My heart tells me Michael is much trixier than people care to believe. He's not evil but he sometimes lets his child like side do the thinking and that spells out movie.....greatest show on earth... like there is no tomorrow and yes his life could have been in danger, very possible but it's also possible that he did this for the pure amusement of it all. I don't think any of us ever know what side of Michael we are going to get from one minute to the next and that is the beauty of him.
I agree with you wholeheartedly that MJ is much more trixier than people give him credit for. His smile at the end of his short film, Remember the Time, when he is trying to escape from the beefy, Egyptian guards says it all for me. His smile has a Puckish quality to me. I think that MJ is alot smarter than people ever have give him credit for. I think that he is a brillant genius capable all things great and small.
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Ex-bodyguard for Michael Jackson recalls a mischievous man and a loving family
Published: Tuesday, July 07, 2009, 9:29 PM Updated: Monday, October 12, 2009, 6:47 PM
Lolis E Elie
As thousands of people gathered for a memorial service at the Staples Center in Los Angeles on Tuesday to mourn the King of Pop, Andre Menzies was at work in New Orleans, reminiscing about his days as one of Michael Jackson's bodyguards and remembering the superstar as a prankster, a perfectionist and a consummate performer.
"Just being with Michael was one of the best things I've ever done, " said Menzies, 55.
"When he would go sing 'Human Nature' or 'I'll Be There, ' it would be incredible, " Menzies recalled. "The whole entire stadium would be waving their arms."
Menzies, chief of security at Dillard University and a reserve officer with the New Orleans Police Department, started working with the Jackson family in 1984 for its "Victory" tour. Much of his memorabilia from those days was destroyed in the flooding after Hurricane Katrina.
"If it wasn't for Katrina, I would have had all kinds of stuff, " Menzies said. "I stayed friends with them (the Jackson family) until now. I still can't believe Michael's dead."
Menzies is one of a small coterie of New Orleanians with connections to the Jackson family. Marlon Jackson is married to Carol Parker, a New Orleanian. Wayne and Skip Nagin, cousins of New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, worked security for various members of the Jackson clan.
"I'm really just very distraught, " Skip Nagin said. "We all know Michael was a great entertainer, but I'd rather not speak on it right now."
It seems that Jermaine Jackson is the central figure in the Jackson connection to New Orleans. He hired Menzies and helped bring Jonathan "Sugarfoot" Moffett, a New Orleans drummer, to his brothers' attention. Moffett has become a fixture in the bands of all the Jackson brothers as well as those of pop stars Madonna and Elton John.
Jermaine Jackson also helped New Orleans twins Lolita Minor and Tarita Walker land roles in the 1992 television biography "The Jacksons: An American Dream."
Though Menzies was hired specifically to work as a bodyguard for Jermaine Jackson, roles on the "Victory" tour were fluid. Often Menzies would be reassigned to accompany Michael Jackson to a news conference or other events.
Jackson the prankster
While on that tour, he said he saw the Jackson family as warm and friendly, an image that is at odds with tabloid coverage.
Michael Jackson would often enlist his younger brother, Randy, as well as Menzies in one of his favorite pranks. Late at night, the trio would gather the room service trays left by guests in the hotel's hallway. Then they would target one of the other brothers and stack all the trays in front of his door.
"In the morning, when they had to run out, they would run into all those dishes, " Menzies said.
In later years, Jackson was dogged by allegations of child molestation, and the Jackson family has been accused of being dysfunctional.
From his limited vantage point, Menzies said he saw no evidence of either.
"The man was not a child molester, not a freak. He was just a genius that we will never find in an artist again in life, " Menzies said.
"Those guys didn't drink. They didn't smoke, they didn't use drugs. They were the best people in the world to work for. They made us feel like a million dollars, " Menzies said.
Pork and sweet potatoes
The Jacksons have another New Orleans tie: They ate at Dooky Chase restaurant on Orleans Avenue in the 1970s.
"At that time, they loved pork chops and they loved sweet potato pies, " chef Leah Chase said. "But as they grew older, they didn't eat pork chops anymore.
"I remember so well when they got to be about 14 or 15, they wanted wine. They wanted Fratelli Lambrusco, " she said, laughing.
Menzies, who said Snickers candy bars were another Jackson staple, recalled other light-hearted details. At one point on the "Victory" tour, Menzies said, Jermaine Jackson was supposed to place Michael's fedora on a microphone stand as his younger brother did his trademark moonwalk dance across the stage.
But one night, Michael Jackson finished his dance only to find Menzies' New York Yankees baseball cap on the stand where his own hat should have been.
"You should have seen Michael's face when he turned around and saw that hat, " Menzies recalled, laughing.
The dance that Michael Jackson made look so easy was a product of hard work as well as talent, Menzies said.
"He used to practice every night after the show, " Menzies said. "Everywhere we went, he would have to have a hardwood floor in his room so he could practice."
Another time, Menzies remembered, "we were in New York doing a show and Marlon took off his jacket and Michael threw it in the audience.
"That night, Jermaine said 'Michael, I love you. I love you to death. But if you take my jacket and throw it into the audience, I'm going to throw you right behind it.' "
Though the six-month "Victory" tour was the last time Menzies worked directly with Michael Jackson, he continued to work with Jermaine Jackson off and on for years.
"The last time I talked to Michael, it had to be years ago, " he said. "But I was keeping in touch with Jermaine. I kept up with them, where they were."
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LoginVivat Rex – Michael Jackson!!
I was at the premiere in London’s Leicester square on Tuesday. My verdict? The movie shows that if the concerts had happened, they would have been truly amazing – the King of Pop was a genius. Michael had added a dynamic and funky dimension to his performances. Fantastic dancers and musicians, breath-taking choreography- would have been a real treat.
My favourite parts? When Michael was encouraging the guitar player to give it her all. He was telling her “this is your time to shine.” That sums Michael up, the loving caring man that I knew!! My other favourite part was when Michael was sucking on his lollipop whilst discussing work stuff with Kenny Ortega. Again, that was Michael through and through. Full of contradictions – child-like and yet completely on the ball – a genius. The funny thing is that he never even knew how remarkably talented he was, he just felt as if he was the vessel that all the great songs and dances were channelled through from God. A very humble man.
Could Michael have completed the 50 concert stint? No, I don’t think so. To me, as someone who knew Michael for quite some time, he did not look well in most of the footage. Reports of him looking amazing are greatly exaggerated in my opinion. He definitely did not look himself and he was far too thin for my liking.
Did the movie give much insight into Michael’s character? It is very difficult for me to say if the movie gives much insight (to the fans) into Michael’s character – he had so many dimensions. I personally don’t think it did. He was in work mode during the footage and I got the impression that his team (performers and backstage crew) were very much in awe and star-struck.
My experience of him is as an eternal prankster, always light-hearted and cracking jokes. I did not see enough of that. But again as I said, he was in work mode.
Was this a representation of the King at work? Again, no, I don’t think so. In my mind, Sony/AEG have skilfully put together footage of Michal’s rehearsals although I don’t think the movie tells much of a story. I would have liked to have seen more about how they started at the drawing board – the creative process.
I knew Michael Jackson, the man, the father and my dear friend. I did not know Michael the artist – the King of Pop – and how he made his ideas, dreams and vision come into fruition. I would have liked to have seen a video diary of how he felt, what he planned to do next, how he felt things were going with respect to the rehearsals etc. I suppose this would have revealed more of what Sony/AEG purposely chose to leave out – the circumstances surrounding his death.
What was Sony/AEG’s rational for releasing the footage? To be honest, I wasn’t sure at first. Infact, I’m still not entirely sure and my opinion on this changes day to day. Let’s discuss this! I guess it depends on what school of though you subscribe to. Those that believe that Michael was a victim of premeditated murder or exploited into carrying out concerts that he was never able to complete, may see this as a propaganda tool to show that Michael was in good form. This is a possibility. Others could see this as Sony/AEG jumping on the bandwagon and cashing in on Michael’s death. Again plausible. And lastly, it may have been as Kenny Ortega claims it to be – a chance for the fans to see what the London concerts would have been like with out having to hear about the dark side of his life and death. Again sounds reasonable. In reality the rational is probably a combination of all of the above – but to what degree, I don’t know – only time will tell.
Would I have seen it if I had to do it all again? Yes and No. Yes – because I would have kept on hearing about it and curiosity would have forced me into seeing it. No- because I found the movie deeply upsetting to watch and feel that it made me feel worse about Michael’s death. I was not emotionally ready to see the movie. Michael’s death is still very raw and I feel as if I have regressed in the mourning process as a result of watching it.
Don’t let my opinion stop you guys from watching it. I was a friend of Michael’s and as with our close friends, we can tell how they are feeling by their mannerisms and the way they carry themselves. We can read between the lines and pick up things that acquaintances can’t.
I spotted two sections in the movie where I knew Michael was feeling good and confident about the shows. It is hard for me to describe where that was because of the way the movie was cut i.e. not in a chronological time frame. In my view, it was when he was wearing the suit (the outfit he wore on his last rehearsal) and then the orange trousers with a gold jacket.
The section when he did the ‘penguin type’ move while singing Human Nature was Michael at his lowest point (as per the footage). I can’t watch it – it makes me cringe. I had to hide my face. He was clearly very thin and weak and did not look well in himself. It was embarrassing and nobody in the background seemed to notice that something was clearly wrong. It is impossible to know definitively when this was i.e. whether it was at the beginning of his stint of rehearsals or nearer the end. My guess is that it was around April time.
Final verdict. I think that this movie is aimed at ‘general’ Michael Jackson fans who appreciated his music and performances, but weren’t too fussed about Michael as a person or his personal life. Die-hard fans may find the movie a little upsetting.
For all of you ‘This is NOT it’ followers, I agree with and support the overall sentiment of the cause. Michael’s death was by no means natural and was definitely avoidable. Someone was very negligent and deserves to be punished. However, please don’t judge others that do go to see it. Everyone has their own motives for doing so.
What will I miss most about Michael? Our phone conversations. Me sat on the floor in my dressing gown, up against the radiator with a cup of tea chatting to the King of Pop. What did we talk about? Everything and nothing! We had this a funny conversation once at like two o’ clock in the morning. We were talking about what super powers we would chose to have. We both decided that we would like to be invisible and would like to be able to fly. Michael also said that he would love to be able to get to anyway in the world within seconds by beaming himself to where ever he wanted to go. I told him if he ever figures it out, to beam himself over to the other side of the ‘Pond’ (to UK, where I live) and we could hang out. Sadly, I only got to see him a couple of times a year because of that damned Pond between UK and US.
He knew that I am frightened to death of snakes and he was always so sweet when he was taking me around Neverland and kept on assuring me that he wouldn’t let any snakes get me. Sweet as pie that man!! Another time, I was looking through some photos and went to open a box that I guess he didn’t want me to see and he “there is a snake in there!” I freaked out and he was in absolute hysterics!!
In March this year on my birthday, he sang ‘Pretty Young Thing’ down the telephone to me. I cried, sooo soo very sweet!!
I’m also going to miss him winding me up and all the pranks he used to play. Shaking my can of coke so that I got soaked when I opened it. Ha, I got him back!! Man, I’m going to miss his rather amusing cockney accent – “can I have some fish and chips?”; “Would you like to come for tea?”
It’s so crazy because it is only since his death that I realised that he was the King of Pop. That sounds daft but he really was ‘my mate Michael’ to me. It freaks me out sometimes that I actually knew the most famous man on the planet. We (his mates) were very lucky to have him in our lives, I wish I hadn’t taken it for granted that he’d always be around. I can’t remember a time before I knew Michael.
Vivat Rex!!!!
Susan xx