Victorian X-Mass Soiree!

The weekend has come and gone, but the glow from the wonderful memories will last a long time. Once again I threw my Victorian X-mass Soiree, a tradition that I started in 2002. It was the first gathering we had at our new digs in The Cabin in the Woods. Jess and I pulled out all the stops and cleaned like crazy and did ALOT of food prep before the party.

Around 32 people showed up and all were dressed in Victorian and 19th Century finery. One of the highlights of the evening was when my friend Lindsay Lambert sang for his supper. He sang 3 hilarious old Vaudeville tunes and was in perfect form.

Later in the evening, I did my rendition of How the Grinch Stole Christmas and the night was full of great stories and good friends.

I have really enjoyed the move from Toronto to the Cabin in the Woods. It has been a very therapeutic and  life changing move. The friends I have made in the last 6 months are very down to earth and kind. So many of them are lovers of Victorian and Pioneering history and live the lifestyle.... so, the Victorian styled party was a cinch for all involved.

One of the things I enjoy most of my new found friendships is the fact each and every one of them has a talent in some sort of olde world craft. Some are Pioneer re-enactors, some are Steam Punk enthusiasts and some are into the Goth scene. It is exciting to hear their views on the past and I enjoy seeing them all dressed up in their finery (which they do on numerous occasions)

All in all, the X-Mass Soiree was a smashing success!

A BIG thank you goes out to Jess and her Mom and Dad for all of the help in the week leading up to the big day.

Here's to a Great New Year and more adventures with my new found friends. 

As the Fall becomes the Winter

It has been a week since we folded up camp and left Fort Fright, after 6 weeks of steady work performing Carnival Diablo. Now, I have started working diligently on my new project... Prof. Crookshank's Traveling Medicine Show. I had created the show the first time waaaaaay back in 1979, and have decided to revisit this little gem. The process is a slow one, and the style and grandeur of this project is going to be an exciting challenge. Back in 1979, I was 15 and I wrote the character of Crookshank to be around 45. I wore a fake mustache and wore make up to age my face... I am now 46 and I think that I am looking and feeling more the part then I ever have in the past.

I am working on 5 different NEW routines, or Acts that will be a major part of the new production. Each routine is a skit and a performance on its own. I want the audience to feel that they have encountered something truly strange and magickal when they watch this show. Comedy, ventriloquism, magic, automata and a dash of Snake Oil are the recipe for this strange world that I am creating.

As I had stated in an earlier post, I will be building a REAL fully working  Gypsy Caravan, or as some call it a Vardo. I have started building it at a ranch with a good friend, Ward Wright and my partner Jess. We have finished the base and will begin construction on the upper box in the next 24 hours. This will be a project that will take around 3 months to complete. I will be posting a photo essay of our progress in the next few weeks. But, for now, I want to keep what we are doing visually under wraps until we are closer to finishing the caravan.

Many of the acts are also being built from the ground up and will have the unique Diablo stamp to its look. (rather other-worldly and sinister)

I am also writing new dialogue and researching like a madman, so that when all is said and done... this will be another World Class Show. Costumes will be created by some of the finest designers in the industry and we will soon have a website for this NEW World that will give you ALL of the info you need to enjoy this mad romp into our glorious past.

We will be offering many EXTRA'S and Add On's to our package, so that Festivals and Carnivals can have many different versions to pick from ie: Gypsy Caravan with Show, the World of Wonders, Carnival Calliope's, Victorian Popcorn Machines and other Victorian gadgetry.

The best part of this is, it is being made for the whole family! Now everyone, no matter how young or old, can come out and enjoy a trip into our fabricated past.
Hell, this package can be set up as its own Event in a park!

For now, its FULL STEAM AHEAD!

I'll write more as we get deeper into the muck and mire of the building.
Tomorrow I am back at the ranch to work more on the caravan.

Strange Days ahead!

The Banners of the Mystique's update

Back in February, I had started working on a large set of banners of Mythological Deities. I have always been interested in Byzantine styled paintings and old religious iconography and these banners are a tribute to our need to create fetishes of what we revere and hold close to our hearts. The paintings have a Freakshow and Lovecraftian feel to them, mixed with a dash of cryptozoological strangeness that makes them nightmarish. I have more work to do on them and have some interesting plans for how they will be shown in the near future. But, I had stated back in February that I would post some pix of the progress... so, without any further ado, I present to you the making of one of these large banners.

Laying down the basic form on canvas...

creating some underlying shadows...

filling in the blanks and fleshing out the concept

adding some color to the head

and adding detail to the face

painting and designing clothing

  I have more work to do on the banner and 
I will post more pix as I get close to completion.

Lets take a look at this past summer...

OK, I have to admit, starting in May, my life became VERRRRY hectic.
I had made the decision after 16 years, to move away from Toronto. This was a slow process, because I had built a strong fanbase in the city and was also well connected with the media. It was something that I felt I had to do if I were to progress and move forward.

I have many dreams and aspirations, and Toronto was limiting the goals that I had set for myself. Yes, it is the largest city in the country and a MECA for many Canadian entertainers, but it was also stifling. There is soooo much entertainment in the city and not enough rooms to go around. So, many of the pros have to wait for theaters to open up schedule wise and also contend with the deluge of street advertising that over shadows the work that we do. To put it plainly, there is just to much to do in Toronto... so, the public sometimes goes into an entertainment coma.

That being said, I also tour alot and sometimes do not see my home for up to 6 months out of the year. So, when I have down time... do I really want to spend it in a city that is grid-locked almost 24/7 and filled with people rushing around with their heads cut off?

The answer is NO.

And so, I decided to make the move... but it would have to be to a place that was still central and could also give me some peace of mind.

For the past 2 years I have been working large shows in the Ottawa area and I have struck up a good rapport with the media... so, I decided to move to a cabin on the Mississippi River in Eastern Ontario. What a wonderful change and I mean that in the most profound way!

Looking out from the back porch onto the Mississippi River

Right before I started the move, I performed at the Innovator's Ball, which during this year also had the Harry Potter Exhibit on show. The event took place at the Ontario Science Center and was attended by over 3000 people!

Eisengrimm performing Miracles at the Innovators Ball

I began the move in June and started to slowly move my furniture and LIFE to this little piece of Paradise during that time, I was also starting to work on some NEW ideas for my upcoming shows and would spend what little time I did have between moving, building strange new props and routines for my stage shows.


On July 1st until July 4th 2010, I set up Carnival Diablo's World of Wonders at Upper Canada Village. This was the first of many high profile gigs I would be doing through the summer and into the fall in the area that I lived in.

Here is an ad that ran during the event in the Eastern Ontario area

And here are a few pix of the time spent at Upper Canada Village

Crowd gathers to see the FREAKS!

Nikolai Diablo appraises the situation

Inside of my caravan are FREAKS of every shape and size!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-QhbQNMDYHQ

This is a link to a mini video I put up about The Upper Canada Village Show.

 And with being open for the first time at this wonderful park, we garnered some great press! ... 

And this was just the beginning of a whirl wind of events that took place almost back to back all summer long! Right when I got back from Morrisburg, I had to start to prepare for the Ottawa Super EX. And this was beginning to become a huge endeavor. At first the Super EX just wanted to have my Carnival Diablo World of Wonders at the Exhibition... but when they discovered that I owned my grandfathers estate, plus a collection of Machines of Death used in Sideshows, they asked if I could create a Retrospect Museum based on my grandfathers life, and would I be interested in doing a Lecture about the History of Freakshow Entertainment in the carnival industry. Of course my answer was YES to all questions! But now, I had created a massive workload in a very short period of time, and I still was moving stuff from Toronto and would be right up until the end of that month.

So, I started building a modular Historical Museum of my grandfathers life and also spent my nights writing a lecture about the History of the Freakshow.

We opened on August 19th and once again garnered alot of attention from the Ottawa public as we put on show, not only the last traveling Freakshow in Canada, but also a complete Museum and a display of Machines of Death.  And nightly at 7pm I would do a lecture in front of up to 300 people in the Coliseum Building.

The Exhibits and lectures were a huge success and I felt privileged to be the last Showman to run a Freakshow at there historical Landsdowne Park Exhibition Grounds. For this was the very last time that they were going to use Landsdowne Park as the grounds for the Ottawa Super EX.

Here are a few pix from that historic occasion

Crowds enjoying the Freakshow Exhibition

Audience watching lecture

Audience on a different day

Audience reaction to my demonstration

A corner of my Grandfathers Museum

Receiving Award for Best Attraction

Machines of DEATH

 And with the end of summer came the preparations for Fort Fright in Kingston ON, which would open on Sept.22nd 2010. I had two NEW acts that I wanted to add to the show and I also wanted to design a NEW costume for the upcoming run. The work was none stop as we got ready for another BIG run of Shows... 6 weeks of shows in a row, and even as I write this from a Sheraton Hotel in Kingston, we still have 15 shows left before I can breath again. (And trust me, I am not complaining)

The story continues....

A fine How-Do-You-Do!

A couple of weeks ago, I was in the Ottawa Citizen.

This article was an intimate look into my past and why I am who I am today.

It was a real treat to have Bruce Deachman come over to the cabin in the woods and interview me. Right when he got out of the car, he handed me a very obscure Tom Waits album... and I knew that this guy was on the right track. He spent around 3 hours hanging out and chatting about life and all of its strangeness. Bruce had seen my show in the past and had been following my journey as I moved from Toronto to the Mississippi River over the past 3 months.

Here is the article link...

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/life/Carnival+Showman/3568531/story.html

It also has a mini LIVE interview that has many pics taken by Bruce during his interview...and you can find them in the margin above the pic of me, labeled 'Photos' and 'Video'.

And the thing that made me almost fall over... was the size of the interview!

                                                 A FULL PAGER!!!

Carnival Diablo at Fort Fright!

Although this post is a couple of weeks late... Carnival Diablo is performing at Fort Fright in Kingston from Sept.22nd thru Oct.31st, every Wed. thru Sat. at 7:30pm!

This is a NEW production of the show with many surprises, including (spoiler Alert!)
The Impaler, a new Horrifying Machine used on a unwary audience member! AND... I am performing a NEW Knife throwing act, that will have you on the edge of your seats.

The advertising campaign for our show has been immense! As I write this, there are over 139 billboards across Ontario with my pic on it!

One of the many billboards in Ottawa

I have not written about this production until now, because we have been sooo busy getting it ready and also performing it...and when I say NOW, that means TONIGHT!
Our run continues for 3 and a half more weeks.

With all of the building and rehearsing we have done since our Amazing Exhibition at the Ottawa Super Ex in August, Carnival Diablo Productions has not had time to take a breath. There is no rest for the wicked ;)

For more info about our show, you can go to www.carnivaldiablo.com

or www.fortfright.com ....

or check out http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home#!/event.php?eid=144971818849700

This is a show not to be missed!

This poor guy just lost the Game...

Carney Roulette with a 9 inch long construction spike!

Nikolai Diablo on stage!

And speaking of work... I must leave now and get ready for another Horrifying Night at Fort Fright.... See ya there!

Professor Crookshank's Traveling Medicine Show!

That's right folks!... after 20 years of being away from the world of Vaudeville and Olde Tyme Medicine chicanery... I have decided to create a completely NEW production based on my hit show 'Prof. Crookshank's Traveling Medicine Show'.
I performed my Medicine Show from 1979 until 1991 in Western Canada at all the Major Exhibitions including The Calgary Stampede, Edmonton's Klondike Days and Regina's Buffalo Days.

Me and my Grandfather Prof.N.P.Lewchuk circa 1982

My first Show poster circa 1981

Me as Prof. Crookshank in 1985
at The Calgary Stampede

This NEW Show will be even BIGGER and fancier and will have MANY NEW PERFORMERS... some LIVE and some entirely Mechanical! I am building this NEW Show as a Victorian Steampunk version of what a Mystical Medicine Show would offer to the public 125 years ago.

This is a HUGE endeavor and I will be starting production on it this November.
And to begin... I am building a large Medicine Show Caravan, with a fold down stage and many secret gadgets to bring it to life!

I have also decided to change the name of my character from Prof. Floyd B.S. Crookshank, to Prof. Vladimir Eisengrimm Esq.
I am doing this because I feel that when I wrote the first Medicine Show over 29 years ago, I was very young and enjoyed the pun in the name Crook-Shank... but NOW feel that the character has grown and should be reflected as the same character as in my production The Paranormal Show... a Shaman and purveyor of Wonderment.

NOTE:- After a few weeks of careful consideration, I have decided to keep the original name of Crookshank in the show. Call it nostalgia, but I feel that I would be doing the character a disservice if I did not use the name that I first came up with... it just makes sense.

This will be a Carnival Diablo Production... and you can expect the same quality and eye-popping entertainment that has gone into my previous productions. The thing I look most forward to at this moment is building the caravan... it will have a life of its own, with mechanical moving parts and strange animatronic levers and gears that will help in the selling of my Amazing Elixir! Plus, I will be unveiling a 19th Century Robot that runs by means of a strange glowing engine that can only be manifested by breaching the 7th Dimension of the Quantum plain! It will make its appearance and bring the ROBOT to life during every show! (more on the ROBOT coming soon!)

The great thing is, Prof. Crookshank's Traveling Medicine Show will be on tour with Carnival Diablo's World of Wonders, the last traveling Freakshow in Canada! And it will be starting its first Tour in the Spring of 2011!!!

I will be writing more about this Amazing endeavor over the next few months... until then, please keep your ear close to the ground...

My NEW Acquisition... The Spirit Hand of Eva Fay

Eva Fay

This is the 'Spirit Hand' that was used by Eva Fay during her Seance performances.

It has been said that it is cursed and has been known to still be haunted by a spirit or entity that is capable of talking from beyond... using a rapping code. 

 * A special note- this is NOT the hand used by Anna Eva Fay, but her daughter in-law, Eva Fay. They had a long standing feud going on because of the fact that Eva had purported to be doing the same show as Anna...

Here is a part of the account of what took place over the time they knew each other.

Eva Fay was the wife of John Cummings 'Fay', who in turn was the son of Anna Eva Fay, the celebrated American medium active around the turn of the century.

Eva Fay performed the same show as her mother-in-law, although her presentation was different. She also made a major addition: Eva had a spirit rapping hand that allowed her to answer questions asked by the audience. The spirit invoked during the séance used the hand to answer the questions asked.
However, the spirit that communicated through the hand gradually became jealous of her husband and caused his death - although the coroner's official verdict was death by accidental shooting.
(see The Fay Family Fight by Barry H.Wiley).

The sound of soft, repeating noises could be heard emanating from the small brown box carried by the medium. He set the box on the table next to a kind of dummy hand whose index finger had once been broken and inexpertly repaired. He then opened the box, in which we saw another - albeit different - hand.

"I will NOT, under any circumstances, demonstrate the power of this spirit rapping hand," he said pointing to the hand with the damaged finger. "It caused a number of mysterious deaths and 'accidents' during the 20th century".

(the Spirit Hand in my possession is Eva's original)

Spirit rapping hands were mainly used by stage mediums in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Usually, the audience would ask the medium questions and the hand would answer by rapping on a piece of wood or glass.

The Banners of the Mystiques

I am starting to paint the large banners for my NEW production today.

They are paintings of mythological mystics that are going to be hung like tapestries at a Church. They will look and feel like they were painted over 400 years ago. 

This is just the beginning of the large set that I am designing for my upcoming new production, when it is completed the set will fit on a stage 75 feet wide by 40 feet deep.

I will post pix of the banners as I start to work on them, so that you can see the progress as they come to life.

But now, I am off to paint for the rest of the day... and night  :)