In the world of CWA’s we work on a 45 day deadline to send applications to the IRS.  Today is currently 45 days from January 1st so we are celebrating the New Year here at CWA Management!

Congratulations to our client The Jive Aces with the release of their new music video, “Rock ‘n’ Roll Movie Star” that was released less than twelve hours ago!

Enjoy!

https://youtu.be/-d7ShobcDak

We are very sad to learn that our friend Gord Downie, lead singer for our client, The Tragically Hip, passed away a couple of days ago from the brain cancer he was diagnosed with in May of 2016. I and my staff would like to offer our deepest condolences to the family, friends, bandmates and even the country of Canada where Gord was such a popular musical icon, on the passing of such a talented and wonderful man.

Last night Jackie and I had an opportunity to see the first LOL Brazil show held in Orlando.  Brazilian comedians, Leo Lins and Murilo Couto hit the stage at The Plaza Live and had the audience LOL.

Here are some action photos of us with the comics prior to the show.  We are looking forward to seeing Mauricio Meirelles perform in November.

Leo Lins is trying to teach us Portuguese so we will understand the jokes later.

Murilo Couto was astounded that we could say “Oye!”

However, we were the only folks in the place that had no idea what everyone was laughing about.  One time everyone looked at us and laughed.  Something about “Gringos.”

Tuesday evening we had an opportunity to meet our client, Haken at Skully’s Music Diner.

What a great venue! I wish there was a venue like that in Orlando.

Here is an action photo of all of us prior to the show.

This was their very first trip to Ohio so Rob Nance, the Mayor of Egret, Ohio, came out to welcome them. Mayor Nance is on the far left of the picture. Delia Figura, our International Accounts Manager is in the middle.

Finally, a shot of Haken performing on the stage at Skully’s.

I just returned home from the ConsERT Retreat at the historic Thayer Hotel in West Point, NY. Yes, that West Point; the home of our United States Military Academy. I don’t get to travel as much as some of the folks reading this blog and when I do, staying at a hotel like The Thayer is amazing. Please don’t miss an opportunity to visit this hotel during your travels.

When on the road, I like to walk around the area to see how different the world is from Orlando, which is only about 30 feet above sea level, filled with almost a million tourists visiting the theme parks each week and can be a traffic nightmare at times. This was very, serene. Sitting high above the Hudson River, which quietly flows behind the property, walking around the property was a beautiful and fascinating stroll until I took a wrong left turn. Although this is a college campus, the word campus is not used at all. This is a military post. On a military post, when you make an incorrect left turn, you are surprisingly met very quickly by, (cue “Law and Order” dunt, dunt sound)…the Military Police! Not surprisingly, they saw me before I saw them. One MP had a sidearm strapped to his hip. So did the second MP.  Did I mention they both were holding machine guns? They may have had other stuff on them too like pepper spray, batons or nukes. I didn’t notice. My eyes were laser focused on their weapons. No words had yet been spoken as my brain scrambled to say something first that might prevent my life insurance policy from actually paying out. The only thing that popped into my mind was Barney Fife’s bullet. Maybe those guns weren’t loaded and they would be digging into their top pockets. After squashing that thought, some old jokes from when I did stand-up quickly ran through my mind as I tried to defuse an anxiety ridden moment. “No, no, accounting jokes won’t stop bullets”, I thought.

The female MP said in a polite yet very firm voice, “Sir, are you supposed to be here?”
I was not in fatigues, military dress or had any stars or clusters on my shoulders so the “sir” confused me. The comic in me took over again; should I salute them? How about a funny Benny Hill type salute; my tongue out and an upright palm to my forehead?

Luckily, the maturity of my age kicked in and I quickly blurted out, “I’m just a tourist from Florida here for a meeting and getting to know your campus. I turned left at Thayer Hall and now I’m here.”
“Sir, is your meeting right here?”
We both knew the meeting was not in the middle of this particular street so I responded, “No ma’am, I was just looking for the sports facilities.”
“Sir, you should walk back that way – back to your hotel.”
You would not be surprised to know that I found her voice, her sidearm and her machine gun very convincing. During the entire exchange, the male MP didn’t say a word. With his eyes locked on me, he also did appear as though he could bench press me for about 3 hours before he even worked up a sweat. You may also be astonished to find out…that I did not have time to take a selfie with them to display with this post.

Oh, by the way, the conference was great!

If I was channeling the late, great, Johnny Carson’s character, “Carnac The Magnificent”, the answer to this title would be, “What do you get with a tick working for the weekend for a mid-sized upgrade?”

Seriously though, our client “Loverboy” has been busy. They are our second client that we now know of that has cut a national commercial. Not one but two actually; a one minute one and a 30-second follow-up one, with the droll and hysterical Patrick Warburton (sitcoms: “Rules of Engagement”, “Joe Swanson” on “Family Guy”, “Puddy” from “Seinfeld”, “The Tick” and many more). Check them out:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QX77IBpVdlw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qex0F5nSHGU

Also, you owe it to yourself to check out Patrick Warburton in his short lived comedy, based on the comic book, “The Tick”. You can usually find it on one of the streaming sites like Netflix, Hulu or Amazon. It’s become quite the cult classic.

Finally, for my younger viewers that have absolutely no clue what I was talking about in my opening lines about “Carnac the Magnificent”, he was a beloved character, created by Johnny Carson and Ed McMahon, that my generation looked forward to every few weeks on “The Tonight Show”. It was based on an old vaudeville comedy mind-reading routine, where the “psychic” would predict the answers to sealed questions or statements. Carson and McMahon were terrific playing off each other and sometimes the ad libs were funnier than the script. Here’s a video segment of the routine from 1982. You may have to Google some of the references since they were topical for that date.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOJVhIPyNCg

I just returned from this year’s NAPAMA retreat, held again in the beautiful Shawnee Inn and Golf Resort in the Poconos, that I described in a bit more detail in a post from last year’s event. I gave another rousing talk about CWA’s and when it was over, I  suddenly realized I’m becoming the “Tyrion Lannister” from “Game of Thrones” in our profession.

“That’s what I do.
I create CWA’s and I know things”

Next year NAPAMA is returning to Ft. Lauderdale, where it was held in 2015. I’ll be looking forward to that date as I thoroughly enjoyed my last visit there.