The Cowguys Blog

Birthdays

2011-04-12T19:58:00.000-07:00

Just back in the door from performing at a 6 yr olds birthday party! It was a really fun time. In the off season, or even full busy season, if we get a call for a birthday party show, and we're available, one Cowguy would be more than happy to get out and get your kids rolling around laughing. We generally do a show, then make cool balloons for all the kids, or teach a circus workshop.. total time is usually one hour, great for ages 4 and up.

Highlight from my last show was...

Brian "We'll need a magic word.."
Kid yells out "Abracadabra"
Brian "maybe a different magic word"
older kid "Take off your clothes and run around naked!"

Brian "How about we go with Abracadabra today..."

Making your own juggling beanbags!

2011-03-23T09:13:00.001-07:00

Another mom just called me up and asked about buying good beanbags in Ottawa - i had a few suggestions, but making your own is an option too! Check the link on how to make your own juggling beanbags. You can use rice, beans, or even sand.

Keep in mind to size the balls to fit whoever is juggling. I have giant hands, so i like a big beanbag. Kids have smaller hands, and they need smaller beanbags.. size appropriately!

Mayfair Shows

2011-03-23T09:09:00.000-07:00

Thanks to everyone who offered us support for our Mayfair shows this past winter. That includes audiences that came out, Make a Wish Foundation of Eastern Canada, and all of our sponsors who supported us. And of course the Mayfair Theatre.

We are taking a sabbatical from putting on our theatre shows.. Nick and I both being at least part-time stay at home Dads, and both having other work commitments, we found it too much work to produce and promote the shows (as well as starring in them).

We are currently looking for partners who are interested in booking or promoting our act into theatres. Please contact us for more info. We are currently working with footage shot at our shows, and cutting together a groovy promo reel.

Cowguys and Crush Improv - live at the Mayfair!

2011-01-26T10:41:00.000-08:00

Coming soon - February 26th - Saturday - 1pm. Crush Improv and The Cowguys present a comedy double bill at the Mayfair.

Family Audiences are welcome - Must have a sense of humour. Or we'll ask you to leave.

Wrap up from Great escape.

2011-01-26T10:34:00.000-08:00

Thanks to everyone who made it out to the Great Escape show. As it turns out, we didn't quite get the turnout we hoped for. Probably because it was -38C outside, and the Weather people were issueing a deep cold warning, saying if you don't have to go outside don't! (That never helps when you're trying to get a theatre full of people together)

Fortunately we had some great partners on the show - many great sponsors who took out an ad in our program, (in no particular order), Angela Thomson Realtor, Allegra Printing, Barley Mow Pud, Dr Kaboom's mini mobile circus, Ottawa Folklore Centre, the Ottawa School of Speech and Drama, and Knock on Wood Communications and Events. Even the Mayfair worked with us on the event.. Thanks again for all of your support.

We also shot video of our 1pm show - we will be cutting together a new promo reel - that should be out soon.

Cowguys at the Mayfair

2011-01-16T11:22:00.000-08:00

The Cowguys are getting ready for our upcoming theatre show at the Mayfair next week. Sunday January 23rd, Nick and I will be presenting 80-90 minutes of hilarity - some new antics, lots of laughs, and our new Harry Houdini style escape act. Shows at 1pm, and 8:30pm.

Passing Clubs around Jon Dore

2010-09-23T19:35:00.000-07:00

Here's a shot from the Ottawa Festivals Launch a few years back of us passing clubs around Jon Dore. Jon wasn't having as much fun as he usually does on stage.

Funny story - Brian went to high school with John. Actually it's not a funny story.

Cowguys and Tyler K on A-channel morning show.

2010-04-18T17:51:00.001-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0Zyo7_yMIo

New set! Photos update!

2010-04-12T19:00:00.001-07:00

The Ottawa Gala has come and gone. The Cowguys were lucky enough to get in two great shows, and we debued our new set! It looked great behind us as we did our thing.

Cowguy Jon was there too. He didn't make this photo. We'll be adding a youtube video from the show soon - the setup was amazing, and we arranged a video camera. Stay tuned!

9 months? No updates?

2010-04-08T06:13:00.000-07:00

9 months? no updates? We've been twittering! Follow the Cowguys on Twitter just add Cowguys

New Cowguys Set!

2010-04-08T06:04:00.000-07:00

The Cowguys just received delivery of our new set for our Grand Illusion show! It's a rack for our props, an illusion, a backdrop, and has telescoping ladders that go up 12ft, giving us a performance platform at 10ft high! Lawrence form Majinx fabricated it for us - he did an incredible job.

Now we tweak it up a little, and rehearse.

The Cowguys are also getting ready for a show at the Ottawa Gala this coming weekend - at the Government Conference Centre in Ottawa, on April 10th, 9:30pm. The Ottawa Gala is a fundraiser for the school breakfast program.

At the Gala we are performing a 3 Cowguy show - it doesn't happen often, but when it does we sure have fun with it. The finale for this show will include 3 different pieces of circus apparatus, and nine machetes flying around. Also keep an eye out for bullwhips, hot technical juggling, and squirting udders. Don't miss it!

Canada Retirement event - Photo / article.

2009-09-17T03:03:00.001-07:00

We performed this past weekend at an event for Canada Retirement. Great event - I really loved watching young guys who run the business hugging and kissing all of the old ladies.

Here's an interesting shot from the Ottawa Citizen. I was on stilts, had this little girl sit on my lap with her family. Check out my new adopted family! They haven't called back since the gig though ...

Singing in the Rain

2009-08-01T05:40:00.001-07:00

Just finished day two of Ottawa Buskers. So far the media has been good to us with photographers out from The Ottawa Sun and 24 (a local daily) at our first show. Both had photos that made print! ( I still have to see them....)

Last night we were gearing up for a big show at 8:30pm on a good pitch. About 10 minutes into our show the sky opened up into torrential downpour. The crowd got shelter under two banks (on either side of Sparks St) and we just kept doing our show in the rain. After we were done and hatted, Nick piped up and did a 10 minute long singing and dancing version of "Singing in the rain" as well as a camp version of the same song. It was really funny - I was trying to get our equipment into shelter - he was having a wail of a time.

This reinforces one of the reasons we perform (we love it, it's a living, our job, and it gets us out of the house on the weekends.)

Saint John Busker Fest

2009-07-30T19:29:00.000-07:00

Just back from the Saint John Busker Fest 2009. Saw some old friends, made some new ones. Also had a real adventure driving home from Saint John following the festival.

We opted to leave at 6am - given the time change, we figured that we'd be home in Ottawa 5-6pm our time. Cowguys (Nick and Brian) and Statue Kate (aka Kate Awesome) were in the Cowavan. On arrival in Saint John Kate came down with a fever - and was still rather sickly on our drive home. (Thanks for not throwing up on us on the way home Kate!) Unfortunately in packing up the Sunday night, we realized that the back trunk latch was broken, and we had a van full of circus gear and luggage. Sunday morning we all rose early, tied the back van latch shut and hit the road.

We rolled onto the highway, following the ramp and signs that read "Fredericton, St Stephens.." After some 30 minutes Nick started to get a little concerned that we weren't seeing any more directional signs for Fredericton. I quelled his fears by saying - we're on a 4 lane highway - I'm sure it's the transcanada. After turning on my Iphone and determined that, we were in fact on the way to Maine.

We wanted to make good time - get home see the families. So Nick Cracked open a map and worked out a good shortcut.

Nick was staring at the map for a good 20 minutes - he piped up, I've found an even better route, this one shaves off even more time, lets take this road. Unfortunately Nick didn't realize that the broken dotted gray line on the map was a gravel road. We came to learn this was not just a gravel road, but a pothole laden, gravel / mud / dirt / washed out loggin road.

After some 20 minutes of hitting potholes, swerving to avoid potholes, and seeing forest (no houses or other cars) we were starting to wonder if we were going to make it out of this random New Brunswick logging road alive. Kate piped up from the back "Guys, if we survive this, I'm totally buying the next Timmies." Our cell service was out (no GPS), and we were passing two forks in the road. I wondered, "are we going in the right direction? What happens if we break down?"

Kate was chalking the whole experience up to "fever dreams." She was trying to twitter about the whole experience, but no cell service...

The Cowavan pulled up to about 60 ft of washed out road. I stopped the van. Eyeballed the water, and figured "we're not driving back on that road for 30 more minutes" and put my foot on the gas. Water splashed up 6ft on either side of the van as we cascaded through the water. Too add to the "local colour", and to keep our spirits up, we'd randomly turned the radio on. Our worries were now consoled by Christian Rock - power ballads.

Finally we regained cell service, and we could see civilization on our Iphone GPS. When we finally cleared some trees and saw the first rusted out trailer of civilization in Cavendish, NB - we were ecstatic!

Kate did buy Timmies, it was delicious. We ended up making great time home, but vowed for the rest of the trip "No more shortcuts."

Cowapalooza video - finally!

2009-07-30T19:25:00.000-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1B2-Z5nlVk

Here's a peek at the Cowguys back up dancing for the Spice Girl cover band
at Cowapalooza 2008. We're excited to be heading back to Cowapalooza 2009! Maybe we'll get a highlight video up this year.

Getting ready for the summer.

2009-04-16T12:12:00.001-07:00

The Cowguys are getting ready for the summer.

Nick and I are building a new set for the show, that will double as a prop stand and a big illusion. it will add an element of height, be a big prop for us to play with in the show, and be a big finale - all rolled into one.

Our first big event is the Canadian Tulip Festival - with the Buskers in the Tulips Program (run by us at Orbital Talent). I'm excited about the lineup - its up at www.tulipfestival.ca.

Corteo

2009-04-16T12:04:00.000-07:00

Reading over an older post... I was lucky enough to see Corteo twice!

With our contract I arranged for all of the artists that we had out (with Orbital Talent) to get a ticket to see the show. Half of the group was flying over to China for the Nanjing Euro American Clown Carnival (also booked by Orbital Talent!) within 24 hours of the Corteo opening. So the half that didn't go to China saw the show pretty early in the run, the second group saw it a few weeks later.

AS it turned out, one of our artists' girlfriend already bought him a ticket, so I was instructed to give it to someone else. With the numbers of people going to the show, and I was left holding a ticket to the show, 5 minutes before it started with no other plans on that night.

The show is my favorite Cirque du Soleil Show. The characters aren't completely other-worldly. Make up is generally simple, characters are very real and human. And the stunts.. Well the freestanding ladder performer was AMAZING. The aesthetic of the show is that of an Italian wedding - amazing set, in the round. Little people flying through the air on giant balloons! The show is like a dream.. especially looking back.

2009-02-07T17:59:00.001-08:00

An udder Winterlude

2009-02-07T16:15:00.000-08:00

Nick and I performed today at the opening day of 2009's Winterlude. We were hired for entertainment of the crowds at the Enbridge Pancake breakfast, and down on the canal for the crew at the Westjet rest stop.

What a great day! We were sporting ref costumes, and the new Udder helmets. Kids gave us funny looks all day, we were fighting off people playing with the teets all day. I even had one guy tell me "Nice f***ing touque!" Did some shows with fire entertained the masses, and even squeezed in a 10 k skate on the canal!

An udder amazing day at Winterlude. Some shots were snapped by an online mag of some of our antics - we'll link up soon.

Udder Helmets are READY!

2008-12-21T17:35:00.000-08:00

So we recently ordered some Udder Helmets from our friend Matt Ficner. They are ready! And we recently performed with one at the 2 year anniversary of the ISME cabaret. We had the pleasure of sharing the stage with the lovely and hilarious Annie Lefebrve, she was so great onstage, that we didn't really get a chance to get the udder comedy we were hoping too. Lovely working with you Annie!

Christmas shows! + udder saftey helmets

2008-12-04T03:44:00.000-08:00

The Cowguys are busy performing our one and two man Cowguys shows at many company Christmas parties this December.

The Cowguys are excited to announce, that within a week we will be the proud owners of Latex Udder Safety Helmets. A few months ago we met with designer Matt Ficner to talk about a set. One of the crazy ideas that came out of out meeting was udder safety helmets. We've already written a pile of really funny jokes, have a few spots in the show for them, and well, they are going to be a big pile of fun in the show. We can't wait to get them, although they are taking longer than expected to cure.

custom cowguy prop case $200
black pants with cow stripe $45
Latex Udder saftey helmet - priceless

The universe is giving us udder helmets for Christmas. We're delighted. Our crowds will be too. Thanks Matt! At his studio Nick had the quote "This is where ideas come to life". Creativity is indeed key.

Cowapalooza!

2008-10-03T03:50:00.000-07:00

This summer we had Cowguys all over the Country. While Jon was on the east coast performing in Charlottetown, PEI at Old Home Week, Nick and Bri where rocking out at Cowapalooza.

Cowapalooza is a community festival in Woodstock Ontario that is Cow-themed. If you take the capital letters in City Of Woodstock, they spell C-O-W. The milk industry is also pretty big in the area, so the City ran with it, and now puts on Cowapalooza. Being the Cowguys - this is our dream gig! It's our Woodstock in Woodstock.

Nick and I had a few shows that afternoon on the community stage which were very well received. We then did an hour warm-up show for the main stage and ended up playing for 5000 people. It was brilliant being rockstars! After our set we journeyed over to the beer tent to find some post show refreshements. We bumped into the Spice Girls tribute band who were getting ready for their set. Somehow they talked us into doing some backup dancing for their set - and its now on Youtube!

Click here to see the Cowguys dancing like Spice Girls http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1B2-Z5nlVk

Opening of Corteo

2008-09-25T13:04:00.000-07:00

Last night - Jon and I performed at the opening of the the Cirque du Soleil show Corteo here in Ottawa. For each of their opening nights, they hire a gaggle of street performers to liven up the pre-show. Orbital was lucky enough to land the contract, we had out Alain and Sophie - two amazing stilt-walkers, Scot and Ian "the best mock papparazzi they've ever hired", Magic of Ian Quick, Eric Leclerc doing some greeting / hosting. It was a blast! The crowd was amazing and the environment was perfect for our performance (a lively playful crowd, live music, circus tents all around). On intermission we did about a 10 minute long set that was really well recieved! It was amazing to have a part of our show play really well in the middle of a Cirque du Soleil show. I can't wait to see Corteo live!

After Dinner Show

2008-04-24T04:20:00.000-07:00

Nick and I just did an after dinner show for the Township of South Stormont, at the City Limits Conference Centre on (Friday April 18th, 2008). It was a really fun crowd, and we got the chance to juggle clubs around the mayor and knock a piece of celery out of his mouth. I think it was the mayor of Cornwall - just reconfirming that. He was a great sport and the crowd loved it.

We're gearing up for a busy month of May, with one-cowguy performances ethe first three very weekends daily in May on two festival sites. And Orbital Entertainment has a full lineup of performers set to go. It should be fun! Visit www.orbitalent.ca for more info.

New Cowguys Bowling shirts!

2008-02-27T03:45:00.001-08:00

Pre December we ordered some new Cowguys Bowling shirts. We have our classic shirt and cow tie look, but this is a new "Commumity Event" look. They look cool, are 100% polyester, and make us look like we're bowling. Bowling for laughs!

Frozen in January

2008-01-21T19:32:00.000-08:00

So we're getting ready for a few outdoor winter shows. I'm gradually adding a bit of antifreeze to my cereal every morning, getting ready for the outside work. This weekend in Brockville (saturday Jan 26th,) on some ice rink in downtown Brockville, I'll be skating and doing an hour of walkabout / show as one Cowguy. I hope it isn't -25C. After that, it's the Greely winter Carnival on the 27th (Nick and Bri) and then some stuff at Winterlude. AFter that, it's summer. Come on summer...

New Bowling Shirts! Happy Moo Year

2007-12-30T17:05:00.000-08:00

You might now see the Cowguys sporting new Cowguy bowling shirts. I need photos where is the camera......

We had a pretty busy Christmas season. Wore the new bowling shirts a bit, hit each other with celery (in the show), had some great shows, it was excellent!

The Cowguys Wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy Moo Year!

More White Pants!

2007-10-28T04:38:00.000-07:00

We finished up another gig for Telus where we helped open up the new Telus House (their new headquarters on Bank St.) This time with stilts, white pants, and giving away 1000 light up bouncy balls.

I'm using the white pants for my Halloween costume - the ghost of Marcel Marceau. On Halloween I'm planning on miming giving the kids candy. I'm also planning on videoing it.. should be a riot.

The Cowguys Now with WHITE PANTS!

2007-10-11T16:27:00.000-07:00

We're doing some custom work for Telus at the upcoming GTEC conference (Goverment Technology), and they requested us to be wearing bright green Telus shirts, and white pants. So we got some.. Hence The Cowguys Now with WHITE PANTS! Photos to follow.

The Crew - Old Home Week 2007

2007-10-09T01:40:00.001-07:00

Wicked. Unfortunately they didn't leave their costumes out, or we would've dressed up like Bobs and Lolo. Here's a photo of The Cowguys, Bobs and Lolo and our amazing sound guy / security Chris Knox. Never underestimate the importance to have security at the Children's stage.

Cowgirls part 2

2007-10-09T01:31:00.000-07:00

Hi Cow Guys,

We are super fans and just love your show! It makes us want to shout out a big YEEEHAW!

Have you ever considered female cow-terparts?? Check out the attached pics for some fresh ideas...they're mooooovelous:)

Moo-ingly yours,

Bobs & Lolo

Cowgirls?!

2007-10-09T01:18:00.000-07:00

It's the Friday before the end of Old Home Week. We've been having a great time in PEI, and are sharing a stage and a green room with Bobs and Lolo (a great children's musical act.)

Now i say sharing a green room - in this case it means that they come in before we arrive, set up their stage, and empty the room of all of their belongings. They then come back into the room after their last show of the day with one giant bag that houses their backdrop and props. They are uber organized.

Meanwhile, Nick and I have settled in. We're occupying exactly half of the locker room (it's a hockey change room.) We have 3 or 4 clean costumes each hanging up on the wall, with a costume piece on each hook (Might as well use as many hooks as we can.) We have our props, extra props, tools, stilts, snacks, stilt costuming, sound equipment. Needless to say our half of the room is full and we've settled in. Nick and I hang out in between shifts and shows in the green room. We warm up there, change, prep for shows. Looking at the room you can tell... we are not uber organized.

It's Saturday morning and Nick and I and the families have had a great breakfast at Cora's in downtown Charlottetown. We're strolling to the site and we bump into Lolo's Mom. She says a quick "Hello" and promptly asks if we've checked our emails yet today. This sets off my radar which goes "What did we do?."

We head back to the green room, and I check my email on my handheld.. this is what we recieved.

Prince Edward Island

2007-08-10T18:50:00.000-07:00

Nick and I (Brian) are currently working Old Home Week in Prince Edward Island. Enjoying the festival, the East Coast Hospitality, and Cows Ice Cream. Coincidentally Cows Ice Cream played an integral role in the Cowguys - and we are planning on talking to them about sponsorship. Hmmmm delicious Cows ice cream.

Anywho PEI is beautiful. Here's two photos of a) a garbage can with a roof - and many recycling options (only found in PEI), and b) Nick / Bri and Caleb after a great dinner at the Greek Restaurant on Victoria St. PEI. Get there for the great eats, beautiful patio, and amazing jazz every night in the summer.