Long & Winding Road

A week ago or so, I posted some pics of the loft I used to live in. The year was 1987. Up until that point I hadn't really embraced the "business" half of show business. I was 22 years old and ready to get my life together. By this point I had spent six years in Europe as a kid (two years in Germany & four years in Paris). My father worked for IBM and landed some pretty sweet foreign assignments (CIA). I dropped out of high school, moved to New York City, after that I lived in Atlanta, New Orleans, Boston, Tokyo and Los Angeles. From the time I was a teenager, I always made as much money as I needed. My formative years as a young street performer were something out of a fairy tale, or so I thought. I felt like Max Malini.
After a year and a half in LA, hoping for my big break. . . just as I had hoped when I moved to NYC, I realized that getting rich and famous was tougher than I thought. As I began to mature (Ha!), I revised the vision. I bought the book "Hustle, Hustle" by Joel Bauer (a book for magicians about business) and in that spacious loft in the worst neighborhood in Cincinnati. . . I got to work.

There with my Macintosh computer and brand new laser writer I dreamed up "The American Fun Company". I got the idea for the name from the business that occupied the first floor of the building. In that building on 12th Street, between Race and Vine, for 100 years The American Case and Luggage Company manufactured their products.

These flyers were part of my first seven piece direct mail campaign.



I spent long hours on the phone calling prospects, setting up meetings, following up with more phone calls and written correspondence. Stuffing envelopes, so much so that I got one of those Pitney Bowes postage meter machines. And guess what. . . it worked. I booked a 5 month cross country festival tour. The beat up Checker Marathon I was driving was falling apart, So I invested in a used Ford Econoline Van and outfitted it with a fold out bed, power hook up and made it tour worthy. I asked Cricket (a girl I always had a crush on when we attended the School For The Creative & Performing Arts years earlier) if she wanted to come with me on a fun adventure. She said yes to the tour and a year later said yes to my marriage proposal. Life was moving forward.