“The Extraordinary Other”: Todd Robbins in Conversation with Madelon Hoedt

Todd Robbins is a New York City based performer who has spent decades specializing in arcane forms of popular entertainment, offbeat amusements and intriguing deceptions. Todd is renowned for his work in Coney Island and the sideshow, magic, circus, ragtime piano and traditional jazz, medicine shows and burlesque. In his own words, he has spent “a lifetime immersed in popular entertainment and dark amusement.” Recently, Todd appeared in the acclaimed off-Broadway theatre show Play Dead. He can currently be seen on the Investigation Discovery channel's new series True Nightmares. Reproduced here is an interview conducted with Todd Robbins by Madelon Hoedt via Skype on June 22, 2016

Editorial

Editorial for Issue 4 of the Journal of Performance Magi

Undeath in Paradise: The Humanity of the Zombie in (Religious) Utopias

The words ‘utopia’ and ‘zombie’ are likely to conjure up strong images in the mind of the reader. The first makes one think of perfection, of happiness, of something new and better; the other, of the monstrous, of death and decay. Despite the fact that these images are arguably the most common, one can question their validity: can it be said that utopias are always perfect, and are the undead always monstrous? In this paper, I aim to explore the concepts relating to both utopias and zombies and the possible connections between the two, including a reading of the undead in light of the ultimate utopia: Paradise. In the light of these analyses, I propose a more positive approach to the figure of the zombie, which will be discussed as a counterpoint to the commonly held views of (religious) utopias

The effect of job similarity on forgetting in multi-task production

For many decades, research has been done on the effect of learning and forgetting for manual assembly operations. Due to the evolution towards mass customization, cycle time prediction becomes more and more complex. The frequent change of tasks for an operator results in a rapid alternation between learning and forgetting periods, since the production of one model is causing a forgetting phase for another model. a new mathematical model for learning and forgetting is proposed to predict the future cycle time of an operator depending on the product mix of his actual assembly schedule. A main factor for this model is the job similarity between the task that is being learned and is being forgotten. In our experimental study the impact of job similarity onto the forgetting effect is measured. Two groups of operators were submitted to an equal time schedule, with other tasks to perform. At first, both groups were asked to perform the same main task. In the subsequent phase, they were submitted to different assembly tasks, each with another job similarity towards the main task, before again executing that main task. After a period of inactivity, the main task was assembled again by every subject. Results confirm that a higher job similarity results in a lower forgetting effect for the main task

Study of the Remediation of Deficiencies in Auditory Perception

Author Institution: Kent City Schools; Department of Counseling and Special Education, University of AkronThe screening of 243 students from 10 kindergarten classes resulted in the identification of 39 children with perceptual deficiencies in the auditory channel. Auditory training procedures dictated by Lerner's definition of auditory perception were introduced into 5 kindergarten classes. Five no-treatment classes were included as control groups. Effects of the training program reported for these 39 subjects indicated growth at the meaningful level of language usage and improvement in the ability to analyze words. The effects of the auditory training program on reading readiness and self-concept were encouraging