moss@fooledya.com
PO Box 23523
Rochester NY, 14692-3523
(585) 359-8695
My introduction to the performing arts came at the age of 5 when my kindergarten teacher offered free violin lessons to anyone in the class that wanted them. I was hooked. My mother is now very fond of reminding me that she only let me get started because of these free lessons, and that some day she wants me to pay her back for the millions of dollars it ended up costing her in music, instruments, and more lessons with other teachers. I never bothered to do the math, but I think she's overestimated the amount a bit.
I have been juggling and doing magic since 1985 and performing these skills most of that time. (My mother has also reminded me that after all the money she's invested in music, I could have chosen to continue in that direction.) My involvement in magic developed out of a desire to create a Halloween costume that "worked". That is to say, I didn't want to dress up if I couldn't play the part. Several other costumes came to mind, but a few of my friends suggested I give up the notion of dressing up as an axe murderer, given my definition of a working costume. I ended up donning wizards' garb and shamelessly launching fireballs throughout the day from a home made magic wand. A standard deck of playing cards, being more practical most of the year, became my prop of choice.
Juggling became an active hobby when my younger, but much larger brother informed me that I was going to be his partner. He suggested I catch up to his skill level before he started throwing various objects at me. This was apparently something he intended to do whether I took his advice or not.
In the last few years I've fallen in love with airigami, the art of folding air in specially prepared latex containers (better known as balloon sculpting). A mere interest turned into an obsession and later a full time job. Currently I maintain Balloon HQ, a balloon industry resource on the web. In fact, my work on the web has turned into a huge interest in writing. In addition to Balloon HQ, I now how several books out on ballooning, with more on the way. This interest in writing about balloons has kept me quite busy. Aside from regular contributions to the online discussion forums and the work I put in there, I've written for several balloon, clown and magic magazines.
My academic background includes degrees in computer science and elementary education. Despite my career as an entertainer, I've never lost interest in those areas, and in fact I have combined my love of performing with my teaching and math/science background, by doing educational performances for children. In addition, I teach advanced balloon art classes to professional balloon artists.
I'm still not Greg, but for those wondering, there have been some recent updates.
I'm also not the acting coach that I share my name with. I've never met him, but I'd really like to. I've only read great things about him as an instructor. It's not unusual for people to write to me for information on acting classes. As if sharing a name isn't enough, being an entertainer and instructor seems to add to the confusion. But really, if you're looking for acting classes, I'm not the guy.
Everything you ever wanted to know about balloons, but didn't know who to
ask. This site is growing immensely and these days is a serious job
to maintain. Like other Internet companies, this started as a hobby that
just went wild.
Yahtzee - Play the old dice game of Yahtzee against the computer in your web browser. This requires a javascript capable browser. I wrote this as an experiment while learning javascript.
My links page. These are random things that I find interesting, and not necessarily tied to balloon art or entertainment. In fact, there isn't really any sort of connecting thread between them.
I collect jokers from decks of playing cards. While I have a couple hundred or so different jokers, almost all are from the U.S., so I know there are more out there. If you have an interesting joker that you're willing to add to my collection (US or otherwise), I'd love to hear from you.
If you happen to have the same peculiar hobby, I have quite a few duplicates that I'm willing to share.
My complete joker collection is online. Have a look, and find out where this odd hobby came from.
Larry Moss / moss@fooledya.com