Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Reflecting on Las Vegas

I loved it.  And it was there I discovered the glory of dueling pianos. It's everything I love about life in one place. 


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.