ben o'shea - ProfilesArchive

About Me

I'm a trombone player with the 137th Edition of the Ringling Bros and Barnum and Bailey Circus, and I travel around the country 11 months out of the year playing music in gigormous arenas for thousands of people. I've always loved kids, and as I'm finding out, there isn't much more rewarding in life than lighting up their faces with joy and excitement. I'm from Seattle originally, but have also lived in Arizona and Oregon in the last ten years.

My Interests

I'd like to meet:

More people!Here's my schedule for the rest of the year, folks:

October 4-14: Denver, CO
October 19-28: Cleveland, OH
November 1-11: Rosemont, IL
November 13-25: Chicago, IL
November 28-Dec 2: Huntsville, AL

Ringling Bros Red Tour Schedule

Music:

Quincy Jones, Stevie Wonder, Ruben Blades, Hector Lavoe, Willie Colon, Oscar Deleon, De La Soul, The Flaming Lips, The Roots, Common, JJ Johnson, Esthero, Air, Beck, Prince, Funkadelic, Blue Scholars, Igor Stravinsky, Blackalicious, Louis Armstrong, Los Van Van, Isaac Delgado, Basie, Fela Kuti, EWF, McCoy Tyner, The Meters, The Coup, Thad Jones, Pete Rock, Freddie Hubbard, Marvin Gaye, Orb, Scratch Perry, Dexter Gordon, Clifford Brown, Radiohead, A Tribe Called Quest, Ozomatli, Bill Holman, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Curtis Fuller, Benny Carter, Clark Terry, and (most of all) the musicians that I am fortunate enough to play with.

Television:

Simpsons, Conan, Chappelle, ATHF, Daily Show sometimes, older SNL... don't watch much TV anymore, honestly. I think I cracked out on it as a kid.

My Blog

Circus Birthday/Cheyenne looks like a big Ellensburg

Salt Lake City. What a weird place... who labels streets that way, anyway? W 400 S at S 600 W?!? That's where the train was parked... nice and close to the building (W 100 S at S 300 W). So weird, it...
Posted by ben o'shea on Tue, 02 Oct 2007 08:34:00 PST

SLC Funk

Pulled into Salt Lake City this morning after spending a couple of nights in Reno relaxing in my hotel room. It's amazing how fast time is flying by me on the road. It seems like just yesterday that I...
Posted by ben o'shea on Tue, 25 Sep 2007 12:57:00 PST

Josey

San Jose, better known as Josey: Land of the Shark-aritas.Good god, it's nice to get the fuck out of Oakland. I mean, the city itself is cool and everything, but the crowds at the Greatest Show on ear...
Posted by ben o'shea on Thu, 23 Aug 2007 11:40:00 PST

The Most Frequent Show on Earth

Wooooo!So, this week isn't all that bad, but I'm about to play my 10th show since Tuesday (yes, the SAME show) and I'm getting a little worn down. LA was a lot of fun, lots of people (100,000+) and 10...
Posted by ben o'shea on Sun, 05 Aug 2007 07:22:00 PST

Los Angeles

I woke up in LA this morning after spending most of yesterday's train run in my room, sick with a little bit of a cold (I keep hearing the term "Ringling Rot" being used to describe it...). Kind of st...
Posted by ben o'shea on Tue, 17 Jul 2007 12:57:00 PST

The Greatest Show on Earth Pt. 2

Wow, what a change. I've never really been in a position to focus strictly on playing music full-time, and I've got to admit that I can totally get used to this. We're getting ready to do show #2 toda...
Posted by ben o'shea on Sun, 24 Jun 2007 02:48:00 PST

The Greatest Show on Earth Pt. 1

So I ran off and joined the circus... a week into the gig and I'm starting to get a hang for it. When I say "it," I'm definitely incorporating a lot of shit into two little letters. Living on a train,...
Posted by ben o'shea on Thu, 14 Jun 2007 12:03:00 PST

Circus Freak

So with a lot of great memories in Seattle of the last two years, I've decided to accept an offer that I received a week ago to join the Ringling Brothers circus, playing trombone in their band. It's ...
Posted by ben o'shea on Sun, 20 May 2007 06:08:00 PST

Records, baby.

So I've been lucky enough to work on some cool LP projects in the past year, and I just wanted to keep the peeps up on what's going to be (and has been) coming out:The next upcoming CD release th...
Posted by ben o'shea on Sun, 07 Jan 2007 01:35:00 PST

Life, the rhythm and the rhyme.

So it's a new year, it's a new chance to live life to its fullest and to be thankful for everything we all have. I'm very fortunate to be surrounded by people that care about me and want me to succeed...
Posted by ben o'shea on Sun, 07 Jan 2007 05:33:00 PST