Magic Kingdom: Performance artist rounds up another project on Carousel of Progress’ birthday
Dewayne Bevil, News — By Dewayne Bevil on January 13, 2010 at 4:29 pm
There’s a different kind of Disney marathon coming Friday. Performance artist Brian Feldman will spend 11 hours going around in circles at the Carousel of Progress at Magic Kingdom.
The project, unofficial and not sponsored by Walt Disney World, is tied to the 35th anniversary of the rotating theater’s opening in Florida.
“There’s nostalgia at play here,” Feldman says. He remembers visiting the Tomorrowland attraction as a kid and that his father got to see it during the 1964 World’s Fair in New York.
“He was always singing the song,” Feldman says.
Which one, I asked him. “There’s a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow” or “The Best Time of Your Life”?
“I think he did a mashup of both of them,” he says.
Feldman (left) sits with Terry Olson during the Swan Boat Talks project. Feldman recently shed his trademark beard, which he considers another project for the year.
Feldman, 29, says he’ll spend Friday entering and re-entering the attraction, which features four scenes following Animatronic families through various decades. His favorite part was always the finale.
“I’ve always been partial to the future, so it’s always been Act 4 – whatever the update was,” he says.
“I really enjoy it all. It’s a genuine emotion I have toward the attraction.”
He was surprised by others liking the Carousel.
“They’re coming out of the woodwork,” he says. “Friends of mine that we never talked about that particular ride or any ride at all, but you mention Carousel of Progress and they go ‘Yes! That’s my favorite!’ I had no idea.”
Feldman, who has lived in Orlando about 20 years, has performed a variety of unusual feats over the years, including leaping from a 12-foot ladder all day on Leap Year Day, organizing giant pillow fights and conducting interviews in the swan boats on Lake Eola.
“This is one of the easiest things I’ve ever done,” Feldman says. “I’ve never done anything at the parks, and I’ve been wanting to. It’s impossible as an Orlando artist to ignore the attractions. You have to embrace it. Had I been doing it in the summer, with Extra Magic Hours, this could have gone for 17 hours.”
Still, he’s not a crazy man. He could have gone with another Magic Kingdom staple.
“At least it’s not ‘it’s a small world‘ for 11 hours,” he laughs.
Tags: Animatronics, Brian Feldman, Carousel of Progress, It's a Small World, Lake Eola, Magic Kingdom, Tomorrowland, Walt Disney World
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18 Comments
I smell an upcoming breach of contract lawsuit…
Not sure why the Sentinel insists on covering this guy’s every step.
Nothing funny, artful, or interesting about him.
OMG! How amazing! Not.
Seriously Dewayne, “an unusual feat”? Hardly. There’s surely a ‘performance artist’ WDW Castmember that’s done this a thousand times.
Let’s see the guy hit all the Central Florida theme parks in a single day. Now that would be something.
Sure, Brian. I bet there is a WDW Cast Member that has ridden the Carousel of Progress for a full day 1,000 times. Probably a bunch of them.
Just because you fail at seeing the art in taking an everyday activity to the extreme does not mean it is not art. It means you are very, very dull.
I, for one, am a big fan of Brian Feldman. I was like you once. When Brian did the Leap Day piece downtown at City Hall I stopped by and thought to myself, “What a goof.” But for some reason I found myself stopping by again and again as the day went by and bringing my kids and wife with me. I can’t put into words for you (especially you) but witnessing something like this, as goofy as it may seem, changes you, makes you a better person. For my wife, it was as simple as witnessing Leap Day and realizing that she needed to “take the leap” and leave her job and go for the one she reall wanted.
Orlando is Honored to have someone like Brian Feldman around to remind us of how great our city is by constantly taking the commonplace and making it (pun fully intended) Magic.
ELROSS, don’t speak for all of Orlando to say we are “honored” to have an “artist” like him around. Speaking for what I feel is the majority, his actions are mostly pointless, and not art. I guess the 3 year olds that watch the same DVD over and over are “artists” too???
Maybe the people that hum the same song at work all day are “artists”. Or maybe, just maybe, these people are ordinary people that do things in repetition?
How is he an artist? he’s sitting on his ass for 11 hours in a ride. That’s not art. And he’s not even trying to raise money for a charity or help society. He’s not an artist and Orlando isn’t “honored” to have him. He’s just a pathetic, loney, loser with no life.
Saying Orlando is “honored” to have him is like saying Orlando is honored to have a 30 year old man who sits on his ass playing WoW all day. They contribute about the same amount ot society
My daughter made us do Small World 5 times, consecutively and this didn’t warrent media coverage…who benefits from this artistic? pa leese, endeavour.
Walt Disney’s Carousel of Progress is a fantastic throwback to the days of quality family entertainment and an actual piece of Disney history. If this gentleman’s eleven-hour romp around the theater ring makes anyone want to go check out the show and it earns a few new fans, then Dewayne’s report will have done its job. The show is underappreciated in an age where the thrill is king. Sometimes, it’s nice to take a moment, slow down, and enjoy a classic attraction to break up the redundant jerks and dives of a coaster. If you’ve ever passed on seeing the show because it didn’t look exciting from the outside, you owe it to yourself to check it out.
Best of luck to Mr. Feldman. While I agree with some of the comments that it’s not too much of a stunt to see the show repeatedly for eleven hours, I am glad that Mr Feldman and this article have given us a gentle reminder that the show is there and shared a little bit of its history with the reader.
Thanks, Dewayne, for putting a little spotlight on that little, round corner of Tomorrowland!
CoP is a 21 minute show, which means that he will watch about 32.5 times. Just some perspective…
As a Jungle Cruise Skipper, I once spent 14 hours straight on a boat on what we called a marathon. At an average of 10 minutes per trip, that was approximately 84 trips around the jungle spewing the same jokes…..I didn’t make it in the Sentinel.
Skipper, your mistake is that you didn’t call it art. Even though your long Jungle Cruise shift provided entertainment and joy to hundreds of people, it is insignificant compared to a great visionary who announces to the world he will go on the same ride a bunch of times.
Ah yes – you’re right…I should have alerted the media and proper authorities ahead of time. Oh well – I guess I will never be famous…