Jet-Set Kendo
 

How low can you go and sacrifice yourself in order to promote kendo?
How cheap do you sell yourself?

This a true story I just remembered and thought of sharing it with you.

One day we were finishing our keiko and a guy appears by the dojo’s door. He waits until everything is done and asks for someone to talk to. At the time I was a sort of Public Relations for the Portuguese Kendo Association (APK) and so I go and talk to the guy.

He tells me he is the PR of a famous jet-set/socialite/richandfamous bar in Lisbon, called the Boudha Bar, and that one of the regulars there, a lady, was going to have her birthday party there and she wanted to have a Kendo Show to enjoy her guests (I’m not joking) and that he, as PR of the bar, was there to set things up with us.
At what time could we be there, did we need a place to “dress up”, did we need any make-up, etc, etc.

I could not believe my ears. Did someone already talked to him? Did someone said we would be there?

No, he answered me, but since the socialite lady wanted us to be there, it was an excelent oportunity for us to show ourselves to the rich and famous part of society. And we could not fail him, because he had already sent the invitations saying that there would be a “kendo show” that night.

Since the APK is the only kendo club in Lisbon we had an obligation to go. http://www.discussworldissues.com/fo...s/confused.gif

I sometimes go from amazed to angry very quickly, and was (really really) a milimeter away to tell him to go f..k himself, but don’t know why I kept listening to the guy and went I from surprise to suprise. So, HE said WE would be there, even without talking to us!
That it was an amazing oportunity he repeated, almost an honour that she chose to have us there. Did I even begin to realize how great that was? It was Miss Blablabla’s birthday party. It was the social event of the rentrée. It was going to be on the cover of all pink-press magazines. What the hell else did we need?

Ok, ok, the night of the show, we could drink anything we wanted at the bar.

haha. i think u're in the driver's seat now since he did send out all those invitations and they got no other options except u guys. sooo.... u can basically do whatever u want. humiliate him and the lady or negotiate for some... incentives hehe.

There was a Japanese festival in cancun, and among the many planned activities, they invited us to do a kendo demonstration.

Being sempai of our dojo, cannot refuse my teachers invitation to participate.

When the day arrived, I found out that most of the attendance was kids attracted to manga (comic books) they were all disguised into their favorite manga character.

To top it off, the stage were we perform our kendo demo, had for background speakers and drums from the previous band.

Any way, as it was expected we didn’t get any new recruit from that crowd.

I was glad when it was finally over, and we left that three ring circus behind.

You can view the pics of that dreadful day here

http://www.cancunkenshi.com/exhibicion.html

Imho, pride of kendo can't be bought... kendo is not entertainment

Kendo can be entertaining. I love watching kendo matches, and I think it can be interesting for people who do not know anything about kendo to actually see a demonstration done properly. Often, opportunities for demonstrations are limited to local Japanese-realted festivals or other events events which are sometimes silly.

We did a great demonstration in Miami a couple of years ago at an otaku convention. I don't recall getting any new members of the dojo from the event, but it was fun for us, and I recall that we destroyed the paper lanterns on the makeshift stage erected for us and other events. They were just in the way of swings, so a few lanterns were obliterated in the name of a men or two.... http://www.discussworldissues.com/fo...lies/cool2.gif

Walking around the convention in bogu for the demonstration, I had many people ask me if I made my costume!

Well I didn't think kendo belongs in a socialite bimbo birthday party, anyway. Like a weird/exotic/oriental circus. But yes, at a point I said to guy:
Listen, if you hire some dancers, a rock band, whatever, they gonna ask you for money. Well, we are a not so rich association... how come your client doesn't even think about that?
What are we?... Some kind of feel-free-to-use whores?
Of course we didn't go. And I don't think we humiliated her. I don't. The guy should not have put the "kendo show" in the invitation without talking to us first.
The guy even try to trade our "show" with some quick promises of pages in a jet-set magazine, but it was obvious that, and that's what I find really amazing, never, ever, not in his wildest dreams did he think that we would say NO.

Maybe he worked for the mob and and couldn't believe anyone would say no to Jet-Set Willy; the Gangster King of Lisboa.


Well... could be true.....

You what??!?

We could have any drink we like??? That's what I meant. Sorry if sometimes my english isn't that correct http://www.discussworldissues.com/fo...milies/sad.gif

What did you think it was Mingshi?

I think he's more appaled that they didn't take up the oppertunity simply for the free crazy ass drinkshttp://www.discussworldissues.com/fo...ilies/evil.gif

Passed up on an open bar for himself and his dojomates. I feel your outrage.

I would have asked him something along the lines of if he knew what Kendo was and see what kind of answer you would get out of it.

I asked the PR why did the socialite girl wanted to have kendo in her birthday party, did he know why?
He didn't... he was asked to find us and he found us via website. So I thought he had a small idea of what the thing looks like. But it was obvious he didn't had a clue. And I wasn't in the mood to give a lecture about what kendo is, and I don't think he was interested either.

He clearly wanted the guys with mask and swords and screams... you now, folklore sh!t to make his silly client happy.

Want to bet she saw that Pepsi ad with Becks and J-Lo?

Or the powergen advert with the bloke from the Fast Show and his mate Dave...