It all started back in November of 1995. David 'The Checkerboard Guy' Aiken went to Japan for a month because he had fallen in love with a beautiful Japanese woman named Emiko Yoshikawa (who would later become his wife). Emiko worked for a company called Artland, and shared an apartment with some of the entertainers that Artland had on salary. One of these entertainers was a woman named Sandy Johnson. Sandy and David had been friends for a few years, and had a great respect for each other's work as well as each other's skill at marketing. During David's stay in Japan, ideas went back and forth about various marketing items, and one of the things that was discussed was the concept of "Trading Cards". Early in 1996, Sandy ordered some trading cards from a company called "Big League Cards". David was back in Japan in the Spring of 1996 and was very impressed by the card that Sandy gave him. He had bigger plans for the concept of trading cards though - a series of cards specifically designed for variety artists. It took a few years for his idea to become a reality. In March of 1997, David hosted an informal get together of performers in Vancouver and called it "The Comedy Summit". The concept of the summit was to share ideas, eat good food, and enjoy a good hang at a time of year when things were a bit slow gig wise. One of the performers in attendance was Jim! of The Jim Show from Boston. David discussed the concept of the trading cards series with Jim, and both agreed that it was an excellent idea, but both were busy with other projects and it took longer than expected to turn the idea into reality. Over the course of 1998, David and Jim stayed in touch and started working on how to turn to the concept into reality. David took the basic design offered by "Big League Cards" and customized it so that it would be a bit more unique. Once things with the design were finalized, both David and Jim ordered cards. Because it was late into the year (November by the time the cards were ordered), it was decided that the cards should be linked to the 1999 calendar year, and thus 1999 became the first year in the series of cards. This first year's series was dubbed "Super Street Performer Cards". When the cards arrived, both David and Jim were convinced that the cards were going to be a very good thing! Jim sent out invitations and ordering information to 15 key players in the Street Performance World. Of the 15 invitations that went out, 11 people decided to participate in the 1999 season of cards. During the course of the 1999 touring season, it became apparent that the trading cards were a hit and many more performers wanted to get involved. It also became apparent that the name "Super Street Performer Cards" needed to be changed as the term 'Street Performer' didn't really encompass some of the spectacularly talented artists who wanted to get involved with the cards. So a new name was coined "The Super Star Performer Cards". To facilitate ordering David decided to create an on-line home for the cards so that performers from all over the world could connect via the internet and get the information needed to order their own card. The domain name www.SuperStarPerformers.com was registered in August of '99, and the site went live to the web in October. This site is dedicated to the cards from each year in the series, and a resource for those who want to collect the cards, or order a card of their own. It is meant as a self-serve resource. The site was designed and created by David Aiken. Questions and or comments can be sent to David by email at: cbg@checkerhead.com. Happy trading!

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