TCA Programs 1

General Monthly

Meetings

1

TCA Executive

Committee Members

2

Prez says 3

Vice Prez says -

Building Your

Website

4

Education News 5

The 12 Days of

Christmas

6

Monthly Giggles 7

Big Suprise 8

November Birthday

Celebrations

9

Face Painting Tips 10

Balloon Twisting

Tips

10

TCA Library News 11

TCA Membership

and Insurance notice

11

The Sunshine

Report

12

The Last Page…. 12

Inside this issue:

GENERAL MONTHLY MEETING NEXT MEETING - November 26, 2013

Time: Meeting starts at 7:30pm - 10:00pm

Location: Herbert Carnegie Centennial Centre,

580 Finch Avenue West

(West of Bathurst on North Side)

... downstairs in the Skaters Lounge

TCA Programs by David Lew

Volume 3, Issue 3

November 2013

Newsletter

November’s Meeting

This month we will be doing balloons. Members can

demonstrate fast balloons for line work. If they have

Holiday related balloons they wish to share, all the

better.

TCA Holiday Dinner

Soon December will be upon us and we can look

forward to the TCA Holiday Dinner. TBA

January’s Meeting

Scheduled for Jan. is Nazaneen Azmoon. As

entertainers, the most important thing to take care of is

our bodies. Aches and pains are not our friends.

Nazaneen is a personal trainer and will be taking

questions and offering advice.

Page 2 November 2013

20132013--20142014 TORONTO CLOWN ALLEYTORONTO CLOWN ALLEY

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEEEXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

PRESIDENT Colleen “Pockets” Smith

VICE PRESIDENT Ron "Schmendrake" Guttman

SECRETARY Linde "Poppy" Weedman

TREASURER Bob "Rusty" Patterson

MEMBERSHIP DIRECTOR Linde "Poppy" Weedman

PROGRAM DIRECTOR David "D Jay" Lew

NEWSLETTER EDITOR Pat "Patty Kakes" Davos

JAM COORDINATOR Rose “Winky” Winkworth

SNACK COORDINATOR Teanna Vedder

SUNSHINE COORDINATOR Shirley "Jolly" Snell

INSURANCE COORDINATOR Robert "Dinty" Power

SOCIAL DIRECTOR Rose “Winky” Winkworth

Please wear your name tag

at every General Meeting!

Page 3 Volume 3, Issue 3

Greetings fellow entertainers. Now that the Halloween gore designs are finally behind us, we

can concentrate on our pretty Christmas designs. Have you thought about how to incorporate

Christmas into your face painting and/or balloon designs? How about your magic tricks?

Here are a few simple ideas that I like to use to make my magic tricks feel like Christmas:

Professor's nightmare. Take a red marker to the ropes and make them look like candy

canes. Same trick...different story!

Magic colouring book. Cover an old 3 way colouring book with a Santa pictured

colouring book from the dollar store.

There are also various change bag routines producing a Santa (David Ginn has a great

routine). Take a look at what you presently use... and think outside of the box.

If you would like to do a bit of exploring, Winky has been hosting some fabulous jams. If

you haven't been yet, you should go. Lots of great ideas from everybody!

The winter weather will be upon us very soon and I hope that all entertainers are prepared

for emergencies that may come up. Pockets tip: Allow for extra travel time when booking

multiple shows as you just never know what the weather may hold. I hope that everyone

travels safely and "keeps it between the ditches"

Happy Clowning

Colleen Smith

President of Toronto Clown Alley

Colleen Smith

Prez Says

Page 4 November 2013

Vice Prez Says…

Ron "Schmendrake" Guttman

Ron Guttman Building Your Website

If you are going to build your own website, you will need some kind of software to build and lay out the pages of your site.

There are three approaches and I’ll cover each of them briefly.

Free web-based programs

Several companies offer free web-based design suites. If you have limited technical expertise, this is an excellent way to get started.

But understand this. Although they are free, they do come with an intangible price attached. There is a learning curve. Support may

be limited. And there are limitations to what you can do, although I have seen some pretty good designs rendered with these

programs.

Two of the better known offerings are by wix.com and GoDaddy.com.

Perhaps the best choice, especially if you are of limited technical expertise, is the software best known for its use in the blogoshere

and offered by wordpress.com. It is an open-source project and there are thousands of developers offering add-on plugins and

themes.

There are literally thousands of themes available allowing you to find a look for your website that matches, or at least comes very

close to matching your vision. Using the add-on plug-ins, you can do just about anything you can imagine, including setting up an

e-commerce site.

There are also commercial themes, theme generators, frameworks and plug-ins that you can purchase to go even further.

As an example of what is possible, take a look at the website run by The Hat and Rabbit Club; it was developed with WordPress.

See http://www.ibmring17.com.

Just a note, though. You will need some technical expertise to install the software, themes and plug-ins on your web server. It’s not

difficult but you do need to know your way around these things. If you need help, there are online forums, and perhaps one of your

friends will have some experience in this area.

Free desktop software

Instead of building your site inside a web browser, you can do this on your home computer. These programs give you more

flexibility in your designs and do not require a full time web connection. If you have a laptop, you can work on your website

anywhere!

Again, because they are free, there are limitations to what you can do!

Consider one of the following products if you are interested in a stand-alone package: Serif.com has WebPlus, SourceForge has the

download for Bluefish, reputably a very good stand-alone editor, and Amaya from w3.org. Both Bluefish and Amaya are available in

a Mac version.

Commercial paid software

The granddaddy of commercial web design suites is Adobe’s Dreamweaver. This is an excellent product but comes with a heavy

price. The cost of acquisition is very high, over $400 and there is very steep learning curve. Truly a professional’s choice.

Other commercial packages worthy of consideration: Microsoft Expression Studio (about $200), NetObjects Fusion (about $130)

and Serif.com WebPlus ($100). All prices are approximate in Canadian dollars.

My personal recommendations, because I use them myself:

WordPress

The paid version of WebPlus.

Page 5 Volume 3, Issue 3

Continue your education to be the best

entertainer you can be!

Here's a list of what is coming to a city near us!

East Coast Face Painting Convention, Jan 15-20, 2014

Windsor Locks, Connecticut. (7 hour drive) $135.00 Hotel $55.00 a night.

KEY NOTE INSTRUCTORS:

Jay Batista, Mark Reid, Christina Davison, Kerry Ann, Gary Cole, Laura Oliver, Donna Nowak, Ezia Leach,

Roberta Mandella, Daniel Lasris, Michelle Heffner, PLUS more

Kapitol Kidvention, Feb 7-9, 2014

Washington D.C. $225. Hotel $79.00 a night.

Balloonists, magicians & face painters& Marketing!

KEY NOTE INSTRUCTORS:

Barry Mitchell, Ken Scott, Oscar Munoz, Dave Hill, Devin Knight, Eric Henning, Alan Kazam, Mike

Norden, Mike Finney, Rebecca Kanar, Ryan Lavallee, Shonna Flannigan, Dustin Queery, Corrine

Smith, Perry Yan, Diane Spadola, Heather Green, Tal Thompson, Corey Morgan, Tina Fillah-Caroll,

Brad Ross, Lori Hurley.

Twist and Shout, Feb 5-9, 2014

Rochester NY. $325.00 plus $109 for hotel. Super Early bird registration: $260.00, or $290.

Top notch balloonist within driving distance!

KEY NOTE INSTRUCTORS:

Tom "Bibo" Sayes, Peiter VanEngen, Guido Verhoef, Philias Flash, Marie Dadow, & Robbie Furman.

Colleen “Pockets” Smith President

Page 6 November 2013 Newsletter The 12 Days of Christmas

Do you have a corporate party to attend? Need a great idea? Ask 12

children to come up on the stage. Hand each child a card that says one

of the days of the song. You can put pictures and words and laminate

them.

It's a great audience participation song. Make sure you have a long

enough stage! Be prepared to run behind the child and tap them on the

head when it's their turn to say what's on the card.

12 Drummers Drumming

11 Pipers Piping

10 Lords-a-Leaping

9 Ladies Dancing

8 Maids-a-Milking

7 Swans-a-Swimming

6 Geese-a-Laying

5 Gold Rings

4 Calling Birds

3 French Hens

2 Turtle Doves

And a Partridge in a Pear Tree

Submitted by Colleen “Pockets” Smith

Volume 3, Issue 3 Page 7

It's important to entertain while you are making balloons. Here's a few easy to remember jokes you can use while you are twisting. What do you get when you cross a snowman with a vampire? Frostbite. Why was Santa's little helper depressed? Because he had low elf esteem. What do you call people who are afraid of Santa Claus? Claustrophobic What do you get if you cross Santa Claus with a duck?A Christmas quacker Where does a snowman keep his money?In a snowbank What is invisible and smells like milk and cookies? Santa burps What did the Gingerbread Man put on his bed? A cookie sheet

Until next month..... keep smiling :)

Submitted by Colleen “Pockets” Smith

Volume 3, Issue 3 Page 8

Next issue:

Page 9 November 2013

Nov. 22nd Jim

Kilgour

Nov. 5th

Richard

Thompson

Next …months birthday’s.

Jennifer Gonsalves - Dec. 2nd

Mike Harding - Dec. 13th

Volume 3, Issue 3 Page 10

Face Painting Tips by Pat Davos

Are your sponges really stained and want to throw them out? Tired of replacing them. Tired of thinking the parents will comment on the stained sponges, well….. you can dye them black or just buy the new black sponges that are now offered for sale and you don’t have to worry anymore.

Balloon Twisting Tips Submitted by Colleen Smith

How to make a…..

New Library rules are in effect. You may now borrow items by credit card. It is hoped that this will increase the number of items being borrowed from the library. Once borrowed you have a maximum of two meetings to keep them. If you have not returned the item by the second meeting following the borrowing date, the item now

belongs to you and your card will be charged. The replacement prices for each item are high as to encourage returning what has been borrowed. I'll be bringing a selection of items to each meeting. If anyone is interested in receiving an excel file containing everything that is available from the library, please contact me at djaytheclown@rogers.com.

TCA Library News by David Lew

Page 11 November 2013

Toronto Clown Alley Membership

2013-2014

Toronto Clown Alley Insurance

Please note: Toronto Clown Alley Membership Fees are OVERDUE

- anyone attending meetings without a valid 2013-2014 registration should be paying

a $10 visitors fee!

TCA Insurance Coverage for 2012-2013 Expired on September 30, 2013

- anyone working without a valid TCA 2013-2014 Membership & Renewed TCA

Insurance you are working without benefit of valid coverage!

Information: TorontoClownAlley.com

* forms can be obtained from our website - TorontoClownAlley.com

Meetings are held on the

4th Tuesday each month

(except July and August)

Herbert Carnegie

Centennial Centre

Skaters Lounge 580 Finch Avenue West

(West of Bathurst on North Side)

www.torontoclownalley.com

Please wear your

name tag

at every General

Meeting!

The last page…. by Pat Davos

Every month I will be posting a picture in this area. TCA

members can show their stuff here. Face painting picture

or Balloon sculpture, a picture of you performing magic,

juggling, whatever you do for entertainment. Since no

one is sending in pictures, I will pick them every month

from the TCA library. It will be a surprise.

This is Lisa painted by Uncle Al

Hi all you clowns out there, as I have not heard from

anyone, I presume you & your families are well &

happy. As for me, as you know I could not have my

ablation after waiting all day because 2 people had

emergencies and I sure hope they will have long &

healthy lives. Well, this Friday, the 15th if all goes well

I will be having this procedure done. I will email Rose

& Patty so they can pass on my news to all of you,

maybe even in time for the Newsletter.

Wish me good luck.

Thanks all, Shirley Jolly, Sunshine Secretary