A Visit with Magic Marc Regarding His Northland Debut of Ruby the Dogumentary at the Red Mug

I met Magic Marc Percansky through his role as MC/producer/host of Salute to the Music of Bob Dylan at Sacred Heart, the kickoff event for the 2014 Duluth Dylan Fest. We made a fast connection and have since remained in touch. This year once again Magic Marc is co-producing what will now be a culminating show called An Acoustic Salute to the Music of Bob Dylan, with musician from far and near, in an unplugged show on the eve of Dylan's 74th birthday.

On Saturday May 2, several weeks before this event, Percansky will be here in the Twin Ports to show one of his newest creations, Ruby the Dogumentary. The "dogumentary" will be shown at Red Mug Coffeehouse in Superior, an event slated for 7-10 p.m. that Saturday evening.

I caught up with Marc and gathered some details on this and other projects he is involved with.

EN: Will you be there yourself?

MP: I am calling this the unofficial early kickoff to Dylan Fest 2015 as I am also co-producing along with The Armory Arts & Music Center the big finale "Acoustic Salute to the Music of Bob Dylan" concert event at Sacred Heart Music Center on May 23rd that rumor has it you will be singing in? I have to show up to see if that is true! I am really looking forward to every aspect of this concert and am confident it will be one of the best of the year in the Twin Ports area! Nelson T. French with Gene LaFond, Billy Hallquist and myself along with all the great artists involved have banded together as a team to be sure that it is presented exactly the way we all want it done. We may tear the roof off the place and still be celebrating Mr. D's 74th birthday in style right at Midnight! It is something that your readers and music lovers will not want to miss! So get your tickets before they are gone! By the way thank you for the great art for our poster image!

Now to answer your question. Yes, I will be there myself along with Ruby. She will walk down the Red (Mug) Carpet and be looking for treats wherever she can find them! We will also have with us the editor of the film, Michael Johnson along with possibly a few of the cast members as well from the Twin Cities. We are turning this into a day vacation getaway to visit the one and only Red Mug Coffeehouse! I visited there last year and went home with a red mug that I have been drinking out of ever since! I love the place and the food is delicious as well! This was the ideal place for me to show this film for its North Country debut and it all made perfect sense in timing with the upcoming Duluth Dylan Festival. Suzanne Johnson was so accommodating and open-minded in making this happen and one of the nicest ladies I have had the good fortune to meet! I thank her for making the event possible and promoting it along with me!

EN: Everyone agrees with you about both the Red Mug and Suzanne. How long have you been promoting Ruby the Doberman Mascot?

MP: I have been promoting Ruby The Doberman Mascot since September 7th of last year. I have only had a handful of appearances since as I have been busy with other projects but each time I have had great response! Our next big gig will be June 20th at the Parktacluar Parade in St. Louis Park, Minnesota which is where I was born and raised. At this screening we will run 2 short promotional films about it and also another surprise for the lucky people in attendance before we show Ruby The Dogumentary.

EN: Where did the idea for the Mascot come from?

MP: I have only been a Mascot a couple of times before this as far as I can remember. I may have been one of the first Jewish Easter Bunny's around! I did that in 1992 at a shopping mall in Roseville, Minnesota. My mom thought I had lost my mind and that I would suffocate to death in it! She still does and hopes I find a fill-in to take my place. Anyhow I had so much fun doing that! I ran around the mall and somehow would usually end up at Victoria's Secret! It was probably the only time that more photos were taken of me than those models! Everyone loves the Easter Bunny! I was thinking of being Santa Claus next but luckily stopped there.

Fast forward to 2013 and I appeared as The Grey Chicken for a CD release party at an art gallery called Even Break in Minneapolis that I was working with at the time. Naturally that evolved into my attempt at becoming my dog as a Mascot and I just went with it full force! I can copy all of her moves while doing some magic tricks. I actually love being inside a costume! It brings out your true inner soul and personality without the focus being on one's outward appearance. If on any certain day I get tired of seeing myself, then I can hide in there and everything works out fine. Everybody is your best friend! Kids and adults both love seeing it and it never grows old even in these new modern times we live in. We all have some kind of another persona that we take on or portray to others and this is one way to show that. This could be why everyone still loves dressing up on Halloween and looks so good.

EN: Have you always been a dog person? Tell me about your first dog?

Ruby's sixth birthday

MP: I have never not been a dog person but not to this extreme and level. My family had lots of Toy Poodles growing up and even an Afghan Hound at one point. Actually I had 2 Siamese cats. They lived for nearly 20 years, never left the house nor visited a veterinarian even once. Boy were they lucky. I was working on a screenplay with my girlfriend at the time back in 1989 called "The Hermit And The Cat" but it never materialized. I loved them too but not exactly like the love I have for Ruby. This is something different being she is my first dog that I can call my own in my adult years. Life seems to be getting harder for me and more of a struggle these days as I am sure we can all relate to the process of aging. Personal, financial problems, ailing family members and health issues as we get older. We are all continually handed things each and every day that we didn't ask for and there is no choice but to deal with them the best we can. At the end of the day, Ruby is there for comfort unlike anything else in the world. Ask any dog owner and they may agree! Some people have even said I am obsessed with her. That is okay, I really don't mind, I am not harming anybody. Who's to say you can't get inspiration from a dog as well as a human being? She is one of my heroes.

EN: What is your Dogumentary about?

MP: Ruby The Dogumentary is about many things and each viewer may get something different out of it. I sort of see it as my life through Ruby's eyes or maybe it is Ruby's life through my eyes. First of all it is a real and true portrait of my first 49 years on earth. I didn't intend it to be that way when filming it but I guess you could say it is autobiographical in nature.The events and experiences of your life always lead you up to where you are today. It would work as a swan song if I was to drop off the face of the earth tomorrow. It is very direct and honest and I stand proudly by everything that is in it. Secondly it is a portrayal of my dog, Ruby. I wanted to capture her whole life in it, too. This explains why it needed to be the 2 hour length that it is. Even after the credits roll one of the most important themes of the movie arrives and all I will say is there will not be a sequel. We worked on it for nearly 4 years and almost a year in editing while filming additional scenes at the same time as we were writing its screenplay. I co-wrote it along with Michael Johnson who then pieced together nearly 10 hours of raw footage. It was such a large project that it had to have 2 filmmakers to bring it full circle and get it done up to both of our standards.

Although it centers on the Doberman Pinscher breed, all dog owners should find something they like about it and that they can relate to as well. It covers just about every kind of dog trait that I could think of. I don't think we left anything out. On the other hand you don't have to be a dog lover to enjoy certain elements of it either and it can stand on its own as an independent film. It has songs written especially for it by Minneapolis singer/songwriter John Charles and also features some of the greatest dog poems and quotes of all time. I think I may have found the oldest one from 1870! It is at times funny and humorous and at other times very serious. It deals with the real life running out of time factor. My dog's life as well as my own mortality. It's not dark yet, but it's getting there. On the other hand it also deals with capturing a moment of true blissfulness! This is my medicine! If there is something in this world that makes you happy that you love and care about which brings you true joy, then please hang on to that feeling and don't let it go! Whatever it is! Show no shame in it! Shout it out and sing about it to the world if you can! We are all in this together and we need to spread the healing power of love around these days more often than we are doing while we still struggle to survive. Whether it is about a dog, a human being or anything else under the sun. That is what I set out to do with this movie and I think we accomplished that.

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EdNote: Mark your calendars. May 2, 7-10 p.m. at The Red Mug Coffeehouse in Superior.