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
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