#Crawley2016 random thoughts:

Little Paul - 2016-08-22 15:57:49 UTC #

#Crawley2016 random thoughts:

We were staying at the hotel on the squareabout this year, and had other commitments for a significant portion of Saturday and Sunday - so were a bit less "present" at crawley than usual, even so we were more present than a lot of people... numbers were way down this year.

We arrived on-site Friday evening, in time to watch Richard Tingley treating "Ernie (The Fastest Milkman in the West)" as a performance poem (which was suitably amusing) - unfortunately he cheated us out of a rendition of "I've got a brand new combine harvester" in the same style. We had a drink, and a catch up with a couple of people then headed off to bed.

Saturday, we made it to site briefly in the morning but then had to go off-site to do other things. More people said hello, but not Orin as he was apparently lying in his tent trying to stop it spinning. Something to do with a cider overdose. Then it rained. Oh boy, did it rain! Unfortunately prior commitments meant I missed Jon Udry's talk about his life as a pro juggler - which is a shame.

We were back on site mid-afternoon, and I spent a lot of time chatting to more people and picking through the big pile of Kaskade magazines which were available for disposal. Emily turned up and said hello, and eventually it was dinner-o'clock, so Emily, J and I headed to the Harvester for some food.

Then it was the main event, the show!

Crawley shows are usually a pretty high standard, but I think this years was probably one of the best shows I've seen in a long time.

I would give you a breakdown of all the acts, but I really can't remember all the names and wouldn't want to miss anyone out. I'm sure someone else will be along soon with a full breakdown, but for now the following were highlights for me:

- Jon Udry compering. Wow, he's really developed his talky bits significantly since he's been touring his solo show. He's more comfortable on stage than I've ever seen him (and that's saying something) and he dealt with the persistent heckling (from people who should have known better, and who wouldn't take a hint) very well.

- German Wheel chap. More character than a lot of german wheel acts I've seen. Very enjoyable

- a Hula Hoop act which was actually fun, from a performer who had a much greater range of facial expressions than the usual "tits-n-teeth" although her hula act was really overshadowed by her skipping act, which was the most fun skipping routine I think I've ever seen. High energy, fast stupid tricks, and bags of character. I was exhausted just watching her.

- Rod Laver doing his pingpong ball act was great, we'll gloss over his card throwing routine. I think he knows how it went.

- Ian Marchant being his usual self, it won't surprise anyone to hear that I love his act. I tried to find him after the show to say hi, but missed him. That keeps happening with us!

- An acro act which was refreshing in its storyline/theme.

- Feeding the Fish. I first saw them perform a glow act around 20 years ago, and they don't seem to have stopped building on that experience. So many glow acts are an exercise in "look at the expensive toys we bought!" but FtF combine that with some really tight choreography. The bit with the "hoverboards" was brilliant, and even though I *knew* the pixelpoi bit was coming with the festival logo (corporate show segment is corporate) it still got a huge response from the crowd.

Also, holy shit LED props are bright now aren't they!

There was more in the show than that, but that's all I can gush out of my brain right now.

We missed the fire show, and the renegade show, and had commitments on the Sunday which meant we missed that as well. I got home around 7pm tired and happy, but it felt like I hadn't really been at the convention at all. It felt more like I'd been to see a show with a load of my mates.

Which isn't a bad thing, but is different to previous years.