Crawley Circus Festival 2015
A good turnout from TWJC this year: myself, Kevin, Simon, Archie, Paul, Louisa (not Laura), Jenny, Simon, Cat, Karina, Ulysses, Other Paul, John/Bruce, Laurence, Robin, Other Simon, Laura, George & Jerry. A few mum's, wives, friends & even the long time MIA Dave L, Helen & their 3 kids put in a welcome appearance for the show as well.
The weather was perfect for the whole weekend. Scheduling the event to coincide with a beautiful full moon was a nice touch which made my late night, "who's still up?" walks very pleasant. Wasps seemed to outnumber humans 8 to 1 this year so it was interesting checking out people's anti-wasp measures which included distracting honey pots, defensive smoking candles & offensive fly swats that doubled up as spanking paddles once the wasps had gone to sleep.
Paul & Louisa (not Laura) brought along a double & single inflatable sofa that inspired most of the tiny amount of juggling I did over the course of the festival. The single was very good for paddidling if you could get it started. With the double I had fun sitting back & juggling 3 over head, throwing one high then throwing one as hard as I could into the seat next to me to bounce back up into my hand before catching the first high ball.
This year saw our most successful pizza run ever. From commencing the order to having the pizza in my hand only took an astonishing 1 hour 19 minutes. This included determining what everyone wanted & placing the order in a truly remarkable 31 minutes. This was easily half the time of our previous best effort & all it took was applying the pressure of having a stopwatch running & me barking at everyone. I even managed to get a hefty discount by smiling sweetly over the phone too! After eating so early I was initially at a loss for what to do with the rest of the evening. Next year I believe we can shave a few more minutes off the time by getting Karina to drive forwards rather than reversing to the pizza place to pick them up.
I sadly failed to get anyone lost in the woods this year due to a lack of adventurous spirit on their part. Why worry? It's only dark & the only person who is likely to leap out at you is me. Maybe one day they will learn that you can see better if you turn your torch off.
Saturday
Saturday morning Richard did the toast fairy thing in a set of splendid steampunk themed shoulder pads which tended to slip into a splendid steampunk themed bra as he walked.
Stephen asked me to stand in for Amie in the annual club stealing workshop while she looked after Lucas & newborn Jake. Being the consummate professional that I am I turned up late & not entirely sober. Our early demonstrations went well & the later ones got the point across! I'm sure Stephen changes the names of the tricks just to confuse me though. I had a lot of fun & surprised myself with the amount of tips I was able to give on the subject as I went round the participants (no idea if any of them were useful or not but that's beside the point).
In the afternoon I had a brief juggle on the lawn & had a go with LP's Salerno ring. I was quite pleased to still be able to do it having not touched one since Bungay. Kev, Simon & Archie all had a go with mixed results. Archie did particularly well considering he hadn't learnt to balance a club on his chin yet. Some bloke called Tiff wandered through & showed us how it should be done.
The Show
Guiding us through the evening as compère was magician & comedian Christian Lee who did a great job of keeping the show going at a good pace with lots of enjoyable silly skits. His puns were so wonderfully awful that they made you hate yourself for enjoying them so much which is everything a pun should be.
Marky Jay did a quite frankly ridiculous spot where he span one diabolo with 13 sets of handsticks. I enjoyed the silly banter & the over the top dramatic music. Kellie Sky did two spots on silks, neither of which appealed to me. She did lots of impressive demanding stuff but I couldn't find anything to get excited about. Helen Orford also did two hula hoop spots, both were good & I particularly liked the quick change performed while spinning many many hoops which was a lovely surprise finish to her first set. I preferred her second spot though primarily because of the very sexy outfit but also because of the moody dubstep violin music (Crystallize by Lindsay Sterling) which fit the piece & the moves she performed very well.
The Void performed his Seriously routine which I have watched a few times on jtv, so it was lovely to finally see live. Later in the evening Jenny commented that, "he looked like the fit teacher in a school talent contest". Make of that what you will.
Also doing two spots was Mathew Tiffany first juggling & spinning rings, then doing a lovely set consisting of some old school combination tricks from the likes of Francis Brunn, some old props including the Salerno ring while juggling 5 balls. In between all that was a fun phonecall to his gran to wish her happy birthday & a flurry of crazy 5 ball stuff as a tribute to Ben Beever that would have made Ben proud.
Nearly There Yet presented a sensational duo acrobalance routine. They performed in silence which I always think is a gamble because your material has to be good enough to make the audience provide the soundtrack, but in this case it certainly was. The opening sequence where the flyer made a series of very precise & subtle jumps up the base's body while he went from lying down to standing was just fantastic. I also really liked the theatrical expressions which were cleverly framed between each others' arms & legs as they moved through the piece to really draw the attention. There were a number of genuinely scary, "how is he going to catch her if things go wrong from that position?" moments. A really striking act, wonderful stuff.
Closing the show was the sensational Ulrike Storch from Germany. She won me over just by the way she walked on stage to get in position before the music started. Her entrance was effectively the equivalent of grabbing the microphone & announcing, "Hi, I'm going to be fucking good". From start to finish every single move she made radiated class, the act was a masterpiece in how to project power & confidence. I loved every twirl, every stylish flourish of her hands, every sexy wiggle of her hips, the way she picked up her props, the way she swept her hair around her neck before upending herself onto the table. This paragraph is already sounding like a love letter & I haven't even mentioned her foot juggling yet which was fluid & precise with tricks that ranged from fast & flashy to slow & graceful all expertly choreographed to the pace of the music. Stunning, incredible, beautiful, superlative, superlative, superlative, superlative, superlative.
No review of the show would be complete without a brief mention of stage hand extraordinaire Haydn Earle (WOOOO!)
Renegade
Mata opened with the traditional beer poi, then he did a rope trick where audience volunteers should've failed to get a ring off of a loop of rope wrapped around the necks of two volunteers but one of the kids came up with a far simpler solution! LP performed the golf club balance, Jugglebug attempted to hula hoop while bouncing along on all fours across the stage. Bungle taped drawing pins, sprung loaded mousetraps & a pair of pants to his clubs which he juggled while telling us his favourite joke. Void showed Jugglebug the correct pronunciation of zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcba & also told us a joke backwards. Ieuen tied his wrists together with his belt then juggled 3, 4 & 5 balls, Jack did some top 3 ball stuff, someone sang how much is that doggy in the window backwards, a young girl did an impression of a rabbit's nose with her chin, Laura did a nice song while providing her own percussion by drumming her hands & a cup on the stage. Other stuff probably happened.
Late in the evening I learned things about my fellow TWJC members that I cannot unlearn. Poor Jerry.
Sunday
Some people felt my celebration after beating ~12 year old George at Quoridor on Sunday morning may have been a little bit excessive.
I enjoyed sitting on the lawn listening to Tiff, Paul & another chap playing tunes while I chatted to Archie's mum & watched everyone playing with various toys.
The Games
I think Kevin had won the fancy dress competition from the moment he stepped from behind the marquee onto the playing field. Decked out in a stunning pink & black top hat & tails with kinky boots, an elegant cane & various clockwork embellishments, he looked superb even without getting the smoking stack on his hat to work properly.
Simon won the 3 club gladiators, Kevin won the face balance endurance, Bungle won the 5 ball gladiators with a pacifist run, Danny Colyer put in a very good performance to win the unicycle race after Matt from Southend impressively stacked it a few metres from the line with his shoe lace wrapped around one pedal. Kids these days just don't understand the value of preparation. Matt also suffered during the numbers game when he found himself as the rope in a tug of war match between two groups. However, when that was over the winning group recounted & found they didn't need him after all so Glyn mercilessly threw him to the ground & steered the group away. How is it that I'm the one with the reputation for being ruthless at this game? Jack caught me a treat during the hopping gladiators & sent me flying, I had a heart stopping moment when I hit the ground where I genuinely thought I might have dislocated my right shoulder. Fortunately this was not the case & I was able to move it again after about 10 minutes!
#crawley #CrawleyConvention2015 #conventionreview
It was, as always, a great weekend. Lou, Jerry and I enjoyed it, although Lou and I are remarkably less traumatised than Jerry by our experiences!. This was the first Juggling convention in about 2 years we've been to where we haven’t had kit destroyed by the weather, so that made a nice change. Thanks to Dave and the team, looking forward to next years already.
Crawley Juggling Festival starts 31/7/2015
We've got the renegade tent up:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/5hpzgkwx2lkug97/IMG_20150730_190229.jpg?dl=0
and we've got the free space for camping:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/r7w635kmrx8brvh/IMG_20150730_190449.jpg?dl=0
All we need is you.
Full details are at https://www.crawleycircusfestival.co.uk.
Please join us.
John.
Little Paul - - Parent #
Made it! #carparkcamping at its best.
Currently sat in the open mic, waiting for the Rod Stewart tribute act to finish
Little Paul - - Parent #
Show had some cracking acts this year (and some hoop and tissue acts)
Highlights for me were the acro duo in the first half (are we nearly there yet) Tiffs second act (I do love combination tricks, and the shout out to Ben was a nice touch) and of course the last act (ulrika someone? A lovely bit of antipodism, which I think was fresh to most of the audience)
The fire show is everything the Crawley fire show has ever been
Little Paul - - Parent #
Tiff has a new toy as well, it's ace :)
https://youtube.com/v/UF5KKQvAJaA
Crawley Festival
Today is your last chance to get the discounted early bird tickets, call the box office on 01293 553636 today.
The show line-up includes: Marky Jay – Diabolo, Mathew Tiffany – Variety juggling, Helen Orford – Hula hoops, Ulriche Storch – Foot Juggler, the aptly named Kellie Sky on Aerial silks and The Void – Serious juggling all compered by Magician Christian Lee.
The forecast for the weekend is dry and sunny, so bring a tent to make the most of it.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/142648271264/
#Crawleyconvention
Little Paul - - Parent #
Yay! Tiff is in the show!
Deffo bringing my Salerno ring if tiff is about
Little Paul - - Parent #
oh, and yeah - just booked my tickets - because leaving it to the last minute is what all the cool kids are doing right?
Squee! Really looking forward to next weekend.
I bought a load of tickets for most of the TWJC rabble a while ago, still bullying a few more stragglers to come along.
Tickets still on sale at pre reg prices, ring the box office on 01293 553636.
I'm also in the process of putting the workshop schedule together and would love to have some people offering their services, as usual you will receive our heartfelt thanks and maybe even a beer as reward. Contact me direct at davemlaw@talktalk.net
Hope to see some of you there we have a great show lining up nicely details TBA soon.
#Crawley Convention 2015
Crawley Circus Festival 2013
'twas fantastic.
Friday
I arrived on site at just after 7pm to find half of the TWJC contingent already pitched & organising the pizza run. Hurrah for efficiency. I pitched my tent then opened the first bottle (it's taken me a while to get those two tasks in the optimal order). It was a nice late evening consisting almost entirely of eating, drinking & greeting friends. There was some ukeleleing, but then nothing's perfect.
As some of the group drifted to bed Jenny & Emily had the sudden urge to go tree climbing in the dark. Knowing that this could only go well I tagged along & added 999 to my speed dial. Jenny's first & last attempt at climbing a tree ended with one leg on the ground, one foot stuck between two branches & her hugging the tree trying not to fall over whilst trying to dislodge her foot. I left her to it.
I was on top of the amphitheatre when the thunder & lightning started, I watched the first few strikes which was really nice before wisely getting in my tent before the rain reached us.
Saturday
I enjoyed a good night's sleep. In the morning I finished off my left over pizza for breakfast before doing the rounds with my chocolate brownie delivery service in lieu of the toast fairy who was absent this year. I was really pleased with this batch, one of my best ever. As such I didn't get far round the camp site.
Robin had bought a box of strawberries & the world's most explosive can of squirty whipped cream with which he managed to hit a number of TWJC members from across our communal area.
In the afternoon we popped along to the obligatory club stealing workshop, I'm usually the monkey but my usual thief Dave was off skiing this year so I had more of a go at the stealing end for a change. With the help of Simon I actually learnt some new stuff. I finally figured out Steve's snake hips stealing pattern which involves continuous early steals of every club from one hand, alternating between straight & diagonal. Secondly we learnt to steal a club (left hand diagonal early, half flip then back cross back into pattern) & fit a handshake in the gap which feels really nice. Video evidence:
https://youtu.be/PmuIboM9xGI
Robin turned up late to the workshop, he was confused by some of the terminology being used so he asked Kevin what was going on which went like this:
Robin: So what's a "monkey"?
Kevin: It's the person that does the juggling part of the trick.
Robin: Ok, & what's a "Bungle"?
I had meant to go to the Prechac passing workshop but lost track of time & missed it which was a shame.
While chatting in the TWJC camp later in the afternoon we were ambushed by SJC, who rushed & surrounded us with water pistols. I was taken hostage by Hannah & Simon was taken by Ken who politely asked, "Do you mind if I take you hostage?". All they wanted was a pizza menu which we would have happily given them. Being the only one who fought back I was heavily soaked & had to change every item of clothing.
After much nagging from Cat & I, Jemnezmy managed to make it with minutes to spare just in time for...
The Show (sort of)
The public show is always a major selling point for the Crawley festival & is a spectacle I use to encourage whatever newbies we have to come along. So it's always terrifying to hear the words, "We're going to try something different this year..."
The first half of the show was given over in its entirety to Juggling on Tap, a 5 strong ensemble of tap dancers, musicians & Stewart Pemberton as the token juggler.
It was awful. Two of my friends walked out because they couldn't be bothered to sit through any more. I spoke to a lot of people after the first half, not one person liked it. Some people were thinking about asking for a refund if the second half wasn't an improvement it was that bad.
Trying to pin down what was so bad is a bit harder. When pressed most people found something enjoyable. Personally I thought there were lots of good bits. I really enjoyed the sound of the flute & vibraphone playing together. The percussionist playing the spoons on the girl's shoes was great. The dynamic 5 person bounce juggling, tap dancing, musical running around pattern at the end looked & sounded fantastic.
Most people's complaint was that, "it was too long" or that, "it was just too much tap dancing" but I don't think these are valid criticisms. I have nothing against long acts or even lack of variety. I've been to Irish step dance shows, which was just dancing, orchestra performances that were just classical music, I've traveled to see 2 performances by Ockham's Razor which was all aerial, & I sat through over an hour of the Gandini's 10,000 which was just toss juggling. The performers in these shows showed less versatility but were easily able to entertain me for a lot longer because everything they did was interesting. I am happy to watch someone doing something really well for a very long time. The Juggling on Tap show was about 10 minutes of material padded out to oblivion with repetition & dull transitions between set pieces. Even the greatest 10 minute act ever will be awful if you pad it out to 50 minutes.
I crammed a lot of very enjoyable snarking into the interval before...
The Show (this time we mean it)
Given the unenviable task of going out first in front of a restless & very irritated audience were Ryman & Lou who took us on & won with ease. They presented the Most Dangerous Cup of Tea in the World, which involved making a cup of tea with some of the best clowning around I have seen in years. A mallet, a knife & a mug were attached to the top of a hat stand by chains, the top of the hat stand was then rotated by Lou making the three items flail widely from the centre. Ryman then tried to throw a teabag into the mug without getting hit which had me chuckling throughout. The act continued with lots more silliness. It was really nice to see two performers who were obviously very confident that their material is funny & rightly so.
I had already enjoyed Lynn Scott performing at TLC 2012, it was nice to see her charming contact juggling & club manipulation again. She didn't need four friends & lots of instruments & props to fill the stage, her character does it for her. Another repeat for me was Simon Ratzker with his whips who performed two pieces, one to Björk's Betty Hutton's 'Oh so quiet' & the other the classic paper tearing with Dave Law as a 'volunteer'. Both spots were great fun.
I thought Angie Mack's hoop routine was a case of unnecessary glow, there was a lot of body movement that was difficult to see in the darkness which marred the act for me. I think I would have enjoyed it more with regular hoops & the lights on.
Closing the show was Gonzalo Basualo on the corde lisse who was very slick & very sexy. He showed loads of power & control from start to finish & his final move was something I had never seen before & was genuinely breathtaking. Wonderful stuff.
After the show I elected to have a drink & catch up with Frag & Nicky while the others watched the fire show. I cooked a curry for Jemnezmy which put her in a better mood! Then more drinks were had before we moved on to...
Renegade
Mata opened with his traditional beer poi then tried flipping one, two, then three darts in a cup without skewering his feet.
Hannah flashed her new SJC tattoo & had another epic zen wrestling battle with Glyn. Several members of SJC performed the Roxanne drinking game, I remember a lot more snorting when I played it, but then I think SJC are a bit more practiced at the sport than I am.
One guy inserted a nail, a spoon & an open pair of scissors up his nose while accompanied by his friend with a guitar. Our Emily had her hands over her face for the entire time. He then juggled a machete & a cleaver (both properly sharp) & an apple with bare feet which had one close call drop. Finally he attempted to extinguish a blow torch on his tongue, but was let down by lack of gas. Even I was quite glad about that.
Other stuff probably happened too.
Sunday
After a very enjoyable sleep we were up for a very enjoyable lazy morning of chatting, demolishing packets of biscuits with assembly line like efficiency, odd bits of juggling, diaboloing, whip cracking & devilstickery.
The Games
I always look forward to the numbers game. For some reason I seem to have a bit of a reputation especially amongst SJC members as being a bit ruthless. I thought this year though maybe people would see that it is not just me & that other people also throw expendable small children out of their groups when not needed. It was not until about 4 rounds in that I did any underhanded manoeuvres at all. Unfortunately though most people will remember my performance in the last round which saw me basically having a fight with 3 pre-teen girls which I was winning (despite the eldest one stamping on my feet) until a fourth girl came out & laid into me as well.
Kev supplied me with a set of balls for the 5 ball endurance. It felt like I was doing collision management after pretty much every gust of wind but I still managed to make the final two before dropping & handing Simon the win.
There were a few rounds of gladiators. I made the final two against Glyn during the first round then sportingly threw all my clubs on the ground for no apparent reason. Jack & Chunk from Southend tied the second game & Cat won the last one.
Kevin easily walked the fancy dress competition with his reproduction of the festival logo complete with musical walking brain.
The game of musical unicycles was as vicious as ever & included a brief intermission while we had to let the air out of a tire so that one poor lad could remove his hand from between the wheel & the frame. It was heartening to see all the people running in with cameras to capture the action while he lie on the ground in pain!
Thanks to Carolyn & Dave as ever!
#Crawley2013 #Crawley #conventionreview
I do remember saying at the time (and I heard a lot of others saying also) that the first part of the show would have been fine if that is what we had all come to see. But we had come to see juggling and tricks and we got tap and interpretive dance - I reckon that's why people didn't like it.
Little Paul - - Parent #
I think it was a case of "right show, wrong venue, not-quite-the-right-audience"
There were a lot of bits of it I liked, a lot of bits I just didn't "get" and a lot of bits which made me cringe (like some of the musical cliche's which accompanied the contact juggling for example) and a few focal point issues which would have been helped with more appropriate lighting (eg to reduce the emphasis on the members of the troupe who weren't the focus of the action - and draw the audience in a bit more) - but the lighting is excusable given that the theater techs had less than 6 hours to prep it.
About half way through, I got the impression that I'd missed a load of characterisation and a theme/story arc which I hadn't picked up on - which made the first half (up until she got changed into her pajamas) feel a bit too abstract in a way which lost me... and WTF was the bit with the train about?
The audience participation bit fell rather flat as well, I'm not sure why.
Some of the audience clearly enjoyed it given the reaction it got at the end (at least, it didn't sound polite or sarcastic) and it was nowhere near whitstable-bjc-string-dangling levels of uncomfortable tedium.
For me, I found a lot of it very funny in not-entirely-appropriate ways. Sometimes my gutter like mind really gets in the way of taking art seriously.
I think that's just people trying to be polite. Saying that they would have gone down well with a different audience is the equivalent of, "it's not you it's me". The company is called JUGGLING on tap, so it should arguably appeal to jugglers more than the average theatre goer. Underneath it all it just wasn't an enjoyable act.
I also don't agree that people come to see a specific type of act. Years ago a group of us went to see the Chinese Imperial circus, the best act of the show was a guy with a microphone making bird noises & other impressions, we weren't expecting that at all. More recently I really enjoyed Natalie's dance routine at Bungay. I really enjoy surprises. I think that most people would be perfectly happy if (insert your favourite musician, comedian, other non juggling performer here) turned up.
& who are you calling squinty & unbrushed?! I always look like that!
Little Paul - - Parent #
Some thoughts from me:
Friday: I left Bristol around 4pm, but got stuck behind an accident on the M4 for hours, a tedious experience made more amusing by the woman who pulled out behind me to drive down the hard shoulder in an attempt to skip a load of traffic - only to get caught by a policeman and given quite a ticking off.
I finally got to site about 9pm, just as the light was going, parked the van and put up the gazebo. J and I then went for a quick jaunt up the road to find some food. We were aiming for Nandos, but found a pizza hut first. The rest of the evening was spent wandering around chatting to people and mostly talking bollocks with the Circuswurx mob. Sharknado? Snakenami!
Saturday: I got up early and wandered off up the road to the new tesco express which is right by the squareabout and much easier to walk to than the big tesco. Bacon and bread acquired, I headed back to the van to wake J up with a bacon sarnie. Disappointed by the lack of toast fairy, I was pleasantly surprised by the chocolate brownie stand-in.
Most of the rest of the day was spent off site doing odd chores (as J lives locally) and going shopping for some bits and bobs. I got back to site to find everyone telling me that Pearce Halfpenny had been looking for me all afternoon! I couldn't find him, so spent some time talking to Mamph and Martin, before going off to the local Harvester with J, Mamph, Martin and Jon Peat. Steak. Nyom.
Then it was back for the show, which Orin has mostly wonderfully described - although I think he missed out the hat routine, which was ace. Lovely to see people exploring the potential of getting stuck in their braces. If only I could remember the name of the hilarious chap who used to do something similar (mostly getting them tangled in his mic stand)
After the show I met Pearce Halfpenny properly, and instantly wished it hadn't taken me over 20 years to do so. His articles in The Catch are one of the reasons I'm so interested in jugglers. He told me a lovely story about a set of Harry Lind clubs he bought in the 50s, sold, and which then passed through the hands of at least one other owner before finally being given back to him recently by someone who didn't know their history.
The fireshow was erm.. usual Crawley fireshow standard. With two props flying uncontrolled narrowly avoiding danger, and some of the most dangerously bad fire breathing from inexperienced kids I've seen in a long time. They were drenched in fuel by the end of it, and it's a wonder none of them got hurt. Blowing a fireball down towards the floor? That's not clever, it's stupid. Especially if you can't competently breathe a standard fireball without dribbling fuel everywhere, or even getting the basic "move the ignition source away from the fuel supply as you breathe" stuff right.
Still, kids will be kids, and at that age you're invincible and can't be told you're headed for at best an accident and at worst long term damage. Nigel and I both tried and I just know it didn't sink in at all.
Renegade was a thing, as usual hampered by not being allowed any form of amplification or music as it happens after the venues music license expires for the evening. I still don't know what that thing with the spinning plates was supposed to be about.
Sunday: A lazy day, making toast using the grill in the van for the first time ever. Cheese dreams for lunch, packing up and spending more time chatting. Mr Tingley introduced me to his new cardgame "tramp fight" which I think he should work up some illustrations for and then market the hell out of.
I then spent some more time chatting with Mamph and Martin. To my surprise, Mamph gave me back my pocket copy of "Mark Wilsons Cyclopedia of Magic" which I'd almost forgotten I'd lent her in 2001. Although our discussion of potential baby names didn't really come up with anything useful. I doubt very much it's going to end up called "Adolph Mussolini Mugabi Heasman"
The drive home was uneventful, although did require a stop for more diesel just outside Bristol. Seems that if I include getting stuck in traffic for 1.5hrs I get about 270 miles out of a tank, ie not *quite* enough to do Bristol->crawley->Bristol on a single tank.
"Lovely to see people exploring the potential of getting stuck in their braces. If only I could remember the name of the hilarious chap who used to do something similar (mostly getting them tangled in his mic stand)"
George Carl?
Little Paul - - Parent #
That's the chap! The closest my brain could get last night was George Carlin (which is phonetically close, but a completely different comedian) and the half an hour of searching youtube/juggling.tv for various combinations of "mic stand", "braces", "hat" or comedian didn't get me anywhere.
https://youtu.be/Cf82bww-LRk
Little Paul - - Parent #
I know right!
although I think he missed out the hat routine, which was ace.
Gah! I can't believe I didn't mention that! It was ace - fast, funny, really highly skilled.
Something else I forgot to mention & probably with good reason was my experience of the hopping gladiators. Paul, Nathaniel & Daryl from SJC had linked up to form a hopping brute squad. Knowing how long the game usually goes on for I thought it best to take them on early before getting too tired. So I charged at them, they charged at me, I employed my usual tactic of closing my eyes & hoping for the best. When we met there was a very painful four way clash of heads after which Paul & I wisely left the arena, him to mop up the blood me to tend to my jaw (which only seemed to pop back into its correct position yesterday).
I'm surprised to hear that Juggling on Tap was disliked. I saw Stuart Pemberton on a renegade stage somewhere just doing his bit of it and thought it was ace. Then they were on the BJC show in Norwich (I think) and were utterly brill. Ah well.
Yes, they opened the show at the BJC in 2009, only three of them if I recall correctly. In that show the length of their act was proportional to the amount of material that it contained.
You might have inspired some pirate jugglers with your handshake club steal
https://www.jugglehub.com/news/thread/%3C52169144$0$8317$862e30e2@ngroups.net%3E
#Crawley
Pre reg is still open, get your discounted tickets through the Hawth box office on 01293 553636 or online at https://www.parkwoodtheatres.co.uk/thehawth/searchresults.aspx?id=16&hid=4&cat=All%20Events&srch=circus%20festival
Info at www.crawleycircusfestival.co.uk or our Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/142648271264/
Site open PM 2nd Aug-4th Aug Kettle of Fish show Saturday evening featuring Juggling on Tap, Frederike Gerstner and Lynn Scott, a great hat routine by Ryman and Lou, aerialist Gonzalo Basualdo and many more.
Fireshow, Renegade, an open mic on Friday evening, plus all the usual workshops and frivolity you expect at a convention.
Workshop volunteers always appreciated, please email me direct to book a slot at davemlaw at btinternet dot com.
See you there
Dave