Jaime Leona gave me a call and asked if i would judge and I jumped at the chance. She runs a tight ship and thats a good indicator that the show will go off well.
I took a bus to Dante's Inferno in Downtown Portland OR.
I got there to find that the MC was the lovely and very funny Curtis Carlyle. I have appreciated this man's presence on the planet for a long time.
The prize was a thousand bucks!!!Those folks cared a great deal. I tried to make it a point to do a good job judging and be fair and honest.
It was great to see 10 acts of varying prowess and originality.
Curtis told the audience that the judges will be paying attention to style, skill, execution and over all performance. This was a tough job but Noah Mickens was there, Leapin Louie and the winner from last year. Between us I'm sure the number of fire acts we have seen is in the thousands.
The question I pondered was "Would I have them in my show?" Unfortunatly most of the time the answer is no. This is a tough game and if you look like every fire spinner under the bridge then I am not gonna give it much weight. I liked the first act because he had lots of heart. It looked like he practiced his act at a construction job when the others were at lunch.
Downstairs (in the dressing room)they all collect for the competition. It's friendly but they are surly sizing each other up. Some are old friends, some strangers all are in the belly of the beast.
What a pleasure and an honor to be a part of this. And I'm also amazed that so many Portland folks turned out on a Sunday night.Trust me...they were glad they did.
It was great to have last years winner Hannah Robin) next to me so I could ask "Is that difficult?"
And the winner was the artist formally known as Andi Lou!!! Thats what ya get for having style, skill, production value, timing and of course pizazz!
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