Capo Update May 2006 Memory Tricks – Sand Dune Buggy’s – Screenings and Soldiers Homecoming
Hi Guys,
Last I left you I was defrosting from the Ice Hotel in Quebec. This is going to be a quick Capo update…yeah, yeah I say that every time and then 10 pages later you are still reading…
Okay..first whats coming up this weekend?
SHOWS AND SCREENINGS THIS WEEKEND – AS IN TOMORROW.
Saturday, May 5th 2 events:
Fran Doing her Stand up comedy in Binghamton for the Junior Binghamton League
Showtime 7:30 PM
Feature act: Angela Scott
FRAN IN MOVIE with Carol Alt, Frankie G and some Soprano Guys: For those of you who missed it before…this is your chance to see me acting as a fast talking real estate agent…I know what a stretch…fast talking…not you…
Yup…you can see it in the award winning movie: “The Signs of the Cross” which is an OFFICIAL SELECTION of the 2006 Long Island Film Festival written, produced and directed by John Reidy (JRIDIN@aol.com)
There will be a screening on Saturday, May 6 at the Glen Cove Cinemas, Theater #2 in Block II starting at 8:00PM. (Obviously I won’t be there to see it because I will be performing in Binghamton. But its a great movie. Last time the Soprano guys applauded my scene…I ducked just in case it was a set up.)
SUNDAY, MAY 6th- Freedom Salute Campaign
Doing Keynote in Huntington Long Island – still waiting for the details of where it is, but it’s in or near Crab Meadow Park. All I know is I’m expected to do a 15 minute keynote speech at 10 AM for 600 soldiers who are coming home from the front lines.
This is how this came about. About 3 days ago I get an email from my good friend Donna Drake (Producer/Head of Huntington Council/and does voiceovers for John Basedow – the fitness celebrity’s videos) Anyway, Donna emails me and says “Franny. Not sure you are around.. but I’m sending this your way..just in case. About 600 troops and their families are coming home. The party is on May 7th at 10 am. They are looking for a guest speaker to welcome them home….its for the Freedom Salute Campaign which is one of the largest Army National Guard recognition endeavors in history designed to publicly aknowledge them….”
I of course say I’ll do it…if those men and women can put their lives on the front lines, than I sure as hell can drive home from my Binghamton gig ( 5 hour drive) get home around 3 AM…sleep a little..and then drive to Huntington in the morning.
Now I gotta say…I’m a tad nervous…my motivational talks are humorous and inspirational…I speak from the heart, and often times off the cuff…but after speaking to Troy, the military guy in charge…he said they want something different…and from what I’m told by people…I’m somewhat of a character…so this should be interesting and of course, I’ll let you guys know how it goes in the next update.
OTHER TV & RADIO
TLC- The Learning Channel
So I’m in Maryland pitching to pitch my tv show idea to the Discovery Channel and other channels. I’m waiting for my gang at Letnom Productions to show up. (I fly, they came by train.) So to kill some time I’m hanging outside the Discovery building, and I see this camera set up for “Lifes Lessons”. I see that the woman is interviewing someone off the street about her “life lesson”. The cameraman is all smiles and joking. I’m watching, no one else is around. So after the lady on the street walks away…I decide what the heck, I’m a lady on the street too, let me go on over and see the deal.
They ask..”You have a life lesson you want to share on camera?”
“Sure…why not I got a few seconds to kill.”
So they turn the lights on and I start speaking…
Link below to see what I said: http://www.lifelessonsontour.com/result/result.aspx?ID=69 or go to http://www.lifelessonsontour.com/ and type in my name.
After we get off air, I start pulling out my shrunken cup from the titanic wreck site, the picture of me on kilimanjaro doing the booksigning etc. The cameraman…Scott gives me his card, and says he wants to buy my book. Just then the Letnom gang, Nancy, Eric and Jen show up. They start laughing seeing that I spotted a camera and was on air even before we walked inside the pitch meetings…Later that day an emergency cancelled one of our meetings…so i had a spare book on me. I see Scott in the Lobby.
“Hey’ Scott…you said you wanted to buy a AA book?” His puzzled look for a second made me say…”Not Alcohol Anonymous…Adrenaline Adventures…Only $25 bucks. You can buy one right now, here in the lobby…and I’ll even autograph it.”
He laughed…”Sure what the heck…and I’d love to go on an adventure with you too.”
Done deal!
He handed over the cash, I signed the book. Nancy and the gang looked on in amazement… “Its true what your boyfriend says about you…No one is safe.”
I laughed, “Hey you gotta grab opportunity as it arises, besides the book is heavy, didn’t want to have to carry it back. 🙂 Now just imagine if I had my car with me…I have a whole set of books in the trunk…i could have set up shop.”
Their eyes widened… “Just kidding guys.” (then again, maybe not 😉
RADIO-
Did a couple of fun radio shows via phone in Binghamton to promote the “Junior League Fund raiser” comedy show I’m doing there.
New Zealand Radio:
I get an email from this Radio Host Mike in New Zealand…I had done his show a few times before…he emails me:
“Fran…We’ve got a thing called ‘The Instant Wedding’ coming up and I was wondering if you could do a really fast wedding ceremony on the phone for us?”
So I tell him sure…but I say..you know there is a catch. I became an ordained minister so I could say the prayer by the Titanic…so if I do it…you better tell the couple they are really getting married. He laughed. Not quite sure he believed me…this outta be good. The ceremony takes place via phone, Monday at 2:30 PM.
Maybe I better find a divorce attorney to be on hand just in case.
SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS:
Ossining High School – The Nothing Impossible tour
Got asked to speak at my son’s high school to motivate the kids and tell them about my adventures…the talk was in the gym in front of 100 kids. They were all sitting on bleachers…I knew right away to get their attention I had to change that. So I made them all sit in a semi circle on the floor in front of me…they were throw out of their comfort zone and a normal group of “too cool” to show it kids…turned out to be a great audience. It was a blast…and they all couldn’t believe Spencer had such a “cool mom.” Hey that’s a rave.
angelo.rossetti@contactadvocate.com Networking Event
I had met this very high energy guy, Angelo Rosetti a while back. He asked me to do my “Creativity in the Marketplace” seminar. As part of the deal, he agreed to make a power point presentation for me. Now here’s the thing, i wanted it…but that meant I’d have to memorize the order of my presentation…for those of you who have seen me speak, you know I present my talk very differently each time…So it became rather comical…cause I didn’t memorize the order of the presentation. So I did what I do best…I told the audience…”Listen I’m just going to have Angelo put the pictures up and then I’ll tell you what that picture is about.” I like the improv feeling. They laughed at my honesty and it worked well. Now here’s the funny thing. I had just taken a memory class and was so proud of myself for learning everyone’s name… now that’s my next challenge, if I decide to accept it…Jim. (Jim Kwik is the guy who had the memory class…there is a whole WB blog on it coming out soon…where I tell you the kind of mental images I made to remember what I did… just a hint to remember Anthony the car inspection guys name, I pictured a giant ANT sitting on his KNEE reading the computer…luckily I didn’t tell this big Italian guy this or he would have called the nut house.)
Anyway, the speech went well, sold a bunch of books and now have met some really cool business people and are planning some great projects…all thanks to Angelo…
NEW BOOKS:
Scarlett Rules
by Lisa Bertagnoli
One of my favorite movies in the world growing up was, “Gone with the Wind”…I thought myself a little like Scarlett at times, beign feisty, doing things sometimes out of the bounds of rules, …so imagine my surprise when author Lisa Bertagnoli told me she was writing a book called, “Scarlett Rules – When life give you green velvet curtains, make a green velvet dress” and 23 other life lessons inspired by that character. So now here’s the cool part…I’m in it, yup on page 126 under Rule #19- Girlfriends…with my tip on how to remember friends. Who would have thought that somehow after all these years, I’d be connected with my favorite movie. Fiddle de dee. And I do give a damn or I wouldn’t have told ya!
WORLD RECORDS:
Okay so you all know about Guinness Book and that I’m in the Ripley’s Believe it or Not – Planet Eccentric book this year (page 109)…but I found out that I am in another world record book called, The Book of Alternative Records …and I have been given the honor of being one of their top 22 world record holders!
Here’s the email: Top 22
You are now all on Top Record Holders list on _www.recordholdersrepublic.co.uk_ (http://www.recordholdersrepublic.co.uk)
Well done on all your achievements in past and we hope you have many in future.
– Dean Gould – Book of Alternative Records.
Finally….WB BLOG And my latest Arizona Adventure: Well it has finally hit the internet waves. My Fran’s World blog is now officially on the website of the WB (www.mysweetconnection.com) complete with pictures and weekly happenings in the Capo household. Check it out…some different stories than on the Capo updates.
And last I left you I was headed off to Arizona to do the Women’s Expo talk for the WB. So I get there, plane is late landing, my driver can’t find me in the airport…becasue we keep walking past each other. I get to my hotel, through down my stuff, change and am off to the studio to shoot a promo for the WB website.
Get there, start doing some fast talking, talking about the website and the experts on it. We are against a blue screen, so I know they are going to put whirling things around me. They ask for some still pictures, I start leaping across the floor, like a very ungraceful ballet dancer…They had me take off my shoes…embarrassing cause my stockings had a run…such is life.
Then I go to the hotel, hook up with a high school girlfriend (who talks fast like I do…so imagine the headache the waiter got whenwe ordered dinner)…we have dinner, feel we ate too much, then walk around Phoenix for an hour trying to burn off the taco. At 1 AM…decide it’s time to go to bed, since I gotta be up at 6 for my big adventure.
Saturday:
The limo driver (who is my driver for the weekend – pretty cool) takes me out to Fountain Hill to a place, Desert Dog HUMMER ADVENTURES, so I can hook up with my ATV driver and fearless guide of the dessert , Ken Bergan. Ken will lead on the ATV and I will drive behind him in a sand dune buggy.
I was picturing…like a love bug type car…but it was an open vehicle, called a C2 that they build in their shop. It’s a 2 seater with a 40 horsepower engine, very rugged, low to the ground. (Pictures will be on website soon) He loads it up on this truck and we drive 20 minutes to this dessert trail. Ken’s an out west boy- lived in the mountains all his life. I’m a definite New Yorker…I see a reservoir and someone swimming in it. I comment, “Wow back in NY we can’t do that.”
He says, “We do things different here than in New York”
I started having flash backs of the movie City Slickers and started looking for any cows laying on their stomachs on their side about to give birth. Don’t know if I was ready to deliver a Norman.
We start to joke about our differences and the next thing I know we are there.
I’m strapped in, given a helmet, and some instructions…like don’t rent the buggy 🙂 and we are off. At first we went slow. I think he wanted to make sure I knew how to handle the thing. It was awesome. (As a side note…I have a ripped muscle in my left shoulder…my doctor said not to do the sand dune buggy…I said “Doc…I promise if I fall, I’ll fall on the other shoulder!”)
Anyway, my shoulder is feeling fine. We are riding along the dusty road in the hot dessert sun and I am loving it. I mentioned to Ken that I’d want to stop and take pictures along the way of any cool thing.
Within minutes I saw a rabbit dart across the road…to fast. Then I saw an owl perched high upon a rock…I stopped, snapped a shot. Then Ken stops. He holds up his hand.
I don’t see anything…he points and yells, “Give me your camera.”
I look. There in the middle of the road is a snake. How cool! So I stop my car, take off my helmet and climb out.
He says..”What are you doing?”
I said, “Well what fun is it just taking a picture of the snake? I want me and the snake in the picture.”
As I start to walk around the snake I hesitate. “What kind of snake is this anyway?”
“A diamond back.”
“Poisonious?” I ask. “Very.” “Okay, wide birth around the snake.”
He laughs. I kneel down about 4 feet from the snake, he snaps the picture. (When I got home I’m there with the snake but the tail is missing…but I do have other pictures of it…kind of anti climatic…but what are ya gonna do…the guy’s a guide, not a National Geographic Photographer…it was nice enough of him to point out the thing.)
Anyway, so we continue on…up and over rocks, through splashing water…(when I realize, best to go slow if you don’t want to get all muddy and wet Capo.)
Over winding roads, and on some straight aways where we can zoom along. Of course you have to realize that I’m yelling like a fool in my helmet…”YEE HA…I LOVE THIS…IF ONLY SPENCER WAS HERE…THIS IS FANTASTIC.”
We stop at some huge saggurro trees, snap some pictures,he tells me really cool stories of the land and the surrounding shrubbery, cool ways to identify things, and then it’s time to head back. I’m hoping I see a road runner or hila monster on the way back, not because they’re scary, just because seeing a monster of any kind is cool.
Three hours have passed and we are now back at the Desert Dog Shop. I met the owner, John Juliano…I thank him and promise to tell all my friends about this great adventure.
So I’m telling ya…if you are out there…you gotta try it…it’s awesome. They also have hummer, extreme, and ultimate extreme adventures as well. (website: www.azadventures.com ) tell em Fran the fast talker sent ya.
That afternoon I watch Susie Ormand speak to a sold out crowd, I meet her in the green room, we have a fun fast talk off, she asks me to the three little pigs for her, I do. She snaps a picture of us and last I heard it’s on her website.
On Sunday, I get up at dawn, do Good Morning Arizona TV show – mention my talk in the afternoon and that I just did a cool arizona sand dune adventure. After the tv show, I walk for an hour, then do my talk in front of an enthusiastic crowd…have fun joking with everyone… Go out with my friend again at night and then get ready to head home.
Just the way I like it…a great…three days!
Till next time….live everyday as if it’s your last, and one day you’ll be right!
Fran Capo