Give yourself a break from the winter blues and support a good cause at the same time!

Roderick Russell is bringing his award-winning and hilarious stage hypnosis show to Augusta, Maine in support of education!

With schools facing enormous district-wide budget cuts, Jacqui Byron and Treasure Equestrian is proud to present Roderick Russell to the community, with proceeds to benefit the Maranacook school district (MSAD #38).

With 1,000 seats and a fresh $100,000 sound upgrade, the Augusta Armory is the perfect place to pack in for a night of hilarious, mind-altering entertainment.

The show is appropriate for families. On-stage participants are strictly volunteer (don’t worry, Roderick won’t force you on stage! He’ll only suggest it…). Come and watch the show, or be part of it and create memories to last a lifetime!

Best of all, it supports Roderick’s number one cause - EDUCATION!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

RODERICK RUSSELL, SWORD SWALLOWER
Charles Wood Theater
Glens Falls, NY
August 17th, 2009

TICKETS AVAILABLE ONLINE:
Wood Tickets (Roderick Russell, Sword Swallower)

Roderick Russell brings unusual entertainment to upstate New York.

One of only 50 living sword swallowers in the entire world, Roderick Russell has been described as strangely sophisticated, successfully blending suggestion and psychology with his own personal mind-over-body techniques to present a show that bravely pushes the limits of the possible - both physically and mentally.

Presenting the most dangerous and bizarre feats with wit, charm and style, Roderick also deftly navigates deep into the minds of the audience to create the most personal and profound type of theater experience. Call him a sword swallower. Call him a mind reader. ABC News calls him a “rare find.”

Ripley’s Believe It Or Not featured performer and Guinness World Record holding sword swallower Roderick Russell is coming to Maine to perform two unique, two entirely different shows in February, and you have two chances to catch him!

On Friday, February 6th, the Winthrop Performing Arts Center plays host to the show that National Public Radio calls “not only the oddest event of the month, but probably the weirdest of the rest of the year.” Experience the sword swallowing, bizarre mind reading, fire eating and escape that has launched this show into the national spotlight. Not circus, not sideshow, but definitely strange, sophisticated and powerful!

Then, on Saturday the 7th, Roderick will be performing his laugh-out-loud stage hypnosis show at the Oddfellow Theater in Buckfield, ME. Utilizing his training in clinical hypnotherapy, Roderick induces a group of willing volunteers from the audience into a surreal hypnotic state, then takes them on a comedic journey into their psyches that will have you laughing so hard your face will hurt. Watch as the participants believe they’ve lost certain body parts, think that they are world champion dancers and can’t remember their own first name!

I’ll be coming to Maine in February of ‘09 for a series of shows at the Winthrop Performing Arts Center and the Oddfellow Theater (Turner, ME) and I need your help!

If you’re a fan of the hypnosis show, the sword swallowing show, or want to see either for the first time, and you want to receive free signed posters and a free ticket to the show of your choice, now is your chance!

I am looking for dedicated fans in Maine who want to help promote the show throughout the months of January and into the first week of February by plastering posters all over town, spreading the word by telling everyone they know and otherwise dragging all of their friends, family, extended family and strangers out to the shows. I want to pack the house at both venues – the more people, the better the energy, the more fantastic the show – and the best way to do that is to get the word out by good ol’ fashioned grassroots marketing.

I’m extremely flattered to find that what was supposed to be a mere sidebar appearance in this month’s issue of Hartford Magazine has in fact blossomed into a full two-page spread, complete with a stunning photograph by Eric Tetreault!

The article – titled Performer Roderick Russell knows how to attract attention - is a question and answer format interview and, though there were some liberties taken in transcribing the very long phone conversation – necessitated by space no doubt – the overall fidelity is quite good and the article does indeed represent me well. Many thanks go to the author, Mara Dresner, for not only doing such a great job, but for allowing me to take up so much space in the magazine!

I love it when people send me messages letting me know of the places that they’ve seen me. It’s endlessly flattering and, as I often don’t know myself where my image will be splashed, exciting and humorous to discover all the new places that I’ve been spotted. So, in the interest of shameless self-promotion, I’m writing to tell you about the latest place I’ve been seen…:

On a billboard!

The last fun sighting affiliated with Magic Hat was in a storefront window in Manhattan, spotted, photographed and sent along by Bethany Boles. This billboard – also for Magic Hat – was spotted in Scranton, Pennsylvania. Quite odd, as I am currently sitting in Burlington, VT, home of Magic Hat, though I actually live not too far from Scranton! Love the coincidences…

Any more sightings? Ads, television appearances, magazines… Send them along!

###

It’s now the last week of August and here I sit, in one of my favorite cities (and old home town), Burlington, VT sipping coffee in my favorite cafe, reflecting on the whirlwind tour of shows that was summer, 2008. There’s technically only one week left in the summer touring season and I have only a few shows left in the Northeast before I make my way back to Pennsylvania.

At this point in the year I’d normally be eagerly looking forward to a couple weeks of downtime following Labor Day, but it’s not to happen this year. My usual time off the road has quickly booked up and, between September and October alone, I’m looking at a run of 49+ shows. No rest for the weary I suppose – or is that the wicked?

Sword swallower and mind reader Roderick Russell will be appearing at the Pennsylvania College of Technology for a show that is completely free and open to the public. (sponsored by PCT Student Activities)

WHEN: Saturday, April 19th
WHERE: Klump Academic Center Auditorium on the PCT Campus (W. 3rd in Williamsport)
TIME: 8:00 pm
PRICE: FREE!!!

The theater is a beautiful little performance space with 561 seats that I first worked in back in, oh, 2004 or so. We’d like to fill the space and have a great time. If you’re in the area be sure to come on out, and bring your friends!

Hope to see you there!
###

tags: mentalist, pct, penn college, pennsylvania college of technology, roderick russell, sword swallowers, sword swallowing

Many thanks to all who turned out for the book signing this past weekend at Borders Books in central PA. Not only did we have a capacity crowd, the store also sold out of their entire stock of the book!

The current edition of Ripley’s Believe It Or Not will soon go off the shelves to make room for the upcoming edition, so if you’d like to see me at a store near you, make sure you drop me a line soon or have your bookstore contact me!

The Take a Picture, Get a Poster promotion is still running, but again, if you want to participate you better do so quickly, as the book won’t be around much longer!
###

tags: book signing, bookstore, borders, ripley’s, ripley’s believe it or not, roderick russell, sword swallower, sword swallowing

After a long journey through the postal system from Germany to the United States, along with time spent being forwarded within the US itself in an attempt to find me while I travel, the March issue of Matador Magazine, Germany’s best-selling GQ-style magazine, has finally made its way into my waiting hands.

A bit late perhaps – the fault being entirely mine, as I’m currently away from home – but the spread looks great, making it well worth the wait.

Alongside the usual gear reviews found in men’s lifestyle magazines (audio equipment, auto news, gadgets), how-to lists and entertainment news, you’ll also find an interview with Charlize Theron, a profile of Shaun White, and a list of bands with the guru’s they adore. Amy Winehouse apparently works one-on-one with David Sye, while the Beach Boys go in for the more 60’s commercial message of the late Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. And of course there’s also the stunning spread (oddly not the cover) of Sabrina, aka Miss Matador. What men’s lifestyle magazine would be complete without a Miss Magazinename?