Re: Stage names?

On May 30, 9:24 pm, AaronSher...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Aaron
Sherman) wrote:
How about "Aaron B'Dazzle"?

Bedazzle- to dazzle and amaze almost the point of enchantment.

I liek how it rolls of the tongue, you know? lol

--
----== posted viawww.jugglingdb.com==----

I'll be creating a Stage Name hopefully by the end of the summer that--
hopefully, will follow me through my career. I've used "Jason Kollum--
Juggling and Variety Entertainment" for 2 years now, and cannot wait
to drop it. It was good and appropriate at the time, but not any
more.

Here's my advice/opinions on creating a Stage Name, these are the
criteria/thoughts I'm using to generate one. I would say these are
in order of importance. I hope these makes sense, as it's late, and I
haven't had my cookies and milk yet.

RULE #1:

Aaron--don't use "Aaron B'Dazzle." My first rule about stage names--
it must be SIMPLE TO SAY, SIMPLE TO SPELL and SIMPLE TO REMEMBER. It
should be so bloody simple that very few can screw up the spelling.
The stage names that are straight forward and simple are the ones that
are constantly being drilled into client's heads--and those of the
audience--that allow for repeat bookings. People don't remember your
name, unless your name is easy to remember, they remember your stage
name.

I had to scroll up Three Times when I typed "Aaron B'Dazzle" just to
double check the spelling.
People will *&#$ that name up all the time. People who generate
marketing brocures, posters, etc. for an event that you are performing
at will always get that name wrong and now your audience will see the
wrong spelling of your name, and most likely, won't remember it
correctly.

You'll get "Erin Bedazzles, Erin Bidazzled, Aron B'Dazzling, Aaron
BiDazzling, Aaron B'Dazzled, Aaron BeDazzled." You'll always get
people screwing up your name, and you will ALWAYS have to spell it for
people. It will be annoying for people to try to have to spell it,
and they'll be annoyed when you have to call them back to correct the
spelling error in their brochure, which will put a bad taste in the
client's mouth.

'Aaron Circus'--I sort of groaned at this one. We have Circus Boy out
by me who's probably the top entertainer around here, I just don't
like when people throw their first name into a stage name. (I used to
be Just Jugglin' Jason and Amazin' Jason years ago)

Circus Boy, Flying Fool, Rope Warrior--local performers to me--people
remember their stage names--little kids remember their names, they
don't remember that they are Bobby, Ken, and David. Those names are
simple to spell, remember, and say, and whenever I call for an event
that is already booked by these guys, the client remembers the stage
names.

If your stage name is just too hard to memorize, or spell properly,
the client is not going to think of you when thinking about hiring
next year's entertainment..."last year we had.....um, Bi, daz, um,
something?"

'Aaron B'Dazzle' (I had to look up again because I thought it was
Aaron B'Dazzled) is good because it doesn't type-cast you into just a
juggler, but it makes you sound like some young kid who is going to
come out wearing a shiny sequined vest doing some tricks and the name
is also not good, in my opinion, based on the above.

RULE #2:

Feeding off of Rule #1 of a stage name being easy to say, easy to
spell, and easy to remember, rule #2 is that a stage name should be
constantly repeated over and over again for name recognition in your
market. Promo Brochures, Website, your prop case, voicemail, even
what you say at the end of your show, should constantly reiturate your
stage name. A hard to say/spell/remember stage name is harder to
create recognition for yourself.

Your website name could/should be aaroncircus.com or aaronbdazzle.com
to reinforce your stage name to clients/people who've taken your card,
but NOBODY is going to get the spelling right. People might remember
your name from a show, try to google you, get frustrated that they
can't seem to get the spelling right to pull up your webpage, and give
up. People who call you and hear your voicemail, again, won't be able
to pull the correct spelling from your voicemail message, and thus not
have the chance to go to your website.
Lots of people call once, don't want to leave a message and wait for
your callback. If they could visit your website based upon hearing
your domain name in your voicemail, they could go to your site, and
shoot you a quick email. But w/o one they can spell, you'll lose a
possible event opportunity.

jasonvarietyshow.com works pretty well in that sense. I think it's
boring now, but overall, I've had very few people say it's too hard to
spell. I do get people who ask if it's "Jason's variety show?" ie
plural.


RULE #3

All these "rules" are of course my strong opinions. But, I think
taking into account rules #1 and 2 leads to my rule #3 that try to
avoid using your first name in your stage name unless it's a really,
really good stage name. Frank Olivier I believe is Funny Frank and
funnyfrank.com. I think that's a killer stage name.

I see so many stage names of magicians like Bob the Great, Tom the
Great, Joe the Magnificent then Tom the Juggler, Tim the
JesterJuggler, Juggler Tim. I just made those up, but those just type-
cast you into that one skill and that's all people will think you do.
And I think they are just boring overall.

I think if your real first and last name are really easy to remember,
spell, etc., that may be a good thing, and I can't speak about the
corporate market now, because I'm in the family market. Maybe the
corporate market needs your first+last name, don't know.

I think stage names work best when they just take into account
"entertainer." Could be a juggler, balloon entertainer, stilt walker,
magician, face painter, who know's?
But when a stage name is of the formula "First Name+skill name", I
think you are really limiting yourself in the long run.

So, Aaron Circus is successful in that regards, though I think this
name causes "clown" to come to mind.

Make the name goofy, fun, entertaining, and not limiting to "I'm a
Juggler, hire me to juggle." or "I'm just a magician." In the family
market, you need to be a variety artist anyways to make a living. The
successful ones around me are the ones with a huge skill set.

I think the problem with clowns is that they are just pegged as, well,
just clowns. It's Flowers the Clown, Slurpy the Clown, etc. (I made
those up). You don't really get 'unique' and 'different' from that.
They are only type cast as clowns, with no difference between each of
them.

Finally, RULE #4:

Make it a fun name for the kids. Kids/parents recognize me all the
time at events from different events I've worked. Not one has ever
remembered my first/last name. It's always "hey, remember him, he was
the juggler from that event."

To kids, I'm an adult, and saying my name is Jason Kollum or even just
jason is not "fun" for the kids, so it makes it difficult for them to
remember.

You'll become a celebrity over time in your area, and you want
everyone to remember your name. Who care's if they don't remember
your name is Aaron Sherman, if they remember your stage name, you've
done your job. Let the payroll department that will be issuing your
check and your W-9 worry about the correct spelling of your real name.

Hope this helps. Now, it's time for my milk and cookies. It's late.
Goodnight.

Jason










.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: [OT] michAEl, not michEAl!!!
    ... Michael Karas wrote: ... With a name like Aaron Gregg I can certainly sympathize. ... there are two ways of spelling 'gregg' but there's one main spelling for ... easy to spell, even easier than Micheal and Aaron. ...
    (rec.juggling)
  • Re: Stage names?
    ... I've used "Jason Kollum-- ... it must be SIMPLE TO SAY, SIMPLE TO SPELL and SIMPLE TO REMEMBER. ... I had to scroll up Three Times when I typed "Aaron B'Dazzle" just to ... by me who's probably the top entertainer around here, ...
    (rec.juggling)
  • Re: UK English Spelling
    ... I'm in Canada and we use British spelling for the most part so it's a question of having WM remember every new word that has two or more ways of being spelled. ... It looks to me, if spell checking is a feature that you need, then Outlook is the only Microsoft solution that "really" works. ... I looked into providing an English dictionary for Windows Mail, and while continuing to use the same dictionary, MS changed the file format, making this impossible unless I get some inside info. ...
    (microsoft.public.windows.vista.mail)
  • RE: BUG: Suggestions Greyed out word 07 spell check defaults to undo e
    ... It was working fine until one day in February my spell check in MS word 2003 ... for the correct spelling, the words are black for less than a second and then ... IT WAS BACK TO GREY!!! ... unuseable as you have to quickly click undo edit and try to pick the desired ...
    (microsoft.public.word.application.errors)
  • Re: Spell check suggestions greyed out in MS Word 2003
    ... On the left side of word options click on Add-ins ... It was working fine until one day in February my spell check in MS word 2003 ... for the correct spelling, the words are black for less than a second and then ... OEM or Retail OS: Asked for XP instead of Vista before they started ...
    (microsoft.public.word.spelling.grammar)
Loading