Computer Says "No"

I've just spent a futile 15 minutes trying to find pictures or information about Joel Salem, a cutie patootie (and very skilled) juggler who appeared on the most recent episode of anarchic comedy/burlesque show The Sideshow on ABC tv*. He did this amazing act with electronic gauntlets that were hooked up to some sort of loop machine and mixing desk. During the act he juggled balls, which when bounced off the gauntlets triggered drum beats and sound loops to make a music track and a laser light show.

So, I consulted The Oracle and got no hits. None. Ok, a couple of peripheral mentions of him in reviews but that's it. No photos. (Which is a shame, because he was hella cute.) Not even a MySpace page! WTF?

What I thought was interesting was what it says about my expectations. I'm so used to being able to find info or pics of almost anything on the Interweb. You want Christian clowns? Pages of them. It's so weird to find someone, especially someone in the arts and entertainment industry, who is off the radar. I had to double check just to be sure. I even tried variant spellings, adding the word "juggler" etc (btw - there are a lot of jugglers in Salem, just so you know) but still zip. Joel is off the grid.

I guess it says a lot about how things have changed in just a few short years. With online encyclopedias, wikis and the world of blogs, it's so unusual to not find info about somebody out there. Perhaps Joel might get at least one Google entry after this post...

* That's the Aussie tv channel ABC, for those of you playing along in the Northern Hemisphere.