DavidKamatoy.Guru

Spring Buskers Festival, May 10-11,2008: The coverage begins

San Diego, CA- This years Spring Buskers Festival at Seaport Village is beginning to get some coverage in the media with this posting on the Los Angeles Times Daily Travel and Deal Blog. This year’s competition will again be based on popular votes by those of you attending. There have been some noted improvements to the schedule including an actual main stage with scheduled performances. Last year performers were spread out over the property and a lot of people were not seen or even found by people that were looking for them.

As you know The Dave & Brad show competed last year only to be out voted by a hula dancing group. There’s power in numbers to say the least.  I would love to try to avoid being outvoted this year.

I am competing solo this year and I will be putting updates up on the blog frequently. Basically…

If your in San Diego, I need your votes…

Even though I have been performing in town in a variety of different venues and possibly one of the most recognized street performers it doesn’t mean I’ll win without your votes. This was painfully clear last year as we had an “American Idol moment” by being a noted favorite of the competition and still losing.

Keep a look out for postings and join the email list. I’ll let you know my show times as we get closer to the competition.

The Death of Professional Courtesy Part III

San Diego, CA- An incredibly rude Asian photographer and wedding party took over my juggling spot in front of the pond in Balboa Park as I was just starting a show effectively canceling the 4:00 show.

Yes it happened again and to be honest I was so upset I could not manage to get a card or a photo of the photographer. Because as upset as I was I still honor the fact that this is the wedding day but in my decades of performing on and off at the park this was by far the rudest group I have ever encountered.

I was literally starting my show when I turned around and they were actually physically moving my equipment. Exactly, now on a professional set if you touch anyone else's gear it’s highly objectionable if not fireable. Then they spent not just take 5-10 min to take a photo or two and move on but spent 20-30 minutes in the actual spot effectively canceling the 4:00 show.

Normally a courteous professional would ask permission, take a little time to take a few shots and move on or they set up off to the side of the show and cheat the shot. Which being in the industry I can tell you is totally possible.

In retrospect if I had been calmer I would have actually asked for this guys card and posted this event with a name. Instead I have only a description of an Asian semi- professional photographer with glasses. Yeah that is a stereotype but thats what he looked like.

I also wonder if their rudeness was allowable since I was a fellow asian, I really wonder if it would have been different if I were a tall white guy or a buff black guy? Hmmmm.

I just realize that some people still view street performers as street urchins. But when a fellow would-be proffesional video/photo operator treats you that way it's a little upsetting especially when you have produced multiple live events, video and photo productions.

David Kamatoy is an Entertainer, Entrepreneur and Email Marketing Master his company Kamatoy Media Group is a media and business development company that produces media for websites, events and yes even weddings.

Email marketers told simple is best. (Great points read this article)

Email marketers told simple is best.  - This is a great article by Arif Durrani.

In this article he references an industry expert that states that the right email campaign strategy created a 200,000 percent improvement. Yeah that's totally outrageous, but once you understand the power of email marketing and using it correctly. It becomes possible.

THE CONFUSED MIND SAYS NO.

People are getting so many emails these days you need to decide what you want you reader  to do in that email. There has to be a central driving next step embedded in that copy to create a result.

WHAT DO YOU WANT YOUR READER TO DO ONCE THEY RECEIVE THE EMAIL?

One of our clients recently sent out an incredibly short email with a great graphic and a discount. The read rate was fantastic but more importantly 60% of the people that opened that email clicked through to their website. Which resulted in sales some of which did not even use the discount code.

Another client for which we created all the copy and content had several articles and links. However the big attraction factor was again a Discount Code that lead them back to the main site. Even though the content of the newsletter was varied the message was clear, SAVE MONEY BY USING THIS CODE.

I am not suggesting that every email should have a discount code but I am suggesting that you should be aware of what specific action you would like your reader to take while reading the email.

By the way you can achieve this level of sophisticated tracking by using jugglemail.com. Take a test drive at jugglemail.com.

Ranch and Coast Post Dave and Brad

The Dave & Brad Show photo taken by Mary Ella Keith was used in this Calendar on

Ranch and Coast- San Diego Luxury Lifestyle Magazine.

Because when you think of San Diego Luxury you think of Dave & Brad...

Also this is one of the only times our image will ever be placed above President Clinton. Wow!!!

Crowell and Wiles Family Circus at the Desert Empire Fair: My First Real County Fair

Ridgecrest, CA- I had the chance to perform as the juggling ringmaster in the one ring circus, The Crowell and Wiles Family Circus.

As a child several of my most vivid memories are of The Del Mar Fair (now San Diego County Fair), one of the largest fairs in the state. This fair is huge, so in contrast I got to experience a real county fair…

THE DRIVE-I drove 5 hours out into the Desert, on a 2 lane 395 highway to Ridgecrest, CA for about 5 hours. Thanks to Google Maps I took the most direct route which t the end was a little harrowing navigating a  two lane road in the middle of desert which always brings to mind the worst possible scenario. Thank God, it was smooth driving with the exception of a few U-turns.

Dan Wiles and his lovely wife Katsumi were fantastic hosts. Dan was actually the guy who taught me how to juggler 20+ some odd years ago. So it's a FULL CIRCLE kind of a thing to be performing with him. Dan Actually had another show in Oakland, CA so I was the ringmaster for most of the shows. It rained on and off most of the Weekend until the last day which brought us the best crowds and the best time as Dan and I both got to perform in the show.

Delores and Henry Crowell- Delores is an ageless dancer, teacher and magician who performed several classic illusions. Henry Crowell at a Spry 80 performed his Bull Whip Act, which was a hoot. But you know the real story is that Henry Crowell was Gene Autry's Stunt Double,Ranch Manager, and Personal Appearance Double. Sometime behind a great man stands another great man, it was great performing with him and Delores. They will be in San Diego on at the 24th performing at the Scottish Rite Center.

So it was a hoot performing at the Desert Empire Fair and I hope that we were a memorable moment for a few kids from Ridgcrest, CA.

 

 

Dave and Brad Show perform with the Wiles Family Circus at Kidsfaire 2006

San Diego, CA- Over the last few weeks The Dave & Brad Show and myself have been performing with Wiles Family Circus at a number of Kidsfaires around California as far as Alameda, CA.

KidsFaire is a Children Specific Fair usually held at Fair Grounds for small children. They usually have a number of mini carnival rides, Blow Up Jumps and of course vendors that target that specific demographic ranging from toys, family cruises, local photographers.

The Wiggles were the big “Name” Draw. If you have small children you know exactly who the wiggles are.  If you don’t’ (like me) I had no idea except that when I started mentioning to parents they basically went nuts saying, “Wow, The wiggles, no way!”

“Yes Way,  The Wiggles”

San Diego's Kidsfaire- Held at the San Diego Convention Center, which was the only one that I know of that was not at an actual fair grounds. In the other venues we performed under a big Blue and Yellow Tent. ( Which I got to take down and it gell on me, OOOOH WHAT FUN!)

Dave and Brad Juggling on Mars- At the Orange County Kidsfaire they had a NASA Mars Exhibit which included this Mars Background. We had an idea and free time in between shows and got this great shot. We thought the NASA people might not ne happy with us until they took out their own cameras and took a few shots.

Dave, SpongeBob and Brad- When we get a chance to take a photo with a celebrity we take it. One of the coolest things about the Kidsfaire was that they had a bunch of Costume Characters (sponsored by various companies including Albertsons, a smart move) including SpongeBob, Curious George, Care Bears ( We only saw all 3 together once so we think that one was having a bad day.) and Clifford.