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Scat Man
By Matt Hanks
DECEMBER 8, 1997:
Superman may be dead, but the bizarro
world is still spinning. And its renaissance man is one Mark
Weiss. How else would you explain an individual whose resume
reads as follows: counselor with a doctorate in psychology and
several published writings, accomplished scat singer, expert
Tibetan rubbing bowl player, and creator of the worlds
largest balloon sculpture. If youre looking for rhyme or
reason to his vocational muse, you wont find it. But you
will find a man who is driven, simply, by his own bliss.
Two of the feathers in Weiss cap have their roots in his
childhood. While still in high school he took a
career aptitude test, The kind of test bankers make their
sons take to decide what theyll major in at Harvard,
he quips. The proctor who graded Weiss test told him that
he would excel equally as a therapist and a musician. She
also told me that if you have a talent and you dont use it,
it will come back and bite you in the ass, says Weiss.
I really took that seriously.
Weiss attended college in Los Angeles, where he wasted no time in
becoming a full-fledged hep cat. L.A. offered a fertile jazz
scene, and he spent most of his nights as a gigging trombonist
and bass player. But Weiss discovery of his true musical
calling was both a necessity and a happy accident. He picks up
the story, For some time at that point I had been taking
these long road trips with a good friend of mine who was also a
jazz musician. To pass the time, and also to get in a little
practice, we would sing our respective parts to a few jazz
standards that we knew. Thats how I started scat singing,
from a lack of instruments. As bad luck would have it, it
was also around that time that Weiss developed a rather serious
case of arthritis. He took all these merging factors as a sign:
I sold my trombone and bought a bunch of psychology books
and started to get serious about my singing.
But aptitude tests and health problems still dont explain
how Weiss career paths intersect. Hes the first to
admit that they may not intersect at all. Weiss chooses his words
carefully. The proper term would probably be
align. If theres a place where this alignment
shows up the most, its around spirituality. In therapy I
work with people to find a sense of meaning in their lives, which
is essentially a spiritual goal. The ultimate goal is not just to
be okay. The ultimate goal is to go to a higher level of
well-being. Clients [of mine] that know Im a scat singer
see me as having a very full life. They see that Ive
reached that higher level.

Mark Weiss with his Tibetan rubbing bowl (projected on its surface are pictures of his balloon sculptures).
photo by Daniel Ball
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Weiss began scat singing publicly about 20 years ago. Hes
performed everywhere from large concert halls to small wedding
receptions. Over time hes honed his craft and introduced
new elements into his repertoire, one of the most interesting
being the Tibetan rubbing bowl. The Tibetan bowl is a large,
thick stone object about 18 inches in diameter. When its
periphery is rubbed in a certain manner, it emits a deep yet
piercing drone. Weiss recalls, The first time I heard it,
it just knocked me out.
Of course, everyone has their moments of inspiration, but Weiss
turns those moments into life-long pursuits. No impulse is beyond
indulging, so long as it takes him to that higher level of
spirituality; a plane where not just a couple but all of his
pursuits align.
He jokes that his idea for balloon sculptures began as an
exercise in representational art. It looks exactly like a
worlds biggest balloon sculpture. Never fails. But
over time (hes been assembling these sculptures for more
than 20 years) Weiss has found a grounding in psychological
theory for this massive undertaking usually a day-long
project that requires anywhere from 10,000 to 20,000 balloons.
It has a lot of application to the idea of peak experience.
Most people believe that we learn by plodding through life in a
certain linear progression. But theres also a process where
we learn an incredible amount very deeply, in a very brief period
of time.
The balloon sculptures can be like that. It can
teach equality between adults and children. It can teach that you
simply cant do certain things wrong.
The same can be said, it would seem, of Weiss life.
Hes been true to his own talents, and whats wrong
with that? If theres one thing Ive learned,
its that everyones a teacher, he says
reflectively. You cannot not be one. You can basically be a
teacher for love or a teacher for fear. Thats really the
only choice you have in life. Everything else is an outcome of
that choice.
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