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NOV-DEC VEGAS ISSUE
METANOIA EXECUTIVE AND STAFF
A NEW WAY OF THINKING
PUBLISHERS
SALME JOHANNES LEIS & ALLISON PATTON
COPY CHIEF
CALEB NG
Assistant copy chief
EXECUTIVE DIRECTORS
JILLIAN CURRIE JR LEIS AND HEINO LEIS
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF MARKETING
DAL FLEISCHER
PHOTO ARCHIVIST
GALINA BOGATCH
INTERNATIONAL DISTRIBUTOR
SUZETTE LAQUA
INTERVIEWER
BRITANY SNIDER
VIDEOGRAPHER
ATTILA KOVARCSIK
CONTRIBUTORS
Gerald Auger Marilyn Lawrie Maureen Bader Hank Leis Alex Barberis Salme Leis Andy Belanger Chris MacClure Donald J. Boudreaux Dunstan Massey Dr Tim Brown Seth Meltzer Kamala Coughlan Thomas Mets Brian Croft Dr Caleb Ng Cheryl Gauld Janice Oleandros Len Giles Stefan Pabst Kulraj Gurm Dr Allison Patton Carly Hilliard Luis Reyes Marilyn Hurst Cara Roth Dr Arthur Janov Dr Bernard Schissel Randolph Jordan Pepe Serna Richard King IV Britany Snider Peter and Maria Kingsley Lisa Stocks Mark Kingwell Dr Jack Wadsworth Rod LAmirand Dan Walker Suzette Laqua Harvey White
Since the founding of Metanoia Magazine by three Naturopathic Doctors and the Leis family in 2008, we have produced over ninety issues. We have had over one thousand articles written, including interviews of over 100 actors, 100 artists, dozens of politicians, philosophers, psychologists, and experts in other fields. A majority of the writers have post-graduate degrees or have expertise or knowledge of a special nature. We are also cosponsors of the Vancouver Web Fest.
Cover: “Archway” from the World Heritage Collection by Mario Basner
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METANOIA CONTENTS
A NEW WAY OF THINKING
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
BY HANK LEIS
THE ART OF MARIO BASNER
BY BRITANY SNIDER AND SALME LEIS
RANT: DECENCY
BY HANK LEIS
SCOTT LAND
BY BRITANY SNIDER AND SALME LEIS
THE VANCOUVER INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL KEITH THOMPSON
BY BRITANY SNIDER AND SALME LEIS
VANCOUVER FASHION WEEK DAVID TUPAZ
BY BRITANY SNIDER AND SALME LEIS
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This is our Las Vegas issue. We sent Britany Snider, Salme Leis, JR Leis, and Dr. Allison Patton on a five day sojourn to Las Vegas, where what happens in Vegas normally stays in Vegas. In this case, it does not stay in Vegas – but comes to you our readers. They took photographs and did over ten hours of interviews. The subjects of the interviews were Mario Basner, Scott Land, David Tupaz, and Keith Thompson. Scott Land is a master of a dying art. He is one of fifty master puppeteers left in the world that practices this craft. He makes the puppets of celebrities for celebrities or for exclusive shows and for those people who would like to buy one just to have a puppet hanging around. Scott Land is the Puppetman. David Tupaz dresses people in elegant finery. He is hailed as couture’s new genius who has found a home in Las Vegas and who on his client list provides his latest creations to the rich and famous. People Magazine dubbed one of David’s creations as one of the evening’s most memorable gowns. Keith Thompson is a composer. His list of professional credits include musical director and director for the San Francisco and Las Vegas companies of Jersey Boys, for The Producers at Paris, Las Vegas, for Hairspray at the Luxor Theatres in Las Vegas and more. As well, at the Smith Center for the Performing Arts, Keith is doing The Composer’s Showcase. Our feature story is about Mario Basner. His art graces the cover of Metanoia Magazine. Basner is one of those unusual people who gets up one morning and completely reinvents himself. His is a magical story, for all those who are tired of how mundane life is – and really want to change it. As a former drummer in a band – one would think that Basner with all the adulation of his fans already had an exciting and rewarding life – but there was something else he desperately wanted to do – and that was to capture the beauty of our past edifices and structures as they faded into the art of dreaming as nature captured them in their embrace. To say that the art of Basner is unique is not to give enough credit. All who cast their eyes on his magic are enraptured by its surreal aura. Photographs of his art do it no justice. Seeing is believing – and more than that, feeling the experience – being there and absorbing the ambiance. His is a truly remarkable art – an art that is spiritual and life changing. Basner will be showing his work at different venues commencing late this year. He welcomes you to visit. Metanoia – will of course publish another of the Rants by Hank Leis. Some of our usual writers will not be included in this issue – however they will be back in the future. Enjoy. JUNE 2015
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QUESTIONS FOR A PHILOSOPHER interview with professor mark kingwell
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Interview by Britany Snider and Salme Leis
As a drummer, I feel like I’ve always created someone else’s vision and not my own. This photography series really brought things into perspective for me and brought many things to the surface. You start as an artist because of your own personal interest. You continue because of the acknowledgment you receive, as you are in a position to affect people and touch their emotions and this was the evolution of that. I was looking for something that was missing in me for a long time, not knowing what it was and then, in 2013, this found me. Built in 1898 as a treatment center for tuberculosis, this hospital complex was the largest of its’ kind and a world leader in research and treatment. It included sixty buildings, a train station and its own power plant, with over two hundred hectares of park-like grounds amidst a scenic forest located one hour south of Berlin. Some sections of the hospital still
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remain in operation as a neurological rehabilitation center and as a center for research and care for victims of Parkinson’s disease. However, the majority of the complex has been abandoned since 1994. The thing that struck me when I got there was that I didn’t find what I was expecting to find. I expected to find old and decrepit buildings, basically a photographer’s dream, which is not what I saw when I walked in and that is what lead to a second visit. What I saw was extraordinary, really the best of humanity. People had stepped up to the plate and doing something, not because they had to but because they wanted to. Care, passion and dedication to those in need. Providing not only a place that is functional but a place of healing; physically and spiritually. Even though it’s now empty and there are no people there, those things still remain. I wanted to tell the story and capture the beauty of what this place represents.
You are a multi-talented artist with music and photography at the forefront of your career. How did your life as an artist start for you? It started when I was about six years old. My parents bought me a trumpet for my birthday. My parents didn’t have much money. Post WWII they had nothing, like a lot of people in Germany. They had to build from the ground up. Later on when I was about thirteen, I switched to drums and was heavily involved in orchestras. Classical music, theater, things that had depth to it. I received a lot of education starting at eight years old. A great thing about where I grew up, in a little town about seven thousand people at the time, is that had two orchestras, three choirs and a pipe band. About forty percent of the population was engaging in music, whether playing in instrument or in the creative process. It was nice to grow up like that. I got my first camera at about sixteen, I played around with
it but I had been doing music for ten years at that point, my path was already paved. I used it for my own pleasure and creative outlet. I knew though that while I was going to be a musician, my parents insisted that I learn a respectable job first. So I worked for one of the biggest publishing houses in Germany at the time and completed 4 ½ years of schooling. As part of the training I received a lot of training in photography and graphic design. I learned a lot about how to work a dark room, it was an experience where I was exposed to a lot of art. That is where I really took a liking to it. Was there a fear going through the transition from drummer to photographer? Yes, and no, basically no because I had done it before, taken something creative and made it a career. You have to be fairly gutsy to want to make a creative profession a career. You have to have a lot of determination, a lot of will power and discipline. I think there is a distinction to be made, the medium that you use is just one way that you express yourself. Creative people always look for a way for self-expression. For me it was music that came first, it taught me a lot of lessons and values that are important. Music kept me out of trouble as a kid, which was good but it also teaches you accomplishment and hard work. The ability to touch people, to affect people through creative means is really the most valuable of them all. Your photography has been described as a unique experience for the viewer because it captures an
project. I went there with the intention to experience it, a very innocent plan.
At Nevada Art Printers
unusual essence and feeling. How did you capture these images? It’s never what’s on the surface, it’s what lies beneath it. That is what I saw the first time that I went to the property. It was very overwhelming and incredibly humbling. I really had to take a step back and think about how I was going to do it, how I was going to do the buildings justice. Nobody had ever portrayed the site this way and I believed that it deserved it. My connection with the space and story came across in the images that I captured. From a personal point of view, the moment I got there it was a turning point in my life. I was looking for something, for direction, for purpose, for meaning and something I could identify with that was truly me. When I went there I found it, though it really found me. I was compelled to go, when I saw an image on Facebook in early 2013, for no rational reason, I just wanted to go. I didn’t go there with a plan to do a big art
I was determined enough to go through a lot of effort to gain a permit to access the property. I applied for a photography permit, which was denied. I reapplied probably about five times and it was denied every time. Eventually they got so tired of me, they told me to email the owner, so I did. The owner was opposed at the time to photography and was only letting the site be used for film production. Some big movies were also filmed at this location, Polansky’s The Pianist, Valkyrie, it’s quite an iconic location. The owner and I had a long email conversation and somewhere along the way, he invited me to come visit. I think he took a liking to my determination, persistence and passion behind it. That year I happened to be on tour with the Australian Bee Gee’s Show and I invited him and his wife to come see the show. So you ended up meeting with him and that must’ve been what changed his mind? He must’ve been able to see your determination and persistence. It’s quite amazing when you think about it. A very small gesture turned into him allowing me access to this two hundred acre site and him just handing me the keys. What he actually did was literally open the door to my future. My life completely changed that moment, I found my voice and I found my purpose that day. That brings me to my next question, one we always ask. What would you define as success?
Oh, boy that’s a difficult question There is of course financial success, which people perceive as actually making it. Then there is personal success, which at this point I’m probably happier than I’ve ever been because I’ve found something bigger than me. It’s fulfilling that I’m able to contribute something to people’s lives. The feeling I have supersedes any financial success. Of course, I also need a bit of that so I can continue. Not to put words in your mouth but do you think that this is because you have found the key? The key being passion, does that scare you a little? How things just fall into place? I think that I have found the key. Shooting this “World Heritage Collection” has been a tremendous experience. I don’t think it’s scary, I think it’s wonderful. It’s wonderful because I’ve never experienced this before, not on this level. When I had success as a musician with big shows, it was wonderful and great. You’re entertaining people and sometimes touching them emotionally. Maybe getting a pat on the back from colleagues, friends and them saying “Oh, that was really great.” This is different though, because it touches people on a different level. It really
goes down right in the gut because it’s real and something that is important. It’s just profound. It’s profound and meaningful and once you’ve seen it, you’ve experienced it. Looking at the series, you’ve taken the journey and that stays with you. The “World Heritage Collection” has taken two years to complete and has already won you many accolades. What does this mean to you? This series isn’t even fully released yet. In one word, everything. It has changed my life. It has completed my process of self-discovery and my transition into photography. It has helped me reach the point to where I finally belong. I find I have so much more to say through photography than I ever did music. The responses that I’m seeing from people and the support coming my way, its’ been significant. It’s all very humbling and gratifying. The difference between music and this, is that people are taking this into their homes and businesses and having the piece inspire them every day. I read that you recently donated a piece to Criss Angel’s auction last week. Is that something that you are interested in? The philanthropy side of things?
The very first available piece from the “World Heritage Collection” was donated to Criss Angel for his “Johnny Crisstopher Children’s Charitable Foundation” to help him fundraise for pediatric cancer research. It was very successful and I was happy that I could help. I met with Criss last week and we briefly discussed the next event. I’m happy to be able to support this cause. The ability to be able to do something like this, is very rewarding. If I were to reach into my pocket and donate a hundred dollars because that’s all I can afford is one thing. But to be able to contribute a piece that can raise a lot more, means a lot. It’s something that this project allows me to do, and I think it’s very important that I actually do it. It’s the same principle of the people who have built this place. They did this to help others and to contribute to those in need. I’m looking to apply the same principles in my work. Do you ever feel vulnerable unveiling them? How do you coach yourself through it? Every second. A good friend of mine Philip Fortenberry, who actually is now the contributor for the original score in the video, said to me, “Once this is hanging on the wall, it is no longer your own.” It is something that exists and is its own thing. I see it now as we (artists) become guests of our own art, which I’ve never experienced. In a way, I’m a little scared, or I was the first few times. I’ve accepted that not everybody is going to like it. The reactions have been 99% positive, so that a good indication. People react in different ways though. That is the nature of art. What is the most interesting reaction you have gotten so far?
At Nevada Art Printers
Across the board there seems to be a continuity about how people react. The first time, it scared me to death and because the silence of the reaction. There is no “Ah….” It’s silence, but at the same time, there are jaws dropping, sometimes smiles and sometimes
“Archway” from the World Heritage Collection
there is sadness. It depends on the outlook of the individual and how they experience it. What I’m trying to say is that the tears are not tears of sadness but more tears of awareness, awareness of why this was built and why is there a connection to this. I think that’s all part of life. I’m not afraid of showing something that may not be all pleasure, that might spark a knot in your throat. It’s all part of life and it’s a big factor why these people built this extraordinary place.
All of the photos display a lot of hope, joy and care. If you are in the mindset to look for that, and you’re ready to find the hope, it will provide it. There is beauty in all of it. There’s beauty in every picture.
These photos are all light and airy, but on a bad day you could also relate to the darkness in the photos. You could really easily relate your moods to the individual picture. Has this happened to you?
My process has always been the same. It’s simple, it’s intuitive. There is always a lot of hard work behind anything successful. People always see the tip of the iceberg, but there is a lot of work behind executing the end result. I think it’s very important to maintain artistic integrity and stay away from self-presentation. As soon as you do anything for the presentation of yourself, you no longer represent what you are showcasing in your art, you
It depends on your perception though. To me all of these images, the scene, the site, all of these images offer hope. It doesn’t matter if it’s a dark scene or a light scene. It’s all how its perceived.
You talked a bit about your process, but all artists seem to have one. Did you want to tell us a little bit about your own personal process? Not just for the collection itself, but as you as an artist.
are just feeding your own ego. So my process is to trust my gut, trust my intuition and pray that the outcome can be worth something creatively. We touched on this a bit earlier. What went into the making of this series? A lot of research. The research, getting permits, the things I mentioned early. The first visit I was overwhelmed and under prepared. I had time restrictions and didn’t have the right equipment, I was also on tour at the time. The next time was very different, I had the time and dedication that this project required. I literally exhausted all my resources. By the time I got to Germany, we’d spent all our money on equipment and things needed to do this justice in the right way. I said to myself, let’s have a little faith in it. It’s going to come together
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That’s right. The face of the paper is mounted to optical acrylic. This paper was the perfect choice for what I was trying to do. It creates depth and takes people there an creates the experience, we were talking about before. Nevada Art Printers has been invaluable to this project. I have spent a lot of time there and it’s been wonderful. Printing on this size is available to other people, but not many people do it. The bigger pieces which are being printed on five by seven and half feet pieces of paper, take multiple people to actually handle the paper. Printing something of that size, shuts down all other production.
On site, shooting “Archway”
somehow and it did. I took a lot of time to assess what I was looking to capture and how to manifest that in a printed piece in the end. I developed an editing technique to create the kind of depth and dimension that you see now. I probably restarted the editing of these pictures five or six times. In the end, I threw technology out the window and limited myself to the techniques available in the darkroom. So treating the digital negative the way I would treat a film negative, only using contrast and light. The platform is different; the medium is different on a computer. I’m not a big fan. I love working with film because its organic and feels like you are being creative in the darkroom. Sitting at the computer feels like work. It involved a lot of contemplating, assessing and coming back to it the next day. Trying to experience it again. A lot of pacing around the house, driving my wife nuts!
frame is handcrafted olive wood and is simply gorgeous. The frames set the perfect stage for these images without taking away from them. There was a lot of test printing. I had tried printing in Europe and all over the US. I tried many different printing methods, every paper but nothing worked. It never occurred to me to look in my own backyard. I found out that one of the top three print makers in the US is right here in Las Vegas. His name is Robert. B. Park and he owns Nevada Art Printers. The paper that is being used right now, for this collection, is proprietary to him. He developed this paper, so nobody else has it. It’s call Lumachrome. It’s the gloss right? Are they printing for other people or just you?
Listening to you, I think it’s quite clear that you are very determined. Where do you think that comes from? Your determination? Because it sounds like it came from somewhere when you were quite small, like something you always had. Oh, that’s a good question. I think it’s an accumulation of things. I think it started with where I grew up, how I grew up. We touched on the town I grew up in, my backyard was a forest, there was a castle. These things are very European. Europeans have a profound respect for the ground they stand on and for their culture and the things that are left of it. I was brought up being creative and being in music. There is a value being brought up like that. Those are the memories I remember, memories that drive me. Every time you go home, where you stem from, where you come from, you kind of recharge. You reset your batteries, reset your values and outlook
You have chosen a very unique way of printing and the frames are gorgeous. Could you tell me a bit about those? I knew if I wanted to keep the sense of realism that I had to be involved in every detail of the production process. I partnered with Roma Moulding, a framing company in Canada. The
Criss Angel
With wife Deanna
“Grandeur” from the World Heritage Collection
on life because you reconnect with your upbringing. This is the same for me. The strongest of influential factors in life is family, love and upbringing. It’s our roots. Every time, going home for me is quite emotional as you get older. I live abroad and live very far away from my parents. I see them once a year, which is bittersweet because I have to leave again. It’s getting a little more difficult, every time I go back. I’ve realized the one thing that happens to us growing up and getting a little bit older, and hopefully a little bit wiser, is that everything we tried to fight when we were younger, what they were trying to teach us, they were right. They knew what they were trying to teach us. There’s a level of respect that comes with getting older that you couldn’t grasp being young and inexperienced. I have so much gratitude now.
This translates to my next point, it’s heritage. The things you were surrounded by, people you were involved with, things that you were doing. Which brings me to the name “World Heritage Collection”. That was picked for a reason. It’s those things that are important to me, because I believe they are important to the world. I think they are desperately needed in the age of technology. Personal attention and personal care in what you do, your craft and just a sort of pride in what you do, is getting less and less. A connection to the real world? Do you think that we are lacking that as a society? Yes, there’s a big disconnect for a lot of people. When kids grow up on an iPad, they miss out on planting flowers, or they miss out on spending time at the beach with their parents, having playtime and doing innocent things that children
should be doing. I think that technology is necessary, but takes a lot away. I think more than ever, now we need reminders in those lessons that history can teach us, those extraordinary things people have done to pave the way for our lives today. I think we need to very careful to not mess it up. Values are very important and they translate into today’s world, just like they did back then. It seems like everybody wants to be a manager these days, and nobody wants to do the actual craft. I like craft. I like when somebody takes pride in something that they do. It doesn’t matter of it’s a multimillion dollar project or if it’s a woodworker who’s making a beautiful frame. It doesn’t matter. What does matter though is the mindset behind it and taking pride and care in what you do. I want to
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inspire people to do that and see the reward. It’s those principles that are applied in this series and was not easy to do. Did you ever feel so exhausted that you didn’t think you could meet the challenge? No. Interestingly enough, no. Frustrated many times, especially in the editing process. There is no handbook for this one. Because I had to apply my own darkroom principles to it and my outlook. I was looking for that organic feeling, which is something that connects me when I look at it. It’s the kind of thing you don’t go out looking for and then you connect the dots and you just find it. It just happens, I think, I feel actually very privileged to have
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found this place in my heart and in my life.
lives of the collectors who appreciate its merit.
What does it feel like when somebody has your art in their personal space?
Looking forward, what is next for you?
It is very rewarding to know that when collectors invite my work into their homes, the inspiration and empowerment that projects from my images becomes a part of their lives. I get to share with them the tremendous effect that living with these pieces has on a person and how they affect and feed the soul every day. It’s the collectors who allow us artists to continue our work and strive to create extraordinary pieces to inspire and enrich their lives in return. I really feel privileged to be able to contribute something as profoundly evocative as the World Heritage Collection to the
What’s next? Well, what’s next is to expand on the “World Heritage Collection”. First of all, this has not been released, so releasing this and then supporting whatever is necessary to present this in the same way. This is going to keep me busy for a lifetime, but I also want to expand on the series. I want to tell stories, that deserve to be told. There are a few things planned, that are actually quite exciting.
Mario Basner with “Choices” from the World Heritage Collection
To find out more about Mario Basner or collection inquiries, please visit www.mariobasner.com
Rant Rant Decency
Today, as I watched Libertarian Presidential Candidate Gary Johnson being interviewed by CNN’s Fredricka Whitfield, I realized that decency, at least in politics, is a forgotten virtue. Fredricka is one of the best and capable of CNN’s stable of attractive interviewers. She is quite beautiful and articulate, however it is her kindness that I like and respect, that shines through when she speaks to her guests, unlike her cohorts who revel in their invidious ‘gotcha moments’, whom I do not like nor respect. But on this occasion as she was trying to ‘save’ Johnson, she actually took him deeper and deeper into the murky waters of the ugly mire of biased politics, until he had no place to go; so he drowned.
Make no mistake about it, that the lack of immediate recognition of the name ‘Aleppo’ and then admitting the mistake, was the act of a decent man and NOT an ignorant loser. ‘Forgetting’ was made into the big deal that it became, by the biased and sensationalizing media, not for the gravity of the mistake, but because Johnson is in the way of a Presidential battle between two vulgar behemoths who have more gall than true intelligence. Johnson is a purposeful man who articulates profound thoughts that the public, well trained by the mainstream media, do not subscribe to. The media want controversy and fights between candidates, not solutions to American issues. In this battle between Trump and Clinton, they want someone hurt, not saved. Johnson, even when goaded will not give them what they want, which is to pit him against Trump. Trumps taxes and business practices vs Hillary Clinton’s husband’s dalliances with numerous women are all nonsensical diversions. Johnson (a successful former governor) is a capable man and a great human being. But he will not win, because of those very facts. His Vice-Presidential candidate is of equal caliber and substance. But both are too competent, honorable and thoughtful to succeed in this
By Hank Leis, author of The Leadership Phenomenon: A Multidimensional Model
political atmosphere.
I am terrified that Trump might win, as I am with all newbies, but more worrisome for me is that the heartless, single minded technocrat Hillary Clinton would actually be the next U.S. President. The world is in for bad times as narcissism is being mistaken for competence. Trump will not be allowed to win even if he wins. The concept of Democracy itself will be challenged by the left. He is merely the beard for Clinton’s machinations and the established parties. And make no mistake, Clinton was destined to win at the outset of this election. There are enormous challenges for the next President. The U.S. economy is on the verge of collapse. American dominance in world affairs is ending. Nuclear weapons seem to be proliferating the planet. The list is endless, yet the name ‘Aleppo’ is the news of the day, not for what is happening there, but for Johnson not recalling the name immediately. Even the honorable and thoughtful Johnson cannot solve all the problems the Republicans and Democrats have created over years of indulgent management. But he would, at least lead us away from the abyss.
CNN’s Fredricka Whitfield interviewing Libertarian presidential candidate, Gary Johnson
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Scott Land The Puppetman By Britany Snider and Salme Leis
How did you get your start? What does Bob Baker mean to you? I started doing marionettes when I saw Bob Baker Marionettes when I was a kid. I saw him at a fair when I was ten years old. He inspired me because he was not hidden. Puppeteers had always been hidden and he was out in the open, doing what’s known as cabaret style, where you see them perform. It was amazing and I watched every show, he did three shows that day.
We didn’t have any money. I didn’t come from a wealthy family. I checked out library books. That’s how I first started puppeteering was with information from library books, then I began building marionettes, basic characters and I did my first show when I was 12. When I went to school at UCLA, I moved down towards that area and worked for Bob Baker for a year. I went out on the road and did his shows as the number one puppeteer and that’s where I learned a lot from him on performance, but I also learned not to own a theater. That’s the problem because in the United States you have
to have a lot of backers and supporters to keep that going, otherwise that’s your whole life, keeping the theater open. I think he made it to 86 but he had sold the business and bought it back and then he remortgaged all his properties and ended up with nothing. So he gave me a valuable lesson. Love your art, love your craft but don’t buy a big space. This is my space and I couldn’t afford this if I was in LA but in Vegas I can afford it. Mostly, I keep doing shows as a one man show and we go in and do spot dates, I don’t own a theater space. I’ll let somebody else own in and then I’ll go in and do shows for them.
all that there. Here you don’t get any of that kind of appreciation. We’ve heard you talk about finding the soul of a puppet. Can you explain how you do that or what the process is? After you finish a character, you practice it in front of a mirror. It will tell you what it can do by just allowing it to move. In time, you start to find what its’ groove is and when you do that, its soul starts to come out not long after. The audience will tell you if it’s working. I very rarely record my shows, I record the audience and that tells me what is working or not. The soul of the puppet is unique. When I give this character to another puppeteer, they will not work it the same way and they find its soul, spirit or its energy. That is the easiest way for me to identify with it. Some of your characters are well known public figures. Which one is your favorite character? Morgan Freeman holding the Obama puppet with Scott Land
How would you describe what it is to be a marionette artist?
puppetry was left behind and even the Muppets have a hard time surviving.
It’s a dying art form. There’s very few people in the world doing it, so it makes you extremely rare and unique. It also means that doing marionettes is the hardest form of puppetry so if you really want to get good you have to practice and you also have to build great marionettes or puppets that can be manipulated well. It’s a challenge constantly, but a good challenge. It doesn’t bother me. Ironically, I live in the worst place for appreciation of puppetry or marionette’s in the US. The rest of the world appreciates it. When I lived in LA, they appreciate it even less because everything is about forward thinking, meaning digital. All the digital stuff took over and then
That must be a real experience when you’re going other places that really do appreciate it, are you ever inclined to want to move to those places?
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Always. Every time. In South Korea, absolutely, they treat me like a rock star. I’m understood there. Culturally its’ part of their identity. Mexico City, another beautiful place, the theaters there are really beautiful. I’ve performed in seven hundred or eight hundred year old buildings, where there are several little balconies filled with families and kids, with five hundred, six hundred people coming to see my shows. These theaters are very small and intimate. They pay twenty-five cents each to come in, to see the show, and they’re all dressed up like it’s Sunday. Then afterwards, they all stand up and bravo, bravissimo and
That’s like asking your parents who their favorite kid is, but if I had to pick one, usually it’s the newest character because it’s the biggest challenge. I know I can go anywhere in the world and do the balloon clown and I know that it’s going to be a success. It was the first puppet I ever made, I’m on the third version of it. The face is based on Julie Andrews from The Sound of Music. The balloon clown really brings out emotion in people. There is no movement in the face or animation at all. The audience can interpret the emotion from what they feel. I don’t force it, they find it. The clown blows up a balloon in the first act and it floats. Then the balloon just pops, the music builds and he comes over and begins to cry. You can hear the audience. Afterwards, particularly on cruise ships, the spotlight is usually on the puppet and I’m out of the scene. Businessmen will come up and want to talk to me and say, “Hey, I cried at
The best is to have him sit down on some kids lap and then they freak out. When that happens I say, “Obviously Republican.” What is the most interesting reaction you’ve ever gotten?
Inside Land’s workshop with Trump marionette
the clown, nothing does that but why did it do that to me?” I go, “Well, it brings you back to when you were a kid and also in a theater, you can really focus, you’re not thinking about other things.” In his mind, it’s not an act. It’s something that’s just basic and organic, in the moment he felt sadness and so he allowed it. Without anybody around watching him. What’s the process for making them? You start with the face and then fill the body?
Celebrities react differently but they’re also alike to another. I’d say the most interesting reaction for me was when John Lasseter (the head of Pixar), who loved what I was doing and he asked me, “Do you mind? He wanted to record the show. Next to him was Morgan Freeman, and Morgan asked if he could record. I was doing the Obama skit, so as I was doing this, Morgan and Lasseter were filming. Morgan said “I’m going to send this to him.” I said, “What?” He says, “I’m going to send this to Obama.” He’s a buddy of his. So he sent the little video clip and 20 minutes later, he got a text back saying, “I love it.” He never says a word because as soon as one of the political characters says a word you lose half your audience. Half hate you. If you have them come out and dance, then everyone likes you. How do you come up with the idea of a creating a puppet? Do you find the concept first or a show first or do you create the puppet and then find it’s character?
I’m constantly taking down notes. Then when I go to build something, I usually find the music first, then I’ll put the music on, start to sculpt and that’s when I’m creating a design. I’m working on one, he’s a bit of a comeback. We’re doing Bill Clinton, this one here is going to sit on Hillary’s lap and she will work him like a puppet. That’s the bit. You are one of fifty people left in the world that practices this craft. How does that make you feel? That’s why we started a school here in Las Vegas, here in our shop. I’m trying to inspire young people to consider this to keep it going. We’ll take about fifteen students this weekend in three days. They fly in from all over the world to take the class, we do it three or four times a year. When I’m gone, so are the puppets. If people care they’ll be on display and people will say, “Oh look what the use to do.” Everything is going digital. Nobody wants to get their hands dirty and work because this is dedication. That’s the premise of the school, to inspire at least one or two just like Bob Baker inspired me. Who are your favorite people to entertain?
Yeah, I’ll sculpt the head then cast it in a mould. I always make several copies and store them. Then we make the body parts and the little joints that give them movement. We put them together and either I’ll sew the costume or I have a designer who does it. Then put the controller in after Lisa is done painting it. Once its complete, I’ll practice with it for three weeks before we show it to the audience and as I said, I always tape the audience. Their reactions tell me what works. It actually takes about three years before it seasons and becomes workable. Obama works really well now, but it took about four years. With Anne Hathaway
In life and in general we always say no, because its easy to say no. It shuts everything down. In improv or in the scene, always agree to whatever the concept is even if it doesn’t agree with what you’re thinking, just go with it and then you’ll be amazed when things happen. What do you define as success and how does that shape your everyday choices?
With Dick Van Dyke
Always kids, particularly special needs kids. Very much so because people are afraid to connect with them. Children connect with everything. They relate to puppets as if they’re real and they get jokes, they get everything. They’re my best audience. On the other end are retirement homes. Again, they’ve been forgotten. When you go in and you do you act they go, “Oh”, this reminds them back when they were kids and they used to go to variety shows, Vaudeville shows some of them. The hardest ones are teenagers, go figure. Can you tell us about your experience on Team America? What was it like? When I got hired for Team America, Matt and Trey had no idea what they were getting into. Which in a way is brilliant, because if they had, they wouldn’t of done it. They took the most difficult puppetry and said we are going to do a feature film. It was really difficult. Essentially every shot is a setup, they have to prepare. Matt and Trey didn’t know how to
prepare anything because they’d never done it before. Nobody’s ever done a feature film with marionettes. Literally every scene, I’m doing the marionettes and then do a reaction and Trey is doing the voice. He controlled the mouth, radio control. It was like a beautiful tango between him and I because he’d improvise and then I would react, we never planned it. I’d have Kim Jung-Il walk out on to the stage and start pointing and shaking and he starts doing the mouth and going “I bought it. I bought.” He said, “Let’s shoot.” That’s how it was all done. Everything was first take.
Success is never having a legitimate job but doing what I like to do and being able to support myself and make a living. Lisa and I had the same plan so together, we get to travel the world and get to make a lot of people happy. Wherever we go, people treat us really well. We have achieved success. Most puppeteers work until the end. It’s amazing, Bob Baker worked all the way to his end. You keep working because you love for what you do and you don’t want it to stop. You just keep doing it. Looking into the future, what is next for you? We would love to do a Team America 2. Matt and Trey said that they would never work with puppets again. It was very difficult for them. At the beginning they said, “We hate actors.” Then by the end of Team America they said, “Actors aren’t so bad. We hate puppets.”
You must be good at impersonations because you probably pick up on people’s mannerisms quickly. Yes, you study and simplify what they’re about. The key is to always agree to whatever the concept is, whoever has a concept and in improvisation it’s called deny, never as why, and always reply. Those three things will make every scene happen.
With Britany Snider and Salme Leis
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Keith Thompson By Britany Snider and Salme Leis
Your achievements are many and you're obviously quite talented. Where did it all start and what is your musical education like? I'm the son of a preacher. I grew up in the South, so my family was not of major means or anything like that. We were poor. When I was in college it was the 1970's. Anyways, the BEOG (Basic Educational Opportunity Grant) was this odd thing that only existed for a little while, but I happened to qualify. My high school music teacher was a big supporter of mine and it was his Alma Mater that I went to in Mississippi. He championed me. He got me a full scholarship with the BEOG so I was able to go to college and not walk out of it with a huge student debt. I see the synchronicity of that and, like I said, the universe guided my life in a certain direction at all the right times.
When I went to college, I was already writing music. I had been writing music and musicals from a young age. I didn't know what I was doing. I was just doing what I did. He snatched me up from a rural school that I was in to come to my high school. I was in all the choir programs and I was the accompanist. He would just push, push, push me and made me grow. Then, he got me the scholarship to college, which is a Liberal Arts College in Hattiesburg, Mississippi where I got my Bachelor’s degree, but I got two of them. One in piano performance and one in composition and theory. They're very different. A Bachelor of Music and a Bachelor of Arts. It was tough, but I managed to get through the whole program. First of all, I started early and I got through in three and a half years so I was done. By the time I was twenty I had my two Bachelors degrees and I had applied to FSU for grad school.
When you were teaching, did you know when someone had it? You could see it. The spark. You know immediately. You watch them get better, but you know when someone's got that special thing. The skill, is if someone's got a very special voice you want to make sure that's mentored and nourished. Not to backtrack, but when you first started, where did your love for the arts and music come from? Were you a child who was surrounded by music or was there just somebody that you fell in love with? It was the church. We all had musical talent in my family. My mother played piano and sang with my dad. He was one of the people who would pick up a trumpet and be able to play it or a violin. I started playing piano. My sister was three years older, she also
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At first I was writing church musicals because that's all I knew. Then, I would produce them with the kids in my school. That just made sense to me. Everybody was like, "You know that's not normal, right?" I said, "What do you mean?" Well, it's amazing. I don't know. It's what I did. Then, when I got to college and I discovered musical theater, that was fun. Can you tell us a little bit about The Composer Series and what it means to you? How did it all start?
With Olivia Newton-John
played the piano, practicing her pieces from her lessons. I would be sitting there as she practiced at home, listening to her play. Then, when she was done, I would get up and I would sit and play what she just did. By ear? Uh-huh. She'd get real mad and complain to my parents. My parents started to realize, wow. As soon as they could, they put me into lessons as well. I found out I had a very natural ability toward theory. I didn't even know theory, no one had ever taught it to me, but I immediately knew intervals and I knew forms, and things just made sense to me. That's where it came from. In the South, we lived in the country. I did live in New Orleans in the beginning and I lived in Northwest Florida. There was a big high school there so I was very involved in the choir and the choral program, and playing as well. Then, high school definitely. We also lived a lot rurally. When you're a kid in rural Alabama there's nothing for you to do. There was no internet. There really was nothing. I would entertain myself. I had a piano in my bedroom and I would play. My parents left me alone. They'd go to prayer meetings and my dad was always holding Bible studies and things like that. They'd just send me off to my room and I would write.
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I have always written. I've made my living as a musical director, arranger, orchestrator, but writing has always been important to me. I would just somehow always just be writing something in my heart, in my head. I started writing with a comedian friend of mine in New York. I had a whole bunch of, twenty years’ worth, of comedy novelty material. Why don't we just do a best-of? We had enough material to put together a best-of. We did and we called it Kooky Tunes. KT, Keith Thompson, Kooky Tunes and did the little anagram thing. It ran off Broadway. I guess you'd call it off off-Broadway, the Laurie Beechman Theatre in New York City. This was in 1989/2000. Then, I went on the road. I came back and 9/11 happened. Right after 9/11 New York was so hurt. People started coming to me and saying, "Please can we do Kooky Tunes again? We just need to laugh." I said, "Okay." I called the cast and we all got back together and we did it. It took off in a new way. Do you know what I mean? All of the sudden it meant more to people. The cynicism that had been there. People are so cynical and judgement in New York. It's really a hard nut. All of the sudden, we were giving them something that they needed and they did embrace it. Right. You asked me what it means to me? First of all, it feeds my soul. It's like my gift to the community. That's what I've decided because the community is so important. When I first got here I felt so alone when I was first here. To be able to reach out, and they look at me... people identify me with that more than they identify me with
anything else. When I decided to come out to Vegas, it wasn't when I got here a very fertile environment for writing. Here everybody wants to hear the songs they know. The theater community, which was at the time Mamma Mia!, We Will Rock You, Phantom, and Hairspray. It was beginning to have a theater vibe out here in Las Vegas. Those of us who were doing it were finding each other and clinging together because we were an anomaly. Many of the actors were not even from here. They were from New York and they were only going to be here as long as their show was running. Whereas, the musicians like me and some of the other musical directors and writers, were basically planting our roots here. We looked at each other and we thought, “Why don't we get together and just do a night where we just do our original music?” There was this gay bar in what they call the Fruit Loop and it was a little drag queen bar, but they had a stage and they had a baby grand piano and they had one microphone and a disco sound system. My friend Michael Brennan, who was my co-conspirator in this whole thing, and I started there. It was free once a month. The new President of the Liberace Museum, approached me to use their cabaret space with one of Liberace's fabulous pianos
With Debbie Gibson
back there, and one microphone. No bar or anything like that, it held ninty people. He said, "I want you to come do this in our space." We did and we ended up going there. The paper found out about us and printed something like, "The best kept secret." All of the sudden we couldn't fit everybody in the room. I just kept this idea going that I kept inviting people, I kept it down to an hour and a half, and we grew. Three and a half years we were there. By then, the Smith Center was being talked about. A big Arts Center. I went for a hard hat tour of the Smith Center and their cabaret space, which holds two hundred and fifty people. I thought, "How are we ever going to find two hundred fifty people?" We've been at the Smith Center now since 2012, so four years. It's one of those things that just was a great idea and when people found out about it they couldn't get enough of it. They want original music. You can't get a ticket. Everybody wants to come. It's the coolest thing, and the level of creativity. I found people are writing here. They're writing everything. Jazz, country, rock, pop, musical theater, comedy, classical music. Who was it that just lit up your imagination? My friend who I told you about who was the comedian who I would write comedy for in New York. He was this very interesting fellow who had a funny voice and he made me laugh. He didn't like me at first because I was a church guy, but he managed to get that out of me. I was bound and determined we were going to be friends, and to this day we are best friends. He still lives in New York and he's a writer there. He actually came out, he was in the comedy musical, IDAHO! In college, his dorm room was across the hall from mine. He said, "If we're going to be friends you're going to have to learn how to drink Scotch and you're going to have to learn some musical theater." It is true. We would play the album, remember those, of Gypsy and Mame and Hello, Dolly!. This is early
With Bill Medley, of the Righteous Brothers
'70s so Company came out and Pippin and The Wiz and Chorus Line. I was just like, "Oh my God. This is amazing." These were really amazing shows so I was learning the vintage ones and then I was also learning the new ones. When I went to New York I was ready. I got more education from him. Together we wrote two musicals for our summer musical theater program in college. My partner, Philip Fortenberry, who is somebody who I moved to New York with from Mississippi is a pianist. He’s been the pianist in eight broadway shows. He's remarkable. He uses the inspiration around him to create, he doesn’t write anything down. He feels it from inside of him. Can you tell us a little bit about the story of IDAHO!, what is it about? Yes. IDAHO! is a parody or a tribute take-off on musicals like Oklahoma!, musicals from the golden era. It has
some similar characters. Buddy's basic premise was in all those old musicals they were really filthy. Everything was subtext. The girl who can't say no. I always had to get my mom to explain it. I was like, "What does that mean?" It was so subtle. Our Annie was called I do Ida. Ida Dunham. It's things like that and he's so clever with all the interesting things. At that point is where we really veered off from the norm. We had an Anna Eller character, Aunt Pearlie, but she was this town matriarch. In our play she was married, so she had her own relationship. You had all these love stories. It was a mail order bride. There is a guy in town, he's so mean and awful that no one would talk to him. He has to send off for a mail-order bride This beautiful virgin bride comes to town, and because of hard times in her family back in Ohio she's had
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to sell herself to the catalog for the mail order bride. There she was and she meets the handsome hero who kisses her before and thinks that he's the one who's ordered her. Then, it's mistaken identity. When they kiss they fall in love, and then the bad guy comes in and says, "Hey, she's mine." She's like, "What? I thought? You tricked me." Then, Aunt Pearlie steps in and says, "He kissed her." Now we have the whole process show is what happened while we're waiting to figure it all out. Then, there's the I do Ida. She does it with everybody in town, except for the one guy who loves her and wants to marry her and settle down with her. Eventually, that does happen so that's very sweet. Then, you have the older couple who is the sweetest story in the whole thing because she's a strong matriarch woman and he's the Justice of the Peace but she keeps cutting him off at the knees because everybody listens to her and not him.
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He's had a problem with his .... It's part of the plot and it's hysterically funny the way it happens at the end where he ends up getting in the tornado. There's a tornado ballet. There never was a tornado in Idaho. I don't know if you know this, but Idaho doesn't have tornadoes. There's a lot of potato jokes, but that's what IDAHO! is about. It's racy. People come out of it going, "Wow, I don't know if I can bring my kids to see this, but it was funny." You don't expect that. Can you describe the moment when you realized that you were becoming successful? That's a hard one because I've always just done what I do. I guess at some point I realized that people started to take me seriously. Not that they didn't always take me seriously, but it very well may have been here in Las Vegas whenever the Composers Showcase became such a popular thing that I began to read about myself in the paper.
I knew that it was something that really mattered. What are your goals now? What would you like to do? With the accomplishment of IDAHO! on the stage at the Smith Center, I really could’ve died tomorrow and I would have felt like something really amazing happened. Full circle. Knowing where it had started and then where it ended up. When I say ended up, it's not over. What have I not accomplished that I want to accomplish? I still would like that Tony award for composition. That would be something that I would say I will continue to strive for. I've got a couple of different projects in the works. Whether any of them will lead me to that Tony award, I don't know, but that's a nice goal to have. I can see it on the hill and continue to reach for it and do what I can do.
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Fashion Week 2016
David Tupaz Where did designing start for you? I never had any formal training in fashion. I was born in the Philippines. My mother is an American citizen and she moved back to Hawaii while I was in high school. I finished school in the Philippines and I graduated in interior design. After graduation my mother insisted I move to the US. When I got here, I wanted to pursue my interior design career. If I wanted to do that, it would be another four years of school. At that time, I said to myself, "No, I don't want to go back to school�. I couldn't get a job. There were no jobs available. There is no industry in Hawaii so I moved to the mainland a few years after, first to LA and then moving to New York. I had a very hard time finding a job once I got there. One day a friend of mine showed me and ad for an "Assistant to
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Then he looked at me literally straight to my eye and said to me, "So, why are you here?" I said, "Well, the ad said assistant to the pattern maker. It did not have any other criteria. It didn't say I have to have experience." He laughed so hard.
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the pattern maker." I remember the interview, it was eight in the morning and freezing cold. I met with Mr. Flemming, an older man probably around 6'4", who looked more like a general than a pattern maker. He said immediately, "So, what's your experience in fashion?" I said, "Well, none."
I did reason it out and I said, "You know what, I graduated interior design. Design is relative. We also use the same tape measure, we use inches and centimeters," I ended up getting that job. That job was my education. I learned about coats, dresses, cutting and everything. The difference between Italian and the French tailoring and the way they did it in London. The difference of how all those techniques applied to the United States and how the Americans kind of mixed it all up. When he was a teenager, he was an assistant to the pattern maker at the house of Balenciaga in Paris.
I worked with him for almost six and a half years, it was like I had a personal tutor. That's when I realized how great fashion was. It is the only industry in the world that changes every season. Human beings are the only beings in universe that have the chance to beautify themselves, who can improve ourselves. I wanted to make people feel beautiful. My grandparents were very important in my life. I lived with my grandfather through college. He would always tell me, "David, you have to be the best of what you can be." One night he explained to me why. “The reason I tell you that you have to be the best of what you can be," he says, "if by the time your dreams come true, or by the time you reach your goal, I might not be there anymore. The reason why I wanted you to be the best of what you can be," he said, "Is because there's only going to be one William Shakespeare that after 500 years, we are still studying and appreciating his work. There's only going to be one Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, that after 300 hundred years we are still playing his music. There is only going to be one Chanel," he said, "that has changed how women dress and made the little black dress a uniform for all women of style." "Who are these people?" He said. "They're not Presidents, they’re not / Kings, they're not Queens. They're regular people like you and me, but what they did is they became the best of what they can be and what they contributed mattered. Since you were a little boy," he said, "I knew you were naturally creative because I would see you run around the house with a little pair of scissors and you would grab magazines and newspapers and you would start cutting them and making them into cars and houses and trees and stuff like that. So as a little boy, I knew you were creative, naturally. You have to feel honored that the Universe gave you the gift of creativity, because it is not available to everyone. Because the Universe is using you that through your
They will be remembered in history forever. That's when you know that you live forever, is through that," that's what he said. I suppose that's why you started to create a community of your own so that you can pass on? The reason I moved to Vegas, number one, was also a change in life. After New York, I moved to LA. I was designing costumes for TV shows, like Malcolm in the Middle, and Will and Grace.
Reality Star, Brittany Fogarty, modelling for David Tupaz line during New York Fashion Week
talent, you can make life better and more beautiful." "But glamour, richness, luxury, wealth, fame, you cannot take with you," he says, "There is only one thing you can take with you, and it's that you have made a difference regardless how big or how small. Why? Because hundreds and hundreds of years that you've passed, people will still be celebrating your name. Mother Teresa, Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King. Glamorous, rich, fabulous people.
That's when I established my own brand. I do custom for a lot of the celebrities who use clothing for their personal lives, not the ones they use for the Red Carpet. I became a little more involved with a lot of those people I worked with, kind of privately. I was able to establish relationships with them through the clothes I make for them. I would say, a challenge happened to me in 2008. I had a show room in Los Angeles and I was robbed. My collections were gone. All my work, all my designs for fifteen years were there and they were gone. That's when I moved to Vegas. Who would have thought, Vegas? I mean, I've always been a tourist here, just like
Kaya Jones wearing a David Tupaz dress during the Grammy Awards
With Tanya Callau Thicke and Kris Jenner
With Jon Voight at the Golden Globes
With Taylor Swift
you guys. For me, Vegas was a vacation spot, to gamble and watch shows. There was nothing else you thought of when you talk about Vegas.
embarrassed, she said, "Oh, no, I'm not a designer." I said, "Oh, well you must be a fashion student." And she kind of lowered her eyes and she said, "I'd love to go to fashion school," she said, "But my parents can't afford it."
As she was explaining this to me, I was looking at her and I was saying, "Oh my God," in my head, "I'm looking at the future David Yurman. I'm looking at the future American designer for Tiffany's. But at the same time, my mind was telling me, but what's going to happen to this young girl? She just told me that her environment wasn’t helping her in her creative growth. Her parents couldn’t afford to further her education.
I had some friends in Vegas that I met through my partner Matt. They asked me to go to dinner and First Friday. The first Friday of every month in downtown Vegas is where the city does Fashion Friday, which is a big art festival. They put up tents. It's like a big glorious farmer's market. Artists, designers, people selling handmade good, etc. They said, "It's important so that you'll see local culture. You just know the strip. There's life beyond the strip". I was crossing the main street I noticed a young girl standing by a light post. She was using a tv tray to display her items You know one of those folding tables? She had like a white, plastic tablecloth, and on top of it was a jumble of unusual shapes and things. As I came closer, I realized they were jewelry, and when I picked up one, I was blown away. I mean, I've been in design for so long. I was looking at this and I was saying, "Oh my God," I said, "If this was Alexander McQueen or John Galliano or one of those big designers in Europe or in New York, this would be $1500 dollars." And I said to her, "Did you make this?" And she said, "Yes, I did." I said, "Oh, wow. Are you a designer?" And she was
40.
I said, "How old are you, if you don't mind?" And she said, "I'm turning sixteen next month." She's fifteen years old, she's a baby. I said, "And you made this?" And her work was a juxtaposition of different shapes and forms of metal I've never seen before. There was aluminum, there was a stainless, there was like a copper-looking thing. But, it was like a collage of different shapes, unusual shapes, it looked like sculpture. It was fabulous. It was hanging on a braided sort of cord that I didn't know what it was. I said, "you know what, usually jewelry designers use a lot of beads and crystals and all that and they incorporate it in their designs. I said, "What are these?" I said, "What are your elements?" And she goes, she asked me, she goes, "Do you drive a stick?" I said, "No." And she goes, "Okay." So she took it She took it from me and she put it on. It was fabulous. It was such a glorious piece. She goes, "Did you see these little coils that go up?" I said, "Yeah." "It's a mechanism of a clutch." "You see this," she said, "This is from a piston of an engine." She was making it out of car parts. Who would have thought car parts can be fashion?
Then my head said to me, "How many young kids are all over this city, that have this inborn talent?" The following morning, I called my lawyers, and I said, "How do you start a nonprofit organization?" In short, $4,800 later, I filed for it. It's called the Las Vegas Fashion Design Council. That's how it started. Its’ mission is to help young kids who cannot afford to go to fashion school or art school. We have training programs, we have educational programs, we have a workshop. It's all held here, that's why I have this theater and sometimes it becomes a classroom. It's not just fashion as in clothing, it is also jewelry design, purse design. I have friends in the industry that will come in to do a seminar with them. It started then and gosh, I was all over the papers. It was a big thing in Vegas, because there was no such thing as a fashion industry. We have fashion retail. Shopping, the biggest stores are all here. The name brands are here.
So I said to myself, "How do I legitimize my organization?" I wrote the mayor's office, I wrote the governor's office, I wrote every freaking government office, the art council, to see if I could get support. In about a month and a half or two, I did not receive any response. On the third month, I received a call from the mayor's office saying they wanted to meet. I remember being introduced at the meeting, “We have a gentleman by the name of Mr. David Tupaz who's sitting in front of you. He has a project that he wants to discuss with you with regards to a nonprofit organization in the fashion industry and all of you have a copy of his letter in your folders." I was shaking. I said, "Good morning, thank you for having me." And I was holding down the microphone button. And they said, "If you're not speaking, don't press it, because we can hear your breathing." "Sorry," I said. They were all reading my proposal. Then the first question comes and it's, "A fashion industry in the city of Las Vegas? Are you familiar that the city of Las Vegas is about gaming and entertainment? We never
really had any other industries such as that, nor has the state of Nevada ever manufactured anything for the country." He says, "Have your done your research? Creating an industry especially like fashion, do you think we have the right infrastructure? Do you think we have the right skilled workers that will be doing such an industry?" I said, "You know, fashion is the only visual factor that identifies every major period in human history?" And I said, "To top all that, it is the oldest institution there is. Older than governments, older than empires, older than civilization itself. Why? Because it was there at the moment of creation itself when Adam and Eve realized they were naked in paradise, fashion was born.� Mayor Goodman goes, "Oh my God, this is great. I never thought of it that way. Isn't this great? We're learning something," she goes. "This is great, I love it," she said. She talks to the city council, "Every time I wake up in the morning and get out of bed it is not what am I going to have for breakfast? It's what am I going to wear? So thank you Mr. Tupaz," she says. You know, I thought "Thank God your Mayor is a woman." Because she understands.
At the end of his LA Fashion week show
Okay, I have one more question: You have an obvious gift for fashion and leadership. But where did your gift of being able to explain yourself come from? Where did you start to know how to, not just explain yourself, but help others like that girl explain herself in the story. Where do you think that came from for you? Is that natural? I don't know if it's natural but I think it also depends on the interaction and first and foremost it's your intention. We human beings, we only evolve in one thing and that's relationship. A relationship with each other, relationship with nature, our relationship with our pets, our relationship with our boyfriends, our girlfriends. We only evolve in relationships. If you find that relationship is something that you can study, that you can practice, that you can perfect, like a craft. Then I think that will solve a lot of things. I think I have that gift. One of the things that is important, I don't know if this will apply to you or not, one of the things that I also have that I do, is I don't have expectations.
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