Sorry for the lack of “news” on this page. After setting this thing up, I realized that when you don’t post anything, it appears that you’ve fallen off the face of the planet. Well, that’s not the case. I’m still alive! (Just off enjoying life during a slow gig period.) I don’t know how long this “news” page is going to last because I have come to the conclusion that I’m not a blogger and there’s only so much news one juggler can possibly produce. However, I have begun work on a whole new website that I hope will see the light of day before 2010. So stay tuned! Also, I’ve started putting some videos up on the YouTube. Go there and search for The Jim Show and there’s at least one new video up there that I know you haven’t seen. I have tons of funny little clips that I’ve accumulated over the years and I hope to start putting them up a few at a time over this year. Uh… I think that’s about it at this time. Happy SPRING, northern-hemispherians! I can’t wait for this snow to melt. 

I’m still alive, I’ve just been avoiding my web site. My schedule page has finally been updated! And now that it’s offically Spring, I’m sure I’ll be updating that schedule more often. Did I mention that I got a haircut? Yes, it was time. My promo photos are going to need to be updated, but for now, you can see what I look like these days over on the right…

Today marks the 10 year anniversary of the birth of http://www.smirk.com. On July 26, 1996, my very first web page went live. It looked something like this: (PDF File) I was pretty proud of that page… It had a graphic and everything! It’s interesting how my color scheme has remained consistent over all these years. And even my contact info is the same!

I registered smirk.com in June of 1996, but it took me a month to build a site that I felt was ready for the world to see. I still remember staying up all night for weeks tweaking those pages over and over using “simpletext” and Photoshop 3.0! Originally, all of my sites were under the http://www.smirk.com domain and it wasn’t until 1998 that I registered http://www.thejimshow.com and split all my stuff into separate sites.

Here’s to TEN YEARS!!! My, how the world has changed…

This is pretty much how I spent the summers of 1984, 1985 and 1986:
Pure Joy… (Click the pic)

Those ramp riding sessions on hot summer afternoons 20 years ago were some of the funnest times ever. This photo was sent in to me yesterday by my friend Brett Marshall. It appeared in my inbox completely out of the blue. I vaguely remember photographing ourselves back then, but I never knew where the photos wound up. Apparently Brett and my other BMX pal Ken Stranahan found a box of old photos and decided to scan a few. What a fantastic surprise. Thanks Brett!

In case you’re wondering, that ramp is 8’ tall and the marks on the tree are 1’ increments… so I’m about 14’ in the air there. Darn, I miss riding sometimes!

While I was in Texas last month, my friend Dave (The Checkerboard Guy) and I had some time to kill one morning before we started our shows. We passed by an olde-time barber shop and on a whim, we decided to drop in and get real “straight razor” shaves. It was both of our first times. We caught the carnage on videotape and Dave just posted the video on his web site/video podcast/ blog called “One Minute with Dave” here. (Go to “The Best Shave of My Life") To download the quicktime directly, click here. Windows Media file is here. In real life, straight razor shaves are not anything like they are in the movies.

I just returned home from Texas… What a nice weekend. I had a fantastic time performing for some really wonderful crowds. Y’all were just as friendly as everyone said you’d be. Thanks Fort Worth!

While I was there I spent a lot of time hanging out with David Aiken (The Checkerboard Guy) and he took a bunch of photos of me (and a hilarious video which will be up soon) out and about on the town. But once I got home, I realized that I didn’t get any shots of me actually performing. So I hopped over to flickr.com and did a quick search for “Fort Worth” and sure enough, there were two different sets of pictures of The Jim Show taken just a day or two before and uploaded by complete strangers!  The photos are located here and here. I’m pretty sure it’s my first time on flickr. I was kind of bummed not to have any record of my shows in Texas and in seconds… there they were. That’s so cool. (More Texas images and video on the way.)

After a pleasantly mild winter in Boston, spring has officially arrived. And you know what that means… Yup, time to open up the ol’ check book and send some money to the IRS! Ahhh, don’t you just love April? On a brighter note, I’m taking a little trip down south this weekend; all the way to Texas. I’ll be performing for 4 days at the Main Street Arts Festival in Fort Worth. This will be my first time in Texas and I’m really looking forward to it. I’ll be doing a few shows per day, eating steak and hanging out with The Checkerboard Guy. I’m sure there will be interesting photos up here when I get back next week.

Stay tuned for lots more upcoming shows on the schedule page when I get home. There may even be a few Quincy Market spots in May. I’m off to pack… Later.

And, we’re live… I’ve been installing and tweaking this software for the past few weeks and as of 4:19amEST on February 1, 2006, it’s officially open to the public. (whew, I need to go to bed.) Anyway, I’m sure there will be more tweaking and fiddling over the coming months, but as of now, I feel the page is ready for release into the wild. Good night! (I hope this thing works… thats it, I’m hitting “post.” Here goes nothing...)

Happy new year everyone! Before I get started on 2006, I just wanted to do a little year-end wrap up of 2005. Last year was a year of many new experiences and travel for me. I went farther and performed in more places than ever before. Here are a few highlights:

January: Christchurch, New Zealand festival and South Island sightseeing
February: Waterloo, Ontario Variety Shows
March: Local gigs; much shoveling, Vermont Tour
April: Local gigs, NYC visit, street performing begins
May: Shows all around New England, much gardening!
June: More gardening, local gigs, summer finally arrives
July: Surprisingly few street shows, many N.E. gigs, much driving
August: Ontario tour, Windsor, Waterloo, Toronto
September: Firsts: Performing in Iowa, Michigan; dinner in Nebraska!
October: Enjoying the weather, bunch of college gigs
November: Vacation in Ireland, LOTS of sightseeing
December: Local corporate shows, First Night in State College, PA!

I had a bunch of really, really memorable experiences on stage last year and several standing ovations (which are not as common as you think!) I’d like to thank everyone who came to my performances, had a laugh and said hello. The shows are always fun, but those moments after the show are what really makes my day. Your handshakes and smiles are what keep me going.

I’d also like to send a sincere thanks to everyone who hired me last year!! Without you, I can’t keep doing what I do… so thanks. I really mean it.

Best wishes to everyone in 2006. Have a happy, healthy year!

OK, so now I officially have a blog. And now you will never hear me use that word again. I never thought I would have one, but here it is. This is kind of a test post. For the past 4 years I’ve periodically updated this news page and when I did, I did it manually… (like, with HTML and everything. And there was no database or php involved.) The thing is, since I had to do everything manually, I wouldn’t update the page very often and that frustrated me.

So now that the software to handle this type of thing is so prevalent and easy to use, I thought I’d give in and try it out. It’s taken a couple weeks to get everything installed and working correctly, but now I kinda like it. I can’t promise that I’ll update this page every day or anything, but I certainly intend to do it a lot more often than I did before. So grab the RSS feed or just check back when you can. Thanks for coming by… And welcome to The Official Jim Show News Bl… Bl… Blahg.