A 56.1 Miler Update - the Museum is a Hit!

People like us… and we are actually getting email from people who enjoyed our little effort.

 

Who would have thought that my little hobby would go over so well as an "entertainment". We have been keeping busy, although we had to skip the big burlesque convention due to a prior commitment; we booked another smaller burlesque show in Boston. I would not have the assistance of my Girl Friday for this event, she had some duty with her Uncle Sam, and so I was left to beg a friend to collect cash while I gave the tour. The small burlesque show took place on Valentines Day so I had a little time to get things in order. In just over 3 weeks I would have banners, new exhibits, I had all sorts of plans to make this a more fantastic event. In reality I got almost nothing done, the business of repacking, and creating new labels alone, seemed to take far too much time, but it was worth it.

Setting up in the back room on a couple of pool tables went smoothly, and we fashioned a curtain that could be hung cantilevered off of our sign to block the view through the doorway. We were in a dark back corner, but we had a steady line of guests wandering back to take a look. The night flew by, load out and into the car took just shy of 40 minutes. According to my count we converted over one third of the burlesque fans into museum guests. Not too bad for a dark corner, yet still not enough to make bank!

The ride home was spent with my "new" assistant girl Friday, discussing what needed to be changed in order to convert more folks into paying customers. The problem wasn't with the actual display, we receive a great response from everyone who walks through, and the problem was we were not getting enough people through. In truth the difference between Girl Friday and new assistant girl Friday may have had something to do with it. My Girl Friday is a tall drink of water, people can see her a mile away over the heads of the crowd, and she is not afraid to beckon to the crowd, enticing them to see the wonders within. My new assistant for the night is a tiny girl, just a hair under 5 feet tall, and not as bold with the crowd. A lesson learned, but how can I tell such a helpful friend that she is too tiny for the job?

Next event is to be bigger and bolder. We are booked into the Worcester tattoo convention and we have a 10x20 area cordoned off with pipe and drape, to fill. Girl Friday is back from her visit with her Uncle Sam, and she is hard at work making a new website.

EightCornerGlobe.com is up, running and looking fantastic, there will be more pages with a slideshow and store front, but that can wait.

Business cards have been designed and printed. I have what I need, a shiny new look and face to present myself as a "real" entity.

I am cutting, hemming, and priming the canvas, and she is doing the fun part, painting the actual banners. There is some discussion about style and content but pretty much I have backed off, happy to have her help, and avoid her wrath.

 

Friday is teaching me to paint, I help block in the color on the larger portions and backgrounds of her banners, and I have made several smaller banners from the off-cuts. The banners look great even my first attempt at banner painting is more than passable.

After finishing my first banner I am hit with what might seem like an obvious problem. My perfect little banner depicts a fetal freak, a two headed fetus seemed like a perfect subject for a banner, but what was I thinking … I didn't own one to display! Friday seems happy that I am leaving her to the painting world and focusing on a new project, building a freak fetus. How hard can this be?  I'll just make a fantastic, perfect reproduction two headed skeleton, no problem at all, this should be both fun and easy, and after all I never painted a banner before. Who am I kidding, I'm screwed!

While Friday plugged away at her painting I settled down with a ball of clay, and a reference skeleton, several photos taken off of the internet. It was actually nice to be working on separate yet related projects, the kitchen table was a mess of acrylic paint and bits of clay, but we both were wildly productive.

I have a background in prop work for the theatre, and am familiar with basic molding and casting techniques but I found parts of the project to be more than a little perplexing. How do I make a mold of the hollow chest cavity? How do I fill such a tiny toe-bone mold? How do I get this crap off of my hands? There was plenty of trial and error, as there is with all new projects, but I have to say that in the end I am happy as hell. Not only do I have a great little gaff, but I also came out of the ordeal with decent workable platinum silicone molds allowing me to reproduce the little bugger for a little extra cash on the side. Best of all I didn't waste my time on a banner without anything to show on the inside.

 

We head off to the tattoo convention just 42.7 miles up the road.  There were no packing errors other than one broken display globe. Nothing important left at home, other than the bull penis walking stick, but that is more   costume than artifact, I convince myself. Load in was easy, set up was a breeze, and we were ready with banners in the air by opening.

We were in a hallway off of the main room and were not getting the pass by traffic that we need. Jim Rose was emceeing the event and did his best to send folks our way. We made periodic trips into the main room to show off a two headed duck or other small oddity while Jim was making announcements, hoping that a free sample would tempt the masses. The free sample concept worked out well for us, by the time I made it back to our little "tent" Girl Friday had the place packed. This was repeated throughout the next two days and we did pretty well. Again the responses were great, people loved the freak fetal skeleton, and we set up the "nation's largest private collection of artifacts from space" items that had actually flown aboard the space station, parts of the space shuttle, and a genuine piece of the moon. We were not in the best location at this event, many people didn't even know that there was a bar in the hallway, let alone our little museum, but we still converted over one third of the passers-by. The problem is the same, how do we get more people to come by? And how do we get a better location? Did I have a fine time? Yes! Did we make loads of cash? Not loads but some.   Would I do it again? Hell Yes!

click on banner above to see exhibit

 

Gal Friday and I are gearing up for our next event, a tattoo show in Philadelphia. There will be more banners for better visibility and a new exhibit as well.

This time I smartened up and made sure that I could handle the exhibit before starting the painting.

I realized that the words are so important on a banner, they need to evoke emotion, fear or joy it almost doesn't matter, so I settled on DEADLY. I like deadly, as in DEADLY Black Widow Spider.

All I have to do is remember to use the word Deadly before speaking of them and ill be fine. Fear is good! Good words, and great imagery. I have several dead black widows that we display, but I thought that if I had a live killer behind the curtain I might attract a few more guests.

After a few calls I found someone who could piggy-back a few spider on a rush air shipment of reptiles from Florida, and I had 6 the next day. I was expecting, and paid for 4, as that was all I could see when the package was unpacked. The other two, hiding in a paper towel, were a bonus, or should I say surprise?! The Girls are sexy, shiny, and have perfect little red hourglass markings.

 

They seem to be hardy enough, although one of them died within 12 hours of getting into its new home, another laid an egg sack, and the last 4 are content to spin a sloppy web.

 

The little guys should be a hit, as you don't see them in the north east. Deadly Black Widows take little care, seem to travel well, and frankly they are bugs! I don't think that the smart asses at PETA would have much to complain about, with the display of a bug whose life I saved from being squished behind a refrigerator in Florida.

We are trying to get booked into a local Beer Fest. And possible another tattoo show in NH.

As soon as the paint dries on the banners we are good to go. It is a 232 miles drive to Philadelphia, and I'm already packed.

Scott Bonelli
Eight Corner Globe!

aka Prof. Badger ( .. Happy to be a 56.1 miler .. )