Randy the Christmas Icon

Okay, this posting is certain to earn me several demerits at the Meadville school, as it is Pure Ego In Charge. It's bragging, pure and simple.

So be it. It isn't every day that your name is linked in print with the Immortal Icons of the Holiday Season.

But first, a little background: I've performed at the Exton Square Mall at this time of year every year for the last six or seven. The Mall has a "Welcome Santa" parade just before Thanksgiving, featuring a marching band, fire engines, live reindeer, a local dancing group, several stiltwalkers, and a juggler. That last one would be me.

Before my first year's performance, I felt I was going into the Belly of the Beast. An infernal engine working to rob the season of emotion and meaning and replace them with unmitigated greed and unvarnished covetousness.

After that first year, I decided to lighten up. And provide a pretty good juggling show for kids. With nothing to buy or sell and no charge to watch. Just fun. An unexpected but pleasant diversion in the middle of what is probably a very hectic Saturday. And the show always ends with me spinning a plate onto the outstretched finger of a kid. Well, actually, as many kids as want to have a spinning plate on their finger. (And usually there's a lot of them!)

So every year, the Mall keeps inviting me back -- for the parade itself and then several hours of walk-around performing. And the gig has become one of my favorites. It gives me a chance to wish hundreds of people I've never met a happy holiday season. And give them the gift of my performance. And I like that.

Anyway, this year the Mall took out a huge ad in the local newspaper, with a reproduction of a "Saturday Evening Post" magazine cover by Norman Rockwell. It features Santa looking over a globe with a magnifying glass as he holds a book listing all the Good Boys and Girls of the World. Cute.

And the text of the ad under the magazine cover says "Santa Arrives!" in large, friendly letters and then goes on to describe what will happen when he does. Arrive. It says:

"Kick off the Holiday season yadda yadda... Enjoy free hot chocolate yadda yadda yadda... [ah yes, here it is!] Mingle with Santa's friends including Frosty, Rudolph, Randini the Remarkable and more as you join in the Santa parade to his Norman Rockwell-inspired home."

Randini the Remarkable -- c'est mon nom de tossing-things-around. Right there in print. Me, Frosty, Rudolph. Like we're buds or something.

So, like, all over Chester County, people are reading their copies of the Daily Local News and circling the date to be at the Exton Square Mall and ogle the Christmas Icons who have come to make their season bright:

Frosty.

Rudolph.

Randini.

Les trois etoiles de la saison.