Wow, what a busy few weeks...

Well this has been a very busy few weeks for this Motley Fool. Who knew that the life of a real Court Jester could be quite as manic?

I've had about 5 different heads on as well, for those of you old enough to remember, I feel a lot like Wurzel Gummidge and my darling wife is doing her finest Aunt Sally and keeping me sane.

In Monty world, I've had some great Birthday parties and some wonderful customer comments recently. Really nice to get feedback on the day from parents who've come along with their children to watch. People saying "I've been to a lot of kids parties and have seen a lot of entertainers and I must tell you that you are right up there with the very best of them.." is the kind of comments I want to get. It shows that the effort I put into my work pays off as I try my hardest to "entertain everyone all the time", so much so I've adopted that phrase as my new corporate strap line.

I've also had some great times at one of my favourite places, www.ragleyhall.com. I spent the week over last half term playing and performing my fire show every day then this weekend just past I was Monty the split personality Jester. Part Snowman and part Fool as I was with them for their wonderful Christmas Market. It's nice to know that even Lord & Lady Hertford, the owners of Ragley are aware of me and what I do now.

I've performed at a great Wedding anniversary celebration / 1st Birthday which was a lot of fun, although I must admit that fire breathing in -4 degrees temperatures was challenging...

While all that's been going on I took delivery of my new Sword Cabinet illusion. This is a trick that I cannot wait to perform myself with Jolly Jester Jingles but it's also going to find it's way into the schools drama workshops we'll be running in the new year! Bet there are a few teachers who have kids they'd cheerfully volunteer to be skewered with 23 swords although they may be disappointed to see them come out in one piece?!

Right now I'm working on the finishing touches for my run of christmas shows, both for children and grown ups. I'm performing in schools, nurseries and for playgroups in the next week as well as starting a month of Medieval Banquets at www.warwick-castle.com. Click the link to book onto one of them and I may see you there.

Outside of the Jester world and just like everyone else, I've been getting ready for Christmas at home. I have 2 very excited boys who have earmarked almost every page of the Argos and Tesco Direct Catalogues with the toys they want so I'm working hard to make sure I can get at least some of what they want.

I'm also flat out with my role as Chairman of my sons school Parent Staff Association. Last  week was our Christmas Disco and this Friday is our Christmas Fair. It a mammoth  task of getting donations for prizes, organising raffle prizes and begging for volunteers to help on the day. That said it's worth it, last year for a school of only 220 pupils we raised £5500 and I want to beat that this year so I'm keeping everything crossed for a successful fair. Even to the point of dressing up like a Christmas Turkey for the night to run a "guess the weight of the turkey" game!!! The things I do?

So I'm worn out, brain buzzing and running on adrenaline mostly while trying to fight of Man Flu...

Back in a week or so with more..

for now,

Happy December and Happy Christmas.

The Fool Monty.

OK Go - White Knuckles - Official Video

OK Go.. just another slice of video genius from the most inspired band. Love them love them love them!!!

Great Friends, Drama teachers, Performance Partners and Sword Boxes

I've had a great end to the working week. Yesterday I drove 350 miles to go and see one of my dearest friends @SamJPaterson-Sleep. Sam is someone I've known for over 15 years and although I've not seen her for 10 years as she moved down south and I moved back to Solihull we've always kept in touch.

She was the co-creator of The Royal Boil (a fairytale for festival goers children) which was to be performed at Glastonbury (the same year Robbie performed). It sadly never happened, we got all the way to the performers gate then had a slight difference of opinion with the other performer we'd taken along. So suffice to say it was never performed.

But very soon, the Royal Boil will be re-written, extended and performed at a senior school near you (well me anyway).

Now days however, Sam is a top class Sixth Form College Drama Teacher. I can only begin to imagine how well she inspires her students to get the best out of themselves as she's a bundle of creative excellence!

Her contacts mean though that she happened to be offered a stalwart of magic illusions, called the sword box. See the pictures at the top of this post for visuals. So after her kindly holding onto it for me for a few weeks, yesterday I jumped in the Montymobile (my kids pet name for my car) and hot footed it down to Shoreham to have a long over due hug, a brew or 2 and to collect the Sword Box.

Funny how Sam was as excited as me about me having this prop as she knows my imagination will go into overdrive figuring out how to work it into the show.

I'm in such a total state of 6 year old on Christmas Eve about it that I just had to call my performance partner, Jolly Jester Jingles to chat about it as it's likely that it'll be hear shutting me in the box in the show! She's as excited about it as me, so can't wait to have a rehearsal session in it some time very soon.

For now though, it's sat in my house tempting me and my good lady wife with it's range of possibilities and how best we can refresh it to fit it more with the Medieval theme.

Stay posted for more on this but if you never hear from me again it all went horribly wrong first time out......

The Fool Monty Juggling Store - Open for Christmas Business now!

www.thefoolmonty.co.uk/Store.html


My new Juggling shop is now open for Christmas business.


I sell top quality Juggling equipment including balls, diablolos, flower sticks and spinning plates for loads of family fun.

Time I got back to updating this blog.

It's been a while, Twitter, Facebook et al have got the brunt of my postings/updates but I am determined to start putting more information on here.

So from now one this won't be so much about me, but more about the things, causes, activities etc that impact my business and life as a Court Jester.

First of all with Christmas just around the corner, I now have a Juggling equipment shop:

www.thefoolmonty.co.uk/Store.html

Go have a look today.

Schools workshops, new tricks and fun parties

Phew, no rest for the wicked I think is the saying. Well I'm not wicked I know that but I have a wicked workload at the moment.

Since finishing the Christmas run at Warwick Castle, Jingles and I have come up with a skeleton show for our next run at Easter and already have some good ideas so watch this space.

I've been head long into the schools market, I'm working with two schools in the coming weeks with 2 very different packages.

At one in Warwick I'll be spending an hour or so with 5 classes ranging from Kindergarten through to F1 age (4&5 years). We'll be reading my favourite book all about life in a real castle and pretending you were there (Stories for Boys, In a Castle, published by Usborne). Then the children will be getting all dressed up as their favourite characters, expect lots of Knights and Princesses and very few Gong Farmers and Foot Soldiers. Then we'll have a mini Jester academy where they can tell their best or worst jokes, spin some plates and have a go at balancing things just like a Jester does.

At a school in Solihull I'll be performing a mini fairy tale called "The Royal Boil" which is an original piece I've written to show the children who are 5&6 what goes into putting on a real show. So they're making the props,   supplying the costumes. making the sound effects and acting the roles as well. It's a fun way to show them all the different people and jobs that go into a show. The day starts with a half hour introduction to the day where I tell them what the plan is in some more detail and then I perform a 10 minute prelude to their show which takes the story up to a key point. I'l then spend the morning with the performers and sounds team who will run through their parts with me getting used to moving on stage and coordinating with each other so that they are ready to go. Then after lunch it's time with the artists who have made all the props, staging, costumes etc. Making sure they know how to move their pieces of scenery and when.

We'll all have about an hour together then to rehearse the whole piece before a grand finale show before home time. The actual show for the children is only 10 minutes but it incorporates acting, sound effects and 2 real stage magic illusions that they will perform.

In amongst this I'm busy with birthday parties, christenings, wedding enquiries and I'm pleased to say bookings. On that note I'm also working with a great Medieval Re-enactor and performer called Mark Vance and his talented Musician wife Lou and her band Stingo to put together a really unique Medieval Wedding package for venues such as Warwick Castle. So watch this space.

I'm also busy practising lots of new magic tricks I'm working into my act and trying to decide whether I should offer more of a DJ service at parties as well.

But for now, rest!

3 Weeks and Christas 2009 is done!

 Well, 3 weeks, 7 days a week, 1 day off and 3 shows a day! Boy that was some intensive run, especially in the cold all day every day.. but what fun.

After all that preparation, rehearsal, costume design, scripting, choreography it all came together to give us the best Christmas show ever.

With dancing Santa's, Hairy Mary the Christmas Fairy, Illusions, snow and good a old fashioned sing along we really brought the magic of Christmas to Warwick Castle.

Videos and photos to follow soon, but now it's time to thaw out, grab some R&R and then to crack on with Schools shows and parties this weekend.

See you all soon.