Thanksgiving

I hope you had a great Thanksgiving. I was able to be at home celebrating with family. The turkey and the pie were great! Now that it has passed and I'm all shopped out we can now officially look forward to Christmas! In fact I was in a Christmas parade last week (before Thanksgiving). I walked with Willmar Assembly of God in Willmar, MN. There were two or three other clowns there including my dad, Randy, who stilt walked the entire route. We also had costumed gorillas and others with candy. We were even able to see ourselves on TV later!

I walked with a bunch of Christmas lights wrapped around me. They were tangled under and around arms, legs, and costume. It took me the entire parade route to get untangled again! :o)

"The Fantasticks"

I have been involved in the production of "The Fantasticks" at North Central University. I have done all the promotion and all of the lighting (which happens to be a new area of discipline for me). It has been a time consuming, but very fun, job. We opened last Friday night here in Minneapolis and the show is looking great.

As apart of the promotional side I wrote an article for the school newspaper. I'll include it at the bottom of this post. It describes a little of the plot and interviews a couple of people involved in the production past and present. We have another show today and then some time off before we run four more shows next weekend.




“The Fantasticks” 2009 Debut by Ben Christensen

The lights dim, everyone is seated in quiet anticipation of the spectacle that will captivate and entertain hundreds over the next eight performances. In a flash of light, colors, and sounds memories will be made and an experience will be shared. Soon the illusion that is “The Fantasticks” will make its 2009 debut. This one-of-a-kind musical blends comedy, melodrama, love and disturbing situations to take the audience on a journey into a world only one step away from reality.

It is amazing the teams of people that have come together to make this production all it can be. A production team has been working hard since the beginning of the semester to make sure props, costumes, lights and sound are all ready to go. Other areas include choreography, live music and, of course, the cast. All of these areas have been spearheaded by Director and NCU Theater Professor Wayne Matthews. Wayne directed Little Women during the spring semester of 2009 and is currently in his second year of teaching at North Central.

Surprisingly this is not the first time “The Fantasticks” has been seen at North Central. In an old publication used for promotion of the 1997 production, Jeff Emmrich, a North Central Bible College Professor in the Drama department, stated that “The Fantasticks is the longest-running musical in history. There have been more than 8,500 productions of this musical world wide. It is a parable about love. What makes it fun is the rare style in which it is told and the sweetness and dry wit of the songs. The Fantasticks has a captivating combination of wise wit and innocence. This solid family entertainment is filled with infectious humor and lilting tunes.” The same can be said of the current production. The charm and dry wit has been reinvented by NCU in a production designed to make the audience laugh and think.

Cornerstone in Sioux City

I was able to perform with my father Randy again yesterday. We had a great time in Sioux City, IA doing a rally for a bus ministry. There were around 700 people there and they had a lot of energy!

Next weekend I'll be at Bethel in Eau Claire, WI for October 31st. The seasons are rolling by quickly!

New Update to the LOL Page

I just updated the LOL Tour page on BenComedy.com.
There are some new pictures and a promo video.
www.BenComedy.com/tour

L.O.L. Tour 1 Completed

I just finished the LOL Tour with Don Bursell and Randy Christensen. We had a great time doing 5 programs in Illinois and Wisconsin. We received standing ovations and the crowds were very responsive. We did our jobs and had everyone laughing out loud each evening.

It was a fun show for us to do. We all have solo shows that we pulled from as well as some new material developed specifically for LOL. Old favorites like Randy's Pop Machine Mime, DonB!'s Unicycle Medly, and my Dancing Raccoon Routine all made it into the show. Together we developed a new diabolo routine, ring juggling routine, and brought back a modified version of the Kitchen routine from Cirque Imaginings (a 10 person tour that will be touring Florida in 2010.

Here are a couple of pictures from the tour. We had a blast hanging out, driving, setting up, and playing mini-golf.

L.O.L. Tour Dates

Wednesday - August 12 - Calvary Temple, Springfield, IL
Friday - August 14 1st Assembly of God, Normal, IL
Sunday - August 16 - show in Necedah, WI - Assembly of God Church, Necedah, WI
Tuesday - August 18 - Cross Point Assembly of God, Portage, WI
Wednesday - August 19 - Celebration Church, Green Bay, WI

Pictures!

Here are a few pictures from recent outings including Cirque Du Soleil and the largest Twine Ball made by one man!

Sonshine

I am currently in North Dakota at a kid's camp. We (my sister and I) are doing two services a day and are having a great time. There are 250 kids here and they have been a great crowd.

I also just finished a run at Sonshine in Willmar, MN. There were about 21,000 people in attendance. My dad and I were able to juggle in front of about 18,000 of them on mainstage. The rest of our time was spent in the kid's tent entertaining crowds as large as 200 people at a time.

Joining us was Mikael Rudolph. He is a fabulous mime from St. Paul and did two shows for us.

I debuted a new program at the Sonshine Festival. It is an "Extreme Juggling Show" where we pull out all the stops and bring on the fire, knives, and plungers. It went over very well and I plan to keep on offering it.

I'll try to upload more pictures when I get time!

The picture up top is from the Sonshine performance on mainstage. Randy's shirt is visible on the far right of the screen!

Busy Summer!

I am back home for a few days after a fun couple of weeks at camps. I did programs with the family at Lake Geneva Kid's Camp for 2 weeks and we had a blast. 16 programs in 2 weeks! Whew!

Following kid's camp I got to go to a campground in Wisconsin and do 3 more programs myself. The final program I ended up ending with a new routine in which I juggle a torch, a knife, and a plunger while on a rola bola. The audience seemed to really enjoy it and showed that by giving a standing ovation. We all had a lot of fun.

Partial Itinerary

Some of the places Ben will be this summer.

DARE Night at the Willmar Track - June 11 - Willmar, MN

Kandi is Dandi Days - June 13 - Willmar, MN

Great Girls Escape - June 26-28 - Spencer Lake, WI

Assembly Park Kids Camp - July 6-10 - WI

Sonshine Music Festival - July 16-18 - Willmar, MN

ND Kids Camp - July 20-24 - Devils Lake, ND

Valley View Kid's Crusade - August 2-5

Bridge View A/G - August 8 - Big Lake, MN

L.O.L. Tour - August 9-20

L.O.L. and Youth For Christ

I had a great time with DonB! and Randy Christensen in Brainerd, MN last night. The L.O.L. Tour teamed with Youth For Christ to provide entertainment to the Brainerd area. Thank you to everyone who came out and supported the L.O.L. Tour and Youth For Christ. We had a great time!



I will try to post a schedule for the show (at least the August dates) when we have everything confirmed.

Jugglers in Slacks Roadtrip

I just got back from a 5 state tour with the Juggler's in Slacks. We had a great time street performing in Minneapolis, Des Moines, Kansas City, St. Louis, Chicago, and Madison. We made it back and if you are interested in reading more about our adventures you can visit jugglersinslacks.blogspot.com

We are also working on a few videos that will be posted on youtube and on that blog. I'll probably post one of my favorites here for you as well.

Juggling on the Playground

Jugglers in Slacks, minus one, plus one. Addison was spending some time at home, but Dale Carlson jumped in and did stupid stuff in public with Ben and Tony.

Jugglers in Slacks Video

Here's the debut video.

For our trip to Galveston, Texas we plan on leaving May 6th and arriving back May 13th.

We will be stopping in Des Moines, Kansas City, Oklahoma City, Dallas, and Houston.

To keep up to date on the Jugglers in Slacks visit http://jugglersinslacks.blogspot.com/

Jugglers in Slacks

I have recently joined a couple of other guys from Minnesota to form the Jugglers in Slacks. We recently had our debut performance and I'll put up a video with a couple of clips from the live performance.

We are also planning a trip to from Minneapolis, Minnesota to Galveston, Texas the beginning of May. The catch is we are going there and back only with money we make street performing. We will be bringing a camera with us so that you will have a viewing window into our trip. It's going to be a blast!

If you happen to be along the way and want to be apart of our adventure we still need some help. We will need a couple of places to stay and we need a couple of places to shower along the way. We are trying to go down and back in under 7 days, so it is going to be quick!

Okay, I'll keep you updated. We also have a fan page on facebook, so check it out!

Sens de Vie

This weekend I went and saw the national touring show, "Sens de Vie," featuring B.J. Harris and Cirque Imaginings own Don Bursell. I really enjoyed the show and loved being able to meet the performers. They travel all over the country, so if I'm not in you area this year you should see them! For more information see www.HarrisIII.com

One Way Street

This past weekend I had the privilege of teaching and MCing at the One Way Street Puppet Festival in Prior Lake, MN. I taught classes in juggling, ballooning and storytelling. Here are a couple of pictures from the conference. Thanks to everyone who was there for making it a great conference.

The nice thing about it being in Prior Lake was that I got to sleep in my own bed :)
Here are a couple of pictures from the conference.

Conferences

I had a great past couple of weekends. First I was able to be at Show Me Clowns for Jesus, a convention in Springfield, MO. I had a great time teaching workshops and performing. Thanks to all of you that made it such a great convention. I had a blast.

This weekend I went to the MONDO. The MONDO is the largest juggling convention in the Midwest. My roommate Addison, Tony, and I had a great time playing combat, learning new tricks, and connecting with other great performers from the Minnesota FCE, the Never Thriving, and other people from all over the country.

I also had the opportunity to learn some new tricks from Matt Hall, a juggler that has been featured in a ton of shows and conventions. Here is a picture of me and Matt Hall that I was able to sneak when he wasn't looking.



Pretty good, huh?

The schedule is filling up

As I continue to book programs my schedule continues to come together. This summer I will be in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and North Dakota. I'll post more dates later. For now I can tell you that on Easter weekend I will be in Janesville, WI on Saturday afternoon and in Baraboo, WI both Saturday and Sunday morning. It is going to be a lot of fun! Hope to see some of you there.

Comedy Improv

I am currently launching a new Comedy Improv group with the help of some great talent from North Central University. Matt Rodenburg has been the guy to help me pull everything together. He is from Omaha, Nebraska and has been a friend of mine for a few years now. We are currently booking programs at youth groups and having a great time working together.

The group has a page on my website. You can see it by going to BenComedy.com and clicking on Improv.

LOL Promo Video

Here is the new LOL promo video taken from "Cirque Imaginings." This is basically a shorter edit of performance footage, some of which is found in the previously posted video.