So there I was walking the floor of the IAAPA Trade Show in Las Vegas on November 19, 2009 when I came upon the Pop Noggins booth and it’s owner David Peters of Absolute Amusements and Event Mall.  Since David Peters owes me money for a judgement I have against his company, I asked him if he had my money.  He responded to my question by saying, “You don’t have insurance”!  Thinking maybe he didn’t hear me, I asked him again and again he responded, “You don’t have insurance”.  Thinking maybe he didn’t have the $866.00 he owes me, I told him he could make payments.  He looked at me and said the exact same thing, “you don’t have insurance”.  Now my curiosity (and frustration) was peaked and I asked him if he was stupid.  He just looked at me and I asked him again, “Are you stupid”?  I said, “Dave, I know you’re telling people I don’t have insurance and that you think I am about to go out of business just so you can win that job”.  He again started to say that I didn’t have insurance and I again asked him if he was stupid.  He stepped to me holding a full bottle of water with the cap off and said that we can discuss this, but not here or now. I told him I was sick of hearing about him lying to potential clients about me and my company telling people that we have no insurance, are about to go out of business.  He told me we would talk about this later and he thumped my chest with the open bottle of water repeatedly, spilling the entire contents down the front of my suit.  I guess this is as close as he can come to fulfilling his threat to me in a previous email to me in which he wrote; “You really are a big bully, I wish I was there so I could kick your ass in person, you may be big, but I bet I could kick the shit out of you”.  David Peters is out of control.

As a 6′ 5″ man, it took everything I had not to beat the hell out of this little bully right there in the Popnoggins booth on the trade show floor, but common sense got the better of me.  I went to the show security office to report this offense and they suggested I also talk with the Convention Center security who, after hearing the situation suggested that I file a report with The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department for Battery, which I did (they have a station right there).  The Convention Center and IAAPA took a report as well.  NOBODY could believe that Dave Peters would cross the line and commit what is legally Battery.

Now aside from the humiliation of having someone throw a full bottle of water on your suit in the middle of a trade show, I was infuriated that this guy actually thinks he can inflict this type of behavior on me and get away with it.  This is why I will be pursuing this through the police department as well as discussing a civil case with my attorney.  This is much like what I described in an earlier post when I originally sued him for backing out of a rental agreement and holding the self proclaimed great and powerful Dave Peters accountable for his actions .  And yes, despite his arrogant claims that he is the expert on, well everything, a judge ordered him to pay me the $800.00 cancellation fee, despite David Peters best efforts (and what he claimed to be $15,000.00 in travel costs to defend that $800.00 breach of contract claim).  He has yet to pay the $866.00 judgement, claiming that he has received nothing from the court telling him to pay.  The gloves are off with this bully and I intend to share my opinion and facts about Dave Peters, Event Mall, Absolute Amusements, and Pop Noggins.  It made me sick to watch this guy dupe people in his Popnoggins booth trying to sell them a system that he knocked off from Dance Heads, the original (and in my opinion the best) system of it’s kind on the market.

Now don’t take this next info as fact, because this is just my understanding from some Pop Noggins owners and resellers of what it’s like to deal with David Peters.  The purchase price seems to vary wildly, (probably depending on how many Pop Noggins systems David Peters has sold recently).  The price can range between $18,000.00 to over $30,000.00.  But here’s the really important part…  Each system has to login every month to the main Pop Noggins computer to get a password key to reset it for operation.  Don’t login and your system will not work until you do.  I’ve been told that Dave Peters has threatened his customers who have paid $20,000.00 to $30,000.00 to him for their Pop Noggins system, that if they don’t do exactly what he wants he won’t reset their system.  And what does Dave Peters want?  He wants to be at the top of the search engine results whether it is in his home city of Orlando or not.  He wants this so that he can get the contract for the rental and either broker it to the people who have already paid him tens of thousands to buy a system, or use it as a sales tool to sell another Pop Noggins system.  He has even been known to sell a Popnoggins system to a direct competitor of one of his existing customers.  So if you pay him $20,000.00 to $30,000.00 for a Pop Noggins system thinking that you will be the only person in your market, guess again.  Decide you want to sell your system…  You need Dave Peters written permission or he won’t reset it for the new buyers.  Maybe he’ll give his consent, or maybe he’ll deny the transaction so that your buyer will come to him for a new system instead.  With the lack of ethics he’s demonstrated to me over the years, my bet is on the latter.

But again, this is all just what I’ve been told by several sources.  You should do your own careful research and contact existing Pop Noggins owners by Googling Pop Noggins to see who comes up.  Ensure them that you will keep their feedback confidential when asking them their opinion on David Peters and Pop Noggins.  By buying a popnoggins system, you are entering into a long term partnership with someone who has one of the worst reputations I have ever heard of in the industry.  He is likable and charismatic, until you sign on the dotted line, then it’s Dave’s way or no way.  Nobody wants a $20,000.00 plus paperweight they bought from a lunatic.

Again, I remain anonymous because this is not about smearing a competitor for any type of gain.  It’s about cautioning fellow business owners to do as much research as possible before taking this or any risk.  In this economy, I hate to see people fall for the same con jobs that I have in the past.

I met Dave Peters of Absolute Amusements and Event Mall about 12 years ago.  I had heard of Dave Peters and Absolute Amusements before then, but never met the man personally.  At that time, David Peters had a reputation for being one of the top companies offering Amusement Game Rentals.  Upon first meeting him I thought he was pretty arrogant, but dismissed that as someone who was just really good at what he did.  After all, having just entered the Amusement Game Rentals business myself, I was just a little guy and he was, well, an icon.

As the years progressed I got to know Dave Peters a bit better as I became a supplier to his company Absolute Amusements since I had a particular genre’ of game that he didn’t (and lots of them).  In addition to becoming an Absolute Amusements supplier of Amusement Game Rentals, I began supplying many of the other top Amusement Game Rentals companies on the west coast.  Then, after several years of supplying these companies my product they began to buy the same games I had, sort leaving me out in the cold.  Gary Bordman, General Manager of Absolute Amusements office in Las Vegas told me David Peters had said, “stop offering his (my) games.  Clients don’t need his level of quality.  I just signed off on a 1099 for over $100,000.00 for this guy.  Just offer a “game package” for $3,000.00 and we’ll give them a package of games that only costs us $3,000.00 to buy“.  I remember Dave Peters’ quote vividly because it was one of the key motivations that caused me to step up and become a direct competitor of Absolute Amusements.

I took out an ad in Special Events Magazine just in time for The Special Event Trade Show.  Although I wasn’t there, one of my customers told me that David Peters and Gary Bordman of Absolute Amusements rallied some of my other customers (his competitors) and with the magazine open to my ad said, “we all know the level of service this guy provides.  This is not the kind of guy we want as a competitor.  We all have to agree not to use him anymore, because every dollar we give him is just going to make him a stronger competitor against us all”.  Kind of flattering really, that this icon of the Amusement Game Rental saw me as a threat to Absolute Amusements., but it was also bittersweet as I had worked hard for all these guys for years and they were just going to leave me to “twist in the wind”, but that’s just what happened.

Years later, I was doing quite a few events in Las Vegas and ended up getting an apartment here.  It wasn’t long until I fell for the place and bought a house here.  Unable to maintain the level of quality with my company in California, I sold that company and started a new one here in Las Vegas.  Now I was a direct competitor of David Peters, Gary Bordman, and Absolute Amusements.  Now Gary Bordman had been pretty well entrenched here in this market for years, so it took some effort to get the attention of the local event planners, but eventually someone gave us a shot.  The difference in quality of both the product and the service was night and day and word spread fast through the local event community.  As a result we doubled our revenue every year the first few years, then 50% increases thereafter, most of which was due to us landing former Absolute Amusements customers.  A couple of other factors that worked in our favor was that Gary Bordman, just being a General Manager, has to check with Dave Peters on almost every move he makes.  This slowed down the quote process and frustrated planners.  Additionally, Dave Peters started a company called “Event Mall” that offered more services than Absolute Amusements did.  Problem was, it was offering many of the services that event planners were offering and they were put off by a supplier who was now competing with them.  All this, combined with the vast difference in quality, and we earned many of Absolute Amusements local event planner customers.   I know, this is an awful lot of history and detail, but to understand the lunacy of how they are trying to compete with me today, you have to know that I did not in fact take his first-born, or do anything to warrant the underhanded, deceitful business tactics Gary Bordman, David Peters, and Absolute Amusements have waged against my company.

One of the first underhanded tactics was when Dave Peters and I were bidding against each other with an out-of-town planner who was having his event at The Venetian.  When the planner decided to go with us and told Dave this, Dave told the planner that we were not licensed to do events at The Venetian.  Dave told the planner that what was going to happen was that moments before the event was to start, an inspector would come in, see the games, and unplug them all since they were not provided by a “licensed game company”.  Dave Peters told the planner that he should be better safe than sorry and use Absolute Amusements instead.  Being a professional and not wanting to jeopardize his event, the event planner spent FOUR HOURS on the phone with various people at The Venetian, non of whom knew how to answer this question, since they never heard of it.  Finally, after four hours of researching this, the planner was told that no license to install games was needed and we did the event at The Venetian as we had dozens before.  The planner, disgusted and resentful of this wild goose chase, vowed to never use Absolute Amusements or Event Mall again.

Two months before I sold my company in California I got my liability insurance renewal in the mail.  My rate just for my inflatables was increasing from $9,500.00 per year to $26,000.00 per year, despite having zero claims in the history of the policy.  After several days looking for a company to carry us at a reasonable rate, I called a friendly competitor who told me that he would not tell me who he was using because it took him a long time to find a good company and he considered it a competitive edge that he wasn’t willing to share with his competitor.  And he was right, because knowing that I was selling the company, I told my General Manager not to rent out inflatables until he found insurance, undoubtedly benefitting our friendly competitor.  Since my GM was the buyer of the company, he ended up paying the $26,000.00 after we closed the sale.  I contemplated for a moment that I could rent my friendly competitors Mechanical Bull, then he would have to tell me who his insurance was, but I don’t do business that way.

Flash forward three years when I get a call from Gary Bordman from Absolute Amusements / Event Mall wanting to rent my Mechanical Bull, saying his staff would run it.  The first words out of my mouth were that he would have to insure it with his policy against loss and liability.  I told him that I have a great insurance company that covers it at a reasonable rate and I considered that information a competitive edge (just as my other competitor did.  Gary said that was fine.  We invoiced the order and clearly stated on the body of the invoice that “Absolute Amusements to insure against loss and liability”, and Gary Bordman signed the invoice stating those terms.  Absolute Amusements sent us a vendor confirmation and under the special instructions section, we wrote “Absolute Amusements to insure against loss and liability”, we signed it and sent it back.  Within the 10 days since signing, leading up to the event, Gary Bordman called me repeatedly and told me that Dave Peters needs to know who our insurance company is.  I chuckled and reminded him that I specifically told him I would not divulge that information.  He said  Dave may cancel the order if I don’t tell him.  I refused, and they cancelled.  I told Gary I figured it was all a trick to find out who my insurance was and let it go despite having a signed contract with an $800.00 cancellation fee.

Sometime later we had a client that wanted to rent a Dance Heads system.  Not happy with the level of service that the only company in town that has Dance Heads provides, I went to Gary Bordman for a quote on his Pop Noggins system.  Gary said that Dave was excited that we would we would be using them and would cut us a great deal.  Absolute Amusements Florida sent my Sales Manager an invoice, which she signed and sent back.  Moments later she got a call from Brie in the Florida office of Absolute Amusements stating that we had to sign the event rental contract that was also emailed.  Brie stated that if that was not signed they would not do the event.  My Sales Manager forwarded it to me and I read it.  This is SEVEN pages of legal language and the first paragraph says that Absolute Amusements is to be the sole game provider for the event.  (Remember, we are a game company as well and had other games there).  The penalty, spelled out right there in the contract…  ”If Absolute Amusements arrives to the event and there is a competitive company there with games that Absolute Amusements could have provided, you must pay Absolute Amusements what their fee would be for those games prior to the other games being unloaded from the truck”.  Yes, double payment… it actually says that!  And that’s not just for me, that’s the standard contract every one of their customers sign.  Needless to say, we didn’t sign it.  I called to discuss this with Dave Peters who said they wouldn’t show up unless we signed it, so we cancelled the order.  My solution for my event that was only a few days away was to buy a competitive system called Boogie Bodies.  Now, thanks to Dave Peters, there is now a 3rd system in Las Vegas and in the hands of the number one game rental company in town…  So much for that Pop Noggins competitive edge thing.  Boogie Bodies actually turned out to be a great purchase for us…  Thanks Dave!

Needless to say I received an email from Dave lecturing me on the industry standards and practices.  Here’s what he said: “Please in the future decide if you can live with the terms or negotiate some terms in writing prior to signing an agreement. We will take no legal action on this deal; however as a favor and as a professional please do not lead us on in the future.  We could have lost income. Nevada law is very clear on how this is dealt with and as a fellow rental professional you should know this law and show some respect for it.”

Now from the time we signed his order form to the time we cancelled the order because they refused to show up without us signing their contract was about 3 hours.  My response…  I said, “Thanks for the lesson on industry standards and practices.  Enjoy the attachment, I know I did”.  The attachment was the cancelled Mechanical Bull order in which they tied up our Mechanical Bull for 10 days.  He then began this barrage of how we must not have insurance since we wouldn’t tell him who it was and that he had to rent someone else’s Mechanical Bull for that event.  I told him if he really did rent someone else’s Mechanical Bull, I want my $800.00 cancellation fee.   He said he wouldn’t pay, I said I’d sue him for it and he said he loved court and begged me to file so he could have a judge put me in my place.  He said it was how gentlemen resolve disputes, no guesswork or fancy footwork.  The judge is there to referee and it is all professional.  He said he couldn’t wait for a judge to tell me I was wrong.  So I sued him.  We went to court the first time and tried mediation.  In the interest of expediting the process, we agreed that if I proved I had insurance to an unbiased third-party, he would pay the $800.00 cancellation fee.  Dave Peters even picked the unbiased third-party, a risk manager from Harrahs.  To make a long story short, Dave Peters flew out from Orlando to Las Vegas three times at a cost of $5,000.00 per trip (according to him. First Class, etc..).  He spent $15,000.00 to defend an $800.00 case that he lost.  And it was just as he said, professional and all about facts.  The difference was that the judge told him that he signed a contract with me and he was welcome to cancel, but he had to pay the fee.   To top it off I still provided him letter from the unbiased third-party THAT HE HIMSELF SUGGESTED  confirming I have insurance and Dave refuses to believe it.  So despite my winning the case AND fulfilling the mediation agreement, Dave Peters still refuses to pay the $866.00 or acknowledge we have insurance.  The reason is clear, because if he acknowledges we have insurance, he can’t try and tell clients we don’t.  He will have no way to try and compete with me.  And as for the $866.00 we won, since it’s not about the money, but more about putting a bully in his place, it looks like Dave will be spending another $5,000.00 to fly out here to answer questions during a debtors exam.

The bottom line is that we have always had liability insurance, because you can’t do events in this town without it.  We have $3,000,000.00 in liability insurance which is required by most top casinos here in town.  Last I heard, Absolute Amusements only has $2,000,000.00 and is not an approved vendor for one of the largest casino chains in town.  Both Dave Peters and Gary Bordman continuously tell clients that we don’t have insurance, despite the fact that we did about 700 events in 2008.  But they are actually trying to be a little clever and they imply we don’t have insurance by telling people that we have never shown it to them.  Absolute Amusements and Event Mall can’t seem to compete with a company that delivers high quality product and reliable service, so they have to stoop to lying to customers about their competitors.  It must be tough to have once been on top only to become a has-been.  I’m sure it will happen to me eventually, but I guarantee you that I will handle it with more grace and dignity than David Peters and Gary Bordman have.  Here’s another example of the grace of David Peters.  This is an email Dave Peters sent to me a while ago (before I sued him and won):  You really are a big bully, I wish I was there so I could kick your ass in person, you may be big, but I bet I could kick the shit out of you, You such a looser, go ahead sue me, or have you forgotten that lame ass threat from last round of emails. You wanted to collect on a cancelled event, remember, what happen then, need some more, I’ve got plenty.

It’s kind of sad really, that someone once so respected in the industry is conducting himself in this manner.  And this is just one of many examples.

The purpose of this blog is not to gain business by smearing a competitor which is why I am anonymous and make no mention of my company or contact information.  I’m happy to continue to earn business through ethical business practices.  However, I do need a place to vent the truth and I do feel that Dave Peters and Gary Bordman need be held accountable for their actions.  More to come…  stay tuned.

Ann en Dave van de Ann & Dave show

Donna is al meer dan een week verleden tijd. MNM beloofde iets nieuws te brengen. Maar slaagt MNM wel in wat het belooft? Of is het zoals Het Nieuwsblad schreef: “Heel veel hits, te weinig fun“? Mijn persoonlijk verdict kan het alleen beamen. Lees zelf maar.

Sterktes

Danceprogramma’s! De programma’s van Regi en Peter Luts zijn ongelooflijk goed. Geen dance zoals je die doorgaans op MNM hoort of op Donna hoorde, maar echte nummers voor danceparty’s. Vernieuwende muziek, niet zo “commercieel”, zoals dat dan heet. Ook Erwin De Nuls programma gaf mooie mixen, niet beperkt tot dance, maar dit programma staat ook bij de zwaktes. In elk geval: heel mooi opgepikt van bij Donna!

Een ander iets van Donna is een uur 90’s-muziek. Op weekenddagen, bij Donna was het net op weekdagen. Het mag toch niet te veel op Donna lijken, niet? Hum…

De zaterdag is een zeer kalme dag op de radio: Bart De Raes, Elias Smeekens, Evy Gruyaert, het zijn rustgevende stemmen. Evy brengt iets in de stijl van Donna’s Vrouwentongen, dat ze zelf ook nog een tijd presenteerde. Dik in orde, weer een ex-Donnasucces.

Ook Leki met haar “zwartere” muziek deed het zeer goed. De muziek was zeer puik, niet eentonig, zoals ik wel gevreesd had.

De Ann & Dave Show is een waanzinnig succes, zo hoorde ik al. Ik kan het beamen: het duo is uitstekend. Grappig en goed op elkaar ingespeeld. Een Bumpershow als bij Donna, maar – het moet gezegd – het is zelfs beter. A.D.H.Dave, maar dan nog beter. Ann is hier ook niet het slaafje of de underdog bij de ervaren Dave. Een goed, evenwaardig duo. Ze vullen elkaar perfect aan en het is het enige programma dat echt een zeer grote meerwaarde heeft in dit MNM.

Grootste sterkte is allicht de verruiming van de muziekkeuze. De hits primeren nog steeds, 90’s komen vaak aan bod. Je hoort nummers die al heel vaak niet meer op de radio geweest zijn. De hits hoor je per dag 1 of 2 keer, plus met grote kans nog eens bij MNM 50, een hitlijst van de luisteraars. Dat is een verbetering. Het is meer voor elk wat wils, als je van moderne muziek en 90’s houdt.

Zwaktes

Erwin De Nul bracht een mooie mix, maar beperkte zich toch wat erg tot hits, voor zover ik hoorde. Maar ah, dat betert wet.

Thibaut is een goede presentator, maar heeft met MNM 50 toch niet zijn beste programma beet. Stereo spécial op Donna was meer zijn ding. Nu staat hij er ook wel alleen voor natuurlijk.

Lotte en Karolien brengen vooral muziek, wat hun meerwaarde beperkt maakt. Karolien brengt een Swingpaleisachtig quizje. Ook weinig vernieuwend. Eerder neutraal dan zwak, maar toch… MNM beloofde speciaal te zijn.

Algemeen, vooral bij Peter Van De Veire: zéér veel geschreeuw en overdreven drukte. Geleuter dat het geen naam heeft. Gepraat is goed als het leuk gepraat is. Is het vooral niet!

Nog algemener: geleuter met onbekende mensen. Peter heeft in zijn show een weeramateur, Eddy, die elke dag mag zeggen wat het weer wordt. Geef mij maar Frank Deboosere: deze Eddy spreekt niet mooi en is zelfs eerder vervelend. Dan is er nog Tom De Cock met zijn verzoekprogramma waar de een na de andere luisteraar op de radio mag. Mensen die vaak helemaal niéts nuttigs te melden hebben. Niets leuks, niets interessants. Tom weet zijn “klanten” nog niet goed te kiezen. Het overkwam David op Donna niet: hij deed dit ook, maar anders. Tom De Cock was helaas beter op Donna. Véél beter. Hij verdient een tweede kans op iets anders. Vele andere programma’s sukkelen met hetzelfde probleem.

Op zondag, tussen 10u en 12u, krijg je een compilatie van Peter Van De Veires programma. Het is zeer opvallend dat dit niet live is (of wat had je gedacht bij een compilatie?) en het maakt de overdosis aan Peter nog groter. Bovendien is het een programma met heel wat compilatiewerk. Muziek lijkt van minder belang. Iets wat je over het algemeen niet kunt zeggen over MNM.

Dave Peters’ favoriete woordje, “keihard”, wordt echt overal opgepikt en nagebootst. Evy Gruyaert gebruikt het al bijna even vaak, net als hier en daar een andere presentator. Na het “gekei” van de laatste jaren (keileuk, keigezellig, keigoed, keiweetikwat) is dit een nog erger. En foutief, voor alle duidelijkheid. Dave gebruikt dit bij mijn weten al lachend en bewust, maar het wordt een gewoonte bij de anderen. Imiteer Dave niet alstublieft.

Vaak gehoord over jingles: te vaak, slecht gekozen momenten, algemeen slecht. Niet dat het mij erg opvalt, maar andere mensen her en der op het internet zeker al wel.

Ander vaak gehoord probleem: de muziekkeuze is verruimd in de richting van Studio Brussel, althans naar de typische keuze waar ze vroeger vaak mee geassocieerd werden. De iets ruigere muziek die op Donna zeker niet kon, zij het per hoge uitzondering. Inderdaad: de muziek op MNM is licht veranderd in die zin. Voor potentiële Donnaluisteraars, waar MNM toch écht voor bedoeld was, is deze muziek vaak een gruwel. MNM is niet echt een entiteit op zich zoals Donna dat was, maar gaat vissen in de vijver van StuBru. Vroeger was Donna iets meer Radio2. Herinner je maar dat Michel Follet op de laatste Donnadag nog opmerkte dat Donna zelfs Helmut Lotti speelde! En ja, waarom kan een radiozender niet hits spelen samen met een goed nummer van eigen bodem? Vele Vlaamse liedjes zouden best op zo’n zender kunnen, maar uiteraard niet dag in dag uit. Donna had het goede van Radio2 in zich in de beginjaren. Geen wonder dat Donnamensen massaal naar Radio2 trekken, zowel luisteraars als presentatoren. Donna werd dan meer dance en dat stootte zeker heel wat mensen af. Ik hou van dance, dat is het hem niet, maar de mix was verkeerd. Te veel dance, te weinig “Radio2″. De succesformule van weleer was weg. En nu gaan ze dus maar naar het bescheiden succes van Studio Brussel… Wie hoopte op leuke liedjes, zoals Ishtar of Monza, moet nog steeds bij Radio2 zijn. Helaas, want waarom zou een goed nummer, al dan niet Nederlandstalig, niet kunnen? Laten we ook niet vergeten: het potentieel aan luisteraars ligt niet bij Studio Brussel. Zij zitten op hun piek.

Laatste zwakte zijn de kinderziekten: helaas viel er al eens een stilte te horen, waarschijnlijk omdat de presentator er alleen voor staat en niet op tijd de goede knop vond. Dat vraagt gewenning, maar dat valt natuurlijk te vergeven.

Conclusie

De start van MNM is niet vlekkeloos verlopen. Het contrast met Donna is op vele vlakken groot. MNM grijpt wel terug naar succesformules van Donna, terwijl het iets anders wou zijn. Daar waar het anders is, blinkt het uit in getater met onbekende mensen en overdreven gedoe. De muziek is minder eenzijdig, maar is vaak opgeschoven naar een plaats waar Donna nooit kwam. Donna was wel net succesvol toen het meer in de andere kant van het muziekspectrum zat. Of MNM een succes wordt door net niét die kant te kiezen, valt sterk te betwijfelen.

Ik heb het al vaker gezegd: MNM heeft de verkeerde problemen willen oplossen. Donna had absoluut geen last van slechte presentatie. Q-music staat bekend voor slechter gepraat. Helaas is dat net waar MNM heeft ingegrepen: vele Donnamensen buiten. In de plaats: schreeuwers of mensen die zeker geen meerwaarde bieden. Het grote probleem bij Donna, de muziek, is ook aangepakt, maar is niet herleid naar de succesformule van vroeger. Daarin is MNM anders dan Donna, zeker. Maar het (al lang verloren) succes van Donna ligt dan vast ook niet in het verschiet voor MNM. De luistercijfers zullen nog meer tegenvallen binnen enkele maanden, gis ik. De dosis hits is nog steeds een overdosis. En de hits zijn vaak hits die vroeger op StuBru alleen konden bestaan.

Donna is dood, MNM leeft nog. Maar MNM zal zichzelf snél moeten evalueren wil het niet de laatste Donnaluisteraars verliezen.

MNM: veel hits, veel geleuter.

It’s impossible to be bah humbug about Christmas at a pantomime, especially when surrounded by 200 excitable, screaming seven year olds. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, at Blackfriars until January 4^th, is pure old school panto, with director Keith ‘Appy!’ Hopkins living up to his name as Britain’s no 1 panto dame in the role of Dame Kitty.

It takes a while to get going, but once all the goodies have been introduced, you can settle back and start enjoying the corny jokes, catchphrases and costume changes. Before you know it, you’ll be booing at the Wicked Queen and singing along with Muddles, played by the effortlessly cheerful panto heavyweight Dave Peters.

The show nips along at a speedy pace, the story helped along by plenty of dance sequences, popular songs and slapstick. Hopkins, who has more costume changes than Madonna, is marvellous as the Dame, jollying the audience along throughout. Indeed, this is a panto that all the family can enjoy, even quite young children. Anna Conway plays an angular and cruel Queen Cruella, but she’s not too scary, largely because the audience are encouraged to boo and heckle her every time she takes the stage.

A rebellious blue budgie called Edward was the unexpected highlight of the second half, who performs, when he feels like it, with circus professional Norman Barrett and other feathered friends. However, the real star of this show was the audience. Anyone who grumbles about the state of British youth should come and see the show. Boston’s kids couldn’t be more friendly, helpful or considerate. Indeed, at times they were on their feet, desperate to help the characters on stage by pointing and yelling at ear-splitting volume, “IT’S BEHIND YOU!!”,  or “SPIT IT OUT!!!!” to Snow White as she eats the apple.  If that doesn’t embody the spirit of Christmas, I don’t know what does.

 Published in the Boston Standard, Dec 2008

Tegenwoordig zet ik tijdens het koken de radio op. Standaard is dat Radio Donna ten huize Philips.

Presentator van dienst die mijn kookkunsten moet bijstaan: Dave Peters. Misschien kennen jullie deze medemens al… hij presenteerde eerder al op onder andere Studio Brussel.

Anyway, ik kende hem nog niet, en ik vond hem in begin ontzettend irritant! Het programma noemt natuurlijk niet voor niets A.D.H.Dave, daar ben ik mij van bewust. Hyperactiviteit kon dus niet uitblijven.

Ach, ik denk dat het even gewoon worden was. Nu ben ik er al een beetje een fan van, en brengt Dave me soms zelfs aan het lachen.
Andere mensen zie je door het programma ook opeens in een ander daglicht. Goedele Wachters bijvoorbeeld. Meestal lezen nieuwsankers het nieuws voor op de radio… en that’s it. Maar daar blijft het niet bij bij Dave. De man die het 16u-19u-blok bij Donna inneemt vindt het wel fijn om met hen een praatje te maken. Meer zelfs: hij heeft zelfs een gedicht geschreven voor Goedele! En ook Frank Deboosere komt niet onder zijn dagelijkse portie Dave onderuit.

Voor de rest weet Dave ook veel nieuwtjes… nieuwtjes die mij wel bezig houden
Een voorbeeldje: De OhMiBod! Klinkt alvast veelbelovend eh? Morgen meer hier over (zo komen jullie zeker terug )