3rd International Varieté Fest

I was just in Schwebheim, Germany for the 3rd International Varieté Festival produced by my friend Dirk Denzer and his production team.  It was an AMAZING festival (as always).  I performed my new illusionary comedy act for the first time in the big "Water Worlds" variety show along with my more serious water swinging act.  There were many amazing artists from around Europe and North America.  Some great inspirations... many sold-out shows...  standing ovations...  spectacular effects...  amazing people...  What a great scene!!!

Again to the Land of Penguins

ANOTHER great trip all the way down to Patagonia working on the Radiance of the Seas (Royal Caribbean). I performed the second night on board and it went nearly perfectly. Both shows got standing O's! And the ship was rocking. The weather was unexpectedly cooperative the rest of the cruise. Normally this late in the season there are very rough seas around the bottom of South America, but Cape Horn was unusually calm. I took some spectacular HD footage in Ushuaia with a brilliant sun, the leaves turning a rust-color orange, and the mountains covered by an early layer of light snow. What a pity the electrical and phone lines were not put underground because the views of the mountains around town are otherwise ideally picturesque.

I overnighted in Punta Arenas, Chile after the cruise and stayed in a lovely, friendly, inexpensive inn. Punta Arenas is a town with a frontier flavor with beautiful parks and friendly people. It is cut off from the rest of Chile by rugged mountains and is only reached by an expensive flight or a very long drive all the way through Argentina. The community is a kind of Chilean cultural island.

SUPERB nature on this trip in the heart of Patagonia. One small island near the airport has over 150,000 penguins living on just that one island!

South America Cruises March '09

March '09... spent 15 days on the Norwegian Sun and 7 days on Royal Caribbean's Radiance of the Seas down in Argentina, Uruguay, the Faulkland Islands, and Chile. Both ships are about 90,000 tons and give new meaning to the word "opulence". The Norwegian Sun is one of my favorite ships with a very friendly crew, beautiful vessel, and good policies for the guest entertainers. I got to dine regularly with the crew who have their authentic cooks and ingredients from southeast asia on board. A different spicy curry dish every day of the week! It was heavenly... The passengers were mostly from Brazil, Argentina, Chile and Europe so it was a very international experience. On one of the ships, I performed my "Eureka!" show-version (all visual and completely language-free) while there were other acts who spoke three or four different languages. I was quite impressed! Overall, a lovely time spent down in South America with very calm seas for the most part. However, the seas around Cape Horn lived up to their reputation as one of the most treacherous passages in the world. The ship's engineers brought metal covers to reinforce the windows in my foreward stateroom ("baton down the hatches!") and the captain was a little off in his prediction of 8 to 10 meter swells. They turned out to be 10 and 15 meters high (30 to 45 feet) and enough to cause a lot of dishes to go flying off the dining tables in the ship's restaurants when the captain had to change course.

"Business Not As Usual"

Here I am in Stavanger, Norway playing with gravity again.  I was attending the Innotown Innovation Conference for the second year in a row performing creative moments in between speakers.  The conference features worldwide leaders in "innovation".  I met a lot of brilliant people doing really out there things.  Check out their website at www.innotown.com.  Innotown is a lovely bunch of people... I can't say enough good things about them.  

Some of my favorite speakers were Sir Ken Robinson, a world-renowned expert in fostering creativity in education; Dr. Hans Rosling who uses cutting edge statistical information to promote a fact based world view; Alex Steffen from www.worldchanging.com who focuses on environmental sustainability issues; and Joel Cohen, writer and co-executive producer for 'The Simpsons'.

The aim of InnoTown is to move people's minds, both rationally and emotionally; to inspire and enhance creativity and innovation.  There were over 500 attendees from more than 20 countries.

Touring in the American MidWest with "Cirque Voila!"

In September, I toured with Washington-based "Cirque Voila!" across the Midwest.  We performed 7 shows in venues from Indiana to Texas and received standing ovations at 6 of them.  The cast included the Gandinis, Paul Wilbaum, Greg Frisbee, Christine Van Loo, and myself.  Here is a photo from a stop at the Cadillac Ranch in Texas.  

Med Cruising -Spring 2008

Greetings from Europe!

I have been spending the Spring cruising with Azamara Cruises around the Mediterranean alternating from the Azamara Quest to the Azamara Journey each week. Azamara is a new line run by Celebrity Cruises featuring two smaller sized vessels that have non-repeating itineraries that visit some interesting out-of-the-way places (like Croatia - see photo). It's been a bit of a marathon for me - I usually keep my cruising to 2 weeks or less. I'm looking forward to getting back to Maine at the end of May!

Check out some of my still images on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=37949&l=a2f71&id=709908711

World Clown Festival

I just returned from a breathtaking 10 days in Southern China performing at the 1st World Clown Festival in Liuzhou. We had 60 clowns, jugglers, stiltwalkers, and physical comedians performing 3 to 4 shows a day in a beautiful natural park in the area of China famous for its mountains and lakes. We also performed 2 theater shows, a big banquet show, and a parade in which perhaps as many as HALF A MILLION people pressed into the city center to see us. Everyone wanted one thing: to get there pictures taken next to us. It was the nearest thing to being a rock star...

I've posted more photos at Photobucket:
http://s200.photobucket.com/albums/aa9/chinaclown/michael%20menes/