1) Wide variety of Music (from Elvis to Elton to Eminem)
2) Singing and Audience Participation
3) Goofiness
4) Charismatic and Crazy Talented Performers
This post is taken largely from emails I wrote to my brother-in-law and one of the dueling piano players I saw in Vegas.
The more I think about it and talk with others, the more I know that dueling pianos/piano players is an excellent subject for a documentary film. Before I saw the show in Vegas I had of course heard of dueling pianos, but the shows really struck me. Since then I've been to a couple more, including one in NYC, and my interest has been growing exponentially. There's so much great stuff to cover in a film, from the origin of the form, to how the "bits" were developed, the state of the shows/community today, and - most importantly - the players themselves. The players are by far the most interesting aspect. The skill, confidence, talent, patience, and intuition required is immeasurable. I feel like anyone who has ever performed as a dueling piano player must have a pretty intriguing story/personal philosophy/outlook on life. That's just my inclination, at least. I'll be quiet about it now until I do more research.
Since I've just really started thinking about the dueling piano project, I am honestly not sure when it will actually happen. But do I have the same feeling about this project as when I realized I needed to do a Connie project. Obviously, this one won't happen until the Connie project is done with or well under way or if I am in a position where I can make some kind of "short" to be later developed. Pre-production and research take a long time, anyway, so it's good to have it on my and others' radars now.
