It happened again the year before last with some snow down south and now it has happened again with the earliest snow ever recorded in this area.

I wrote a blog entry about this back in 2006 but it deserves being re-addressed.

As the world gathers this week to discuss global warming I'm actually out there DOING something about it! You can help by doing your part. While it is probably too late to book us for this winter season, it is definitely NOT to early to start booking for NEXT winter.

Contact the Library Rat for all your school assembly needs.

And let your PTA know about us. They have money to spend and need to know good places to invest it.

Fun Teacher In-Service

2009-11-02T07:36:00.001-06:00

In 2005 I wrote a book called Kid Control that is now the foundation for a very funny powerful motivational Teacher In-service / Staff Development. If you think this is something that would work at your facility, call our office.

Sorry, this blog entry is rather commercial, but I do want to keep you all updated about what's going on and during this slow down, I've finally had enough time to put together some of these projects I've been planning for so long!

Where the Wild Things Are

2009-10-24T09:19:00.002-05:00

I keep hearing good things from all the reviews, but everyone I know who has seen the movie says it is too dark for children. But the book sort of had dark overtones, too. I guess I'll have to see it and decide for myself but I don't know if I should bring my 7 year old daughter or wait until I've seen it alone first.

I think sometimes they do just the opposite. Chris Van Allsburg writes pretty dark books but when they turn them into movies they seem to put a light, funny spin on things. But his books are really deeper I think.

I'm on a Chris Van Allsburg thing right now because we are debuting our newest show which is a tribute show to Chris Van Allsburg called Catch The Reading Express. I hope it to be a great winter celebration show as well as tie into the theme for public libraries this summer.

What's up with this weather?

2009-10-21T07:20:00.003-05:00

It's supposed to be fall but it still feels like a muggy summer day. It was cool there for a while, and I know it will eventually come back, but I'd really like it to feel like fall for just a little bit. Houston, Texas is tough that way.

Most of you know that I do Texas Educational motivational school assembly programs and many of the people who read this blog have hired me to do their Texas summer reading club programs. I love doing these shows and I'm really excited about a new program that we're offering for THIS DECEMBER that will also be the program of choice for the Texas SRC in 2010. It is a tribute to Chris Van Allsburg and since so many schools do a unit on The Polar Express during December, this is a great tie-in.

It's just hard to get into The Polar Express mode when it is 80 degrees outside :-(

I'm thinking cold because I'll be flying to New York in a few days to visit a friend who is a New York, New Jersey and Connecticut school show presenter with a new program on the six 6 pillars of character education and he wants me to check it out. I'm looking forward to it. He's a great performer who has helped me in several of my shows.

I got to see Taylor Mali live

2009-08-01T21:47:00.003-05:00

Last week I was at a convention in Phoenix, AZ and got to see Taylor Mali recite his poetry live. You've probably read some of what he wrote as it circulates through e-mails around the world, but he deserves to be recognized for being the original author.

His CDs are very inspiring and funny. Here is a small sample of what he performed for us (this was recorded long previous to last week!)

TWO MONTHS GONE!

2009-06-05T14:22:00.002-05:00

Wow! It has been more than two months since I've posted a blog entry here! I have two excuses that I'll share with you because one is fun and the other is relevant. I'll leave it to you to determine which is which.

First, I've been spending far too much time updating everyone on my Julian Franklin Facebook page rather than here on my blog. That's good because if you're on FB then we can kind of keep track of each other in a very convenient way. So, if we're not yet friends on Facebook, send me an invite and we can catch up efffortlessly!

FYI: I'm also on LinkedIn and Plaxo as well so feel free to connect with me there if you want. I'm not on Twitter because I update Facebook every 1-2 days and that is more than enough "Julian Franklin" for anyone.

The second reason I haven't been posting is that May always kills me. Once the TAKS test is over everyone wants to hire a fun assembly program to reward students. I have two performers working for me now and we were all working pretty much every day in May and still had to turn a few schools away.

Don't stop checking here. I'll post stuff here more regularly again, but if you feel like you really need more regular updates then join me on the social networking sites. Then I get to check on you as well!

Summer Reading Club is well under way and I'll be writing about that very soon. We've already done 5 SRC programs so far in 2009..."only" 107 remaining!

Madeleine's First April Fool's Joke

2009-04-01T06:18:00.004-05:00

So my 6-year-old daughter has a little bit too much of her dad in her. She's been dying to do a good April Fool's Joke since she really grasped the concept of the holiday last year. So she's been plotting this thing since she got a cookbook for Christmas and finally got to launch it on her mom this morning.

We took some pound cake (it's better with angel food cake, but the bakery was having a sale) and mixed food coloring in some icing until with got it the orange of processed cheese. We sliced the cake and trimmed it to look like slices of bread and put the icing inbetween like a grilled cheese sandwich. The result looks pretty convincing and my wife is pretty accomodating so she bravely bit into the strangest breakfast-in-bed ever offered. Braver still that this is April 1st.

Walking Barefoot

2009-03-18T07:14:00.002-05:00

I love walking barefoot. It's really too cold this morning and I should have shoes on, but I don't care. The ground is wet and it has made my feet a little muddy.

Muddy and cold.

And there were some sticks and sharp rocks that weren't particularly comfortable to walk on.

But I like being able to FEEL the earth under my feet. I just feel more connected. This is not a spring time thing with me either, though it gets easier to indulge myself as the weather gets warmer. No, I'm a barefoot kind of guy pretty much all the time.

The first thing I do when I walk through the door each day is kick off my shoes. I'd do well in Japan or Korea.

Don't reply to remind me of the dangers of contracting worms, getting infections, or cutting my foot on broken glass. I'm well aware and am willing to take the risk.

Now, excuse me while I go back outside and explore the sights, sounds, smells, and FEELINGS of spring.

Reward or Inspiration?

2009-02-09T19:44:00.004-06:00

Last week I had a conversation with a friend who provides Upward Awards Night Entertainment and another friend who does Arizona Reading School Assembly Programs. We discussed the value of rewarding behavior as a method of increasing that behavior.

This is a very important topic to me for several reason. Firstly, I make my living in large part by providing Bluebonnet and Accelerated Reader Incentives in the form of educational and motivational assembly programs. Secondly, my BA and most of my masters level coursework has been in the field of behavioral science in one form or another. When it comes to Kid Control: Behavior Management for Unruly Children, I literally wrote the book!

So the conversations I held with my friends on these topics were more than just academic.

I was impressed with the idea brought up by Tommy that when the reward is, in itself, an inspiration to continue the behavior, then it becomes a more effective behavior loop.

Think of the difference between exercising for three weeks so that you can eat a huge and fattening meal (rewarding, but not circularly reinforcing the original behavior), verses exercising for three weeks so that you can buy yourself some new workout clothes or a desired piece of gym equipment (reward AND circularly reinforcing of the original behavior).

The programs I offer as rewards and incentives are the same programs I offer as my regular Reading School Assemblies and also the same programs that I offer during my Family Science Night and Math Night Activities. These assembly programs are inherently funny and entertaining, just like Kyle who does some hilarious but very effective Arizona Family Science Night and Literacy Night Activities.

I think doing a program like this (i.e. Inspirational) is so much more effective than just a fun, rewarding show. I mean, from the perspective of the audience, the results are very similar (everyone laughs and has a great time and feels rewarded) but when it comes to LONG-TERM results, I think an inspirational assembly program is more effective than one that is just a funny children's magic show puppet show.

The Dot

2009-01-22T07:23:00.003-06:00

Yesterday I was at Saegert Elementary in Killeen ISD. I was doing a school assembly program teaching the scientific process / scientific method and the kids were loving the puppets and magic so much they had no idea they were learning all sorts of new vocabulary and important curriculum-based concepts.

Of course, because all my shows are reading motivation programs encouraging children to read, I usually perform in the library. And Jennifer Brown, the librarian at Saegert does a great job of creating an environment rich in reading possibility. Her displays of books were simple, but quite effective. Between shows I wound up reading several short books, as frequently happens when I am in the library.

On this particular morning I picked up The Dot by Peter H. Reynolds.

What an amazing book! During my lunch break I skipped lunch to run to Barnes and Noble to buy my own copy of the book. When I got back to my hotel room that evening I got on-line and ordered another copy to give to my daughter's art teacher. It is such a profound book and really quite moving.

People look at children's literature and see that there are not many words and think "Oh, I could write a book like that!" But the truth is that it is MUCH harder to convey important messages with few words than it is with many words.

Peter Reynolds did a MASTERFUL job and this book is a great addition to any library. It is a perfect gift for any teacher, but if you have an art teacher you love, you are obligated to get this book for him or her. I can't believe it's been around since 2003 and won awards and I hadn't heard of it until yesterday.

Thank you Ms. Brown for having me educate, entertain and inspire your students yesterday. But I thank you even more for educating, entertaining, and inspiring me by introducing me to this book. I owe you.

I'm the biggest geek

2009-01-19T22:13:00.003-06:00

It was Martin Luther King, Jr. Day today. I guess it still is for another 90 minutes or so.

But unlike most people who celebrate the fact that they get the day off from work, I celebrated by reading a book. Now, granted, I'm the sort of geek that really enjoys reading and so it's probably about the equivilent of a normal person cooking barbecue and blending frozen drinks, though I like to do those things too.

Anyway, today I wanted to read something appropriate but not so blantantly obvious as a biography of MLK or a transcript of one of his speeches. Great stuff, but I wanted to step out a little.

I wound up grabbing a children's book (I'm a kid show performer and a father of a 6 year old so cut me some slack!). The book I got was an anthology of American Folklore called "From Sea to Shining Sea" compiled by Amy L. Cohn. I read a few things to my daughter and one of the stories reminded me of a video I had seen that I cannot watch without tearing up. It is really powerful.

Then I spent the rest of the day cherishing my beautiful daughter and the great weather we had here in Houston today. It was in the very high 60s and bright sunshine so we inflated an air mattress and played and napped in the back yard wearing just swim suits. I'm a little pink on my back and the top of my head.

America is great.

I can't wait to celebrate the other major holidays like Texas Public School Week, National Library Week, and Children's Book Week. Yeah, I'm a geek alright.

The 10 Types of People

2009-01-10T22:54:00.001-06:00

There are 10 types of people in the world: those who understand binary numbering systems and those who don't.

A new direction

2009-01-08T14:26:00.003-06:00

Okay, so I'm a little bit hesitant to say this after all I wrote last week about the after school workshop thing. But I spent a lot of time hanging out with a mastermind group over the weekend. These are top notch professional performers from all over the country and literally from around the world.

We have members who do everything from birthday party magic puppet shows to guys who work as Upward Awards Night Celebration Speakers. These are really savvy guys and I respect their opinions about business and strategy. Anyway, after tossing the idea around all weekend and into this last week we came to the conclusion that while there were many benefits to hosting these events, that it probably was a strategic distraction.

So instead we brainstormed ways that we could really add value while keeping true to the primary objective of our business mission statement (to encourage children to self-directed learning through reading).

The idea that seemed the most congruent with this plan was the idea for offering evening programs.

Because of that, I am really promoting my Texas Family Science Math Literacy Night Programs and Activities and my good friend Kyle Terwilliger is really working hard to promote his version of the same in addition to his Arizona Reading School Assembly Programs.

Benefits of After School Programs

2009-01-05T05:58:00.001-06:00

A few days ago I started a "Good News, Bad News" post but never did the good news! Sorry!

So here are the good things about hosting After School Magic Workshops:

The students learn to love the PROCESS of learning
They are encouraged to read and self-direct their own education
They develop camradarie among classmates
They bond with the school and the academic environment
They learn to stick with a task
They devleop confidence
They learn public speaking skills and presentation skills
They learn a craft that can become a profession!!

New Year Goals

2009-01-04T05:48:00.000-06:00

Like many people at this time of year I begin making a list of goals, resolutions, and promises. Among mine for 2009 are:

streamline and automate more of the office end of my primary business where I provide Texas Educational Motivational School Assembly Programs
Develop a Google Ad-words campaign to promote my book Kid Control
Heavily promote my programs for Family Science Night Math Night programs
Heavily promote my programs for AR Reward and Bluebonnet Reward Programs
Complete feasability study of After School Magic Workshops.
Continue to work out and maintain current fitness levels
Continue to eat healthy and drink lots of water

After School Magic Workshops

2009-01-03T05:38:00.001-06:00

Yesterday I wrote about the value of After School Magic Workshops and this morning I wanted to continue on that thread for just a quick moment before I go to the gym.

I'm not sure if I want to offer these programs or not, but I am considering it. There are pros and cons. I'll do the old "Bad News, Good News" routine and I'll start with the bad news:

Because magic workshops are held on a regular basis like a class, it would be difficult for me to perform my normal educational school assembly programs in Texas if I was booked out of town. I am usually booked a week at a time and stay in a hotel in cities like Houston, San Antonio, Dallas, Fort Worth, Beaumont, Austin, Mission, Del Rio, and so on. If I were booked in one of these cities for a week I wouldn't be able to provide the after school magic workshop.

That conflict of interest bothers me and is the only thing holding me back at this point.

Non-Paying Customers

2009-01-02T22:36:00.000-06:00

How can you create loyalty if you are a non-profit? Just like the for profits do!

I recently encouraged public schools to offer additional services that appeal to their "free clients" (the students) as well as their "pay clients" (the taxpayers). There was a wonderful article in a recent issue of Harvard Business Review (November 2008) about the value of non-paying customers and it got me to thinking about all the various ways these things play out.

After School Magic Workshops are one way that a school can serve both the paying and non-paying clients. The students win by learning a fun new skill and the parents win because their kids are safe, engaged, learning, and most importantly growing to LOVE the learning process, which is a GREAT thing to have happen in any business.

Think about it, Starbucks (for all their current challenges) built a business around teaching their customers how to enjoy the PROCESSS of drinking coffee. It was only partly about the coffee, and mostly about the process of ordering, sitting, savoring, socializing, seeing and being seen, etc.

The same thing could happen in an after school magic workshop, too. The students would learn about the joy of the PROCESS of learning. Just my thoughts.

Harry Potter Prediction comes true...

2008-12-28T18:06:00.002-06:00

Twelve years ago J.K. Rowling wrote a book that has since made her the wealthiest woman in the world and the wealthiest author in the history of the world. In that book she wrote fiction, but like much of the science fiction of Star Trek that later came to fruition (think of their communication devices and compare them to modern day cell phones), Rowlings words have also proved prophetic.

This year my mother got me a gift of a digital photo frame. You can take your digital pictures and/or videos on an SD card and insert the card into the picture frame. It then rotates through the pictures or videos at intervals you determine.

So now I have a picture frame on my wall that has a movie of my daughter dancing. Compare this to Rowling's description of pictures in the wizard world from her very first Harry Potter book.

Science is Magic.

Snow in Houston Again!

2008-12-10T22:55:00.004-06:00

For the past three days I've had Geoff Akins, the Bubble Juggler down here from Chicago doing Texas School Assembly Programs for our company. He does an amazing show with soap bubbles. The message is one of hope, belief, persistance, and of course a good deal of science.

But the irony is that he left Chicago, in part to enjoy some of our mild weather and tonight it is warmer up north in New York City than it is here in Houston. The ground is covered in snow.

It snowed here in 2004, too. I remember because it snowed on Christmas day, which has never happened in the history of recorded weather in Houston. I also remember because that was the year I introduced my show "The Arctic Express", a school assembly program about winter festivals celebrated by various cultures around the world.

The theme of the show is about making magic snow, and then, it actually snowed in Texas the year I did that program. Now it's snowing again.

It's just coincidence, but you got to respect that it's a pretty cool coincidence!

Do People Even Think?

2008-12-08T08:45:00.002-06:00

I was in the gym this morning and I saw a woman walk past the stairs to the elevator and ride it up to the second floor. This always catches my eye because I have tried to program my brain to always take the stairs if it is two flights or less. It is usually faster to take stairs than to wait for an elevator and the time saved makes me feel like I'm increasing productivity.

Anyway, I saw this lady get off the elevator up stairs and go to the...(you guessed it) STAIRMASTER!!

Do these people even THINK about what they are doing or are they just wandering around in a zombie-like daze?

I also talk to adults...

2008-11-29T11:36:00.002-06:00

As a full-time elementary school assembly presenter, I am freqently asked if I also perform for adults. The answer is almost always "no". I used to, and I loved doing it, but these days my time is so full writing and developing and performing educationally significant assembly programs that I would rather keep focused on my primary purpose (FYI: My goal is to inspire children to read).

However, a few times each year I am asked to speak to groups of performing artists about how I do what I do. We go over not just the basics of creating a great assembly program for elementary age kids, but also about the marketing and management of the business side of things.

I just recently returned from such a speaking engagement in Philadelphia, PA and it was a blast. I got to meet a lot of really dedicated performers from all over the U.S. and Canada.

As I sat relaxing with the family this Thanksgiving it reminded me that I have my own gathering of the minds coming up right after new years. I have people coming from 3 different continents, 5 different countries, and 17 of the United States. They'll be here to learn exactly how to develop, present, and market a show that makes a difference in the lives of their audiences.

Of course, most of them already present great shows. But these are the cream of the crop so to speak. The people at the top in any industry stay there not by luck, but by hard work and constantly seeking improvement.

I'm looking forward to our week together in January. But I've got to get busy getting ready!

My Work Uniform

2008-10-16T21:43:00.002-05:00

I just got back from my daughter's open house. It was kind of fun because I got to dress up a little bit. Okay, I'll admit, my idea of dressing up is probably not the same as most people. I wore my nice jeans, dress shoes, and a button up shirt. That's pretty nice for me.

Of course, as a professional magician I own the obligatory tuxedo, but because two years ago I vowed I would only perform magic for children, I haven't worn it since then. When I perform I wear a costume, and because I plan my costumes well, they are things that, with just a little bit of modification allow me to be seen in public without drawing too much attention.

For example, yesterday I was in Lufkin, Texas doing a school assembly program called "Sport of Champions", which is an educational school assembly show about reading and math and about how learning is exercise for our brain, like physical exercise is for our body. Anyway, my "uniform" for that show consists of a pair of basketball shorts, a very comfortable soccer shirt, a pair of running shoes, a baseball cap, and a stop watch around my neck.

The person who hired me even commented "It must be nice when those are your work clothes!".

Yeah, it is.

Tomorrow I'm doing "Set Sail" a show about the writing process where I wear shorts, a Hawaiian shirt, and sandals along with a crazy straw hat to give it an island feel. Hands down, this is my best costume. In fact, it is SO relaxed that I feel obligated to wear closed-toe shoes to the gig and then change into sandals after I get set up.

But I get so used to relaxed outfits that it is nice to dress up. As a former school teacher I respect what happens within the walls of a school and I want to honor the teachers who work each day with my daughter. So the least I could do was wear my NICE jeans, right?

Creativity at Sea

2008-10-13T14:08:00.003-05:00

I just returned from a week long conference on creativity. The conference was held of a cruise ship out of Galveston that sailed to Cozumel and then to Progresso. This was the second year I've attended this conference and this year I brought my family along with me. It was not only very rewarding from a professional stand point, but I enjoyed having a "vacation" with the family and getting to write off my portion of the trip!

On the boat, Madeleine lost the second of her two front upper teeth. If you've been following my blog for any time you might remember when she lost her first two teeth (the lower front two). We had a little incident where she...well, you can read about here.

But the weird thing is that now she has decided that having a tooth fairy is much more fun than not, so she spent the trip speculating on whether or not the tooth fairy would be able to find her while she was away at sea, if she would know which cabin was ours, how she would get in, and whether or not she would leave US, or Mexican currency.

Ultimately she decided to wait until the trip was over to put her tooth under the pillow.

The cruise was lots of fun as there were several big name children's performers on the boat including Bev Bergeron (the original clown from "The Magic Land of Alikazam" that ran in the 1960s), Tim Sonefelt, Barry Mitchell, Glenn Strange, and my long time friend who performed on the ship for the talent show: Geoff Akins.

Geoff will be here in Texas doing his Bubble Show for schools and libraries during December and again in February. It has been a very popular assembly program that has almost completely sold out with out a single mailing: just word of mouth that he's coming back down.

Power is back on...

2008-09-18T09:11:00.002-05:00

The power is back on after five days and so we are almost back to normal. Just a little bit of clean up left to do.

We feel very fortunate that our house was not significantly damaged and that no one was injured. We have plenty of camping gear and after living on a sailboat for almost 3 years our family is quite used to preparing coffee in a French press, living without television, and cooking on a camp stove and barbecue grill.

You become a victim when your circumstances are bigger than you are. This week was bad for many people, but we are fortunately not among the victims of this storm. And unfortunately there are many legitimate victims of Hurricane Ike. Our hearts go out to them.

Ike's Aftermath

2008-09-16T13:05:00.002-05:00

I rode my bicycle through the neighborhoods nearby yesterday and it is quite amazing the amount of damage done. You wouldn't think that wind could be powerful enough to peel bricks from a building, but in fact, that happened to many buildings and homes.

Of course, tall, heavy trees cause significant damage when they fall on structures as well, and we have plenty of fallen timber around.

It's pretty amazing that our house really suffered no significant damage and it's good to see power in the area being restored bit by bit. We still don't have any, but aren't really missing it too much. Normally the heat would be unbearable without A/C, but because of the cold front it actually hovers in the very plesent mid 70s and we even needed blankets last night as it dropped into the low 60s.

We've eaten the food in the fridge, then went to the freezer, and today we have polished off the deep freeze. Tomorrow we start on the pantry.

There are restaurants open and they are doing a very brisk business. Some grocery stores are open and they are also doing well, but the rumor is that there the perishables go quickly and ice is almost impossible to get. I don't know as we have enough food in the house to last us several weeks (those who know me well know how true this is!).

The water is on and works fine. The gas is on so we even have hot showers and yesterday Madeleine did a load of laundry "pioneer style" complete with clothes line. She loved it. I figure the passion for hand washing clothes will vanish by the second or third load.

Our phone lines are working as is my cell phone. We have hand powered flashlights, lanterns, cell phone chargers, and radios, so we can hear all the news reports, but remember that they sell "sensational" and so they always make it sound worse than it is.

Hurricane Ike

2008-09-15T16:40:00.002-05:00

In the aftermath of the hurricane, I just wanted to post a note to let you know that we are doing okay. There was no damage to the house, the family is doing fine, and except for the inconvenience of the loss of our electricity, we have enjoyed a quiet weekend at home. We are eating very well, as we have grilled everything that has thawed since Saturday morning (thank goodness for gas grills!). I don't think we have eaten this many "meaty" meals in a long time, but it has been interesting to see what we had in the freezer.

My daughter was very excited about the lack of power on the first day since she would be able to use her flashlight, but the novelty is beginning to wear off, and, like her parents, she is ready for normal again.

Our phone lines still work, and we have one old fashioned phone that doesn't require electricity, so we are still running the business as much as we can. With no electricty, we have no access to the internet, so we are unable to receive or send e-mails, but be assured we will get to them as soon as the power comes back on. Feel free to call us. We've got nothing else to do!

You may remember that I have written before about how much I use the computer but that we still have to have paper in the office. This week we are glad to be old fashioned! And those guys and gals who live and die by the electronic calendar, well - I'm going to miss them.

I Wish I was Cool

2008-08-25T08:27:00.004-05:00

I have friends who are cool.

I've often wondered about exactly what constitutes "cool" and I've discussed it both with my cool friends and my un-cool friends. We all agree that the qualities that combine to make cool are difficult, even impossible to identify, but we all agree that we know it when we see it.

We also all agree unanimously that when we look at me, we do NOT see cool. While we can't identify all the elements of cool we did make a list a few of the things that keep me from it.

I don't have a cool cell phone, just one of the kinds that is used to make and receive phone calls.
It's not that I don't know how to text, IM, or tweet, I just choose not to...a sure sign of absence of cool.
Not only are my sunglasses not cool, they are so cheap that they've broken several times to the point that I've spent more money on glue to repair them than they originally cost at the gas station where I bought them. Cool people would never wear sunglasses with big globs of JB Weld on the arms and SuperGlue around the lenses.
I don't carry a wallet, instead holding all my ID, credit cards and cash in a bundle wrapped with a rubber band.
In that bundle I carry more library cards than credit cards.
I have the same hair style as my grandpa: bald. Gee, thanks, gramps. I used to have lots of thick, long hair, but I wasn't cool back then either. Come to think of it, there are lots of really cool bald guys. Okay, we can let the hair thing slide either way.
We don't have cable and I don't watch television so I'm so out of the loop when it comes to any of the hot new TV shows. It's hard to be cool if you don't know what's going on in the land of make-believe.
My truck is banged up because it is so old and has so many miles on it (almost 250,000 now) that when it gets dented or scratched no one will repair it because the repair costs more than the value of the truck. My friends drive way cooler cars.
This is how bad my car situation is. When I want to take the "nice" car, I'm talking about my wife's mini-van. You know you can pretty much sign off on ever being cool when you refer to the family mini-van as the "nice" car.

Professional Development

2008-08-19T11:01:00.002-05:00

There are so many amazing advances in medicine now that things we once thought were incurable are now dealt with as outpatient surgery. Everything from new vaccines to laser technology to new discoveries in medicine.

For this reason doctors are required to spend a certain amount of time each year in continuing education and professional development.

So are real estate agents, school teachers, and a host of other respected professions.

But as a school show presenter there are no laws or requirements for me. Instead it is my duty to seek out my own professional development. The good news is that because I do, it gives me a bit of a competitive advantage over other performers who do not.

I just returned from one of my favorite conferences called KIDabra. It is an international organization with people attending from the UK, Australia, Italy, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Croatia, Canada, and all over the United States.

Every time I return from this annual event my head swims with ideas, inspiration, and renewed energy.

I spent a great deal of time with a core group of friends and we are in the process of developing something that I think will be incredibly fun to create and has already proven to be extremely marketable. Keep your eyes open for it to appear on my web site before the spring semester!

Marketing Your SRC

2008-07-14T07:31:00.003-05:00

As a performer in 100+ SRC programs each summer I feel responsible for ensuring good turn out at my performances. Part of my commitment to the success of the clients who hire me is that I create full-color, full-sized posters for each show and give them to the libraries that hire me. This is a pretty good tool if it is used.

But in addition to hanging posters, publishing a schedule, and reminding visitors each week about next week's program, there are a few other ideas I've come across that can help ensure packed meeting rooms each week.

One I'd like to share today is really quite novel. I was at a library that tracked "minutes read" on their reading logs. Some go by pages, some by titles, some by time. Each method has its pros and cons. But one of the good things about using minutes is that you can allow the patrons to count attendance at events toward their reading log.

In other words, if a patron came to watch a 45 minute puppet show, they would get 45 minutes of credit on their reading log.

I find this to be quite equitable. We know the library is about more than just books. We have videos, computer access, learning and training opportunities, meeting rooms for community groups, magazines, research tools, and a host of other functions to serve the community.

This method of giving credit for attending the SRC programs should not only increase attendance and reward those loyal patrons who show up every week, but it is a reminder that while the library was and is founded on books, there is a LOT more that goes on behind these walls!

First Show of the Summer

2008-06-04T06:59:00.004-05:00

Yesterday I did my first Summer Reading Club show of 2008. It is always so much fun when the summer starts.

I love performing in schools and our company presents almost 1,000 assembly programs in elementary schools each year, about half of which are done by me. I LOVE performing in schools. It is such a rewarding opportunity. But after ten months of school show presenting, I always welcome the change that comes with summer.

I drive a lot more during the summer, but my days start later (most days begin at 10 am rather than 8 am) so that's a more relaxed start. Plus the audience is different with way more adults (usually) than in a school setting. Schools have teachers, but the ratio is 20:1 where as at the public library during the summer most children are with at least one parent so the ratio is closer to 2:1.

I like that because there is a lot of humor in our programs geared just for the adults.

I also like SRC because I truly believe in the work. Study after study has shown how important reading is in the emotional and mental development of children and I think the Summer Reading Club is probably the BEST way to encourage that to happen on a consistent basis.

Well, it's 7:05 am and I have to get on the road in a little bit. I have two more libraries to do today (Hempstead and Eagle Lake). If you're in the area, check out my schedule and come visit me between shows!

Boosting a Child's Brain Development

2008-05-31T08:35:00.002-05:00

We live in an amazing world!

A recent study conducted by professor Barry Zuckerman discovered a system whereby parents can easily boost their child's development in language, memory, motor skills and a host of other cognative developmental markers.

Zuckerman, a long time advocate for impoving the lives of children, charges NOTHING for the use of the system. He insists that the system has been around in some circles for generations and he merely conducted the research that proves the effectiveness of the system.

Proper use of the system takes just a few minutes of time (usually less than 10 mintues, often as little as 5 or less). Furthermore, if done at bed time, use of the system will actually help children fall asleep without fuss.

You will need some equipment, but if you cannot afford the modest price of the tools, most communities make them available to borrow at no charge.

"You can imagine if someone technologically came up with a widget that would stimulate all aspects of a 2-year-old's development, everyone would want to buy it," says Zukerman in the London Guardian.

But that "widget" happens to be a book, and the "system" involves reading to your children.

Zuckerman's study shows that the earlier children begin reading books with their family, the higher their test scores on ALL tests as they grow up.

There is still hope for Dreams

2008-05-21T16:15:00.002-05:00

We just got back from Disney World. On the first night there Madeleine dressed up in her Snow White costume and we went to the park for a half-day to catch the parade that night.

Madeleine is young enough to think nothing of dressing in a costume at Disney World, but once we left the hotel and got on the bus she noticed that no one else was in costume. She’s getting just old enough to start being a little bit self-conscious.

Youth slips away too quickly.

Once at the park she was reassured as she saw other children in costume as well.

The real highlight was during the parade when Disney’s Snow White came by and saw Madeleine in costume. Snow White actually saw my daughter in the crowd dressed like her. When she did, Snow White raised her gloved hand to her mouth is surprise and waved frantically at my daughter as if they were long lost sisters. This totally made my daughter’s day.

In fact, from then on she let me know that when she grew up she was going to be a Snow White at Disney World.

So, she’s been around enough performers to know that these are all actors. She recognizes that is is a real job done by regular people. She’s okay with that. It still really stoked her to have “Snow White” wave to her.

But the REAL kicker was two days later when we saw “Snow White” signing autographs next to Belle (from Beauty and the Beast). Madeleine approached and told her “I’m the one who was dressed like you were in the parade the other day”.

Snow White (almost ASSUREDLY NOT the one who was in the parade) said “Oh! I thought you looked familiar!” and my daughter’s chest swelled and her eyes grew and her smiled curled up. But before she could even bask in the glory Belle looked at Snow White and asked, “Is this the little girl you’ve been telling me about?” and Snow White nodded her head up and down.

My daughter could have died at that moment and been complete.

Actors or not; believing in Fairies or not; When Belle asked if this was the girl that Snow White had been talking about there was absolute belief that it was true. I don’t think my daughter has doubted for a minute that Snow White saw her in the parade and has spent the last few days talking to all the other princesses at Disney about this little girl she saw.

Thank you Disney. You have created three new very loyal fans and one very dedicated future employee.

My Daughter Outs the Tooth Fairy

2008-05-08T17:23:00.001-05:00

My daughter is going to turn six in a few days. She came to us at bed time about two weeks ago and said “Daddy, I know that fairies are not real. And I know that the fairies that are real can’t fly. I know that there’s no way anyone can get into our house because it is locked up and we have an alarm.”

Dramatic pause.

“So, I think that the only one who can get my teeth from under the pillow is either you or mom”.

My wife glared at me as this is our only child and Annie wants to have fun playing these roles for a while. Madeleine has only lost two teeth so far. But I just have a hard time directly lying to my child. So I try another route.

“Don’t you think it’s way more fun to pretend like fairies come and get the teeth?”

“No. I like the truth the best. Is it you and mom?”

“Yeah, it is. But you can’t tell anyone at your school.”

“Okay. Good-night” And it was just that easy.

Once she left my wife and I began discussing our ambivalence. On the one hand, we’re proud that she’s so smart and so logical, but on the other hand we really wanted her to enjoy some of the fun things of childhood.

“Mommy!” Madeleine yelped after sneaking back into the den.

“What is it?”

With a grin as big as a samurai sword my daughter announced “And I know who the Easter Bunny is, too!” then giggled as she ran back to her room.

No comments yet about “you-know-who” in red and white, but we’ll see what happens this coming December.

A Rat Writes a Book!!

2007-11-23T08:09:00.001-06:00

For almost two years Roosevelt Rat has been working on his book and has finally finished the arduous process. The story is very loosely tied to the show he does called "Top Secret" which is a fun reading program about World Geography.

The book is actually like two books in one.

The first half is the story of Roosevelt's missing friend and how they use the library media center to unlock the clues they find. Invisible ink, secret ciphers, and mysterious maps all lead to a fun and rewarding conclusion.

The second half of the book is a collection of magic tricks that young readers can learn and perform to amaze their friends and family.

Roosevelt did a great job on the illustrations as well. The artwork is beautiful.

But that crazy little rat sometimes believes the audiences' praise of him. His ego might have caused him to order a few too many copies of the book from the publisher. We now have a garage FULL of books that I would really like to share with all my friends out there.

So, if you order a copy before the end of the year, I'll pay all the shipping costs and I even back the taxes out and pay them from my pocket. You just pay the $10 for the book. (Be sure to select "No Shipping" when the secure shopping cart asks for your shipping zone).

Don't feel guilty, it's a small price to pay to be able to park the truck in the garage again.

Used Books Part 2

2007-11-17T10:11:00.000-06:00

The reason I wrote about used books last week was because I felt guilty about buying a great one. I love to get a good deal, but there are limits. For example, if I found an elderly widow selling “an old clunker” that her husband left her and I knew it was actually a valuable antique, I don’t know how good I would feel “hauling it away for her” after paying her only the $100 she was asking.

Some might argue with me, others might relish the good deal, some might slip her an extra C-note to ease their conscience, but I wouldn’t feel good about it, no matter what.

That’s sort of how I feel now because I bought an old book by humorist Dave Barry and paid only ONE DOLLAR!

Now, I know that $1 is about the going rate for used books, and actually might be a little bit high since this was a soft cover book. When you figure that the book was published in the early 1990s and had a cover price of only $4.95 you would think my conscious would be clear.

But Dave Barry is such an amazing writer. He has an amazing gift and I simply can’t read his stuff without laughing out loud. So anytime I see his books at a used sale I grab them up. If I already have a copy of the book, I give the second copy to a friend. Everyone like to laugh and Dave’s articles are short enough that even those who don’t read as much as I do can still get through one of his books without too much commitment.

In fact (and I’m sure Dave would beam with pride if he ever knew I said this) Dave Barry’s books are the PERFECT reading material to set on the back of the toilet. Each little article only takes about a minute or two to read. You get a good laugh and by that time you are ready to move on anyway.

I read Dave Barry and I study his words. I think to myself, Now how in the world can he say something so simple and make me laugh out loud? What are the tools that he uses? What pattern or repetitive technique does he use to so consistently produce great humor?

I haven’t unlocked the secret yet. But I don’t mind continuing the research.

Used Books

2007-11-13T07:08:00.000-06:00

As an author of almost 20 books, some of which are a compilation of some of the 100+ magazine articles I’ve had published, I can tell you that I am not particularly excited when I see my work sold second hand.

First there is the emotional let down of wondering “Why would anyone not cherish that book on their shelf forever, passing it down from generation to generation with the veneration of a family heirloom?”

But as a writer who has had far more rejection slips than acceptance letters I am pretty quick to get over the emotional let down. Writers, if they ever want to be published, have to develop pretty thick skin.

No, the real pain comes when I think about how every second hand copy of the book cuts into my profits from writing the book. I only get money when the book is sold the first time. I don’t make money when people borrow it from a friend. I don’t make money when people sell it in a garage sale. I don’t make money when people check it out from the library.

But the truth is that I get past this too because I know what REALLY happens when books are sold second hand.

The readers of the world (and I’m talking here about people who read more than 4-5 books per year which is, according to some studies a VERY small portion of the people in the US), the readers of the world are a small population, but they are responsible for MOST of the book sales. It’s like the old “80/20 Rule” on steroids. I’d bet 5% of the people are responsible for more than 95% of the book sales.

That is a lot of responsibility for us and there is just no way that we can look at ALL the books published every year. So we usually recommend the same books to more than one person. We buy several copies of ONE book and give them as gifts. We follow certain authors and buy whatever they write because we learn to trust them to create great stories.

So, when my book gets handed off second-hand I know that I am being introduced to someone who would not have purchased the book otherwise. The potential benefit was not worth the combined risk of the jacket price AND the time needed to actually read the book.

But if a Reader gets their hands on one of my books and LIKES it, then they might be willing to buy one of my books the next time they get the chance.

And if they like THAT book, they might add me to their list of authors to follow.

And if I continue to deliver on the promise I’ve made with my writing, then the Reader might grace a few of his friends with copies of one of my books as a recommendation or even a gift, and thus a new crowd of people are introduced to my work, who might otherwise never have found me.

In a few days I'll share with you why I am thinking about this topic.

Raving Fans

2007-11-06T06:17:00.000-06:00

I have a lot of testimonials from past clients on my web site, but I wanted to share this from Charity Munoz, a librarian in Lyford ISD in Texas.

Julian Franklin is a class act all the way! Communication and program preparation were a breeze. On the day of the presentation he shows up early, changes performance level to match the grade level of the audience, and manages student behavior like a teacher. All the while the students are thoroughly engaged, lauging and learning!

Thank you, Charity for the kind words and for allowing me to share them with others.

Lucky or UN-lucky?

2007-10-16T18:32:00.000-05:00

So much of life is about perspective; about attitude.

My wife’s favorite comment to me is “Everything always works out for you, doesn’t it?” She thinks I’m a Golden Boy who, no matter what happens, always comes out smelling like roses.

What she is starting to see is that it is my perspective that makes it seem this way. Here are two very recent and very severe examples.

Less than a month ago I was driving at about 70 miles an hour on a freeway in Houston and was rear-ended by a driver who was traveling at a speed police estimated to be at least 100 MPH. The damage was so severe that all the estimates to have it fixed came in at MORE than the vehicle is worth. In other words, my truck was totaled.

But all the damage was in the back where the bed of the truck is. I wasn’t hurt and none of my props were damaged. The truck still runs like a dream, it just has dented panels, a damaged tailgate that won’t open without prying it with a screwdriver, and a bent frame which doesn’t really affect anything other than re-sell value. Because he hit me from the rear the air bags didn’t deploy (that’s GOOD, they cost a LOT to replace!). But it turns out that the driver (Nicholas Drew Estes, TX DL#01514293) has no insurance.

Now this last little fact might not be as bad as it first seems. I carry insurance, but I do NOT carry full coverage since my vehicle has a very low replacement value. In fact, with over 210,000 miles on it, my truck is worth only about $3,000 according to Kelly Blue Book. But it runs GREAT since I take very good care of it. I plan on getting another 50,000 miles out of her at least before I sell her and buy a new one.

But if Estes would have had insurance his company would have totaled the truck, written me a check for $3,000, then taken the truck to sell at auction and then I would have had to go out and buy a NEW truck. Now, regardless of how affordable I can get the payments, I don’t WANT a new truck right now. I want to get another 50K out of this one and THEN buy a new one. So I was actually feeling pretty lucky that I was going to get to keep my truck, even if I was upset that it had been pretty badly damaged.

SEVERE EXAMPLE #2: The night before last, while staying in a hotel in San Antonio, Texas, my truck was broken into. They smashed the driver’s side window and searched the cab for valuables, then smashed the back window of my camper to search among my props in the bed for valuables.

I suppose they were looking for high value items that pack small. Things like cameras, lap tops, cell phones, or GPS units. But I always take these things inside with me.

So they took NOTHING from the cab. They didn’t even try to steal the radio or even take the money in the center console, which I would have thought would be a no-brainer. They took NOTHING.

(As a curious side note, I had two books in the car on entreprenuership and two audio CD programs by Jim Rohn, all of which would have benefited these hoodlums if they would have stolen them and listened to them or read them, but I guess thieves are not into self-improvement)

When they busted out the back window they couldn’t get the tail gate down because of the damage from the wreck last month. So they looked around a little bit and thought it was all a bunch of puppets and worthless books (Eeewww! Books.)

Because the tail gate didn’t open they were unable to pull out the stuff I store at the back of the truck and access the $600 wireless microphone system, the $300 wireless mic that goes with it, the $1,100 sound system, the $200 speaker stands, or the $200 worth of tools I use in the show I do about Simple Machines. All this stuff was back there, but it was so cluttered with other props that couldn't be moved without opening the tail gate that they didn't even know they were there.

So, again, they took NOTHING. They could have taken some props and left me out cold since those props are very valuable to me (even if you couldn’t get $2 for them at the pawn shop). The props are how I make my living.

So, was I unlucky to get my car windows smashed? Or was I lucky because the thieves took NOTHING.

Was I unlucky because I got rear ended and had my truck totaled by a guy with no insurance? Or was I lucky that I got to keep my truck for another year? Lucky that the damage caused rendered the thieves unable to gain access to my more valuable items? Lucky that I was driving a junky truck that got broken into rather than a brand new one?

I guess it is all about perspective.

But just in case it really IS good luck, I bought five lottery tickets.

The Power of a Child

2007-09-13T17:57:00.000-05:00

I just finished a week of performing "Work Smarter" in San Antonio, Texas, and I'm looking forward to getting back home to my family. But I have been really excited this week as I perform this show.

I've always love the concept, but this week the real power in this show was revealed to me through the children of North East ISD in San Antonio.

As a magician, I am used to performing feats that children find amazing. But this week I did a series of shows that teach science using hands-on demonstrations. So we explore the six simple machines (wheel and axle, pulley, incline plane, wedge, lever, and screw).

It was quite inspiring to me to witness first hand just how powerful hands-on education can be for today's youth. I am tempted to say "In spite of all the constant stimulation they experience from video and audio feeds" but after today I think that the truth is, they respond to this sort of educational process BECAUSE of all the constant video and audio stimulation they experience.

Today's children are screaming for real-world experience. They crave to SEE a chrystalis transform into a butterfly, not just READ about it. They want to SEE a 5 lb. weight lift a 50 lb. bucket of rocks using a lever, they don't want to watch a video about it. They want to get a scale and MEASURE the effort it takes to drag a 50 lb. bucket of rocks across the floor and then compare that to measurements they took to see what it took to pull the same bucket in a wagon.

Do wheels really reduce friction? If so, by how much? What other factors are involved? These are no longer abstractions in the minds of these children. These are REAL world questions that they can answer in a real world way.

So today, when I had two first graders up on stage helping me to split a 2X4 using a wedge and a 3 pound mallet, when the pieces finally separated and the kids both grabbed one half of the piece of lumber, it had all the teachers grinning widely and me beaming with pride as the kids held their respective piece of lumber triumphantly over their heads as their classmates cheered and clapped for them, all with no provocation other than the excitement of personal accomplishment.

It was quite a day for me.

It was like a magic show...with no magic. Well, no magic TRICKS. I guess there was plenty of REAL magic!

Reading to a DOG?!

2007-09-09T16:06:00.000-05:00

Some weird ideas just work.

Hindsight is 20/20 but if you are honest with yourself you have to look at some really good ideas and think "That's crazy!"

Case in point: Reading to dogs. I heard about this idea about a year or two ago and saw a program in a public library this summer. Who would have thought that having reluctant readers read to dogs would actually inspire them to WANT to read more?

I mean, I've seen the results and I can assure you that it works. And in hind sight I can even speculate as to why it is so effective (it gives purpose to the reading without fear of embarrassment) , but I have to admit that if someone asked me if I thought the idea might work I'm afraid I would have to liken it to reading to a cricket or reading to a brick wall.

Why does reading to a dog work so well?

Who cares, really? It works for some crazy reason and to me, that's about all that matters.

Books and Movies

2007-08-11T14:15:00.000-05:00

Here is a simple idea we started in our family this summer that really encourages reading in a very fun way. I encourage you to give it a try as well, and to recommend it to your patrons as they check out videos and books.

The new rule in our house is that no one is allowed to see the movie (whatever the movie happens to be) until AFTER they have read the book or had the book read to them. I started the rule this summer after a string of revelations that occured during my performances at libraries all across the state celebrating the Summer Reading Club in Texas.

Virtually all the children were familiar with both the movie and book versions of Chris Van Allsburg's "The Polar Express" as well as both the book and movie versions of J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series. But almost no one knew that Shrek was a book written by Caldecott winner William Steig. Similarly not many children were familiar with the fact that Caldecott winner "Jumanji" (also by Chris Van Allsburg), "Zathura" (Van Allsburg), Katherine Paterson's Newberry winning "Bridge to Terabithia" (1977), and a host of other very popular movie titles began as great books.

As an added bonus, this new rule has actually created a sort of family ritual that we all hope will continue for some time. With all the hype about the last book in the Harry Potter series coming out as well as the fifth movie in the series so close in conjunction, even my 5-year-old daughter has caught the bug.

She was interested, but could tell that the movie was probably a bit scary for her. So when she asked about seeing it, she seemed a little bit relieved when we told her that she would have to start with the first movie which wasn't as scary. So we began reading a chapter per night in book one with occasional "bonus" chapters read during the day if she finishes tasks we've assigned her.

My wife has been listening in as I read and tells me she is very excited about starting book 2, and I will admit that I don't read enough fiction and it was good to force myself to enjoy something just for fun, even if I "had" to do it for my daughter.

Great SRC Ideas!

2007-08-04T16:35:00.001-05:00

WOW! Two whole months without a single post!

What do you expect? It's summer. This is my busiest season. As the summer comes to a close I have most of summer 2008 already booked and four shows booked for summer of 2009! This is getting a little bit crazy, but I love it. Word keeps spreading which is great.

But here's the gist of this post. I got some great ideas over the summer as I toured the state and decided to bring back some "best practices" to share with all of you. The first idea is one for my professional public librarians, though I'll bet my school librarians could apply it, too. Within the next few days I'll be posting an idea that can be used by anyone who has children, so you'll want to come back soon and check it out. I promise it won't be another two months before I post!

GENIUS MOTIVATIONAL IDEA:

Many of you know that in my previous life I was a behavior specialist for a school district here in Texas. In my training and experience I have learned that while there is some very real value to external motivation (e.g. rewards and prizes for participating in SRC, the AR point system, etc.) there are some real drawbacks, primarily the lack of INTRINSIC motivation (e.g. reading because you love the story).

I don't want to start a huge debate here (although, this IS a blog and you are welcome to comment on any post, even if you choose to do so autonomously). I do however want to share an idea that I think is a near perfect blend of external and internal motivation. It also has the added benefits of being cheap to implement and inspiring for even the lowest-level reader.

This idea came from Linda Youngblood of Harker Heights Public Library in Killeen, Texas. Thank you Linda for daring to try this idea in the current wake of "prizes! prizes! prizes!" only to prove that this idea is every bit as motivating, and in many ways, more so. Linda might have gotten this idea from somewhere else, but it was beyond brave to try it out given the pervasive history of "bribing" children to read with McDonald's coupons and dollar store crap.

Total cost to the library: $35.00 (MAX!) If you are wondering what to do with the rest of your SRC budget call me, but I probably won't be available until 2009 and even that is booking fast but I'll do my best to help you spend it all if you need the help .

Concept Overview: No prize distribution, but rather a TEAM effort to build the longest paperclip chain possible.

Concept Details: For every book read (or every 10 minutes, or every 20 pages, or however you decide to break up the units) the child gets to contribute a paperclip to the paperclip chain. The chain will be hung around the library for everyone to see.

Because there are no tangible prizes involved there is little, if any, incentive to fudge the reading log as we all know happens (but not in MY library). One of the problems with the AR program is that children can take a test as many times as they want and guess at the answers and many times pass the test without reading the book at all. With this program I'm going to share there is virtually no incentive to lie because there are no prizes and no "easy points".

Using this program even the lowest level readers will be inspired to participate. Many times reluctant readers learn that they have to read ten books (or so many pages, or X number of minutes) in order to get a prize and they disqualify themselves before even starting. But with this program EVERY SINGLE book/page/minute counts. If the reader turns in a log with only one book on it, then by golly, they get to add one paperclip to the chain. Which reminds me of the most brilliant aspect of this idea.

Because it is a group effort, there is never a sense of "Well, I won't be the top reader so there's no use trying now." Rather, everyone sees the chain growing and is inspired to be a part of something bigger than themselves. Each effort, rather than discouraging others, inspires others.

In fact, Linda was telling me that they started a concurrent contest among the adult patrons. Do you have competitive adults in your library? Do you have patrons who get upset at the sound level of your summer programs? Encourage them to compete against the children by reading as many books as they can. There are many variations: Staff vs. Children vs. Adults vs. Seniors.

I tell you I get so riled up just thinking about this idea! Don't get me wrong, I love the SRC and all that it has done and all that it continues to do. But as a behavior specialist, I can tell you that I am really excited about the possibility that this concept holds for our overall objective.

Of course, you can still use the paperclips after the SRC has ended, so this really doesn't cost you anything!

Signing Up for Summer Reading Club

2007-05-30T21:56:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, after the first swim lesson of the summer we went to our local library and registered Madeleine for the summer reading club. She checked out three books while she was there. My wife got two and I got one.

Unfortunately I haven't had time to flip through it yet because I've been running mad with last minute changes to my show for this summer. The show debuts tomorrow morning in Magnolia. I'm looking forward to how it comes off in front of a live audience. You can practice as much as you want when you are alone. You can practice in front of your wife and daughter, but nothing really shakes a show out quite like getting in front of real people.

Of course, I'm very curious to see what the show becomes over the next two weeks. I've found that the show changes a LOT during my first 20 presentations. Then it changes a little bit more over the rest of the summer (about another 60 shows or so) and from then on it remains pretty solid, with only minor changes such as new jokes added and old ones removed or pop culture references replaced as they become dated. These changes occur when I perform the show at elementary schools during the school year.

Madeleine's Lemonade Stand

2007-05-07T17:15:00.000-05:00

My daughter had her first lemonade stand on Sunday, May 6. Prepared for Life, an organization dedicated to improving opportunity for middle school children, created the idea of "Lemonade Day". You could register your lemonade stand and some organizations and schools went all out.

We just did a little stand in the shade by the park.

We did create several signs which we posted around area intersections directing people to the stand. We also had a larger sign that my daughter and I took turns hold up for passing traffic to see.

Over all we brought in about $12. Not bad for 3 hours. Okay, it probably wasn't the best investment of my time from a financial stand point, but the look on her face when she made her first dollar was worth more than I could possibly make in a month of hard work.

Interview with my Staff: Andrea

2007-04-28T08:59:00.000-05:00

Julian: So, what do you like best about working here?

Andrea: I'll tell you what I like least: That picture of me on the web site "Faculty" page!

JF: I'll change it today. [ed: I have no intention of changing that picture, but I will admit that it doesn't do her justice. She looks good in the picture but in real life she's even more gorgeous]

AV: I like being able to stay at home with Madeleine. I like the friendships we've made with so many of the people we serve.

JF: Do you like "Naked Wednesday" as the new office policy?

AV: Why do you say dumb things like that?

JF: I'm serious.

AV: Please tell me you're kidding. I know you aren't stupid enough to post that question on the blog.

JF: Of course not! [ed: Of course so!]

AV: I'll go back to the only real question you've asked so far. I like being able to see you perform and sit at the back where I can see the reactions of the children and also to hear the comments from the adults. It is great to know that we are really making such a major difference in the lives of so many young readers and I like being a part of that.

JF: That's great. Now, seriously, do you think we should have "Naked Wednesday" as the new office policy? I mean, you work out of the house, so it wouldn't be that hard to coordinate.

AV: This is why you shouldn't work for your spouse. It makes harassment lawsuits much more difficult to prosecute.

JF: Right. Now, you mentioned the joy you get being a part of inspiring children to read. I know the answer to this, but for our readers, please tell us about you desire to learn one of the shows and perform it on stage.

AV: It will NEVER happen. We each have our strengths and mine is keeping you organized enough so that you never miss a show.

JF: I would never be able to run this business without you, that's for sure.

AV: And I would never be able to get on stage and do what you do. We make a good team.

JF: Yeah. Let's pretend it's Wednesday.

AV: Dream on.

Interview with my Staff: Jack

2007-04-01T13:30:00.000-05:00

I was at S.C. Garza Elementary several weeks ago and Mrs. Carlson, the media specialist suggested that I do some interviews with my various staff members and post them on my blog. Liking this idea, I immediately went to work on the project. This is the first interview I've conducted. This is an interview with Jack, the largest of all my puppets.

Julian Franklin: Jack, and I'm just going to call you Jack for this interview and it would be WAY too weird for me to call you "Mr. Rabbit"…

Jack Rabbit (interrupting): You could call me "Fredrick".

JF: Is that your middle name?

JR: No, but if you're trying to come up with other names to call me then I wanted to offer a suggestion.

JF: Whatever. Look, you really only perform in one production at this time.

JR: That's right. I'm the star of "Sport of Champions", it's a show about me and how fast I am.

JF: No. It's an educational school assembly program that promotes reading while also teaching about math and basic math concepts.

JR: Yes, right. It's about reading, math, and about how fast I am.

JF: It's NOT about how fast you are. In fact, we go into pretty good detail about how you lost a race with a TURTLE!

JR: Actually, I won second place in that race!

JF: Jack, when there are two people in a race and you come in second place that's called "LOSING"!

JR: Hmmph. That's a very pessimistic way of looking at things, isn't it?

JF: JACK!! Please. Let's try to get back to this interview.

JR: Of course. I forgot. I know that all the regular readers of your blog will want to find out more about me.

JF: You really think so highly of yourself that you think all the regular readers will want to know more about you?

JR: Yes. I'm sure they all will. All two of them.

JF: I have a LOT more than two readers of this blog!!

JR: Sorry, I forgot to include your mother.

JF: You leave my mother out of this !!

JR: Whoa! Too much caffeine for YOU! No more trips to Starbuck's.

JF: Please, let's just do the interview.

JR: Ask a question, then! We only have time for one more, then I have to leave.

JF: Really, what time is it?

JR: Time to go!

JF: Wait! What about my last question?

JR: You just asked two.

JF: JACK!!

JR: Too much caffeine for YOU!

Thank you Johanna, for the idea for the interview!

Bad Assembly Ideas...

2007-03-24T09:37:00.000-05:00

As a professional school show performer, I have lots of fun school assembly programs that are educational and entertaining. But sometimes I'll have an idea that just doesn't pan out the way I first thought it might.

For example, here are a few school assembly programs that I created that never really caught on.

My motivational program called "At Least Care Enough to Cheat"

I wanted to combine a study on Language Arts with Ethics and came up with "Words We Shouldn't Say and How to Pronounce Them"

When that didn't take off, I focused just on the Language Arts program and created "Learn Where to Put Prepositions At"

I knew Red Ribbon Month was a good time to do programs so I wrote "Don't Smoke Much Marijuana"

For the younger kids I created "Don't Steal from Your Friends"

My very first reading program was titled "Be Smart: Reed"

Finally, I wanted to create a program that took advantage of my training as a behavior specialist so I wrote "Behave You Little Brats"

Have fun!

--Julian Franklin

P.S. Most of these humorous ideas are not my own. I am fortunate to have friends as funny as Matt Fore (quite possibly the funniest human being I have ever met). He's an amazingly talented school show presenter from Tennessee and if you ever have the good fortune of seeing him, he'll have you and your students rolling on the floor. I'm glad to be able to call him a friend.

Extroverts

2007-03-14T12:05:00.000-05:00

Because I perform school assembly programs and motivational reading programs for a living people assume I am an extrovert. It's a logical conclusion. I mean, when you see one of my summer library reading programs I'm running around in costume, singing songs, arguing with puppets, screaming feigned shock at magic tricks, and laughing harder than the kids at all the funny stuff that happens while we talk about books and the power of reading.

But I'll tell you a little secret about me…that's not what I'm really like.

I love to eat lunch with the librarians that hire me because most librarians and media specialists seem to relate to me pretty well. We talk about favorite books, favorite authors, and sometimes we don't really talk much at all.

I remember sitting in on a lunch conversation that consisted of other performing artists including some professional speakers. Someone asked the members of the group to raise their hand if they felt they were introverts. Everyone raised their hand.

Now, that's not always true. I know some performers who really NEED to be on stage. They thrive there and WANT to be there. And I guess I do, too. But it's a little bit different for me.
One of the guys at the lunch table that day made a comment that stuck in my mind. "Extroverts spend time with others to gain the strength they need to get through the times they are alone. Introverts spend time alone to gain the strength they need to get through the times with others."

While I don't think I need to psyche myself up to get on stage, or even have any reservations or trouble doing what I do, I also am very comfortable spending an entire day (or two or three, though I don't remember having that luxury since my college days) doing nothing but sitting alone, reading, writing, and dreaming.

I remember early in my career someone filled in my feedback form with the suggestion that I should be more friendly before the show. They very logically concluded that since I was so dynamic on stage and NOT at all dynamic beforehand that I must have seemed rather "stand-off-ish" or aloof. The truth is that I would always be as dynamic and personable and funny off-stage as I am on-stage if they would give me a script four months before hand and then follow their lines.

But alas, conversations don't work this way unless all your friends are puppets (most of mine are). So I do the best I can. I really like people and enjoy talking to them and listening to them. I just don't do it with the same vigor and excitement that happens on stage.

So, if you catch me off-stage, don't be afraid to grab me by the arm and say hello. I'd love to sit and talk about your favorite author. Just don't expect me to come up with something witty to say.

--Julian Franklin

What's on Your Bookshelf?

2007-03-10T07:39:00.000-06:00

I was recently talking to a librarian friend of mine about what books we were currently reading and I mentioned to her that when I first go into someone's home, I am drawn like a vouyer to their bookshelf.

"The eyes are the windows to the soul" the old saying goes. But I disagree.

Give me ten minutes to peruse your book collection and I'll be able to tell more about you than anyone can tell by looking at your eyes. Paperbacks or hardcover? How worn are the books? Any classics or is it all pop fiction?

Favorite authors, favorite genres, favorite characters, favorite themes: these all reveal, at some level, our own aspirations, dreams, and fears.

And when it comes to non-fiction and how-to type books the number and type can reveal quite a lot. The aspirations, dreams, and fears are in no way hidden with these books. They were bought specifically to learn something that can be applied. So what, really are you doing with Stories Guide to Raising Beef Cattle? And doesn't that copy of Surviving Infidelity tell a little bit more than you really want the neighbors to know? Why is that copy of the Karma Sutra so well worn? (Maybe that's covered in one of the chapters of Surviving Infidelity?)

Are your books displayed out in the open or are they on shelves in private rooms? How many books do you own? How does your book collection compare to your video collection?

Some of you may be asking questions such as I asked once I first realized how revealing books can be. I know someone who has more televisions in his house than he has books. How do I view into his soul?

The answer is obvious: those without books, have no soul.

Or maybe they just keep them hidden from nosey people like you and me.

--Julian Franklin

Frozen Bubbles

2007-02-19T19:45:00.000-06:00

My daughter was watching a Curious George marathon on PBS today. They were running the "monkey marathon" to celebrate President's day and I'm not sure if 6 episodes back-to-back of a meddlesome monkey named George was a political statement or not, but that's a topic of another post at another time.

This post is about the episode where George was blowing bubbles one cold winter day only to look down and see one of his friends "pop" the bubble which actually caused it to shatter. Apparently the bubble got so cold that it froze.

Living in south Texas, I've never heard of such a thing and almost dismissed it as cartoon silliness when I decided to e-mail one of the world's leading authorities on bubbles. Yes, I have some pretty interesting people in my list of acquaintances.

So the guy I contacted is Geoff Akins of www.BubbleJuggler.com. He not only verified that bubbles CAN freeze, he even sent me a picture of a few that he was able to capture on film. I'm sharing them with you now.

By the way, Geoff will be visiting Texas next fall. If you are interested in getting a totally unique, educationally significant school or library program from a world renowned "bubbleologist", and NOT have to pay his travel from Chicago, contact me ASAP as we are setting up a tour now. He'll only be here one week (September 24-28, 2007) so act fast or you miss out!

Romance Novels are Real?

2007-02-10T14:46:00.000-06:00

Romance novels account for 40% of the sales of popular fiction.

That's a fairly interesting fact in itself. But then a study in press at the Journal of Research in Personality showed that those who read fiction scored higher on tests of empathy and social acumen than readers of non-fiction.

As I guy who reads about 100 books each year, almost all of which are non-fiction, this study bothered me when I first read it.

Raymond Mar (a Ph.D. candidate in psychology at the University of Toronto) says "Stories often force us to empathize with characters who are quite different from us, and this ability could help us better understand the many kinds of people we come across in the real world."

In fact, Mar suggests that the correlation between reading fiction and being more empathetic and having better social acumen is causal. That is, that reading fiction actually INCREASES our ability to understand others and to get along better socially.

There is a great book on the subject called "Why We Read Fiction" by Lisa Zunshine. Jackie Stanley wrote "Reading to Heal" about the topic of bibliotherapy. And Victor Nell penned "Lost in a Book" about the psychological and even physical benefits of reading fiction. But I won't read ANY of these books because I've made a commitment to read more fiction and all these books are non-fiction. I'm starting the new year with "The Kite Runner" by Khaled Hosseini.

I resisted the urge to read non-fiction and forced myself to browse new sections of my local Barnes and Nobles. I am a non-fiction junkie and it has been difficult for me to break my habit and indulge in reading something PURELY for pleasure. But I felt that I really NEED to do this in order to keep my social awareness in shape.

Until my new social acumen picks up though, I wonder if I will be less caring and empathetic about my fellow members of society. I wonder what other people might think of me if I seem boorish or somehow anti-social. Will others begin to think of me as some sort of non-fiction reading monster?

But then I realized that as a non-fiction reader, I couldn't care less what everyone else thinks.

Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows

2007-02-01T15:50:00.000-06:00

July 21st is the day that bookstores will begin selling "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows", book 7 in the Harry Potter series.

As a performer with a strong background in presenting magic tricks, I must admit that I like the Harry Potter books and have been at almost every mid-night party the night before the book was allowed to be sold.

Most of the time I went as a paid performer, dressed like a wizard doing magic tricks for all the other Harry Potter lunatics who have to be the FIRST ones to get their hands on the book.

I'm sure this year will be no different. I even have a web page just for promoting the new Harry Potter Book 7. Check it out, if you want.

By the way, the picture at the left is of me performing at Rice University for the children of the alumni before their homecoming game. I always enjoy performing for the Rice University Alumni.

Irony

2007-01-23T23:41:00.000-06:00

I just read the the #1 shoplifted book is The Bible.

Hmmm.

I've been to several library conventions and conferences and I've spoken to many of the vendors. I can't walk through the exhibit area without feeling the overwhealming urge to buy something.

Books call to me like an addiction. I have shelves and shelves of them and I only keep the ones that I plan on reading again. But it is clearly impossible since I still have stacks of books that I haven't gotten into yet and regularly buy more. I can't walk into Barnes & Noble without buying at LEAST one or two things.

I read about 100 books a year but I buy at least twice that many. In addition to one entire bedroom of our home that has been converted into a library (see photo at left), I have boxes of books stored in closets and the attic that I may never see again because there are so many new books coming out that command my attention.

So I thought, surely, these book sellers who have tables and tables of lovely books on all manner of things, and display them so temptingly in a bustling, confusing room filled with thousands of people who love books as much as I do; these vendors must lose quite a bit to the old "Five Finger Discount".

Consistently the vendors told me that this was not the case. None that I spoke to ever had a single book stolen.

"I guess thieves don't read much" one told me.

--Julian Franklin

A Book with No Words

2006-12-16T12:57:00.000-06:00

David Wiesner's newest book, Flotsam, is simply amazing.

I would say that I loved reading it, but I didn't actually read it. There are no words. Only pictures that tell a story.

And for some reason, the story is really powerful, even though it is rather nonsensical. The premise is that a boy finds a camera washed up on the beach and develops the pictures. He then returns the camera to the sea so that the adventures might continue.

The artwork is simply amazing. With no words you might be tempted to complete the book quickly.

Don't.

Relish the details that Wiesner includes in each page. Just as the boy discovers hidden images in one of the photographs, so can you see all sorts of fantastic imagery if you take the time.

For a book with no words, telling a story of nonsense and fantasy, and concluding with a rather simple premise, I still found myself strangely choked up when I completed the book.

I don't know why.

If you get the book, be sure to come back and post your thoughts of it here.

Magic Snow?

2006-12-02T09:13:00.001-06:00

From November through January I am scheduled to present an educational school assembly program called Arctic Express over 75 times. We already have 22 shows on the books for winter of 2007.

Part of the reason the program is so popular is that in addition to being a reading program, it also addresses and teaches about the many diverse ways that people around the world celebrate holidays during the winter months. From Thanksgiving, Diwali, Ramadan, and Hanukkah to New Years and of course, Christmas.

It is based on the story of a boy who had dreams and goals as a child that seemed impossible, but through determination and a constant belief in himself he was finally able to achieve his goals. The show ends with a very powerful emotional send-off that leaves everyone (students AND teachers) inspired to live each day to the fullest.

But here’s the really strange part…

I debuted this program in the winter of 2004. I performed it all over Texas, from Houston all the way to the Rio Grande Valley at the southern tip of Texas. The story in the presentation is about a boy who wants to create snow in the parts of Texas where it is too hot to snow.

And then, on December 25, 2004 something happened that had never happened before:

It snowed on Christmas morning in southern Texas. Not just in isolated places either. It snowed from Dallas/Fort Worth all the way down to the Rio Grande Valley.

For those of you who live in colder states this might not seem so amazing, but in southern Texas, particularly down in Falfurrias, Victoria, and McAllen (just a few miles from Mexico) the very idea of snow is magic. And to have it happen on Christmas day is simply unbelievable.

I know what causes snow. I know that my program had nothing to do with the snow.

But if you’ve seen the Arctic Express program, you know that I sure like to believe that it did play a part.

--Julian Franklin

The Greatest Invention Ever

2006-10-25T20:13:00.000-05:00

I remember a few years ago, when I was in Toastmasters International, one of the first times I was ever asked a question during the "Table Topics" portion of our meeting, the question was "What do you think is the greatest invention of all time".

If you are not familiar with Toastmasters or Table Topics, I will tell you that the idea is to catch a person off-guard and see how quickly they can think on their feet and speak eloquently and intelligently about a topic they may know very little about.

I was nervous when he called my name, but as soon as he finished the question I breathed a sigh of relief. I couldn't imagine an easier question to answer.

Clearly, the printing press has been the greatest invention of all time. Without it, we would still be in the dark ages. Only through the knowledge that was able to be preserved and widely distributed through the use of the printing press, was mankind able to progress past the limits that oral tradition imposes.

Even today, the spread of information that happens at the speed of light (including this blog), happens only because of the logical and gradual progression that began with the widespread information distribution made possible by the printing press.

To this day, the thoughts and ideas of the greatest minds in the world are preserved forever on paper and ink for generations to come to learn from and enjoy.

The original printing press was a very small snow ball that with each generation has grown larger and faster. Today we reap the benefits of a very simple invention created a little over 500 years ago.

I thank you Johannes Gutenberg.

The Betty Glover Library Workout Tape

2006-10-15T12:19:00.000-05:00

A short video that will have anyone who has ever worked in a library rolling on the floor.

Better Glover Library Workout Tape

Passion (even about Math)

2006-10-15T11:00:00.000-05:00

If you teach what you are passionate about, your passion is transferred to your students or audience. This is why a teacher who doesn't enjoy reading should not teach reading, English, literature, or even writing. The best teachers lead by example and with passion.

As an example, I had a Statistics professor at Sam Houston State University who literally inspired me with his passion. I could not imagine a course with more potential to bore a person to tears than a Statistics class. But this man was so passionate about it that you couldn't help but love the course.

It was his passion for statistics that led me to love probability and to actually learn to love mathematics. As a child I despised math. But now, in large part because of this amazing teacher, I not only understand it better, but actually enjoy it to the point that I have several books on mathematics that I have purchased and read for pleasure.

Can you actually read for pleasure a book on math? You bet! Here are a few children's books that make math concepts fun:

• Almost anything by Greg Tang (Grapes of Math, Math Appeal, Math Fables, etc.)
• The Sir Cumference series by Cindy Neuschwanderander
• Cool Math by Christy Maganzini (a VERY cool book!)

My favorite series is the Math Start series, divided by difficulty levels. The stories are realistic, compelling, and meaningful to children including things like setting up a lemonade stand, running races, and riding on elevators. Suddenly abstract concepts like number lines, division, and fractions become something that children can easily grasp and make sense of.

If you are interested in fun math reading geared for an older child or adult, you might want to try these:

• Flatland by Edwin A. Abbott (a fable that opens the mind to pondering multiple dimensions, but makes that mental exercise much less exhausting).
• Why do Buses Come in Threes? by Rob Eastaway (Mathematically explains many of the everyday questions we have like "Why does the grocery line I'm in always move the slowest?" And yes, there is a mathematical answer. You aren't just imagining it--your line IS the slowest!)
• Mathenauts edited by Rudy Rucker. This collection of short stories by the likes of Isaac Asimov, Larry Niven, and Frederik Pohl provide fictional stories that bring to life in a very fun and stimulating way, some of the puzzles of math. And you don't have to be a mathematician or do any number crunching to enjoy these fun stories.

Elephant Butt

2006-10-06T11:00:00.000-05:00

While I'm on this topic of correct use of words I was reminded of a vacation my wife and I took. We were watching the evening news and the newscaster announced a wildfire raging in Elephant Butte, NM.

Having owned property in New Mexico, I will tell you that residents of New Mexico have a hard enough time convincing geographically illiterate people that New Mexico is a state and part of the United States and not at all part of the country of Mexico, but that's another story.

On this broadcast, the so-called professional newscaster announces the fire is in "Elephant Butt" and then begins to giggle. This would be bad enough, but she doesn't even realize that what makes it so funny is that she is the butt of her own joke (or is she the butte of her own joke?)

She wasn't content to let well enough alone, she decided to explore this a bit more.

"Is that really the name of a city? Elephant Butt?" and then she began laughing again.

Why wouldn't someone on the staff alert her that it was pronounced "byute" and not "butt"? Did they have it out for this girl or was the entire staff all so stupid that no one knew how to pronounce "Butte"?

Of course, I still laugh when I think about it. I'm sure she thought she was funny at the time, but little did she know people would be laughing at her ignorance for years and years to come. Probably not the mark she wanted to leave when she got into television.

Google, Band-aids, and Xeroxes

2006-10-03T05:51:00.000-05:00

My last post was about vocabulary, grammar and proper use of certain words. It might have seemed like I'm way too uptight. I used to think the same thing about anyone who thought grammar was important.

But as a writer I learned that when words are used carelessly, not only can messages get lost, but fortunes can be made and lost. This was reconfirmed this week when Google made an announcement that they were trying to protect their trademarked name from falling into open use.

It seems that if too many people begin using your trademarked names and you do nothing to stop them, the names fall into public domain. Xerox and Kleenex have been fighting for years to get people to stop calling all photocopies "Xeroxes" and all tissue "Kleenex".

Seems silly doesn't it? Until you realized that band-aid used to be a brand name for adhesive bandages, but now no one calls them adhesive bandages and everyone calls them "band-aids" even if they are Curel branded products. Aspirin found the same fate decades ago and you'd be hard pressed to even find someone who remembers when Aspirin was a brand name.

Mattel has guidelines about the use of the term "Barbie" (always singular, NEVER plural as in "Want to play Barbies?"). Companies take out full page ads in Writer's Digest magazine reminding writers not to use their brand name as a generic product category, but people still do. Now Merriam-Webster makes things even more confusing by validating the use of "google" as a verb meaning "to use the Google search engine to obtain information about (as a person) on the World Wide Web". Needless to say, Google is rather concerned about where this might lead.

It's good to have your brand name so closely linked to a product category that people assume you ARE the product category. But you have to draw the line somewhere or you can become as generic as band-aids and aspririn (both with lower case letters you might note, the same way Webster listed the verb "google" in their new dictionary).

Concrete Doesn't Dry

2006-09-30T08:12:00.000-05:00

I always hated grammar as a child, but as I began to write more and more throughout my life I began to realize the power of words. Much of that power is lost if you don't understand what words mean when you use them.

On the surface, it just broadcasts to the world a lack of understanding or education. Like when people consistently use "alot" or "allot" when they mean "a lot".

Don't get me wrong, I'm not a nit picky person trying to rid the world of dangling participles. I just get a kick out of grammar. If you don't yet, you should check out "Eats, Shoots and Leaves" by Lynn Truss.

This is at the front of my mind because I am developing an educational school assembly program about the writing process.

Then, on the local news last night I heard a commentator announce something about concrete on a construction project drying. But concrete doesn't dry, it cures. In fact, if you pour concrete in very arid places, you have to cover it with plastic and/or spritz it down with water periodically as it cures because if it does dry before it cures then the concrete is less stable.

So should she have used "cured" rather than "dried"?

It might have confused a large part of the audience and everyone knew what she meant when she said "dried". But a great part of how we learn things is by seeing, hearing, and experiencing them in context. This is why the school programs I produce are so effective. They aren't a list of vocabulary words to be defined and copied and recited. My programs are a living example of the vocabulary words, defined and presented in context, then used appropriately.

Shouldn't we strive to speak and write as examples to the greatest extent possible?

By the way, I'm not talking about stuffy writing. I think that you have to write to your audience. This is why the concrete thing bothered me so much. Not because she said "dried" rather than "cured" but because I think it was a good choice in this situation. I think saying "cured" might have confused some of her listeners and no one was confused when she said "dried".

So as I develop this program on the writing process I find myself supporting the decision to perpetuate a misunderstanding just because it is already a misunderstanding. I'm not sure how I feel about this.

Performing at My Elementary Alma Mater

2006-09-22T18:44:00.000-05:00

Today I got to do an educational, motivational assembly program at Oak Ridge Elementary in Conroe ISD in Texas. I've done thousands of elementary school assembly programs over the years but this is the first one at the school where it all started for me.

I still remember the very first time I stepped onto that campus, thirty-some-odd years ago. The school was brand new at the time and I was brand new to the whole "school experience". I showed up petrified, like most kindergartners. My father walked me in and introduced me to someone he said was his friend, but I got the distinct impression that it was just another scared kid who was just as happy to have someone to cling to on that first day as I was.

I remember my teacher, Miss Norman, who no longer works there (surprise, surprise!). I wonder if she knows how in love I was with her. Not in the way a high school senior might fall in love with his 24-year-old teacher, but like a child loves a parent. I don't really know if she was a good teacher or not as I didn't know as much about pedagogy then as I do now, but I know that in my mind, there were simply none better than her.

I still feel that way about her and am sure, in my heart, that she was everything I remember.

The school has changed to be almost completely unrecognizable. When I went there, "open concept" was the new thing. They have since found that this just created loud, somewhat disruptive learning environments and so all the rooms have had walls built. What was once the front office is no longer. Now the front office is where the art room used to be. I think.

It's hard to tell. So much has changed there within the walls.

The only thing that really looks the same is the play ground. I mean, all the equipment has since been replace with newer, safer, more colorful stuff, but the shape of the playground, the way the trees lay, the shape of the outside of the building (which hasn't changed) and the road and fence line. All that remains the same.

So, I'm spending the rest of the evening remembering long forgotten times. Like the day the first graders made tie-dyed t-shirts. And our field trip to some place that made HUGE tires (and that is ALL I remember from that field trip, but I still think it is worthwhile). The games we used to play in the playground. Being "in love" with Kelly Portera and Shea Gustavsen (the former in Kindergarten and the latter in 2nd or 3rd grade).

It was cool to go back for a day.

I even got my old year book out and am excited about our upcoming 20 year reunion. I guess I'll blog on that as well.

--Julian Franklin (a.k.a. Jay Pugh)

You Should Move to Las Vegas

2006-09-15T19:50:00.000-05:00

Every now and then someone will tell me I should move to Las Vegas.

"Why?"

"Because you're so good!"

If I had any modesty I'd brush it aside for the purpose of this post, but I don't. Lack of modesty has always been a shortcoming of mine. I've always felt that if I had just a little bit of modesty, I'd be perfect. But, alas.

So they think I'm good (by the way, I am NOT a very good magician as any competent magician who has ever seen one of my shows will quickly testify). But some fans think I may be a contender in Las Vegas and I graciously accept the compliment for what it is (a compliment) and dismiss it for what it is NOT (good business advice).

Even if I were the type of performer that Las Vegas wants and needs, why would I want to move there to compete against all the other performers? You may say Vegas is where the gigs are, but that simply isn't true. The magicians outnumber the gigs a hundred to one in Sin City, where as back here in Texas I can't even do all the shows I get calls for.

So what I miss out on is the glory. I don't have adoring fans throwing themselves at me. Or rather, my adoring fans consist of eight-year-old boys who want me to tell them how the handkerchief trick works and second-graders who want my autograph.

I prefer it this way. They are a better fan club anyway.

I was thinking of this after finishing up a Family Fun Night at Travis Elementary in Mineral Wells, Texas and while loading up my stuff a group of kids came up asking for an autograph. That's all the glory I need.

Where I was on 9/11/01

2006-09-11T21:00:00.000-05:00

I was a school teacher that year.

My wife and I had recently (about a week before) learned that she was pregnant with our first child.

I was in the classroom and a fellow teacher came in to tell us the news. She wasn't sure (no one was at this point) if it was an accident or terrorist attack.

I turned on the television set we had in our room and we were able to tune in just as the second plane hit the other tower. At that point there was no question we were under attack.

I taught high school in a self-contained classroom. I worked with children with Severe Emotional Disturbance and I made the decision to keep the news on for the day. I still don't know if it was the right thing to do, but I felt like we spent enough time studying History that had happened decades or centuries before, and this was History in the making. I wanted them to know they were experiencing something they would remember for the rest of their lives.

"Why are you watching this stuff?" the students asked.

"This is history. One day, people will ask you where you were when you heard abou this. One day your children will study this in their history books."

"Psshaw!" They scofffed. "That's what you said about the Monica Lewinski thing!"

Yeah. Go figure.

How Much Would You Pay for US Gasoline?

2006-09-10T16:11:00.000-05:00

I just read that we recently discovered an HUGE oil field in the US Gulf of Mexico. The oil contained therein are supposed to boost our available reserves by 50%. That's pretty amazing if you think about it.

But we still import a lot of oil from the Middle East because we use so much and because we can get it there pretty cheap.

Now, this isn't a political blog and I'm not going to turn it into one, but I was curious how much, if any, a person would be willing to pay as a premium to know that their gasoline was refined only from US oil. It would be more expensive, but the cheapest price isn't always the only factor when determing purchases. Most often other factors like reliability, quality, and cost of ownership come into play at least as much or more than price. This is why people pay much more for a BMW than they do for a VW.

But lately people have been willing to buy everything from salad dressing and ice cream all the way to electricity based on how those products were created and what the profits were spent on.

So I asked myself if I would pay a 20% premium on fuel costs if it came only from US reserves or from close allies.

Any thoughts?

Teachable Moments

2006-09-05T15:32:00.000-05:00

I am a big believer in the value and importance of "teachable moments". These are the little opportunities that arise dozens of times each day to teach the children in our lives more about the world around them. This is a tale of caution, however.

Children are human sponges, and sometimes we jump on those teachable moments without thinking about potential consequences.

So one day my daughter's skirt is slipping down. She is oblivious to the "plumber's crack" that she's showing the world and so my wife, Andrea says "Pull up your skirt. You're mooning us."

"What does 'mooning' mean?" Madeleline asks.

"A 'moon' is when your bottom is showing." I explained.

That was the end of the conversation. It was never brought up again by anyone.

Two days later, we went out to the video rental store to get a movie. We were coming out of the store at around dusk and I could see the moon in the sky. I asked my daughter, "Do you see the moon, Madeleine? Where's the moon?"

I don't suppose I have to finish the story for you other than to say, while we are proud of our four-year-old's ability to recall and apply information in new and creative ways, and while we are very proud of her well developed sense of humor, we were not really that impressed with her response to my question in the parking lot of Blockbuster Video.

--Julian Franklin

How my Customers Help Create my Programs

2006-08-31T07:18:00.001-05:00

I was in Killeen last week presenting COLOR YOUR WOLRD, a school assembly program on reading and diversity. It's a great program, and a wonderful way to start the year off right. The kids learn about respect and standing up for what's right.

During lunch I was talking to the librarian there about the show that I'm writing for this coming summer. The theme is "Sail Away with a Book" and my show is called "Set Sail". It is a program about the writing process, but I told her I wasn't too sure what areas I wanted to cover.

So she pulled out a collection of ideas including a program they use called "6+1". She even had a bibliography of potential books that tied into these concepts, complete with summaries of each book.

You have to LOVE librarians! They are such resources of information.

I finished the programs that day and remembered that the highlight of the whole Color Your World Show (the program I was presenting at her school) is a song and a book that was suggested to me by another librarian years earlier.

It's great when you can get your customers to do the hardest part of your job for you.

Thank you, to librarians everywhere, but particularly to those of you who have hired me and helped me improve the lives of students.

I Skewed the Test Results!

2006-08-28T07:57:00.000-05:00

I was doing a school assembly program last week performing the GO WILD program on science and reading. After the program the counselor came up to me and said "You just skewed my testing for the start of the year! I ask some logical thinking questions and your program gave everyone a leg up on the diagnostic!"

Now, as a former special ed. teacher, I can assure you that I do not set out to sabotage any diagnostic instrument. However, I must admit that I felt a certain amount of pride at having ruined her question bank.

I mean, ultimately, my real goal is to skew test results. I want the kids at the schools where I present to have an almost unfair advantage when it comes to testing, logical thinking skills, and the ability to think through problems and find workable solutions. Every teacher should have those same goals.

So to the schools in north central Texas, I apologize for making you find new diagnostic testing instruments, but I am glad that we were able to bump the whole school up a few notches during the first week back at school! What a great way to start off the year!

--Julian Franklin

P.S. If you are interested in having similar programs at YOUR school, visit www.JulianFranklin.com or drop me a line. I'd love to help you out, too.

Black Bear in Tennessee

2006-08-24T05:57:00.000-05:00

It’s been over a week since I last posted and I’ve got a lot of catching up to do. I just got back from one of the coolest professional conferences I’ve ever attended. It is a four-day event for children’s performers called KIDabra. I’ve lectured there for the last few years and have been attending for even longer. It’s a great convention.

This year I took my family including my beautiful daughter, Madeleine. You can imagine the attention she got at a convention of children’s performers. She left after seeing a couple of hundred magic tricks, speaking with no fewer than 27 puppets, receiving about 22 napkin roses, and about 391 balloon animals.

She loved every minute of it.

In addition to all the great stuff at the convention we also went to Dolly Parton’s Dixie Stampede, and went hiking in the Smoky Mountains. The Dixie Stampede was a lot of fun and very interesting. I’ll be writing a blog article on the money machine that Dolly Parton has created there which I’ll post on my Business Building Blog: KidShowBusiness.blogspot.com

But now I’ll tell you that one of the highlights of my trip was seeing a black bear in the wild.

We were hiking in the Smoky Mountains with my wife in the lead when she turned and yelled “There’s a bear!” She then very instinctively grabbed our daughter, turned her to be facing toward a tree and then wrapped herself around our daughter to protect her. I don’t know if that’s the right thing to do, but my wife sure did it fast like she knew what she was doing.

Meanwhile I grabbed the camera and started running toward the bear to get a good picture. This, by the way is NOT the right thing to do.

Fortunately my wife has enough sense for both of us and she yelled out to me “We’re not in a zoo!”

Oh, yeah. Bears maul people. They are strong and this one was lean. He looked hungry. He crossed the trail and went up the hill. I watched him from what I hoped was a safe distance, about 30 yards.

He didn’t seem the least bit interested in me (thank goodness). He just slowly sauntered up the hill, stopping once to glance back at me before continuing up the hill.

Every time I tell this story my daughter starts crying and saying “I didn’t get to see the bear ‘cause Mommy made me look at the tree and wouldn’t let me turn around!”
The real bummer is that I never got a good photo.

McDonald's Food

2006-08-22T08:14:00.000-05:00

McDonald's food is not healthy.

McDonald's food is not particularly tasty.

But it is fast and convenient. As a professional performer I often find myself eating meals at fast food establishments out of necessity. I have to eat. I have to get where I am going quickly. And so I eat at fast food places because they are built on the premise of selling speed and convenience.

So why do places like McDonald's allow systems and employees who CONSISTENTLY forget to put syrup in with the pancakes? Why do they regularly fail to put spoons in with yogurt? Why do they refuse to put ketchup in the bag with the french fries unless YOU remember to ask them to?

I'm more than a little bit ticked off this morning after eating cold, crappy pancakes that contain NO nutritional value but pack in an entire day's worth of fat calories and they would have at least tasted good if I could have eaten them with syrup when they were hot. Instead, I was 3 miles down the road from the morons at the drive thru window in Meridian, Mississippi before I noticed that they didn't think syrup was something people might want to eat with an order of pancakes.

So I had to decide what to do: Turn around and go back and ask for my syrup (an extra 10 minutes and at gas prices another $2.50 added to the cost of my breakfast) or keep going and hope there is another McDonald's at the next exit. Either way this is neither fast, nor convenient. This is torture.

And as luck would have it, there wasn't another McDonald's for many, many miles. So I would up eating my pancakes cold.

The sad thing is, this isn't limited to the McDonald's in Meridian, Mississippi. This happens at the McDonald's right by my house. It happens at McDonald's all over the country and it happens to me at least 40% of the time. It also happens at other fast food places. McDonald's has perfected ruining breakfast, but they don't have a monopoly on it. I've learned to sit and double check every single thing in the bag before I drive off and if I ever fail to do so (like today) then I pay for it.

Part of the price of a fast food meal is realizing that YOU have to do the work of the drive through person. You pay less than a sit down restaurant because YOU are doing the important work of a manager. You have to make sure that the employee is doing their job.

Otherwise, you don't get what you are paying for. You are paying for speed and convenience. If you aren't getting it, you might as well order a real breakfast from a sit down restaurant.

--Julian Franklin

P.S. We ate at Subway for lunch. Not as fast, but when you watch them make it, there are NO mistakes and the food is healthier, too.

Movie Review: Hoodwinked

2006-08-14T06:15:00.000-05:00

Hoodwinked is an animated motion picture that is an example of everything children's entertainment should strive to become. The movie is based on the Red Riding Hood story re-told as a modern tale. But it is SOOooo much more.

For starters, there are many layers of humor that strike adults as well as children. This is nothing new in children's entertainment, but it is done particularly well in this movie.

What I really like about Hoodwinked, however, is the very inventive and creative way that the story is told from several different perspectives as a "mystery" seems to unfold in the telling. As each character's story is told you aren't sure if you are getting closer to the truth or farther away.

And then, just when things couldn't get any weirder or funnier, the story comes to a conclusion that makes sense of everything in a very satisfying way. I won't say anything else because I want to preserve the "whodunit" for those who haven't seen the movie yet.

I will tell you that you will enjoy this movie, even if you have no children. It is funny and engaging in a way that few movies are anymore. If you are a children's performer (as I am) then you owe it to yourself to rend this movie and study it. Notice how the humor is kept clean and yet riotously funny? Notice how the reference to pop culture are tossed out without much fan fare, to be enjoyed by those who get it, but not to become stumbling blocks for those who didn't? You don't want your audience to spend time wondering about the joke they didn't get.

Particularly, pay attention to the creative way that an old, worn-out tale (Little Red Riding Hood) has been given new life through a little bit of creativity and imagination.

--Julian Franklin

Payback

2006-08-11T12:25:00.000-05:00

My very first job as a teacher, I worked for a principal who had given me a paddling 12 years before. I kept hoping that he didn't remember me, but I can't imagine that he could have forgotten. I had received corporal punishment from him on more than one occasion.

When I was a student, I was not the best kid in class. I wasn't BAD, but I was definitely not the teacher's pet.

The reason I bring this up is because of a fun e-mail I got recently from the director of Library Services in a Texas School district. He saw my school assembly program and wanted to share it with all the schools in his district. He passed on the word of my program to some of the school officials and they all wanted more information.

So he e-mailed me asking me to send him some promotional materials to share with everyone. He included this fun line and the right to attribute it to him…

"This guy is such a showman that I'm sure he was a thorn in the side of many teachers"
--Steve Neal

Okay Steve. So you're more right than you probably knew.

However, I'm making up for it now. I spend my life educating children all over the country and inspiring them to read more, learn more, and become more. I motivate them to explore the learning process through self-directed learning, reading books on any subject they love and care about.

It might not make up for the underground newspaper I published my junior year ("The Harlequin", I got three issues out before being shut down by "the man"), nor does it reverse the fact that I organized a walk-out of our Political Science class. I had no good reason for the walk-out, other than we had been discussing them in class and it seemed like a fun thing to try. When the teacher left to get some coffee, I saw the opportunity and I grabbed it.

These things are done-and-over long ago. But I'm still paying retribution and making good on my debt to educators everywhere. And I intend to continue to do so.

--Julian Franklin

Summer of 2005 at the Library Changed My Life

2006-08-07T13:40:00.000-05:00

My last few posts have been about how the summer library club reading program in Texas has changed my life and how it continues to do so each new year that I'm involved with the program. This post is about the summer of 2005, when the theme established by The Texas State Library was "Go Wild: Read!"

By the time 2005 rolled around I had learned a bit about costuming. Summer Library Programs in Texas are held in the summer…in Texas. It gets HOT!! No longer was I wearing trench coats, no matter how cool they looked in promo photos. So for the 2005 theme I dressed like a safari explorer.

Because I take my summer reading shows into the public schools and perform school assembly programs that promote reading, I also put an educational message into my programs. "Go Wild!" is about recycling and the scientific process. With the state mandated TAKS now testing Science, this has been a VERY popular program!

So, several times a day, dozens of times a week, and hundreds of times over the course of a school year, I teach about the importance of recycling.

Now, I've been a recycler for as long as I can remember. I paid for most of my gasoline in college by recycling all the aluminum beer cans consumed by the guys in my dorm.

But when you lecture about something day in and day out, any inconsistencies in your own life begin to haunt you. Even when I knew no one was looking, I just couldn't bring myself to throw out the tiny glass jelly jar. Empty soda cans consumed on the road were usually tossed in a trash can when I stopped for gas. Now I trucked them all home to recycle.

It seems little, but the fact is, that every year I perform, I learn more as I teach and I always grow as a human being as well as a performer and educator.

Summer of 2004 at the Library Changed My Life

2006-08-03T18:03:00.000-05:00

I'm on a roll here. I've been writing about all the ways that the Summer Reading Club in Texas, created by The Texas State Library, and hosted by libraries all over Texas, has changed my life and continues to change my life in simple, but profound ways each year.

This post is about what happened in 2004 when the summer reading theme in Texas was "Color Your World". I created a show with the same name, in which I dress like a crazy artist and my dragon puppet (named Meihoo) magically steals color from the world. Only through an understanding we get from books found in the library are we able to convince Meihoo of the error of his ways.

I wanted to create a show about bullying and diversity, but as a former special education teacher I wanted to address diversity in a way that hadn't been explored in as much depth as many other forms of diversity. I wanted to address the diverse abilities and unique capabilities of different children.

So yes, we talk about different clothes, different foods that people eat, different languages, different cultures, but we also focus on how similar we all are.

We talk about how people love to read and I bring out a book in Braille and show the kids how children read who are unable to see printed words. I hold a book from the Moses series by Issac Millman. These books are about a deaf child who visits various places and each book teaches some sign language.

We cover children in wheel chairs and those who use walkers, too. In the end I sing a song, and this is where the real growth for me came. I am not a singer. I have never (prior to 2004) had voice lessons, sung in a choir, or in any other way made any real attempt to sing. But here I was, singing a very powerful song that almost all the children can relate to.

Was it scary? Yeah. Was it a risk for me to include this in my show? A HUGE risk! Was it worth it? When I see fifth graders watching the show and leave with red eyes and wet cheeks, and I see them look at each other in a different way, then yeah, there's no doubt it was worth it.

Color Your World

Summer of 2003 at the Library Changed My Life

2006-07-31T12:14:00.000-05:00

Lately I've been posting about how Summer Reading Club in Texas has impacted my life. In 2003 the theme was "Mission Possible: Spy a Book". I wrote a show called "TOP SECRET" a show about reading and World Geography.

It was a lot of fun to write, especially creating all the "spy" marketing and promotional materials. The show itself was very fun to put together and, like ALL the shows I create, I learn a lot not just in the writing of the show, but also in the performing.

In my programs, kids ask questions or make comments and, quite frankly, I don't always know the answers. So I have to go study and research more before I present again. It pushes me to learn new things. I like that.

2003 was also the year that I really began reading a lot of children's literature. I've rediscovered the joy of reading fiction again. I am a voracious reader, usually consuming 50+ full-sized non-fiction print books each year and another 40-50 audio books each year. Almost all my reading is non-fiction and I really enjoy it.

But there is something nostalgic about sitting down and reading (usually in a single evening, and often times in just an hour or less) a fiction novel written for a middle school student. If you doubt this for even a moment I highly recommend you visit your local library and check out any book by Gary Paulsen. As a sailor I particularly liked "The Frog", but I also enjoyed all the other books of his I've read.

I also now read about 100 or so books written for elementary age children, which can be read in about 5-20 minutes each, so that's no real accomplishment, but there are some that have brought a tear to my eye including "Lou Gehrig: The Luckiest Man" by David A. Adler. The pictures are simple, but when combined with the story, you can't help but get a little choked up at the end.

In fact, you can read the blog post I wrote about Lou Gehrig earlier this summer.

Summer of 2002 at the Library Changed my Life

2006-07-28T14:15:00.000-05:00

In 2002 I presented my very first performance at a public library. Prior to that time I was a teacher in public schools here in Texas and did some magic shows at birthday parties and such on the weekends. My first show was "The Wild West Reading Show" and in it I taught the audience about the value of reading while also covering some basic points in Texas History.

The result was that both I and my wife would stop working as school teachers and devote our full time to our performance business within just a few months.

From the 75 or so library programs that I delivered my first summer in the business I began getting phone calls from school librarians, principals, PTA/PTO leaders, and other school officials who wanted to bring me into the public schools to motivate, educate, and inspire their students.

From there it was like an atomic chain reaction.

I got approval from my principal to take a few days off and do these three schools who wanted me to work for them. But at the end of each of those days, there were two, three, sometimes FIVE messages from other schools who had heard about me from the officials at the school where I was that day and they wanted to book me for THEIR school.

I went back to my principal and talked to him about it and asked if it was okay for me to use a few more of my sick days to help these other schools.

"They are your sick days. You use them however you want." He told me.

So I always arranged my own substitute in advance and went and did these additional shows. But each of them led to several others and before long my sick days were gone (I had 40 at the beginning of the year saved up from previous years), and I was still getting calls to the tune of one or two a week wanting to book me.

My business has continued to explode every year since then and I still end up booking shows 12 - 24 months in advance, almost all of it as a direct result of the word of mouth of my loyal customers and clients.

That's how the summer reading club of 2002 "Read Across Texas" changed my life.

Over the next few days I'll post about how the other years' have also altered my life. In the meantime, if you want to check out the shows that I wrote for each one of these year's programs, visit my Library School Assembly Programs page.

Summer Reading Club Makes Me a Better Person

2006-07-25T19:42:00.000-05:00

Every year I write a new show for public libraries in Texas. I tie it into the theme for the summer reading club for that year and write it so that it promotes the summer reading club as a summer activity as well as promoting the very act of reading for pleasure. It is critical to teach children early on the joy of reading. If children associate reading only with laborious school work, they will NEVER learn to read for pleasure.

And I am very big on inspiring children to read for pleasure. Children who read for pleasure score higher on standardized tests, they have fewer discipline problems, and are more successful academically. Not to mention that all the great knowledge of our time and times past is held in books, most of which are absolutely FREE at the local library.

Excuse me, while I step down off this soap box before I hurt myself.

The purpose of this post was to make note of the fact that every year I present my new show it affects me in a minor, but significant way. And, no, "minor" and "significant" are NOT mutually exclusive as I'll demonstrate with examples from my life.

…Starting with a post in two days. Come back and visit then. Find out how each of the following summer reading programs at Texas Libraries have literally changed my life in powerful, but (usually) very unobtrusive ways:

2002 Read Across Texas
2003 Mission Possible: Spy a Book
2004 Color Your World - Read
2005 Go Wild! - Read
2006 Reading: The Sport of Champions

Booking Two Years in Advance

2006-07-21T06:15:00.000-05:00

I'm already getting bookings for 2008 and we aren't even through July of 2006 yet. My 2007 is filling up really fast and it isn't that uncommon for clients to reserve a date on my calendar two years out.

Of course, this gets everyone into a frenzy!

My clients start worrying they need to book two years out. My competitors think I have some sort of ninja mind control. And those who don't know me and happen upon my site think that I've misprinted the dates on my calendar.

None of these is true.

Unless you have a very specific date in mind, you usually do not have to book two years out (though it does lock you in against any price increases). For most of my clients nine to twelve months advanced booking is all that is required, so don't worry.

However, even that can be deceptive. Three weeks ago I booked three additional events for THIS summer. Three dates in a very full schedule.

One was a program that had to cancel due to the floods that occurred last month here in Houston, TX (you probably saw some of that on the news). Another was a charity event that I do each year performing for children with special needs while their parents enjoy an evening of respite (that one is tonight!). Since I spent 8 years as a teacher in a Special Ed. Classroom I felt a calling when they asked and I've been back every year since.

The last was a library that had an unknown conflict with another community event and had only 2 people show up for the summer reading program. I performed a special show for those two kids but rescheduled to come back into town to do my real program when we had a full audience. We found a hole in my schedule and I did the show for free.

So, my schedule fills. Be sure not to dally around. But don't feel that you have to book 2008 just yet, unless you have a particular need. Bridge City wanted to be sure to get me for their kick off since 2008 is the 50th anniversary of the Texas Reading Club, summer reading program. They also missed out on the 2007 date they wanted because Wednesday mornings go fast. If you want to make sure I am at YOUR library for a specific date, then go ahead and reserve. Otherwise, relax, enjoy the summer, and just figure out when you want me in '07!

--Julian Franklin

P.S. Some of you might be wondering why I would do a show for free. Is he an idiot? Is he just so incredibly benevolent that he won't accept the money? No. On both accounts.

I collected my fee once, but I am not going to take library funds to perform a show for two kids. This is actually a very SELFISH decision. I know that if I can promote the reading club in a way that increases attendance, boosts participation, and bumps up circulation, then I end up getting to come back. This means I need to do whatever it takes to make YOUR library program a success. From free full-color, full-sized posters, to sending out mailings to MY list at MY expense telling them to come see me at YOUR event, to refusing payment for a show that only has two kids in the audience. If YOU are not a success, then I am not a success.

P.P.S. When I returned to that library we had over sixty kids in attendance, which was one of her largest showings in this small community. It was worth driving out there twice.

P.P.P.S. My schedule is posted on line at www.JulianFranklin.com/schedule.htm

What's up with Cell Phones in the Gym?

2006-07-16T12:36:00.000-05:00

This post has nothing at all to do with my life as a professional school show performer, but I had to get this off my chest.

Why would anyone spend their time in the gym sitting on a weight bench talking on their cell phone? Can you not find a better place to carry on a conversation than a crowded weight room? Maybe you don't really want to work out anyway and the phone is a convenient distraction? I can't imagine anyone being so subservient that they can not arrange to have even 30-60 minutes (at 5 AM no less!) to finish a work out uninterrupted.

I also work as a consultant to other performing artists, and I write regular columns in two different industry trade journals where I have advocated staying accessible to your customers, clients, and prospects. I even write a free e-newsletter every other week where I discuss (among other things) how to available to your people. Cell phones are one great way to do this. I even wrote an article that's posted on my web site about this very thing and in it I stress that being connected does NOT mean being available 24/7.

You have to have family time, bathroom time, and occasionally time at the gym and these need to be done WITHOUT cell phone conversations.

There, I feel much better now.

--Julian Franklin
www.JulianFranklin.com

You asked for it!

2006-07-09T21:51:00.000-05:00

I had three people e-mail me asking why I didn't include a picture of me dancing with my daughter. So, if you really want to see what I look like dancing ballet, I decided to go pull out a photo from just over ten years ago.

Yes, this really is me. A head full of hair, thin face, and athletic build. A lot can happen in ten years!

People ask if my ballet experience as the lead danseur with The Woodlands Civic Ballet has any relevance to my current role as a school show presenter and motivational children's performer.

On the surface, no. I mean, I don't dance in my library reading programs. I don't even script much movement into my educational assembly programs, even my Sport of Champions program which is about mental and physical training as well as some fun math concepts.

But it is relevant. I was never schooled in dance as a child and didn't get into ballet until I was out of college. But I went in with a hungry quest for knowledge and within just a few years was the lead danseur and stayed the lead until I left a few years later.

An example of how we can do almost anything we decide to do as long as we are willing to pay the price necessary to get there.

--Julian Franklin

Father Daughter Dance Recital

2006-07-05T07:25:00.000-05:00

We just got back from a fun family vacation in the Texas Hill Country. I always enjoy spending time there and we were lucky enough to encounter a very rare cool front that brought the day time temperatures down to 78 degrees F.

So, things have been so busy with summer library programs and getting ready for the trip that I didn't get a chance to write about our recent Father-Daughter dance recital.

Madeleine is such an amazing girl. She loves ballet and is really quite good at it. She just turned four less than two months ago but her teacher wants to put her in the class with 5-7 year olds.

I always said I would never be one of those parents who thought that their kid was the smartest, fastest, most beautiful gift the earth had ever recieved. My wife and I made a pact on it, in fact.

And then, as fate would have it, our dauther actually IS the smartest, fastest, most beautiful gift the earth has ever recieved.

You may wonder where I am in the picture. This is from her solo. You aren't missing anything good.

Writing in a Closet

2006-06-27T17:27:00.000-05:00

It is difficult to find uninterrupted time to write. I write a lot and it is really important to me to be able to crank out material when I am facing a deadline (real or self-imposed). A single, 2 minute interruption can steal 10-20 minutes of quality writing time as it takes a while to regain your thoughts.

My wife doesn't seem to have this problem as bad as I do. She seems to be able to mentally shift gears and carry on two conversations at the same time, but I just can't do it. She says it's a female thing. That their brains are wired differently than a man's brain. Maybe so, but she doesn't write as much as I do.

So, in order for me to be able to really finish a writing project in a timely manner, I have to be able to write where the phone, e-mail, and family aren't able to interrupt. If you are a writer, I cannot stress how important it is not to allow interruptions. Writers argue about the best time of day to write, about the benefits of pen and paper vs. computer keyboard, and about grammar and spelling, but the one thing all prolific writers seem to agree on is the need for uninterrupted time in order to produce.

So, I created a "secret" chamber in my library. In another post I wrote about and showed a picture of how we converted a bed room into a library with floor to ceiling book shelves on every wall. The closet in this room was used to store boxes of other books, which I moved to the guest room. The library closet was cleaned out (sort of) and a makeshift desk was made. In here I can take my lap top, set up, and know that I am insulated from distraction.

I don't use it very often, but when I do, it is amazing how much I can get done.

I sometimes feel a little bit "Harry Potter-ish" locked away in the closet, but it works for getting stuff written.

--Julian Franklin

P.S. The book leaning against the dictionary and Thesaurus on the desk in the photo is a copy of my newest book "Kid Control: Behavior Management for Children's Entertainers". You can check out a little bit about the book at www.JulianFranklin.com/kidcontrol.htm

My Personal Library

2006-06-24T16:39:00.000-05:00

If you've ever seen one of my library reading programs, you know that I push reading as one of the ways to change your life. I don't just talk the talk, I am a very avid reader, consuming 60-90 printed books each year, several hundred hours of audio books, and subscriptions to almost 20 magazines.

I'm also pretty fickle about what gets to stay in my library. There are books that I start but never finish because they are too boring or overly simplistic. There are books that I read and enjoy, but know that I will never read again, nor will I ever recommend them to anyone else. These books don't make it into my library. When I'm finished with these books, I pass them on, usually to my local library as a donation.

But about 60-70% of the books I buy each year get to stick around in my personal collection. It actually spans several rooms. I keep 2-3 books in my car at all times. I try to arrive at all my assembly programs at least an hour early and this usually results in time that can be spent reading. If I'm ever found waiting (to get my oil changed for example) I know I have a choice of reading materials.

If the weather is foul and I can't ride my bike the 5 miles to the gym in the morning then I will drive. This way I get to read while I ride a stationary bike at the gym. I will admit to having been so engrossed in a book that I drove to the gym just to ride the stationary bike so that I could read and ride at the same time. I do not apologize.

I'm also usually reading 2-3 different books that I keep by my bedside. I read for 30-60 minutes before going to sleep each night, although I have gone to bed too tired to read on more than one occasion.

As you might imagine, I have a pretty large personal library. We've dedicated an entire room in our home as a library. It didn't come with built-in bookshelves, so we had them installed. We also have bookshelves in almost every room of our house. The guest room (hardly usable from all the stuff being stored there) has more books than most people probably own, but our library is really my little nirvana.

We have floor to ceiling bookshelves on almost every wall in the room. The closet is set up as my writing area (I'll post on that later) and we still didn't have enough room for everything so we bought a shelving unit that sticks out into the middle of the room from one wall.

--Julian Franklin

P.S. In the top right corner of the picture you can see a single shelf filled with stacks of copies of a single book. That book is one of mine, "Kid Control: Behavior Management for Children's Entertainers". You can read about it at www.JulianFranklin.com/kidcontrol.htm

REAL Magic Part 4: Space Travel

2006-06-20T18:59:00.000-05:00

Landing on the moon...

Okay, imagine planning a 500 mile trip on a map and calculating the entire trip down to the meter, every turn, every stop, every lane change, every change in direction, every acceleration and deceleration, and then climbing into your car and allowing a computer with the sophistication of about 1% of your Game Cube or Xbox to do all the driving based on your pre-programed instructions.

To make matters worse, imagine that you cannot use the brakes. Also imagine that your destination is moving at all times and you have to aim at an area where you estimate your destination will be when you arrive at that same spot.

To make it more interesting, imagine that your tires have no friction on the road and the gravitational pull of nearby objects can pull you off course. Even the gravity of your destination will pull you off course, and you have to calculate for all of this and program it into your travel plans in advance.

That's basically what NASA did when they sent men to the moon. Only they also had to deal with breaking free of the Earth's gravity, dealing with radioactive particles, tiny asteroids, and bring not only all their own food, water, and fuel, but also their own oxygen and heat. Then they had to develop a way to communicate across vast distances.

In today's world of technology and regular space launching, we take it for granted, but when we made that first journey, it was nothing short of real magic.

This is the last of four articles on my thoughts on "Real Magic", but you can expect that I will occasionally add another one. Just like I do for my "Kids Say Funny Things". If you are just tuning into my Blog, then the first three articles in this series follow. You can expect to either get some insight into what a magician considers to be "real magic" or you will leave realizing how easily amused and impressed I can be.

--Julian Franklin
Educational Entertainment Specialist
www.JulianFranklin.com

P.S. In my last post I wrote about base 2 exponents and base 10 exponents. After re-reading my post I was reminded of a funny (to certain types of people) joke:

"There are only 10 types of people in the world. Those who understand binary numbering systems and those who don't."

REAL Magic Part 3: Mathematics

2006-06-15T07:45:00.000-05:00

I am constantly enamored by the amazing power of mathematics. The measure of things can be far more amazing than the magic tricks I use to entertain and educate in elementary school assembly programs and library reading programs.

I once read an article that suggested that there were more combinations for a shuffled deck of cards than there are atoms in The Milky Way galaxy. And if you shuffle cards face up to face down, there are more combinations than there are atoms in the known universe.

That seems impossible, and my quest to find the truth (by first determining the number of combinations of a shuffled deck of cards and then trying to estimate the number of atoms in our planet, solar system, and ultimately the known universe) lead me to the creation of a program for middle school and high school students called Math-A-Magic. You can read about the program at www.Math-A-Magic.com (don't forget the hyphens around the "A").

The power in math that really seems magical is the concept of exponents. Normally scientists and mathematicians use "base 10" exponents, but there are others. You can amaze yourself with simple base-2 exponents. When you double something you are dealing with base-2. Here's an example of the power of base-2.

Fold a piece of paper in half. Fold it in half again. Do it a third time, then a fourth and a fifth. You won't be able to fold that piece of paper in half eight times. It becomes too thick. But what if you could?

Q: What if you could double the thickness of a sheet of paper, say 50 times. How thick would it be?

A: It would stretch from the surface of the Earth, to the surface of the Sun. Don't believe me? Do the math. Measure a stack of 100 sheets of paper and divide by 100 to get the thickness of a single sheet. Get a calculator and enter 1X2. Then X2. Then X2. Keep doing this until you've entered "X 2" 50 times. This is how many thicknesses your imaginary stack would be. Multiply it times your measurement for a thickness of paper and then convert that into miles or kilometers.

Pretty cool, huh?

--Julian Franklin

P.S. The average distance from the surface of the Earth to the surface of the Sun is about 93,000,000 miles (about 150,000,000 kilometers)

REAL Magic Part 2: GPS

2006-06-12T16:03:00.000-05:00

This is sort of a culmination of two other topics that I consider to be "magical": space exploration and mathematics. I'll go into each of those individually, but for now, let's focus on this amazing technology that, when explained, seems more fanciful than just saying it's magic.

When I'm doing school assembly programs that promote reading or teach science, I often use magic tricks to illustrate a point or to capture audience attention. Every now and then a child will call out what they imagine to be a plausible solution. My favorites are when they attribute me with powers far beyond anything magical. If I make something vanish, they won't even suggest it is up my sleeve (which it isn't anyway) but instead might yell out "All you did was push a button and the table made it turn invisible!"

As ridiculous as it seems, the real workings of GPS (Global Positioning System) seem equally impossible and ludicrous. The truth is there are satellites circling the globe and constantly sending time signals out. These signals are received by handheld units on the surface of the Earth and based on how long it took the signal to travel through space, the unit can calculate (down to less than a meter) where you are on the surface of the Earth.

That's pretty tightly calibrated time keeping equipment. I mean, how long does it take a signal to travel a meter or two? Imagine a clock that can measure it and then triangulate your position.

That's amazing. Almost like…magic.

REAL Magic Part 1: Thermos

2006-06-10T19:10:00.000-05:00

This is the first of at least four articles that I want to share on the real magic in the world.

Even though, for almost four years I've written a regular monthly column for The Linking Ring (which is a trade journal for professional magicians and members of The International Brotherhood of Magicians), there are some things that I find even more magical than floating ladies, vanishing cars, or birds that magically appear from paper streamers and then turn into live rabbits. I do educational school assembly programs during the school year and summer reading programs during the summer. I use a lot of magic in my shows, but here I'm tipping "the real work".

I'm going to share with you what I think REAL magic looks like:

Quite possibly the most amazing thing I've ever really experienced is a Thermos (tm). Most of you are probably thinking, "He needs to get out more".

For a point of reference, I should mention that for two years I lived on a 27 foot sailboat. Click the link if you want to read more about the boat, but be cautioned, there is a picture of me without a shirt on. You've been warned.

I mention this because when you are at sea, it can be very rough. Even mundane things become difficult. Cooking on a stove top falls somewhere between a very risky juggling performance, and a Kevorkian act of desperate hunger. So, when you find the time to heat things up, it is nice to heat everything up all at once. So my boat was filled with Themoses. I used them for EVERYTHING.

You can heat water and 12 hours later it will still scald you. 24 hours later it is still too warm to drink fast. Coffee in a Thermos made 24 hours before has to be sipped. That is pretty amazing, to me.

We would boil water and then pour it on ingredients in a wide-mouth Thermos. It would keep at about the boiling point for a few hours afterwards, cooking the ingredients with no additional fuel. Conservation at it's best.

You can boil water, pour it in a Thermos, put it in your freezer, and take it out 12 hours later freezing your fingers on the outside of the Thermos and then burn your tongue on the still hot water inside. That is amazing.

That is magic!

--Julian Franklin

P.S. Okay, it's not really magic. It's really just science. There is a vacuum between the inner shell and the outer shell of the Thermos bottle. There is nothing in a vacuum (that's the definition of "vacuum" as opposed to "a thing that sucks dirt out of your carpet" which is what my mom always told me). So, there are no atoms to transfer the heat from inside the Thermos to the outside.

Still, pretty cool, huh?

Booking 12 Months in Advance

2006-06-07T06:24:00.000-05:00

Before the summer season even starts, I begin getting phone calls and e-mails from librarians trying to get a specific date on my 2007 schedule. By the end of the summer, my schedule for next summer will be mostly filled. I will have at least a few dates booked in 2008 by the time the summer ends. I normally have at least one or two that book 24 months out. And every day of the summer I usually book another show or two for next year.

So it wasn't too strange when I got an e-mail the other day from a librarian who needed a program for mid-June on a Wednesday. I checked my calendar for 2007 and realized that the dates and times she needed were already gone. So I asked how flexible she was on the time and dates she was requesting, because those dates in 2007 were gone, but there were other times available, otherwise she would need to consider 2008.

WOW! I had no idea she was asking about THIS YEAR! I told her I would love to help her, but unless you are either very lucky, or very flexible, you better have your date on the books before the previous summer ends. If you aren't on 10-12 months in advance it is hard to find a Tues., Wed., or Thur. time slot open.

Mondays and Fridays are not too bad. And evening programs are usually easy to accomodate. But Wednesday mornings at the beginning of the summer--Fahgedabodit! (as they say on "The Soprano's")

My regular clients have learned that they don't even need to know what the theme is. They know I'm going to tie it in, they know the program will promote reading, they know it will be fun, funny, and magical, and they know that they will get rave reviews from their patrons for bringing me in again. So they confidently book me and let me worry about the rest.

If you are curious about the show I'll be doing next year, stay tuned to this blog and I'll write about it in a few days.

Reading: The Sport of Champions

2006-06-03T07:41:00.000-05:00

I should have told you in my last post about the premise of my motivational reading program for this summer. Since the theme in Texas is "Reading: The Sport of Champions" I wrote a library reading program that talks about sports, but also emphasizes reading. After all, reading is exercise for your brain!

The premise of my show is Aesop's telling of the "The Tortoise and the Hare". In my production I get to interview both of the racers after the tragic event and also discuss their upcoming re-match. The interviews are hilarious with lots of jokes and puns just for adults (nothing "blue" in my shows, EVER, just references that usually fly over the heads of those younger than 14 or so).

I also mention famous athletes like Lou Gehrig, "The Iron Horse" of baseball who beat team mate Babe Ruth for MVP two years NOT because Lou was the fastest, or the best hitter, or the best catcher, or the best fielder, or the best runner. Lou wasn't the best at ANYTHING! Oh, he was good. I'm not saying the man wasn't good. Lou was a GREAT ball player, but he wasn't the best.

He just tried harder, and longer, and more consistently than anyone else in history either before or since.

Lou Gehrig had perfect attendance every year he was in school. He also had perfect attendance at every baseball game. He never missed a game. Not when he was sick, not with a sprained ankle, not with broken bones in his hand. He showed up every single day.

Like the tortoise.

What a great pair of role models: The Tortoise and Lou Gehrig.

First Show of This Summer

2006-05-30T20:59:00.000-05:00

I just finished my first performance of "Reading: Sport of Champions". It went well. Everyone in attendance seemed to like it and I had several people tell me that I am their favorite performer each year. Of course that is nice and I like to hear it. But...

I'm never really happy with my first ten performances. I can rehearse at the house, walk through the script, and even do dress rehearsals, but nothing really shakes a show out like doing it in front of a live audience. A REAL audience (no offense to my patient wife and daughter who lovingly watch my practice and rehearse far too many times).

I think the most frustrating part for me is that I know how good it is going to be by the end of the summer, but I simply don't know how to get there. I know that things will be revealed as I perform. Jokes will come to me, suddenly it will hit me that some prop should be placed on the other side of the stage from where I've been putting it. A new costume idea will hit me. All these things and more will no doubt come up, but I have to perform patiently and wait for them to be revealed.

Don't get me wrong, the show is good as it is. It is funny, it promotes reading, and it has some very strong tie ins with the theme. It will get even better, though. I am looking forward to watching it develop.

In some ways, it's like a child. You know they are going to grow, develop and change. But no matter how much you try to speed up or slow down the process, it will happen at it's own time.