When I first heard about Brian Feldman’s latest performance piece, I was skeptical to pitch it to parents as a “best bet” for family ArtsFest events.  You see, the “Skill Crane Kid” was totally about what a kid should NOT do… so why would a parent take their child to see a grown man crawled up inside an arcade-style claw machine?

I mean, what kind of parent would say, “Look at the man inside the machine, Timmy. Now, make sure you never do that, even though it looks incredibly fun and he is getting all this attention for crawling in there, but don’t you ever do it!”

Well, I was completely wrong.

There were a ton of parents who brought their children to see Brian inside the skill crane machine… and not one of them seemed worried about their child wanting to join him. (So, it was just me being an uptight parent! Go figure!)

When I first arrived at Stardust Coffee and Video (totally cool place!) it was packed.  A simple sign announced his performance, but I had trouble finding a parking place.

And then when I made my way inside, I found Cole Nesmith helping with the live U-Stream Broadcast of Brian’s performance as well as Thomas Thorspecken of the Digital Analog Artist sketching Brian’s piece.

I was impressed with just how many families were there, with kids dropping in money by the bucketful to try and win Brian. (I bet the crane is heavy and hurts just a bit when it drops on top of his head!)

Well, hats off to Brian, who obviously has a direct line in to what kids like! Well done, sir!