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Do Something

Welcome

Article from ADMIN 69/2022

By Ken Hess

Today, I just have a special message for you: Do something.

I know it's much easier to do nothing. In fact, doing nothing is always the default action, but doing something is better than doing nothing. I'm no mathematician, but I'd say it's about 100 percent better. Yes, there's a story here, and it's one you should read and heed lest you grow old without realizing your dreams.

It all started when I went to college with dinosaurs and cave people in prehistoric times, aka the 1980s. Reagan was President. The recession was in full swing. Jobs were scarce. I wanted to produce and direct a vaudeville show. Yes, you read that correctly – a vaudeville show. Plate spinners, baton twirlers, bodacious burlesque acts, dog and pony shows, singers, dancers, comedy, magic, and a whole array of sideshow delights. Vaudeville. My dream to be a vaudevillian would never come to pass.

That is until many years later in 2022. I finally convinced someone to take a trip down memory lane with me back to those innocent days between the great wars and before the Great Depression. The heyday of vaudeville, the ultimate variety show. I found a theater director whose venue was on the original vaudeville circuit before it was stripped of its once great elegance and converted into a moving picture theater. I wanted to do it. I pitched it. And the vaudeville show was on! The date for the one-night-only show was April 2, 2022, in beautiful New Bern, North Carolina – my new home.

The show sold out and people loved it. Many have requested another show. "Vaudeville is here to stay," I stated bravely in the opening act. And I was right. It's now going to be part of the regular season and an annual event.

It turned out better than I'd hoped. We had a fire-breather, a flame-fan dancer, a guy on stilts, and an announcer who wrestled with a giant boa constrictor in the street in front of the theater before the show commenced inside. We had singers; comedians; tap dancers; side-show performances that included a bed of nails;

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