Here’s a little tidbit that would have been a perfect column item if your correspondent had such an old-fashioned thing as a show biz column. But I do have a blog, so here is where we post it. This comes straight from the horse’s mouth — magician and eclectic stunt performer Adam Cardone.
As the photo above documents, Cardone has been known to go and practice his bullwhip crackin’ at Tompkins Square Park on a regular basis. This isn’t as unusual as you might think. The other day I was deep in the wilds of Prospect Park and was delighted to hear bagpipes playing. Thinking a parade was afoot, I followed the sound…to nowhere. Finally, deep in the bowels of the park, off the trail, sitting on a log was a dude…practicing the bagpipes. This is New York! Where else you gonna do it, your apartment? Well, yeah, you can rent a studio, but $15-30 an hour adds up pretty quickly. And come to think of it, I seem to remember running into the Bindlestiffs and Jennifer Miller practicing their skills in McCarren Park back in the day.
So Cardone cracks his whip in Tompkins Square Park. And people usually like it, he says. He often winds up giving free lessons, or at the very least a free show to interested onlookers. Until a few weeks ago, when some doofus called the POLICE, saying “There’s some scary man in the park threatening and chasing people with whips.” Before you can say “Gladys Kravitz”, a patrol car pulled up, two uniformed officers got out, commanding “Sir? Sir — put down your weapon.”
Now, this is Cardone from the front:
Does he look a little like he’s in show business? Anyone with an ounce of common sense could gather what his agenda was. The real wackos bring their bullwhips into Walmart and start whipping all the Nesquick and aspirin off the shelves. Now the people in Tompkins Square don’t get no free show. And who’s the wacko? The putz who called the cops, that’s who!
At any rate, all is well. This weekend you CAN see a free show by Cardone, and his cohorts in the New York Variety All-Stars (Adam RealMan and Kryssy Kocktail) at Maspeth Day Street Fair out in Maspeth Queens.
(Travalanche) 