In follow-up to the commercial that I filmed for the Magic Hat Brewery (see Television Commercial Filming from July 5th), I will be doing a photo shoot next Tuesday for the purposes of print advertising across the country.

As Magic Hat is hands-down one of the most inventive, hip and decidedly fun companies around, their slogan for the upcoming ad campaign is a “Performance In Every Bottle” – hence my involvement. Towards that end, we are trying to generate some unique uses for their bottles in my act with the intent of photographing it for the ad campaign.

For those of you who have any ideas as to how you’d like to see me use the bottles (hey! keep it clean! ;-) and can imagine great photo ideas with them, please do drop me a line and let me know. Who knows, you may just see your idea in the national media! Time is limited though – we only have five days until the shoot – so get those ideas submitted quickly!

If you haven’t already, check out Magic Hat’s website at : www.magichat.net It’s stunning. And buy some stuff while you’re at it…

Back on the road I go!

-Roderick

[tags]Burlington VT, Magic Hat Brewery, Roderick Russell, Sword Swallower[/tags]

I’m pleased to announce that my college and university theater act is now being represented by Metropolis Management and personally handled by Bridget Callahan and Libby Netzer.

Many thanks to all the folks over at Metropolis for taking on my act and for doing such a fantastic job organizing, networking and promoting the show, along with the other incredible acts that they represent including:

Sailesh – www.sailesh.ca
Sanction – www.worldsanction.com
Reza – www.magicreza.com
Ryan McFarling – www.unreal-magic.com
The Bradbury Press – www.thebradburypress.com
KC Styles – www.kcstyles.com

Together we have the market pretty well covered with some of the most amazing entertainment out there. Look for the new promo DVD at all of the upcoming NACA conferences, as well as personal appearances by many of us.

If you are interested in booking a college show, I encourage you to contact either Bridget or Libby at Metropolis directly. Their toll-free number is 877-534-5374.

Here’s to a long and prosperous partnership! I’m looking forward to seeing many of you on campus later this year!

-Roderick
Metropolis Management, NACA, College Entertainment, Roderick Russell, Sword Swallower, Sailesh, Sanction, Reza, Ryan McFarling, The Bradbury Press, KC Styles, Bridget Callahan, Libby Netzer

With the passing of Labor Day Weekend – during which I performed the 137th show of the 2006 summer tour – the season is “officially” over. That said, the work continues. After 137 shows in one summer alone – an absolutely exhausting feat with some very bizarre stories to accompany it – I continue with performances in Hebron, CT during the months of September and October. I will be there for four weeks performing a total of 20 shows which are all public, so please do come and catch a show if you’re in the area.

Following the CT run I will be performing a number of corporate gigs, especially as the holiday season rolls around, along with a number of college and university shows. Look for me also at several NACA conventions throughout the upcoming months, including Lancaster, PA, Marlboro, MA and Peoria, IL.

For those who caught any of the summer tour shows – and perhaps heard of the strange events surrounding it – keep your eyes peeled for the Roderick Russell Summer Tour ’06 Wrap-Up t-shirt. It features a bulleted list of the weirdness that is life on the road, all very strange and funny. An announcement will be made here when it is ready to go.

Amidst all of that turmoil of performing, performing and more performing, a major life change has ensued and I find myself relocating temporarily. My phone number has also changed and is available on the booking page of my website (www.roderickrussell.com). If you are one of the ones that contact me, please note this change. My email remains the same.

My thanks go out to all of you for continuing to support me and my work. I wouldn’t be able to do it without you. Keep those comments coming! Here’s to an equally productive and artistically fruitful fall and winter season!

-Roderick
Roderick Russell, Sword Swallower, Touring Artist, 2006 Summer Tour

Visitors to www.roderickrussell.com have been noting that the clickable thumbnails and accompanying captions in the “images” portion of the website have not been functional since a recent change to a new web host. I have unfortunately been on the road and unable to address the problem, but I’ve just now found the time to diagnose and fix the problem. Visitors will be happy to know that you can once again click on any of the thumbnails and get larger versions of the photos, oftentimes with accompanying credits and captions.

Note also that my previous image galleries from years past are also available as clickable links from the same page. As they are old galleries, not all of the code is functioning and I have no intentions of making it fully functional, but the images are nevertheless available and able to be viewed. Simply ignore any PHP errors that you may discover. They will not get in the way of viewing images. I keep these galleries around only because you’ve requested it, so please do enjoy.

If you have a moment, sign the guestbook or leave a comment. I always love to hear from you.

-Roderick

[note: post is one week late - originally intended post date was June 30]

This past week has been so unusually bizarre – though that seems to be the trend lately, so perhaps it’s not bizarre after all – that I’ve had no time to blog about a wonderful experience I had last Friday filming a commercial for the Magic Hat Brewing Company.

For those of you who have not had the pleasure of sampling the many unique varieties of Magic Hat, they are a wonderfully hip, fun and exceedingly creative company that has, in my opinion, carved out an amazingly clever, inventive and original space in the market.

For some time now my good friends the Bindlestiff’s have been working with them, performing a summer variety tour all across the eastern seaboard of good, wholesome vaudeville fun. The company has tried to book me in the past for promotional events but, my schedule being what it is, it had yet to work out.

I was pleasantly flattered when I got the call from them asking if I would like to be featured in a television commercial for the company. Better still was the fact that I could rearrange my schedule such that I was available! We were finally finding an opportunity to work together!

Despite the fact that I was dressed in a silly costume (part of the show, after all!), it really was a delight to work with everyone at Magic Hat and the producers of the commercial. I’ve blown fire in some unusual places, but my experience at the brewery engulfing equipment in fireballs definitely ranks up there in the realm of unusual. The theme is “a performance in every bottle” and if the rest of the filming went anything like the filming that I took part in, it should be one heck of an interesting, exciting and eclectic commercial – a perfect representation of the progressive creativity that the company is brimming over with.

The commercial is slated to air in select college markets for a trial run and then move on to Comedy Central and similar networks thereafter.

Do leave comments if you see it!

-Roderick
Magic Hat Brewing Company, Roderick Russell, Sword Swallower, Burlington VT, Television Commercial, Beer, Comedy Central, Spike TV, Fireballs, Fire Breathing

For those of you keeping track of my exceedingly busy summer/fall ’06 schedule, I’ve just added 12 new dates. At this rate if any of you want to see me you’ll be forced to go to a show, because I certainly don’t have any time otherwise! Make sure you say hello afterward!

-Roderick

Many thanks go out to all of the people who helped to make the show last Friday night at the Waterville Opera House the huge, two-standing-ovation-success that it was.

I rolled into town on Thursday afternoon to see the town plastered with my image and large banners criss-crossing the street advertising the show and was immediately struck by the effort that had been put in to promote the event.

From beginning to end the event was flawless and it looks like I may be returning to the area – perhaps even as soon as this fall. If so, we may try to arrange a slightly larger tour throughout Maine, so keep your eyes open for new dates to be added to the calendar.

There were so very many people critical to the success of this show that its difficult to thank them all, but those that immediately come to mind are Amity and Jeny for their efforts and friendship in every respect – they went to great lengths to see to it that I didnt have any worries whatsoever; to Gary and Cory, the guys to know if you want to get anything done in Waterville – we spent many great hours together and they not only helped arrange and promote the show, but were right there to help carry, setup and execute every last little technical detail down to my water onstage. Thanks go to Amy, who not only drove and escorted me around all night Thursday but provided great conversation and a last minute prop for the show. Thank to Ann, the amazing lighting director who was able to absorb the flow of my show flawlessly and improvise amazingly well under pressure. Jay and Jenay from Mix 107.9, with whom I spent the better part of an hour on the air. They were welcoming, interested and an absolute hoot to throw jokes around with. John and Adrian from WABI Channel 5 – John provided phenomenal reactions onstage during a pre-show interview, and Adrian not only operated the camera, but also did a remarkable job as an unexpected volunteer during the show itself. Erik of Digital ImageWorks not only functioned as a sponsor, but is responsible for all of the large format posters all over town. Thanks go to JP Devine for the great interview in the Morning Sentinel and the Kennebec Journal. To the entire Waterville Opera House staff and the rest of the Main Street organization for bringing me in – Shannon, Edwina, Lori, Pat, Julie, Glenn, Lisa, Anne, Jean, Sarah and Erik – thank you. And of course the sponsors, who made the entire event financially possible – New England Fire Safety, Digital ImageWorks, EZ To Use Big Book and the Holiday Inn.

New England Fire Safety, Digital ImageWorks, EZ To Use Big Book, Holiday Inn, Waterville, ME, Maine, Waterville Opera House, Sword Swallowing, Roderick Russell, WABI, Morning Sentinel, Kennebec Journal, JP Devine

The local media are really grabbing on to my appearance in Waterville, Maine on Friday, which is fantastic and should help to assure an amazing turnout for the show.

Look for me to appear on WABI Channel 5, the local CBS affiliate, during the evening news on Thursday the 6th.

-Roderick

Roderick Russell, Sword Swallower, WABI, CBS, Waterville, Maine

In anticipation of my upcoming appearance at the Waterville Opera House in Waterville, Maine this Friday, April 7th at 7:30 pm ((207) 873-7000 for tickets), the local media is running a lot of coverage of my work.

Among that coverage, which includes continuous spots on Maine Public Radio and an upcoming on-air performance on Mix 107.9 this coming Friday morning (be sure to tune in!), is a large feature article in the Whats Happening section of the Sentinel. The full article can be read online at the newspaper’s website.

If you’re looking for more interviews in other media not show specific there are a couple of really good ones that have been done within the last year or so. Here’s a lengthy one from Sideshow World and another from Seven Days.

Enjoy!

-Roderick

Waterville, Maine, Waterville Opera House, Roderick Russell, Sword Swallower, WABI, Maine Public Radio, MPR, Mix 107.9, Morning Sentinel

For those of you interested in catching a rerun of my last Discovery Channel documentary, You Swallowed What? will be airing again on the Discovery Health Channel on the following dates:

April 9 @ 4am EST
April 23 @ 10am EST

Keep your eyes open for other surprise appearances though, because footage of me performing, interviews and other special appearances are always popping up on that network (see the last blog entry about Medical Incredibles), which includes many channels including Discovery, Discovery Health, Discovery Times and the Travel Channel.

If you see me, let me know! I love hearing from you!

-Roderick

Roderick Russell, Sword Swallower, Sword Swallowing, You Swallowed What?, Discovery Channel, Discovery Health

I’m constantly getting requests from people looking to attend shows. Unfortunately, many of my shows both large and small are private – shows in university theaters, corporate work and art galleries.

In April however, I will be performing a public show at the Waterville Opera House in Waterville, Maine. If you are even remotely nearby I hereby extend a personal invitation to the event. It’s rare, inexpensive and is in a beautiful historic opera house that seats just about 1,000. I’ll be performing Dangerous Games, the same show that I tour on the college circuit.

Those who are also interested in my theater show – Private Thoughts and Other Lies – should keep their ears open for the announcement of a fall/winter ’06 tour.

Roderick Russell, Sword Swallower, Waterville Opera House, Waterville, Maine, Dangerous Games, Private Thoughts and Other Lies

I’ve done work with a number of film crews from networks such as the Discovery Channel, and though I can tell you precisely the documentaries and shows that I’ve taken part in, it’s often the case that footage of me that never made it to air the first time becomes part of other specials and documentaries, many of which I do not know about until someone contacts me to tell me that they spotted me on television.

The latest is the Discovery Channel network’s show Medical Incredibles. Thanks go to Jason Tisi for contacting me to let me know of this latest sighting.

Apparently as Jason was flipping through the channels he first spotted my chin and black tshirt as I swallowed a sword. He stopped flipping and confirmed it was me as the segment continued and segued into more one-on-one interview with me – as well as addition footage of me performing. The question that I have is this: how in the world did he recognize my chin? ;-)

If you spot me anywhere on television don’t hesitate to let me know! And if you can, get the show name and network. I like to keep track of these things.

-Roderick

Many of you have been wondering why it is that I’ve been so very quiet over these past few months. While I’ve been performing steadily and travelling as a result, much of my time has been geared towards planning for the upcoming summer tour. Beginning with late May I am booked solid all the way through mid-October – though don’t let that dissuade you from contacting me if you’d like to see me perform in your area, I still have some weeknight openings and the occasional weekend opening.

How busy is busy? At this time, I have 122 shows lined up for the summer tour alone. More extraordinary than that number is the extremely condensed amount that I’ll be performing during June and mid-July – a total of 79 shows as of this writing. These past few months have been consumed with planning the logistics of the work, getting into extremely good shape such that I can handle that amount of time on the road doing what I do – and of course taking full advantage of the ability to sleep while I can.

I look forward to seeing many of you on the road! If you see that I’ll be in your area at any point, do come out to the show and make sure to say hello.

Many people have been requesting a link to Roderick Russell Creations, an exclusive invitation-only website showcasing the professional creations of Roderick Russell. Access is open only to professional performers in the mentalism, bizarre and psychic entertainment industries. For those that have been extended login credentials, you can access the site here. If you are a professional and would like to gain access, please email Roderick directly at roderick@roderickrussell.com.