Thursday November 29th through Saturday December 1st were devoted to Discovery Science Place in Tyler. I was remarkably unfamiliar with the town, having lived so close to it most of my life, but you do have to get well off of I-20 to get there, so in countless trips past it going East, I apparently never saw much more than the exit sign. Downtown was mostly built quite a while ago, and it is one of those buildings that Discovery Science Place calls home.

As science museums I’ve performed for go, this one is small and like most of them, on a tight budget - but the staff are first rate and the enthusiasm we generated in Tyler was exceptional. Every show was sold out. Kudos to Marketing Director Val Williamson, who had only been there a month at the time, but did a wonderful job. The audiences were delightfully responsive and I’ve already been told to plan on next year. It may even become an annual event like the one in Dallas.

I think that science and nature museums are some of our cities’ most worthy causes. The mind is like a muscle, and it needs exercise and creative play. If you aren’t a member of your local museum, consider becoming one. You get discounts and other perks, but you are also directly contributing to science and nature education in your own community. So much can be learned that is difficult or impossible to get in schools, where the focus has become preparing students to do well on state tests.

I also ran into an old friend from high school, whom I had not seen since the early eighties. Joe Terrell is now a popular news anchor for KLTV, the dominant affiliate in town. It was great to see that he was doing well, and has a delightful family to boot. Special kudos to the station for providing excellent coverage of the event, including a segment with morning anchor Molly Reuter and meteorologist Grant Dade that was even better than usual. Their cameraman was calling it the best segment ever. A link to their site’s video clip of it will be on the experience page of my site. Worth a look.

My hotel had cable, so there was no NFL Network on which to see the Cowboys-Packers game Thursday night (how ’bout them Cowboys!) but across the street was a sports bar called Daniel Boone’s, actually owned and operated by a guy named Daniel Boone. Nice meal and a great game. Turns out NFL Network streamed it (which they did not announce in advance) so I could have seen it on the laptop, but streaming video can’t yet do justice to fast-action sports.

Overall, my experience in Tyler was hectic but wonderful. I’m looking forward to my return, and to doing whatever I can to help this small but vibrant science museum become the hugely popular family destination it richly deserves to be.

Such is the life of The Snakeman in December that it’s hard not to dread it a bit in late November. Not only does no one to speak of have a snake problem for me to fix, but for some silly reason no one seems to want a snake show for their holiday party. Hmmm. Maybe some little red hats? Of course, there have been exceptions - mostly corporate events. I did the company holiday party for Dallas PBI affiliate KERA/KDTN and another for The Mustang Group, a very cool tech firm in Allen. Both were a big hit, in fact the exec who booked me for the latter told me he was the biggest hero in the office the next day. He hadn’t even told most of them what the entertainment was going to be in advance.

I do a good Santa voice, maybe if I did the show in red suit and beard… SSSSssanta! Hmmm. Rudolph, you dummy! I said the Schmidt house! Ho ho ho…

Last year I was booked for Dickens On the Strand, the annual festival in Galveston. The theme was the first World’s Fair, circa 1853, so I was a period performer doing a snake show from that era. Top hat, waistcoat, period specific English accent - jolly good, what? Too bad that’s not their theme every year.

Not that I hate the holidays, it’s great to see family all in one place again and random acts of kindness seem to work better this time of year, but it can be a tough month, December.

Here’s wishing everyone safe and happy holidays. Turkey is a big part of my life lately, as it’s turning to summer in Argentina right now and Capone is on the prowl for his little balls of it. It’s really like watching a dinosaur eat.

So at the holiday table, when shove comes to push, this bird in your hand… is worth two of George Bush.

Just a little seasonal humor.

Julie and I both have birthdays in early November, and we celebrated at the French Room. Chef Jason Weaver really outdid himself this time. I’ve had the pleasure over the years to dine there perhaps a dozen times in as many years (the last five with Julie) and we both agreed that this was the best ever. Just unbelievable. If you ever want to completely treat yourself, you’ve got to try it. We each picked an appetizer and from there I let Chef surprise us, and Sommelier Gregory Cheval paired a wine with each exquisite thing we were served. He’s really amazing, not only knowing what the best wine is but who made it and what wonderful people they are and where they live and - you get the idea. This place is so opulent it could easily be stuffy but the opposite is true. Impeccable, but utterly accessible. Four thumbs up.

The special “Scary Snakes and Magic Show” that Science Spectrum requested was quite successful. With the exception of the other character voices I do anyway, the show was narrated in a vampire accent with overtones of a Karloff monster. Despite a lack of rehearsal time in the big room (kudos to Elton for lighting and sound help) the idea was a big hit and the event was well attended, significantly more so than last year they tell me. Lubbock is fortunate to have a facility of that caliber. Great folks. I’m just full of ideas for the next time I get to perform the new Halloween version of the show.

The Houston Museum of Natural Science booked me for three shows, part of their annual Halloween celebration, complete with scary labs, eerie edibles, live creepy crawlies and all around great fun. The performances were warmly received and the staff were great.

It was my first visit to this museum, and let me tell you that they are a class act. I haven’t been quite that impressed since a boyhood trip to the Smithsonian. Absolutely amazing. I took in the Lucy’s Legacy exhibit (actual 3.2 million year-old bones, plus Ethiopian artifacts from all through its history - very cool) and the American Museum of Natural History in New York’s traveling “Lizards and Snakes Alive” exhibit, also very well done. Great animals, killer graphics. Well done. I also got to see the incredible entomology exhibit, which includes a four story waterfall surrounded by pathways through exotic plants and the most unbelievable collection of butterflies I’ve ever seen - fluttering all around me. I’m telling you folks, this place is a must-see.

Meanwhile, I’m off tomorrow for three shows on Halloween for the wonderful college town of Lubbock, Texas at Science Spectrum - another top notch facility. I’ve added some spooky music (and Capone - they haven’t met him yet) and will lapse at times into some of my Boris Karloff character voices.

Have a safe and happy Halloween everyone!

Man, what a busy one. Snake Removal stays busy well after the official end of the season on Oct 1, largely due to “summer” hanging on later and later each fall. Still plenty of activity, especially since most of the season’s baby snakes happen in August and September. People see one baby (actually the word is neonate, though juvenile will do) and they think that there must be twenty - and they’re not always wrong. Fact is, whether it’s the hatching of a clutch of eggs or a litter coming from a live-bearing species, the likelihood that more than one neonate is present is inversely proportional to your distance from ground zero. Mother is a verb, and for the most part, snakes don’t do it.

Meanwhile, I have the South Texas State Fair in Beaumont to do for Time Warner Cable (they’ve been a client since my early days doing Animal Planet promo shows) followed by a Halloween bash at the Houston Natural Science Museum. The 31st itself is another Halloween celebration at Science Spectrum in Lubbock. Bwwaaahahahaaaa.

The rest of the month’s gigs have been local birthday parties, which I still enjoy doing. To an eight year old, I’m a rock star. Actually, I’ve done all ages, from three year olds to senior groups. One man was turning 60 and his family bought him my show, but they didn’t tell him what it was, only that they had booked “an animal guy.” He was a little phobic about snakes and didn’t know what the show was about until I introduced myself. 45 minutes later he had my big python around him and was declaring it the best birthday present ever.

Big shout out to my new friends in Tupelo. Last weekend was the Tri-State Sportsman’s Bonanza at the enormous Furniture Market there. I explained to local hunters and anglers that it is natural, when they find themselves in the field with a trusted weapon in their hands and a snake in front of them, to be significantly tempted to introduce projectile A into reptile B. Hopefully, most of them understood the logic behind leaving the ecosystem intact to support future game, and giving said reptile a break. If you have some of the food chain, you have all of the food chain - blasting holes in that always has unintended consequences. Mississippi is where all this began for me, having found my first snake in my great-grandmother’s back yard in Jackson when I was seven. Over the years I’ve made many trips there, and coincidentally there was a family reunion going on in Vicksburg during the same weekend. Mom saw Elvis sing with a band from Tupelo High at a sock hop she went to at her alma mater, Jackson High. He was a Junior at the time. I’ve been honored to return 5 times in the last seven years to the Market Street Festival in nearby Columbus, MS. Love that town. Actually, in Mississippi they tend to abbreviate it Miss on road signs, often with no period at the end. One very official looking sign you might encounter says Miss State Trooper, which sounds like a beauty pageant I do not want to see.

Finished doing ReptileFest at The Museum of Nature and Science yesterday. Love that audience. We were packed for all three shows Saturday and both shows Sunday. Kudos to the museum staff and volunteers who handled the crowd beautifully and got me out (450 lb display cage and all) in record time. A big thanks to everyone who came out. I was especially honored by a visit from friend and mentor Jim Dunlap, Curator of the Outdoor Learning Center in Plano on Saturday, and on Sunday by another friend - the outrageously talented Executive Chef of The French Room at The Adolphus, Jason Weaver and his two sons. Every dish his kitchen has ever produced for me has been a religious experience. He actually let me experience that kitchen firsthand recently. On a busy Saturday night, I was actually allowed to participate. I mostly helped out with prep for the Pantry Chef, but I helped Chef Weaver with the amuse (it was to die for) helped the Sous Chef cut up a huge halibut and some red snapper (my knife skills were almost up to the task - it’s apparently easier to fillet one side than the other) and helped make vegetable tarts and a dessert item whose name I can’t remember. It was utterly awesome. The staff of that restaurant are absolutely amazing. If you’ve never eaten there, splurge on yourself sometime and check it out. Tell ‘em the Snakeman sent you.

September 5, 2007
Well, thanks to my friend Eric in Hurst I now have two bullsnakes, and this one’s downright huge compared to the wild caught specimen I have been using for years in my show. They called him Lee, so I think I’ll call him General Lee. He’s a moose. Almost seven feet, as big around as my wrist, and solid muscle. Unlike his hissingly snooty counterpart, he’s a sweetheart too. Wouldn’t want to get between him and his next rat though. Meanwhile, Capone (the big Black and White Tegu from Argentina that we adopted in Mobile AL while we were there for the Gulf Coast Exploreum) is asleep under the bed. It’s winter in Argentina right now, and he thinks he’s hibernating. From time to time I’ll haul him out of his hiding place and put him in the yard, where he’ll roam a little and take some water and sometimes a bit of food, but all those fat reserves in his cheeks are there to get him through a long period of reduced metabolism so he doesn’t really have to eat. ReptileFest is coming up this weekend (at the Museum of Nature and Science in Fair Park, across I30 from downtown Dallas) and I’m spending today getting animals fed and deciding which ones will be display animals for the event, in addition to the usual cast for the performances. Outside the old Science Place auditorium, where I’ll be performing, is where my booth is set up between (and during) the shows, which will be at 11, 1 and 3 on Saturday; 1 and 3 on Sunday. Eric also gave me this outrageous display cage with a faux stone fascia and a statue of a huge gecko on top. If we can muscle it up the stairs it’ll be there too. Guess who the sponsor of the event is? Geico! Hope to see everyone there! http://natureandscience.org/calendar/upcoming_events.asp