Hi Guys,

I have a huge list of tips that I was planning on including on my blog or just saving as a free e-book for others but it's been a hectic holiday season and I haven't found the time yet.

However, just recently, two of the tips that I was planning on sharing have saved me from catastrophic circumstances. Here they are:

- Always keep a spare car key in your wallet: Just a few days ago, I was unpacking my truck for a magic show and I put my keys on the seat so that I could grab my suitcase table. After pulling out the table, I just hit the door lock and slammed the door shut locking my keys and my cell phone in the car. Luckily, I had my spare key in my wallet and was able to avoid disaster.

- Keep a backup of your calendar: I usually use the calendar in Microsoft Office to manage my schedule. Yesterday I moved my computer over to the new Windows and my calendar files were corrupted in the transfer. Luckily for me, just a few weeks earlier, I had backed up my calendar to a Google calendar and was able to recover my files.

Hope these tips help somehow! I'd love to hear any additional tips some of you may be willing to share.

Happy Holidays,
Chris

Put your cloth carrier with your costume NEXT to the door with your cases and props and NOT on the back of your bedroom door. Nothing makes your blood run colder than getting to the gig with no costume and wearing a t-shirt, track pants and running shoes. Of course it helps to have a great Mom who doesn't mind driving thru rush hour traffic to get you your cloths at 8AM in the morning!!LOL

John

She's great!!!

Wow, that is a great mom! What type of show were you doing at 8:00am? School show?

-=Chris

I'm not sure this is as applicable to others, but since I live in the Bahamas, another crucial tip is to always take a bottled water or gatorade with me. I've had a few shows where I had to stop at the gas station afterward where the lady behind the counter gave me strange looks as I guzzled from the gallon of water I just purchased.

-=Chris

This was from a few years back. It was a double morning school show. Funny part was I hadn't even noticed (yet) that my suit bag was missing. I turned on my cell phone to check the time and quite by coincidence my good pal called to tell me that my wife had called him to see if he could get a hold of me somehow and that not to panic my Mom was on the way. Pretty funny. These things happenned to the best of us!!

John