Local Television hosts Debra Duncan http://www.khou.com/great-day and the voice of the Texan’s, announcer, Mark Vandermeer were M.C.ing the evening. I ran into Veteran newscaster Dave Ward as well. I had worked with him several times in the past with caricatures.

The Schaub’s had chosen a great lineup. Ray Charles, a fist holding a Texan’s helmet and Lady Liberty. A very solid show.

I hit the stage and rocked Ray to a great crowd reaction. Ray is the best opening piece that I have. Even though people have seen it on youtube and TV, seeing it live is quite different. It always brings the house down. I then changed clothes to join my wife and a few local friends that the Schaub’s generously allowed us to bring to fill a table. I nibbled a salad, because I still had to go on again. As dinner was drawing to a close I excused myself and suited up for round two. The Texan’s Helmet painting rocked! The team logo was painted in the studio before the show, and covered with black canvas to hide it from the audience until the right music cue. The crowd exploded as I revealed the logo and then waved a giant Texan’s flag, standing in a defiant rock and roll pose. Brushes clenched in my raised fist!

I went into my monologue about being “youtube famous” ( my kids say this: You’re not really famous, your just youtube famous. You’re just a talking dog!) and closed with encouraging the crowd to follow their dreams. “My biggest fear in starting this show was that if I was successful and became a traveling vagabond, what would that do to my wonderful family? The truth is that while I am gone a LOT, and it has been tough on them, it has also enhanced my family life. Never be afraid to follow your dreams!”

I then closed with Lady Liberty offering the challenge: “I’ve been holding out on you. I can do better. Would you like to see one faster or slower?”

“The only time they said slower was at the prison show.” and then little wing queues as I explain, “Let me lay it out for you. I have a piece of music that’s 2 1/2 minutes long. When the music starts, I will start painting. When the music’s over, my name is Dan and I will be Dunn. Would you like to see THAT?” Then under my breath, for effect “I hope this works.”

By this time they are looking for Jimi Hendrix as his version of the star spangled banner plays. We surprise them again with a feel-good-America piece!
The huge standing ovation just seems to go on and on. My mother was in the audience. Before the show, I asked if she wanted to go see me, because she has seen me so many times. Her reply was ” I love to hear them applaud for you.” Mom’s are sweet that way, but yeah… I get it. it is kind of addicting.

The auction begins and Ray sells for $8000 so I offer to do a second one in the studio for the same price, doubling the bid to $16,000. Then we do the same for Lady Liberty for two more paintings for a total of 3 Lady Liberties. $24,000. The Texans line up and sign the helmet painting with gloved hands and tubes of paint. Then it auctioned off for $12,000. A framed print in the lobby of a cowboy sold for $600. So the total raised was $52.600. The Schaub’s built a play room for the kids at Texas Children’s Hospital last year with donations. The gala raised far more but this added to the bottom line for them.

We like to say we are cash positive entertainment for gala’s. It has been an honor to raise the millions we have raised for such worthy causes.

James, my tour manager and myself were invited to play golf with the team the following day, but it was rained out and rescheduled. We showed up and had lunch with the Schwab’s and met Matt’s parents. Super nice folks. I hope I am not traveling and can play when they reschedule.

I hope we can do many more events for the Texan’s. Such great people. and my home team! Lucky me.

Onward and upward!

Dan

I started the show with Ray Charles, which always establishes credibility and amazes audiences. Then I launched into the custom of a RE/MAX balloon flying over a house in the rockies. I started painting using Sting’s “Brand New Day” then faded into Lenny Kravitz’s ” Fly Away” Then Madness: “Our House” followed by ” House is a rockin” by Stevie Ray Vaughn. Then “Up , Up and away in my beautiful balloon by the Fifth Dimension at the reveal. Each song was a minute or two which really keeps things from getting dull.

Then I revealed the RE/MAX logo waited for the response, then revealed the “for sale” sign, looked confused as if I had forgotten something, then revealed the “sold” sign.

And the crowd went wild. The president, Margaret Kelly, took the stage and enthusiastically shouted ” Dan Dunn Rocks!” The crowd went wild again. I was glad I had two of my kids in the crowd. Remember that next time you guys talk back, you punks! Daddy rocks!.

Almost a year has passed and a realtor friend posted on my Facebook page, the cover of the RE/MAX magazine with my painting on it. I had not seen it. Pretty cool. So I went looking online and ran across this story about how my painting of the balloon was bought by the Texas head of RE/MAX Richard Filip for $50,000. All of the proceeds went to the Children’s miracle network. You can see the video here.

Cool stuff. And it was wonderful to be able to be treated so well and enjoy a family vacation at the same time.

Thanks RE/MAX.

Feel free to download and save as your desktop wallpaper. Click to view full-size, then save to desktop.

I have always loved Indian food and over the years of working caricature events enjoyed drawing and visiting with the Indian ex pats in Houston. Because of Cindy’s mom schedule, we decided to fly her in at the end of the 7 day show so that we could take a few days after and sightsee. So New Years day after working an event for the Cotton Bowl in Dallas, my tour Manager, James Mackey and I hopped on a plane with 4 suitcases of stage gear and 4 full carry on bags and off we went.

Our first day in Delhi was pretty uneventful. Mostly getting settled and contacting the client and setting up for the shows. The auto show was still being assembled and was utter sawdust-choking-power-tool-noisy chaos. Talk about a labor force. Everyone was busy with one task or another and it looked days away from completion. But by the following morning the frenzied disorder had turned into a very futuristic pavilion and I had my own stage with a greenroom to live in for the next week. We were contracted for four Paintjam speed painting shows per day so we had our work cut out stretching and priming canvas.

Back at the hotel, a stroll in a garden and along the street at a foggy dawn told us that we weren’t in Kansas anymore. The sleepy street soon turned into mad traffic with honking horns and a crazy mix of Tuk Tuk’s, bikes, motorcycles, vendors, pedestrians, dogs and general bustle and chaos.

We then performed for the opening event for Suzuki at a hotel that was one of the most beautiful I have ever been in. The Oberoi, Gurgaon. As my Indian host, Ayush, said when we walked in, “excuse me… WOW!” A modern glass structure that was over the top luxury with modern lines. I have never seen so much chrome and glass in a structure.

I painted a scooter that they were launching in India. “The swish”. Then Bollywood dancers and MTV India and “India’s got talent” divas and stars took the stage. We had a few technical hurdles leading up to the event but James got it all sorted out just in time and I hit the stage like clockwork. A very interesting evening and I was very welcomed by the distributors who all wanted pictures with me. I found my hosts very polite and kind.

The next day was our first Auto Expo day. With traffic, it was about an hour to get in every morning and an hour and a half to get out. For the first show the audience blew me away. What a great crowd! And it only got better as the week went by.

As a performer, it is always nice to have what is known as a “sit down” show performing the same thing over and over day after day. It really helps tweak and improve the show. So often we do one night stands with custom work and it is what it is.

After a few performances, instead of exiting the stage after the show, I went in front of the stage and shook hands. This led to putting handprints with paint on Suzuki brochures. This led to later shows where I autographed brochures, which then got out of hand with the pressing crowds. A cheerful and excited crowd can turn into a pushing mob in a blink. Security had to whisk me away. Then I offered to hug the MC after the shows, he always declined. Then he asked for volunteers and after smearing paint on my shirt I would hug three guests. They LOVED it! I think I am on to something here. The rest of the week, we hugged three guests on stage after each performance, running in slow motion toward each other as the Chariots of fire theme played. It worked, so I have a new routine. Look out world. I am sharing the color and headed your way!

After the shows, totally exhausted, we would go back to the hotel, eat a silent dinner, just eating and staring into space and crash by 7:30 or 8:00. Four shows per day is a lot of adrenaline, noise and work. In the morning before the shows, James and i got out and did some sightseeing.

On day 6, at midnight, Cindy arrived. She enjoyed being at the show as we wrapped up the last day.

At dawn, our driver picked us up and we headed for Agra ( 4 hours away ), then Jaipur (two or three hours from Agra) to sightsee. Hiring a car was very reasonable.

Let me say a word about driving in India. First of all, the stripes on the lanes are merely whimsical suggestions. Nobody stays in them. Ever. Second, proper following distance is about one or two feet behind the other vehicle at 50 mph. The other vehicle could be a bike, motorcycle with a family of four, camel, Tuk Tuk ( called an autocar in India ), herd of pigs, goats, a cow or truck. it doesn’t matter. Follow as close and as fast as you can, squeeze into whatever space there is, cut everybody off at every opportunity and constantly, incessantly, blow your horn. Horn blowing is a courtesy. A safety device, it let’s the other drivers know you are coming through and that there is a madman at the wheel. A good driver blows his horn every few seconds.

Having taught two of my kids how to drive using a parent based drivers ed kit, ( the others took private classes ) And having several of my kids involved in horrifying wrecks, despite a good driving education, riding as a passenger pretty much makes me crazy. I have learned to just accept that I may die at any moment and so I simply tune out with glazed eyes and enjoy the journey as much as I can.

India, as we all know, is a very poor country. And yet has one of the fastest growing middle classes in the world. The bustle is everywhere. As are the contrasts. So you may have a glass skyscraper going up, but in the streets below are vendors, dust, animals, and campfires on the sidewalk. In fact, so many open fires that my main sensory impression of India is the smell of wood smoke. I imagine the American wild west in many respects, and yet with modernity. Cell phones and cars are the rage. Even though the streets and highways were never designed for such traffic.

Another thing we noticed was the absence of women on the streets. We saw them now and again, but the majority of the crowd is male. We can only surmise that the women are at home with the kids and working in factories.

So we pressed on through the countryside to temples, tombs and mountain castles that defy description. Some of the many things we saw wereThe Red Fort, The Old Fort, Jama Masjid, Safdarjang Tomb, Lotus Temple, The Hare Krishna Temple, ( My least favorite, sorry if you are Hare Krishna Built in 1938 and taken over by the Krishna’s. ), India Gate, Jantar Mantar (which is an ancient astrological observatory of epic proportions. Very amazing giant sun dials and marble star charts.) Agra Fort, Qutab Minar, Humayun’s tomb, Sikandra ( Akbar’s tomb) which had roaming Ibex, monkeys and green parrots. Fatepur Sikri, Amber Fort, and of course the amazing beautiful,Taj Mahal. We get around.

Other things we saw included a man on a sidewalk having convulsions while motorcycles whizzed by inches from his head, an overturned micro truck with bananas spilled out in the road, a high sided car in heavy traffic that had driven up on a barrier and had all four wheels off the ground while guys stood around looking at it wondering how to get it down, and lots of people going about the daily business of survival in a very overpopulated place. Of course it is true that you can see many of these sights in Harlem, yet, in India, we always felt safe and comfortable amidst the confusion.

After the tour, the protocol seems to be for the guide to take us shopping at local manufacturing places. We toured a marble inlay factory, were shown four workers out front making things by hand, then were offered tea in a showroom filled with handmade marble inlay tables of various sizes and styles. We caved and bought a beautiful chess set and a small vase. We later saw the same things for sale much cheaper in other shops. Then they showed us a jewelry store, same pitch. Reasonably high prices, not outrageous, not cheap. We declined, although if jewelry is your bag, it may be good stuff for cheap. It is not our thing. The next day it was rugs and textiles. All part of the tour. The guides must have a commission deal worked out. No doubt.

The evening brought us to Jaipur, more tombs, palaces, fortresses and street mayhem. We checked into a very nice 4 star hotel for $80 per night and had yet another Indian meal. I ate so many vegetarian meals that I thought I would come back thinner, but the lack of meat is made up for with butter and cream and fat in the food. I always felt good after a veggie meal and really did not miss the meat. My tour manager, James was not as lucky. He is not physically able to tolerate spicy foods and any inquiry as to whether a particular dish was spicy or not was a subjective opinion, usually by a person who had burned out his spice tolerance filter in childhood. James would order three entree’s and could usually eat one. I had one dish that was basically hot sauce with cornbread grilled kebabs. I have to admit, in addition to it tasting like lava, it did not have a redeeming flavor. Just heat. But I pushed through it. Native Texan.

Jaipur has the sky palace. Really amazing. Home of the Moguls in 12th century. It is walled with a 14 mile structure that resembles the great wall of China. The palaces are perfectly preserved time capsules and extremely interesting. You gain access via an elephant ride, which delighted Cindy. As we rode into the city astride the gigantic beast I sang ” a whole new world” from Aladdin to her. It made us laugh.

A word about the street vendors. Everyone tells you this, but you probably have to learn it for yourself. Don’t buy anything from one if you can help it. The impulse is to want to help them and in return get some cheap souvenirs, however, If you buy, they will simply not leave you alone. They will follow you for hours and will not stop all the while chattering about the price and that their family made these, (not true) . And buying from one will bring in 20 more. James, in exasperation, turned to a crowd of them and said, “I have tried nice, I have tried rude, nothing works. GO AWAY!” Finally he gave one some rupees, and said, “I will give you this money if you promise to make them all go away.” That sort of worked. At one point I told one guy that he was ruining my holiday. He really was. They are that relentless. Also the stuff they sell will be offered at a high price and eventually can be had for 1/4 of the original offer, so there is no integrity to the sale. My guide advised us to tell him if we wanted anything and he would tell us what a fair price would be. We did that in the end. He knew his stuff.

The hard ones to resist are the kids. James decided to buy some potato chips for some kids who were insisting that they were hungry. They were 6 and 7 years old. Soon they were all flocking around him. He ended up buying dozens of bags of chips and handing them out to the crowd. With a roar kids and teens appeared from nowhere and were running across the square and mobbing him. All of them laughing. An adult turned to James and said, “don’t ever do that again!” My guess is that the kids then were selling the chips in the square. The chip vendor was very happy however. You find yourself wanting to help in situations like these but the daily life is so desperate and the problems run so deep that it seems impossible to do anything other than harden your heart and move on. I wish I had the answers.

The last day was spent back in Delhi touring more ruins and monuments. We also toured the capitol streets. Cindy and I had fantastic tandoori for lunch. James found a Domino’s Pizza. From there we flew 9 hours to Amsterdam and took the train into the city to stroll the streets on an 8 hour layover, then flew the other 10 hours home. Whew! it is good to be home for a few weeks, then I am off again but not internationally.

India is an amazing place and I am so glad to have had the opportunity to have made the trip. What Impresses me the most was not the temples and monuments, although they were amazing, but the hearts of the people. Like the snake in this photo, in the end, it was I who was charmed.

I have a few new words in my vocabulary. “Namaste” which is a charming greeting with palms together like a prayer. it literally means ” bow to you”. The other word sums up India, which is “Kya Baat hai” which means “wonderful” an expression of pure joy.

His furious — but deliberate — actions loosely mirror the beats of the accompanying soundtrack. Simulating drum play, he rhythmically manipulates a brush in either hand; fingers doused with paint tiptoe across the canvas to a piano solo.

A few minutes and several finishing strokes later, Dunn spins to the canvas to reveal his creation — this time, it’s a portrait of Ray Charles. (The careful observer would then note that the soundtrack was a medley of Ray Charles hits.)

Welcome to Dan Dunn’s Paintjam, speed painting as performance, a show he’s taken to 89 U.S. cities and 11 countries, to television with Ellen Degeneres and Jimmy Fallon, among others, to Simon Cowell’s 50th birthday party in London, to a private event with Sir Richard Branson.

“She put it on her Facebook page and said ‘look at my dad on YouTube’,” Dunn said.

One day the video had 10,000 views; a week later it had 1 million. Now, that one video has been viewed 13.4 million times. Dunn and Paintjam had gone viral, getting 40 to 50 offers a day to perform around the globe.

It wasn’t always like this. Dunn grew up in Binglewood (where he and his wife, Cindy, now own a house on the same block as his parents). A self-described “at-risk” teenager, Dunn, 54, failed ninth grade, but managed to graduate on-time with Northbrook High School’s first class in 1975.

His father had him tested for aptitude, and Dunn was off the charts in art, scoring in the top 2 percent. So off he went to art school at Sam Houston State University, majoring in painting but also doing “a lot of sculpting,” he said.

He eked out a living as a caricaturist for years, dabbling in a few other ventures along the way.

“I loved caricature and dealing with people,” Dunn said. But he’d also reached a point where, with mounting debt and five children (“I’m a very creative guy,” he says, wryly), his wife asked, “What are we going to do now?”

Well-known speed painter Denny Dent died in 2004, leaving the field “wide open,” Dunn said. Dunn took an untested speed painting show to a Fourth of July event in The Woodlands, got a little publicity from Channel 11 (and YouTube) and the rest is history.

He began doing shows for corporate and nonprofit events — still his bread-and-butter — refining his act and learning how to travel with his equipment.

Along the way he got noticed by talent managers at SL Feldman and Associates, a Vancouver, B.C.-based agency, who are helping Dunn expand his show to include multiple paintings and illusions — to become a full-fledged production.

Inspiration
“What drives me is the idea of taking things to the next level if you want to succeed,” said Dunn, who takes inspiration from the biographies of Walt Disney, Thomas Edison and Benjamin Franklin.

Dunn tried out that next level with three workshop performances at Westchester Academy of International Studies last weekend. The shows were a raw, trial run of a multifaceted stage event called “Paint! Live on Stage!”.

“This show has all these moving pieces,” Dunn said. “I have to be like a conductor and coordinate all these people.”

Besides incorporating other on-stage artists, Paint! mixes in sand art — Dunn leads the audience on an American musical journey using his fingers, sand and a light table — more speed painting and optical illusions.

Dunn and his team spent six weeks putting together the workshop performance, and encouraged audience members to share their critiques and thoughts following each performance.

In the end, Dunn thinks the workshops went well, and the show merits further development.

“It has good bones,” he said, “(and) plenty of potential to be a really good show. It was a great workshop and now we clearly see what needs to happen to get it polished.”

He and his team will be working on that polish around a full calendar of corporate and non-profit gigs, trying to stay a step ahead of competition.

“When Walt Disney got into animation it was 20 years old, and people were bored with it,” Dunn said. “Disney set Mickey Mouse to music, then produced ‘Snow White’ in color.

“That’s my hero,” he said. “He was always taking it to the next level.”

By RUSTY GRAHAM
The Examiner

Paint!, Live on Stage, is taking shape in the studio and quickly becoming stage ready.

Just in time too, we are only a few days away from the work shop performance in Houston Texas that is going to prove what we have suspected. And that is there is room in the entertainment world for something brand new, fresh and exciting.

You think you have seen me paint?

When you first land in Augusta, Home of  the “Masters” golf tournament, you notice that the airport itself does not resemble an airport, but a gentrified Southern country club. There is even a putting green. Very southern and very welcoming. I knew I was in for a charming visit.

I often talk about how much I love the South and my home, the United States, and as an event entertainer and world traveler I am speaking from the heart. There is something rich, relaxed and civilized in the graciousness and sincerity that is the evidenced in the hospitality of Southern cities. New York can be exciting and the hustle and bustle of playing Madison Square Garden can be intoxicating, but there is just something about grits with breakfast and a “Hey, ya’ll” that I find soothing. I love the south.

After the Home Depot supply run and pick up the gear at the hotel it’s on to the venue. Bell Hall has been around a while. Elvis has played here. Jerry Lee Lewis has played here. Old play bills are pasted up backstage.  We set both events up and go to “T Bonz” for dinner where James devoured a porterhouse.

The next morning we are up and ready to rock. The first show is  a luncheon kick off event for the United Way. I perform Ray Charles and Lady Liberty to a long standing ovation and the crowd could not have been kinder to me and my work. As an event entertainer, standing on stage and feeling the love as I take a bow never gets old.

Afterwards, as usual, I greeted the group and had pictures made with the paintings. I am a lucky guy.

Then off to the brand new and beautiful Kroc Theatre at the Salvation Army headquarters for a smaller evening show with Stealing Angels  (www.stealingangels.com) and David Nail. (www.davidnail.com).

I was on Ellen with Taylor Swift and was in Japan opening for Fergie and never met either one. I have done so many shows with headliners like Lionel Richie, Queen Latifah, Bill Cosby, Chris Angel and the like and it ended up that our paths barely crossed, so I made a point of introducing myself and visiting with the girls, even though I had not heard of them.

Stealing Angels is a country group made up of Loretta Lynn’s Granddaughter, John Wayne’s granddaughter and the third is a descendant of Daniel Boone. And they are adorable, both backstage and onstage. Cute sweet girls. My daughters age, just so there are no misunderstandings. They called me “Mr. Dunn”. Ouch, baby, very ouch!

The girls had energy and talent and I really enjoyed their show. I did not get to visit much with David Nail, but I caught some of his show. Also crazy talented, and very nice backstage. I just tended to hang with the girls. What can I say?

I painted James Brown, (Augusta was his home) One of James Brown’s Daughters, Deanna, was in the audience. She said when I painted the cheekbones and the nose, “she knew that was Daddy,” and started crying. I called her up on stage. What an honor for me to give this gift to the Brown family.

I finished with the American Eagle to “the southern national anthem” ( Freebird ). One of the longest standing ovations I can remember. Then as they cheered I ripped open my shirt to reveal a T shirt underneath that said “Live United”. They went nuts. Did I ever mention that I helped a girl try out for cheer leader in High School? That’s where I learned these chops. I am sure of it.

The next morning I got up coffee in hand as I chatted with my wife over the phone and walked along the Savannah river. James picked me up in the SUV and we headed for the airport. He had been to UPS to send our gear ahead to Vancouver.

He was excited because they have Krispy Kreme donuts here. He said, Boss, I have some good news! ( he calls me boss… I like that…) He had stopped for donuts and noticed the newspaper stand outside. We made the front page!  Yeah!

The hotel would have had “USA today” and we totally would have missed that but for my junk food junkie tour manager. I wonder how many times we have missed that in the past?

What an awesome trip. Onward and upwards!
Cheers.
Dan

Let’s face it, charity events are a tricky business. If you donate your time and do shows for free, it leads to more offers for free shows. If you charge for your show it can be tricky, you can be seen as greedy. And then you still have to block out the calendar, turn down a possible paying job and keep revenue flowing in so that the Paintjam staff and monthly expenses are paid and the machine keeps running. I have five other people on the team behind the scenes making it all happen. And two kids in college.

The good news for our show is that we have found that we can get paid for the performance and sell the paintings afterwards with the proceeds of the sales going directly to the charity.

With few exceptions, the show usually has ended up paying for itself many times over. As much as 12 times over our fee, although the average is two or three times.

A painting, with the right heavy hitters in the crowd can sell for $5,000 to $10,000 each on average and have sold for as much as $60,000 each. I am delighted and stunned when that happens!

Recently we have added a new twist that we learned from working an event in Boca with Jay Leno and watching him auction off studio tours and Leno show tickets.

After the three performance paintings are sold, and many people are bidding for three pieces, I take to the stage and offer to paint smaller paintings, 3 or 4 foot canvases in my studio for a set fee. ( depending on what the originals just sold for this can be $3,000 to $5,000 each. We then donate 70% of that fee back to the charity and keep 30% for priming painting, crating, shipping and administration costs. Because we now have several to paint, it is worth our while and it does not cost the charity anything to offer it.

Recently we were hired as an event entertainer to perform in Lubbock Texas for a homebuilders that was giving away a free home to a wounded vet. Anthony Villareal was severely burned over most of his body and is missing a limb. He has the best attitude and is a really great guy.

As this was a relatively small event the client was only expecting to cover our costs. We raised $33,000 at the auction, which was awesome, then offered the smaller paintings and sold 6 more for another $5,000 each, raising a total of $63,000. In addition, I painted another 5 foot canvas of Lady Liberty for Anthony at no charge. My gift to him for his new home.

What a night and what a win for everybody involved. I love what I do.

Smaller additional 3′X3′ and 4′X4′ canvases in the studio ready to ship after a show.

Auctioning off Lady Liberty. Going, going, Gone!

Waving the flag. Texas is a state of mind. And Texans are fiercely patriotic about the lone star state. The crowd went wild.

There were 300 people in the park watching the show. Can’t really tell from this photo…

Asking for approval to stamp the star on the flag. They approved. And then some.