And then there's THIS guy

[Heckelphone]

You have to see this to believe it:

Maestro (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAG7AEx146c)

Enjoy,

Grant

[Gandalfe]

Dude, you have *way* too much free time. :lol:

[Heckelphone]

Dude, you have *way* too much free time. :lol:

Not as much as him ;-)

Actually, the only reason I knew about that one was that I remembered seeing it on the Garritan forum.

Enjoy,

Grant

[daigle65]

His name is Michel Lauzière, he's from Québec.

http://www.michellauziere.com/index.htm

[Heckelphone]

His name is Michel Lauzière, he's from Québec.

http://www.michellauziere.com/index.htm

Thanks for the link :-D He is hysterical :mrgreen:

[cymru97]

Ah, yes, I love this guy! I asked my wife to get me one of those suits for Christmas, but alas, she refuses. The ultimate busking routine, but can you imagine the noise if you had to run from the police!?!

[Heckelphone]

"You can run, but you can't hide" :rolleyes:

Shouldn't be too hard to make, DIY. Just a jumpsuit and a box of horns...

[cymru97]

"You can run, but you can't hide" :rolleyes:

Shouldn't be too hard to make, DIY. Just a jumpsuit and a box of horns...

I think it would be cool to have one (that says quite a bit about me I'm sure), but my wife would never speak to me again. I can see her point...
The other unfortunate requirement to pull this off is coordination and dexterity I'm not sure how I match up there. Now the requirement for a total lack of shame I can handle!

It should be pretty easy to rig, but I'm sure you'd have to find tunable bulb horns, right? I wonder if those are 'off the shelf' or if he customized them?

Don't get me thinking about this...

[pete]

His name is Michel Lauzière, he's from Québec
This explains it all, doesn't it, kcp?

[Heckelphone]

Apparently they're called "taxi horns"

Here's a company where you can buy several octaves of chromatic horns (http://products.kolberg-percussion.com/en_GB/583/group/11.html).

Enjoy,

Grant

[SOTSDO]

First, we had seals at the zoological gardens. Then, we had Gershwin; remember An American In Paris?. And, now this.

Actually, none of it is surprising. Using real world devices in musical ways isn't anything new. And, the biggest part of "busking", as our European friends are fond of calling it, is having a "hook". A sub-par performer with a "hook" can succeed where a "legitimate" performer with nothing more than straight musical skills may be an abject failure.

The difference here is that the guy with the "hook" has something that captures the interest of the public. It all boils down to playing what someone else (part of the "listening public") wants to hear, as opposed to playing something perfectly wonderful but not au courant. Knowing the difference is literally the difference between success and failure in the world of performance.

And, none of this invalidates the "worth" of what anyone does. If you are into playing Mozart, and you do it very well, seeing this guy get large amounts of money thrown into his case (or whatever receptacle he uses to capture his rain of loonies) may not see this as being "right", especially since your skills took years to develop while a reasonable intelligent pinnaped could master what he does. But, just like Elvis in 1959, he's playing what people in his market want to hear.

Plus, who'd want to wear the jumpsuit after he's used it on one of those "steaming", 30° C summer days that they are so cursed with during an average July?

[Heckelphone]

Hi Terry,

Not sure if I got your point. The taxi horns above are manufactured (or at least distributed) by a percussion supplier: if you want, you can get a full 2-octave chromatic set on a stand, like a Harpo xylophone. (They also make a 4-horn set w/stand, for An American In Paris.)

I don't know if you watched the video: my impression is that the performer is not a busker so much as a comedian (and this is not the only arrow in his quiver). It's entertaining mainly because it is so absurd, not because it's all that musical ;-)

Grant

[SOTSDO]

I didn't watch the video, as we are working off of a 28,000 baud modem on a regular (and very messy) telephone line at present - UTube would take a day and a half to display something like that.

As to the point, whatever this guy is doing is working for him, even if it isn't very musical to the rest of the musical world. In a world of "pure" anything, it matters not what anyone else is doing for entertainment. However, we don't function in a pure world at any time, and some moke with a jumpsuit full of seal horns may be more commercially viable in some circumstances than would be a (for example) classically trained viol player.

[kcp]

This explains it all, doesn't it, kcp?


Oh you guys can laugh all you want but you wouldn't believe how much this guy gets paid for 1 performance -- It's definately not a waste of time - I know that from personally knowing a booking agent who has hired him on a number of occasion.

[pete]

Oh, I don't doubt that, but this probably sounded like a really good idea about the middle of Winter in Quebec :D.

[SOTSDO]

Middle of winter is when things really start jumping, at least in Quebec City. (I refuse to consider what goes on in Montreal these days as interesting.) Winter Carnival is one of the high points in the city's year, even if it is colder than the back side of beyond during the Ice Age.

They also have a very viable sex industry, for those whose tastes run to something other than bobsledding...

[Adevine]

Apparently they're called "taxi horns"

Here's a company where you can buy several octaves of chromatic horns (http://products.kolberg-percussion.com/en_GB/583/group/11.html).

Enjoy,

Grant

This may raise the ghost of Spike Jones in me.

[Groovekiller]

Gotta keep this thread alive.

I always wanted to be a Navy Seal, but I flunked the audition on the bicycle horns. I didn't know they were called taxi horns. Now I'm a freakin' commercial musician.

[pete]

Gotta keep this thread alive.

I always wanted to be a Navy Seal, but I flunked the audition on the bicycle horns.
Boo, hiss.

[steen]

Gotta keep this thread alive.

I always wanted to be a Navy Seal, but I flunked the audition on the bicycle horns. I didn't know they were called taxi horns. Now I'm a freakin' commercial musician.
Wrong place and time. With an Eppelsheim contrabass and soprillo sax in your arsenal you would have fit perfectly in the Roman army. It would have scared the living daylights out of the Germanic tribes. Augustus would not have lost his legions at the battle of the Teutoburg Forest. Of course there are some slight chronological problems to sort out but at least you can take consolation in that you could have been a great warrior in addition to a great musician had some of the glitches in developing time machines been solved.

[Groovekiller]

Wrong place and time. With an Eppelsheim contrabass and soprillo sax in your arsenal you would have fit perfectly in the Roman army. It would have scared the living daylights out of the Germanic tribes. Augustus would not have lost his legions at the battle of the Teutoburg Forest. Of course there are some slight chronological problems to sort out but at least you can take consolation in that you could have been a great warrior in addition to a great musician had some of the glitches in developing time machines been solved.

Hmmm... I'm raising my asking price