Viewing all threads tagged #ejc2019.
This tag could refer to:
European Juggling Convention 2019
EJC Review
I did not actually take contemporary notes at all, so this is a mixture of sleep-deprived truth and inadvertent fiction. Much of it took place, of that I am certain.
Saturday 3rd: Helen and I did not volunteer for any site set-up, so did not arrive on site until Saturday afternoon, as a pair of normal punters. The drive in took around 90 minutes. It was much the same as the drive to Bungay except we got to stop ever so much sooner.
Collected wristband, map, and leaflet (very nice full colour glossy) after not too long in the queue. Found Leeds jugglers' arbour, or possibly boudoir, and camped next to it. Much ferrying of boxes into the site, tent put up, spare tent put up (neither Helen nor I have ever managed to travel light, and for this EJC it was car camping which made things worse. So about 50% of our stuff went in the spare tent this trip.)
Wandered around site. Noticed that there is a long queue at the info point. This will be a recurring theme. Joined long queue to register on the cash system and exchange real money for fake money, then joined medium sized queue to give the bar staff fake money in exchange for beer. The process strikes me as excessively complicated.
Joined long queue for open stage, turned away some minutes later because tent is full. Learning quickly from experience, I don't try again.
Sunday 4th: was the Big Day Out in Newark. Despite growing up down the river in Nottingham, I believe this is the first time I've ever visited. It's a pleasant market town, making a good deal of its Civil War history. And why not? A nasty, safely dead king was overthrown and eventually decapitated by a nasty, safely dead, genocidal theocrat who died in bed, and it's all good clean fun for the kids.
Immediately after getting off the bus, we nipped into the supermarket for food and ice-cream. After that, enjoyed pottering around the castle, admired the parade from the sidelines. Highlights included the big and little elephants at the front, the band, and various small children all being unspeakably cute.
Newark market square was astonishingly crowded after the parade finished. We spent a few minutes there and then slipped away to get more food and explore. After walking more or less clockwise round the centre, we came back out on a canal lock, and then past the fire stage in a park. Walked back across the Trent and found the Fox and Crown and had a pleasant half-pint - this is a Castle Rock pub and gets me one further to ticking them all off. (I've been working on this for at least 20 years. It is not a high priority project.)
From behind the church we walked back to the square and watched Hotel Paradiso, by Lost in Translation, on the front steps and facade of the Buttermarket. It is perfectly splendid. There is a plot, and waiters popping out of windows on ropes, and mad chefs climbing Chinese poles, and lawyers being thrown through the air. Sadly the rain comes in just 5 minutes too early and brings the show to a halt before the triumphant climax.
The rain does not stop. We decide to skip the fire show and get back to site. The buses are on time and there are plenty of them, but we are, nonetheless, extremely wet.
The next show is Jonglissimo (8 pm showing). This is a very episodic show making a very great deal of back projection onto a scrim along with programmable LED props, and I enjoyed it. Much of the back projection is live mirroring, distortion, or prop tracking and there are some very nice effects, as well as good clean passing and juggling going on. As far as tech heavy, light-and-sound effects heavy shows go, difficult to see it being done any better.
The rain has stopped! For today, anyway.
Food happens, I assume. I don't recall for sure. The food court was noticeably thin today with several stalls shut when we get back from Newark - it gets better later in the week.
Renegade in the Magpie tent, hosted by Steve and Rosie. Very strong on keeping it moving and keeping it fun.
Monday 5th: I don't recall anything about Monday except the show - I saw Gibbon in the gala tent. I don't even remember if it was the first or second run. Enjoyed this. If the Gandini project can be regarded as crossing juggling and manipulation with other theatrical and musical genres (and why not), then this show strikes me as involving repetition, frustration, physical farce, and repetition to the extent that it's practically Beckettian. Plus they are pretty good jugglers.
Did I do some whip cracking today?
Tuesday 6th: Some time right about now, we drove back into Newark to go to the supermarket and buy beer (also peaches, pea pods, and pananas). We also give Cornish Hazel a lift to do the same. After we get back, I volunteer for some litter picking while Helen goes to the BJC meeting. BJC 2020 will be in Perth! Poor Avril.
We watch the Bullzini Family high wire show at 5 pm. Blimey. It's cut a little short because of wind but even so, is remarkably impressive, as are the high Victorian bloomers with spangles.
Later on, I watch the Alternative Games in the Play tent. No injuries that I saw, despite much exuberance. I do not remind anyone that Alt Games put four stitches in my face a few years ago. Wouldn't want to scare them...
Wednesday 7th: EJA General Assembly lasts, by my reckoning, approximately one geological era. Not Ron's fault as the country voting is fast enough but there's quite a lot of countries, then the site selection for next year comes to a contested vote. We walk out by matched pairs until it is obvious that Finland wins! Madrid is then voted in for 2021.
The first weather warning from Jane Randall to the meeting. Mental note to put up guy lines on Thursday evening.
Helen and I wait for the ceilidh at 6 pm. It does not appear. Many other UK and Ireland jugglers are also waiting. Eventually, rumours permeate that the band might turn up at 8, or possibly 9. Still, there's always beer. Once the band does arrive we both dance with enthusiasm and vigour and in Helen's case skill.
Thursday 8th: Mostly a social day. No shows at all, a little bit of peeking at the fire space. The Leeds boudoir has been taken down, and we take down our sun tarps and guy out the tents a bit more efficiently. No more pleasantly cool lie-ins in the morning.
Today we also spot white mildew inside the tent, thanks to the combination of damp ground (although the drainage has been, as promised, excellent), very warm days, and plenty of cow and sheep shit from agricultural shows. Fuck. We do not burn the tent to the ground. Instead, I clean off the groundsheet and our luggage the best we can, and rearrange things for improved airflow. *Under* the groundsheet will have to wait until we get home.
After checking the tent over I watch a bit of the unicycle trials finals. The course is impressively large and varied and the jumps and grinds are suitably dramatic. The commentator is not particularly audible, being loud but too fast and not clear. Maybe it's better on the recording than over the speakers?
There is much rain from about midnight, but the ground is well drained and there's virtually no mud!
Friday 9th: We miss every single show. I go to a CPR workshop run by the wonderful Dr Helen. As well as the refresher in CPR, I also get to be a body for three different people to be moved into the recovery position. It's nice to lie down and have a nap.
I also spend a bit of time with a rope lasso today.
The wind is definitely picking up, but there is a renegade in Marybelle. An excellent club juggling routine from Men in Slacks, and overall one of the better renegades of the week, I thought. I'm pleased to see there is less pointless nudity than some years and more emphasis on the unusual, skilful, just plain daft.
By Friday evening, the call is made to move the gala shows out of the gala tent and into the main hall. There was an astonishing group volunteer effort over Friday and Saturday to make this happen.
Saturday 10th: It is noticeably noisy in the tent in the morning but neither of the tents looks at risk at all. There is a bit of rubbish and litters blowing around the site by now though.
By now, we are both sleep-deprived. Some things definitely happened during the day, probably. When it's not blowing a gale, it's a very warm day. Helen tells me the show ground permanent cafes have more veggie food options in today. Seems a little late. She also watches the indoor games, which go well, and has a medium long run in the hula gladiators.
I chat to Dr Helen and somehow end up volunteering to manage volunteers on Sunday, for the start of clean up and takedown. Bother.
Helen and I take our chairs into the evening gala show. Trying to find clean sightlines is a bit of a pain but there is an enormous amount of goodwill in the hall. It's a fantastic show! Tiff is dropless, Swing Circus is a joy to watch, everyone is excellent. We're next to Ian Deady so I manage to chat a little, haven't seen him for a couple of years.
(At least two of the acts are linked to Leeds, meaning that pro-rata we are punching way, way above our weight. You should come to Hullabaloo and see what makes it so special! First time's free, tea and biscuits are always free...)
Sunday 11th: We assemble at 10 am to do our best. About 50% of the people who signed up for Sunday volunteering turn up over the morning; several more who didn't sign up also volunteer. The main skills for herding volunteers are being confident in a loud voice which we can both do, and we are pretty sure we manage to send people to the right areas of the site. I take a few breaks from the desk to take down lighting and poles around the team camping. Helen takes a few breaks to get food and water. I get a dehydration headache. Silly me. Helen is very excited to find the scissor brooms for the main hall!
(We are both very grateful to all the volunteers who turn up. Thank you!)
Finally, about 5 pm we call it a day and hand the volunteer management back to the core team. Hugs and we're off. There is more traffic than the previous weekend and it slightly longer than 90 minutes.
A week later, Monday 19th: Tents and tarps are clean and dry. The groundsheets have been scrubbed, spot cleaned with isopropyl alchohol, and scrubbed again. Many piles of laundry have been laundered.
I didn't play enough games, hug enough jugglers, or do enough club passing. We did have a lovely time. Massive thanks to the whole org team and especially to Jane Randall.
I still think the cashless system was shit.
HLGCB:
H: Bullzini Family! And too many to mention.
L: Dehydration headache on the last Sunday. Idiot. Drink more water!
G: Not really. Managed some OK ball on club balancing, I guess?
C: Helen. Duh.
B: Fucking mildew.
.. see you in Finland?
Mike Moore - - Parent #
Jon's previous reviews inspired me to give it a try. Oddly enough, his 2016 review is one of the most informative EJC resources online, and was a great help in my preparation this year!
I find it interesting to see that our weeks began similarly, and diverged after ~Monday.
Prelude
Getting ready for EJC was a little bit troublesome. We tried to rent tents from the ZIP, but by the time we did, they were completely out of tents. It was kind of last minute, but it didn’t cross my mind that they could run out of tents – the price of rental was about the cost of a tent (i.e. I’m paying for the convenience of their delivery and setup) so I’d figured ZIP would have bought more.
This led me to a brief panic where I asked around on the Facebook group if there were any alternatives to the rented tents. None of the alternatives that came up in the first few hours were reliable enough for my satisfaction (“Just come, someone’ll have a spare!”), so I wound up booking a hotel. I'm trying to plan and keep things organised…somewhat against the advice of some EJC veterans on Facebook.
Friday night/Saturday
Plane was delayed by about an hour and a half. We learned this well before we had left for the airport. Despite that, Emily was particularly keen on getting to the airport as quickly as possible, which resulted in us arriving about four hours early. No checking luggage yet! We spent about 20 minutes juggling (no breakthroughs there), about 40 minutes Skyping with my family, and then it was finally time to check her bags.
We breezed through the security, spending a total of about 5 minutes in line and at kiosks. We spent some time looking at the EJC overall and workshop schedule and plotting out some particularly high priority events or workshops we wanted to attend. I was somewhat surprised by the lack of advanced ball juggling workshops, but hopefully I'll find and some skilled jugglers that will be happy to teach me things. Our flight wound up boarding early (for being late), so it was nice that we were nearby. I slept well on the plane, only waking up at the very moment when I needed to eat my surprisingly nice airline food.
After ~1 hour on the Underground, a 20-minute delay on the LNER, and then ~1 hour on the LNER train, we concluded the trip with a riveting 20-minute walk with luggage to arrive at our hotel. We settled in and went out to see what Newark-on-Trent had to offer.
The town was small and nice. There were a couple grocery stores nearby that stocked our hotel room with vegetables for the next while. More interesting restaurants than we would be able to enjoy, given that most of our meals would be at the showgrounds. We found ourselves having burritos at Holy Moly Newark due to its high Google rating. The service and wait time were both mediocre, but the food was fantastic. Highly recommend, especially at an off-peak time.
Sunday
Good heavens, a full English breakfast is included in the hotel’s free morning meal! Along with fruit, cereal, etc. Emily and I were feeling like the decision to stay in a hotel was a good one. We went into the fest at about 9:30, hitching a ride with my juggling student and his parents. We took a walk around the showgrounds to get oriented and enjoyed its atmosphere. Seemed like there was going to be some great juggling happening that week!
We were just a few minutes from getting into a whip cracking workshop, which was disappointing. Ah well, we checked out the main juggling hall and made sure to get back to the whip cracking before the start time this round.
Whip cracking turned out to be a lot of fun! The instructor broke down the form nicely. After some feedback, the motion felt intuitive and I was able to get consistent cracks with either hand. For whatever reason, my left hand had an easier time. This workshop only lasted 20 minutes instead of the scheduled hour, so I made a note to get back to the Western Arts Area later in the week. Here’s a clip from near the end of the workshop: https://youtu.be/2ZMEghpUIHI
We hitched a ride into town with my student’s family for the parade and shows. The scale of the parade was impressive (https://youtu.be/aaozDoYibI4). Jugglers filled a huge park, showing everything you’d imagine at a parade of jugglers plus a life-sized, walkabout wire elephant. The pacing of the parade was a little confused, resulting in us being a bit densely-packed to juggle. Nonetheless, the crowd seemed happy and I was happy to have been a part of it.
We went off to a pub to get Emily some authentic English food (she’d been warned) and enjoyed our fish and chips and Yorkshire pudding. We caught only the second of the in-town show, which was a nicely choreographed story about hotel employees trying to keep their place of work from being bought out. The audience was left in suspense when the rain caused the show to finish prematurely. Were the tips by the pool enough to save the day??
We caught the Jonglissimo show that night, which was well worth seeing. The show had a narrative thread of a woman doing a homework assignment to think about the future. Certain aspects of the future (space, cloning, teleportation, etc.) had acts built around them, featuring loads of interesting projections and augmented reality effects. Certainly a high-level, marketable act! It was different enough from things I’d seen that I felt like I was enjoying it more as a member of the general public, rather than a juggler.
Monday
Woke up too late for the hotel breakfast. Ah well.
It was a splendid day on both juggling and social fronts! It seems that my juggling had gotten some notice across the pond, at least among those who are interested in 3/4b juggling. I was grateful for all the people who approached me with pattern requests. I’ve come away with several patterns to work on that I adore! It was also lovely to be asked about how to learn certain patterns. I feel like my critiquing/coaching is getting stronger these days. Sometimes people’s mistakes make me reconsider degrees of freedom I’d been taking for granted and open up new patterns. Thank you to everyone who did these things! A few favourites were T-box (box with columns stacked, 2x goes along the top), Lucas Adverse’s old pattern (jellyfish), and 94453 in dots. I should’ve written down the names of the people who taught/suggested these to me, sorry!
I met Lewis Kennedy today! It was wonderful talking with him and interesting to learn that we started juggling at roughly the same time. We reminisced about the Youtube days, team Shreddy Crunch, and other ~2008-2012 trends. That man has some serious social skills!
I went to a workshop hosted by Sean Gandini, where we tried some polyrhythmic juggling. The warm-ups/proofs of concept were well-paced, and it built to some nice 4 ball fountain patterns where one hand went at a quicker tempo than the other. This kind of juggling tickles me in a particular way, and if I'm not careful it's going to be the next thing that I think a few months into. Perhaps the next time I get mildly injured.
Uriel sent a message saying that he had “organized” up a ball combat game. Nothing gets the blood pumping like running jumping and smacking forearms while playing ball combat with a bunch of awfully skilled Israeli jugglers.
There was a rule they had against attacking from behind. When we play combat in Ontario, or the States have played in, attacking from the back is the best strategy. This limited the utility of my typical style (focused on mobility and quick 180s) and forced me to broaden my skills. Very fun and worthwhile.
The open stage tent was full by the time I’d approached, so no open stage for me tonight. I'll have to go more than 15 minutes early in the future. I'm still not used to the idea of show venues being so much smaller than the number of participants. With everybody packed in, the total capacity was probably something like 600 people, compared to the roughly 4000 people who showed up at some point that week.
Tuesday
Learned a few more patterns today. Lauge helped me to understand some of his more basic carry siteswap patterns. I mostly learned jellyfish with the other side. I also thought of a variation of T-box where the columns rotate in the plane of the juggling one over top of the other. This trick by itself almost makes a video on morphing boxes worthwhile. I also met Iver which was a lot of fun. It's so cool to meet lots of jugglers that I've only seen or talked to online before. Eivind Dragon is also great!
I tried out the juggling infinity bean bags, the new kids on the block of juggling bean bags. There are a couple things that I'm interested about them. First, their plastic filling seems denser than typical polypropylene. I wonder what kind of material it is. Apparently it's much finer than one would expect, but that shouldn’t affect the bulk density (unless there’s also some diversity in particle shape? Hmmm).
I’m skeptical about the utility of the lifetime warranty. Its rare that falls break before becoming unusably saggy, or have multiple break at once. It would be very annoying to have a 2-year-old set where half of them had broken and half of them had been repaired or replaced. Finally, there's no guarantee that the business is going to stay alive for the next 10 years, so I'd be a little worried about that, too. It seems good at a glance, but I don't think it's useful. Nonetheless, they seem like very functional beanbags!
I went to two shows tonight. The open stage was generally strong. Dave Kelly’s juggling of Russian juggling balls on tennis rackets seemed completely impossible. The backcross variations and 6b between 4 racquets were fantastic. The second stand-our act was Sagi’s act with laundry hampers. There was an astounding amount of imagination that went into that act which was joined by gorgeous execution. It will be difficult to explain to others how he made so many interesting scenarios using these set of laundry hampers.
After the open stage was the IRC. I was curious with how well that would go, given the European scene doesn't seem as open competition in juggling as the North American one. Turns out, it was fantastically. The first two places practically redefined their craft.
Emily and I managed to get a spot front and centre by being quick to sit on the grass. The show started very strongly with Alexis Levillon doing his diabolo act. This included double vortex, and single vertax with one horax (probably a better name for this, but you get the idea). His character was well established and interesting throughout. His closing vertax combination with one diabolo was very strong and about as creative as vertax can be (link: https://www.instagram.com/p/B1QAv4EjoHf/). Alexis placed second.
Next up was a spectacularly interesting act involving staff fishtails while doing bounce juggling by Sebastian Berger from Austria. It was well presented with occasional (but effective) commentary of things like “things people can do” and “things nobody can do” etc. His finale pattern was four ball bounce while maintaining dual fishtails. Sebastian placed first!
Third place went to Ariane Oechsner, an antipodist who had a well-choreographed, solid act. Artfully tangled limbs, and lots of multiplexes with some thrown onto her feet (sample: https://www.instagram.com/p/B1UH-YRDzd3/). Luca Pderdmenges had a fun (and tough) club act, and Helena Berry made a surprising number of balls appear from under her baggy shirt. A list of all of the finalists is here: https://www.juggle.org/programs/irc-europe-finalists
After the IRC we went back to the gym where I played with a Craig Quat prop for a little while and then went back to the hotel. No problems getting a taxi tonight.
Wednesday
Today was a bit more relaxing. After breakfast we went back to sleep for another hour. I got the 12:00 bus into Newark Showground, and Emily came a little later.
I got myself some tea and went to the EJA assembly. It was somewhat interesting to see the difference between how they conduct their meetings compared to how the IJA conducts theirs. Something that stood out to me was that 2 years ago, in Lublin, the organisation turned a profit of roughly £95,000. The year after, in Azores, the prophet was about £15,000. I don't know where that money goes, because it doesn't seem like the EJA has crazy money on hand (i.e. it seems to have enough, but not a dramatically increasing sum). A question for the treasurer, if I can find her later.
There was a vote for which location was going to take the next EJC. Finland and Madrid both applied. Personally, I thought Finland had a slightly stronger bid, with the exception and the fatal exception of schedule and it during IJA. When someone else asked about this, it was clear that the IJA had not been a consideration for the Finnish organizers. It was further disappointing to hear several people (including some executives of the EJA) vocally dismissing North American attendance (“Who cares, for all two or three people who come!”). Also somewhat surprising, considering 2/9 acts in the EJC’s gala show are regular attendees of the IJA (Thom Wall, Dan Holzman). And Matt Hall running 10 workshops through the week, and David Cain doing his juggling history show. Really a shame, because I would have considered going next year in Finland. The Finns did wind-up winning the bid, so unfortunately, no EJC for us next year.
After the meeting I wound up doing a little juggling and went to find my write-in “learn inverted box” workshop. It turned out to have been in a somewhat hidden location, but no big deal, people got there eventually. 45 minutes seemed to be about right for the workshop, and people seems to make a lot of progress in that time. As usual, there was a very wide range of skill levels at an inverted box workshop, including people who could not really do box yet. I hope everyone managed to get something out of it.
I ate a large dinner consisting of a meat with meat with meat with falafel sandwich, and a tuna and cucumber sandwich. Again, following not very much juggling, we lined up for the open stage on the rumour that Toby Walker was going to be in it.
Well, it turns out Toby Walker was not actually in that open stage. There were a few pretty good acts, including an interesting hand balance rola bola act. It was novel and I’m curious with how it will progress. The other standout was the closer Eyal Bor, who did a very well put together ball juggling act.
Thursday
Feeling a little bit sore after trying some as Lauge's carry tricks and some rapid crossing-arms shower that I learnt in line at the open stage. Hoping that feels better today or tomorrow.
The (inverted) box variations workshop went relatively well. Due to some confusion about starting times, a parade of jugglers came out all about 15 minutes into the workshop. Bennett graciously stepped up to teach inverted box to those who didn't know it. Everyone seemed to make a lot of progress! Many of jugglers in the advanced group managed some high-low inverted boxes, some in line 3, and some cross-columned inverted box. I really wish I’d had a 3-ball juggler to teach me earlier on in my juggling career.
Below were “choreography” notes for my renegade act. I thought I’d leave them here in case someone was interested:
Inverted box + Mura transition to cross columned inverted + inverted dome box + high low inverted dome box, STOP
Box + popped up Luke's shuffle + popped up inverted box + levels + descending inverted box, STOP
Orbits + extended + cross-columned extended + high low cross-columned inverted box, STOP
Inverted box + fork catch and point to dots in left hand + inline 3 + high low inline 3, STOP
The Scandinavian Renegade was amazing. There were lots of very strong acts and whacky tricks. The setup was also interesting: after a performer finished, the crowd was asked if they…
deserved a beer. If yes, do they also…
deserve a shot? If yes, do they also…
deserve to become THE KING OF NORWAY? (comes with a crown, scepter, and as much alcohol as you wish until you’re dethroned)
The crowd was kind enough to vote me into the monarchy! Knowing the clock was ticking on my rule, I had absinth for the first time, and found myself quite enjoying it. I was dethroned two or three performers later, happy for the experience.
There were lots of notable performances that night, including Lauge, Tarorin, Thom Wall, and many more. I bowed out at about 1:30 am, but apparently the show didn’t finish until about 6:00 am!
Friday
My dots workshop was happening at noon, and it’s rapidly becoming my favourite. First, pretty much everybody approaches it as a novice of dots. Second, the technique is non-obvious, and the benefits of knowing that technique are dramatic. I’ve run it a few times, and it seems like the progression works very well for most people. Maybe it’s time to make a worksheet.
I tried working on a shower variation inspired by the hand positions of Lucas’s jellyfish pattern. There’s no uncertainty now: practicing this pattern a few days ago is what’s caused my left pec to be sore. That’s not bad, though: I did go into this festival with the goal of coming out sore.
The workshop on practice tips was a bit smaller than expected. Thom, Havaard, and Wes were listed as the panelists, but Wes was the only one there at the beginning of the session. Haavard was recovering from the 6:00 am Scandegade, and Thom was in the gala show tech. It turned out to be ok, but mostly stuff that I knew already. It seems the longer one has to practice, the better unstructured practice works. It always makes me jealous hearing that people can consistently have long practice sessions. My lifestyle is much more like Matt Hall’s than Wes’s or Haavard’s, and I’m thrilled if I can get an hour of practice in each day.
Saturday
The main juggling hall became the gala show site due to high winds, relegating juggling practice to some nearby barns. Josh Mermelstein and I bounced 4b Boston mess ideas off of each other for a while, and came out with some interesting ones that will hit instragram sometime.
The games were a bit rough around the edges. It seemed like the emcee’s first time running games, which led to a few letdowns. There were typical issues, like not knowing what to call for some endurances and Simon Says (with the typical symptom of calling increasing numbers of spins). They tried to sell the idea that each juggler was only allowed to compete in one of 5, 7, and 9 ball endurance, but after enough booing, they backed down from that. That said, I still learned about 3b zombie (not zombie combat), which was fun. Next time I’ll have to be a little more aggressive with getting zombies out of my way.
The Gala show was underwhelming. I’d seen about half of it before (Thom and Dan Holzman many times, Masa twice, Matthew Tiffany and Florence Huet once each), and the other half didn’t have much for me. I did appreciate Thom’s two health bars balloon popping finale. You can see said finale at the bottom of this blog post: https://thomwall.com/ejc-2019/
Sunday
Emily and I enjoyed one final large breakfast and departed from our lovely hotel. We very narrowly caught our plane (gah! Darn trains.) and had an uneventful trip back.
Good fun all around. I will intend to go to future EJCs, excepting scheduling conflicts.
>Something that stood out to me was that 2 years ago, in Lublin, the organisation turned a profit of roughly £95,000. The year after, in Azores, the prophet was about £15,000. I don't know where that money goes, because it doesn't seem like the EJA has crazy money on hand (i.e. it seems to have enough, but not a dramatically increasing sum). A question for the treasurer, if I can find her later.
I am not the treasurer. My understanding is that 50% of any surplus goes to the host organisation (which will be a non-profit company in the local jurisdiction which actually runs the convention). That half is usually spent by the host org on grants and donations to support and develop the circus community in the area, hopefully meaning a strong legacy over the few years after the convention itself.
The other 50% (so around 55,000 euros over the last two years, but very volatile each year) goes to the EJA. In turn, the EJA is a non-profit organisation under Netherlands law. As well as providing multi-country, multi-currency booking for the pre-reg system, the EJA also provides loans to convention org teams (expenses start coming due a long time before ticket income begins to flow, especially when you are booking 2 or more years ahead), and may sometimes provide other financial assistance. So the 55,000 euros will go directly to helping an EJC in 2020, 2021, 2022...
For what it's worth, the IJA festival appears to run a remarkably similar surplus - the last accounts on the website say $34,000 surplus in 2017. And both the IJA and each EJC will always budget to a small percentage surplus, because then the event can cope with a few sudden unexpected costs without sending anyone bankrupt. We hope, anyway.
Mike Moore - - Parent #
Thanks for breaking down the EJC profit allocation.
My curiosity comes from the differences between IJA and EJC. The first difference is the one in festival profits. On (a five-year) average, the IJA's festival has turned a profit of 16967 USD[1]. The EJC seems to turn much greater profits - more or less as you'd expect with the greater attendance numbers.
The second difference is where festival profits go. The IJA is not just in charge of its annual festival. It has loads of other projects: IJA Regional Competitions (IRCs), the Youth Juggling Academy, Tricks of the Month, Monthly Tutorials, World Juggling Day, etc. Some of these are revenue neutral, most of them pull from the IJA general fund or from private donations. Historically, the IJA depended on festival profits to subsidize other projects like this. I don't know if the EJA does things like this (I don't think so, but I could be as mistaken as people who think the IJA only runs the festival).
I also don't know how much money the EJA has on hand - if it's still in the position of needing to generate large amounts of revenue to have enough money to front fests/mitigate risks or not. (I couldn't find this on the EJA page, but it's possible I missed it.)
[1] - Looking into this, I was surprised to see the diversity of types of financial reporting that's appeared on the IJA's financials page over the years. I spoke with our treasurer and we're going to bring this up at the next board meeting.
Daniel Simu - - Parent #
Some years ago I considered doing a juggle jabber interview with the EJA director, then decided against it as I assumed few people would find it interesting. But now I wonder, maybe I should? I sure am curious how stuff works, even though (or maybe because of) I've been quite involved and have (past) EJC and EJA board members as close friends..!
Mike Moore - - Parent #
I'd download 5 times to help the numbers!
Would be very much interested in such an interview. I'm a huge fan of this series anyway and try to get other jugglers to watch it ?
Daniel Simu - - Parent #
:D thanks, both of you! I'll reconsider, the series needs to be picked up again anyway. At least I can finally foresee that I will have some time again for it, unlike last year!
Another difference (although I'm not sure if it is really significant compared to the festival income) I believe is that the IJA has members with membership fees while the EJA - as far as I understand, please correct me - does not really have any paying members and the income from EJCs is the only income.
BTW I quite enjoyed, that you and some of your countrymen could come to the EJC and I would have preffered a date for the next EJC which does not collide with the IJA festival times. Also I think the EJA board members at least should be more understanding about that. (I was the guy talking to you at Newark train station and was in your dots and inverted box workshops where I clumsyly tried to follow you - sorry my right arm was still not fully functional after it broke five to six weeks prior to the EJC. I'm slowly getting there now but there is still a lot of armspeed missing - tried to flash 5 balls on 7 ball height today, this worked,much better before I broke it.)
Thanks for the reviews, guys, here are my disjointed untimelined ramblings.
#EJC2019
-Parking spot by the red gate, which was right by the quiet camping, which had quiet people camping in it. (Well, there was one baby....)
-Spotting friends, old, older and new throughout the day and helloing. Hire wire show was good. I caught David Cain's history show (with lights and audio) for the second time - a few new bits. Good stuff.
-My cryptic crosswords for beginners workshop started with 3 people, soon grew to 8, and then suddenly 20. I'd re-written the order of things, and made better example clues, and the group-deconstructing of them seemed to go well. Several "Ahh!" moments from attendees, so I'm pleased with how that went. A few people returning later in the week with the example crossword - "We think it's Gateaux, but we're not sure why?..." (It wasn't gateaux) - Dave D having almost completed it, and some general laid-back solving sessions. All good. (Monthly crossword from me at https://tlmb.net/blog/ / https://twitter.com/TheVoidTLMB )
-Minor queues for loos and showers, and the latter being a temperature gamble. Par for the course, then. At one point I was washing the dishes up, next to two German guys, and we all realised at the same time that we were all uncomfortably tall for the sink height. Worse things happen at sea.
-My beginners kendama workshop had about 15 people, and I worked through the standard Kyu tricks in the hour. Most people got most of the tricks (or at least, well along the way to nailing them), so that's another tick. It was nice to see quite a lot of "unprovoked" kendama play at the EJC this year, and quite a lot of Royal Signatures draped around people's necks. I just about lasted the hour of the scheduled kendama jam. Lunar Hop was (surprisingly) new to me, so nice to hit it in Follow , but only to then miss the Spike. Oh, how these old bones shiverrrr...
-No Donald, no Monte, no poker. A brief frisbee session. Anna and Becky delivering the mail. Bungay flyers doubling as SJC flyers. Pasta or gnocchi on the camping stove.
-I was asked to film someone's act, so met up with Pascal, and arranged details. This meant I ended up watching the Tuesday Open Stage. Actually not bad. One highlight was glancing out of the side of the tent during one act, to see a bunch of ~5 jugglers "joining in" with the act (two girls, manipulating 1 hoop and 1 club, with trickswaps and movement interaction - nicely done), which was quirkily sweet. I packed up my camera quickly and dashed off the the IRC (pronounced "irk!") show, mainly because some guy called Matt was compèring it. During the show I was reminded of Mikey(?) once saying "Its nice to watch an act you know all the words to". The acts were a mixed bag for me, some seeming like throwbacks to classic IJA (junior?) teams routines, others having lovely individual ideas. The three medalists were the ones I would have chosen, but maybe not in that order.
-Meanwhile, a few nights earlier, Matt Hall had mentioned "Arron and Taylor" were flying in from a circus trip in Afghanistan. I didn't know who Arron was, but cool. The next night I was introduced to Taylor and, briefly, Arron, who I was surprised to find was female. Ok. But fast forward again to the IRC show when Matt introduces Arron, who comes on stage... and turns out to be Erin. (I'd failed to recognise her when we were introduced, 'cos she had a big hat on, it was dark, and, er, I'm stupid.) Later that night I got Matt to read out loud the written-down names "Arron" and "Erin", and sure enough, I could barely tell the difference. Schwa-schwa-a-go-go.
-Site was good, not too big, although my feet ached by the end of the week. The electronic money system was immensely annoying, so I refused to use it. I lived out of Aldi all week, and none of the onsite food outlets got any of my money. (Unless you count someone buying me an ice cream.)
-Lots of fun chatting to various Leftpondians this convention, be it those I'd met before - Matt, David, Scott, Erin, Cate, Greg, Karen -, ones I've "known" for quite a while from the internet - Thom (Thanks for the book! :-) ), Taylor, Mike -, or new acquaintances - Greg *really* likes my hat. On Thursday, I mentioned that I hadn't yet toss-juggled at the convention. Scott offered me the use of "the best juggling clubs in the world" to break my duck with. I pondered what he could mean by that, then asked "are they yellow?". Shortly afterwards I had a 10-minute session with his Dube Americans, which have a lovely spin, but terrible audio. Fun. Apart from that, all I did in the week was a little ken/zingdama, and a brief Rubberwrist diabolo session with Guy and Susannah.
-I saw the Diabolo Battle show. Best one I've seen yet. Marky Jay kept it fun and flowing (apart from interrupting the final at the wrong point, d'oh), and there were a lot of slick skills on display. Can't believe I once had the nerve to enter this. Good to see the ever-evolving trick sessions in the gym.
-After I signed a second kendama, I realised that both of my messages could be read either with or without the punctuation. Delivered my books to a mobile museum. Too skint to pick up more for my own.
-In the EJC meeting, the vote between Finland and Spain clearly went Finland's way. Ron decided to physically split the voters in to the two sides of the tent for a recount. It was clearly in Finland's favour. So Ron decided to pair-off all the voters out of the door until one side had voters left. It was clearly Finland that had most votes. So, Finland then. Hopefully I'll get to go, as I enjoyed 2010 Joensuu, except for the heat.
-Meanwhile, it's back to Scotland for a summer BJC next year. You absolute muppet, Avril. Sorry - typo, I mean "Nice one Avril!". Some nice words about JTV. Spooked a paramedic. I watched someone else do a dead man's routine. Have you really lived if you haven't done that? Bought some balls, which was wrong, because I don't listen to my girlfriend. Correcting that, 'cos Alex is a dude. Haggis doing toothbrush tricks.
-A lot of excitement about a car. Taking possession, eventually, of a hard drive full of videos. Congratulating Erin on her correct pronunciation of "arse", and telling her the Arron-Erin story. Using some of Richard Herring's Emergency Questions to lighten the mood after a friend had had an bad turn - but only being able to remember the filthy ones. Gary Glo seemingly not knowing how old he is, and (unconnectedly) being impressed with the Zingdama's (Thanks Dan!) construction. Taylor's reaction to getting a broad-bean crisp splat in the forehead - [blink, shudder], "What just happened?" Sending postcards to random people, telling them to point their toes. Catching snatches of Rumpel.
-Lots of hanging out and talking various degrees of crap with people around the bar area, which was great until they took the canopies away. Pointed accusingly at Toby Walker one night: "You're a star-belly sneech, you're sucking like a leech!" He was confused. Tried again later with "Kiss ass while you bitch so you can get rich", but he was still lost. THEN DON'T WEAR THE T-SHIRT, DUDE!
-Saw Jon on Saturday morning looking sharp. "You look like..... [thinks]..... You look like someone who's about to give a talk!". Went to his ABC Tour talk, took some notes, chuckled a bit. Went to the games, sat down to wait for them to start. A few minutes later, realising I wasn't in the mood to watch the games, I left. Bonus.
-1,2,3, clap clap clap, pat pat pat, Wanker! (Well if you will use a feeble excuse like "I'm having hip surgery" as an excuse for ducking out of a grading, then that's what you get.)
-I saw the first run of the Gala show. Highlights for me were Masa and Thom, but somehow the overall show didn't cut it for me as an EJC gala. I suppose the late venue change really didn't help. I heard the second show had a better atmosphere. Ah well.
-Jaffa cakes, Parma Violets, BlackJacks, croissants, coffee. An avocado. Ewano's photographic timing. And all the stuff I've forgotten.
-Fresh rip in the bell tent from the wind. Emergency repair by fak. Arriving as 2 people, leaving as 5. General exhaustion, and post-convention cold for the next week.
ICYMI, https://tlmb.net/galleries/EJC2019
Thanks for my 17th EJC Jane & crew, & all volunteers. IT WAS FUN. Oops, I didn't mean to type that with caps lock on, but hey, I'll let it stand...
Next stop, Dundee.
''Pointed accusingly at Toby Walker one night: "You're a star-belly sneech, you're sucking like a leech!" He was confused. Tried again later with "Kiss ass while you bitch so you can get rich", but he was still lost. THEN DON'T WEAR THE T-SHIRT, DUDE!''
Perfectly entitled to rip the shirt from his back and set fire to it IMO.
Reminds me of the time David Beckham wore a shirt with a glittery Crass symbol with no idea what it represented.
Pah, kids today...
I'd make him work hard all day with a gun in his back for a bowl of rice a day.
This soon! :-D
The long awaited review is now online and can be accessed here: https://www.juggle.org/the-european-juggling-convention-2019-review-newark-on-trent-uk/
Thank you to the organisers once again, you rock!
Cheers, Jon
Mike Moore - - Parent #
Thanks for the shoutout!
I was one of the people booing the "You can only take part in one of 5, 7, and 9 ball endurance" decision. If they want to limit who /wins/ some prize, then make the limitation on winning. Realistically, I'm not going to get anywhere near close to winning 5 or 7b endurance. But I'd still like to play.
Good suggestion!
You're right, everyone should be able to take part but you cannot be named the winner if you won previously. I like it. :-)
My #EJC2019 pics are at https://tlmb.net/galleries/EJC2019 . *No re-uploads please.*
European Juggling Convention 2019
FYI: phase 1 tickets for #EJC2019 are scheduled to go on sale at 20:00 GMT (UTC) tonight. Ticket price information etc is here - that link will also link onto the European Juggling Association ticket sales system once it goes live.Didn't want people confused when routed to something that had EJA on it (has caused confusion in the past!)Hope its running smoothly. Ta muchly.
Mike Moore - - Parent #
After purchasing, is there any kind of refund/transfer system? I think there's about an 80 % chance I'll be able to make it. I'd rather have non-action pushing me to go...but at the same time I'd want a way out of something comes up in April (my life will have a lot of volatility in March-April).
Tickets can be transferred for a 10% transfer fee (paid by the recipient). You'll need to e-mail the EJA in that case. (One point in the EJA terms and conditions might indicate that it has to be done at least 14 days before the event.)
Mike Moore - - Parent #
Great, thanks!
Danny Colyer - - Parent #
Does anyone involved have any idea yet of the time or length of the gala show? It would be useful information when deciding whether to choose afternoon or evening when I'm buying my tickets.
I'm chasing this up with the show producers. I'll try to get back asap on approximate estimated duration (and times).
There will be gala ticket swop "workshops" during the EJC. Typically, it has been easier to swop late tickets for early tickets, but I can't guarantee that this year, as more people may have to leave on Saturday evening to make flights etc.
Information about the length of gala show: approximate duration 2 hours.
Am currently trying to get more information about plans for start times.
The current plan, subject to change, is for the second show to start about 8ish - team members don't want it running that late at the end of a long week.
The timings haven't been finalised, hence for the vagueness on the ticket sales site as we didn't want to cause confusion by changing times!
Remember that there will always be the option to participate in the on-site ticket swop workshop.
Danny Colyer - - Parent #
Thanks Dee. I didn't really expect the details to have been finalised yet, but that's at least a starting point to discuss with the family before I book.
A quick reminder that the first phase of #EJC2019 pre-registration runs until December 07 2018.
Ticket prices and more information are here
Paying by bank transfer means that all of the funds go to the EJC, but as that option is more expensive for some people, there is also the option to pay by card (via PayPal).
Mike Moore - - Parent #
Registered for my first EJC! Eeeeeee
Hello Juggling people!
Would you like to be featured in the new promo film for the #ejc2019 ? or future advertising for the event..? We are currently collecting tiny film clips (10 seconds or so) of people declaring their excitement (mostly!!! ha ha) or love of EJC so that we can edit them into our main promo film and then several much much shorter ones for the future. If you have a minute or two then I will be very grateful to receive your contributions and anyone featured will receive a limited edition tiny enamel gnome juggler badge when you arrive at EJC 2019.
If there can be juggling in it too then that would earn bonus points!
One special request is that if you use your phone then please film landscape (sideways)
Thank you my lovelies and see you all in August 2019 (if not before!!)
email your clips to me - jane.ejc2019@gmail.com
website is in progress but for the basics right now www.ejc2019.org
The Milton Keynes Juggling Convention 2016 (UK) - Review
Saturday the 12th November saw the return of The Milton Keynes Juggling Convention (MKJC) which is held at the Elizabeth Woodville School, Deanshanger (just off the A5, west of Milton Keynes).
The drive down the M1 was pretty miserable as it was lashing down with rain and my phone had a hissy fit which took the GPS out of action. We managed to get ourselves pretty close to Deanshanger and were glad to see the ‘MKJC – this way’ signs as we approached the convention.
We hit reception not long after 10:00, got our passes (colour coded wrist bands) and raffle tickets and headed deeper into the school. We passed the show hall which is large and high ceilinged with a high level stage at one end. There was a freestanding aerial rig and mats set up for a number of workshops running in this room throughout the day. In the evening this becomes the show venue.
We took part in the traditional ‘getting lost in the warren of changing rooms and toilets before finding the hall game’ which I always thoroughly enjoy. We headed to our usual spot in the hall and set up our gear. Fever was already in session, the Cambridge collective were already well stuck in to their practice and Butterfingers and Gale were busy setting up shop.
The big change in the hall this year was the relocation of the reception desk which meant that the doors of the hall (leading to the car parks) remained shut for the majority of the day. I noticed the difference immediately! There was the initial ‘cool, not many bodies in the hall’ transition through the ‘comfortable, not even thinking about it stage’ and finally the ‘musty juggler scent and warmth’ of the later afternoon (normal convention climate changes). A massive improvement which was commented on very often during the day, very comfortable, thank you MKJC Team.
I started off with club juggling and had a very pleasant warm up (much briefer than previous years, see above) so before lunch I was already working on 5 club tricks and trying my 6 with happy hands. 5 club 5 up pirouettes are feeling very good at the moment, so close to becoming routine. My set up is great, the turn is good and my hand is reaching the 1st club, I think the pattern is just slightly under spun which makes continuing the pattern difficult. Didn’t hit the trick but came very close. I always seem to have a very good club juggling session at MKJC so I leapt on that. I had my best 6 club half shower run (don’t know how many catches, I don’t count, but would guess 25 odd) to which Mark pointed out I shouldn’t forget to practice my ‘fountain’. My first attempt was very convincing and we were all surprised, future attempts brought us all back to reality.
Lunch time. Jenni, Mark and I headed onto the High Street and were sad to see the Chinese / Chip shop was closed until later this month (Greg pointed out it had 3x 1* reviews on google, I’ve eaten there every year and I thought it was OK, not spectacular but OK) so we went to the Pizza place next door, interpreted their many contradictory and confusing special offers and selected their 3x 9inch Pizzas for £15 deal. £5 for a Pizza was pretty fair we felt. We ate at the small seating area outside the show venue and taunted Jack with our Pizza feast. There was a lot of interest from an awful lot of passers-by about where we had acquired the Pizzas… seriously, where has everyone else been eating for the last 6 MKJCs? Turn right out of the venue and then right at the T-junction, keep walking up the high street, the one with the co-op on it that looks like a pub, follow the road round all the bends and speed bumps and you hit the high street, it is on your right hand side.
Pizza review:
Mark and I had some difficulty identifying which Pizza was whose. A Meat Feast vs a BBQ chicken. I ordered the BBQ chicken, which was absent of the advertised peppers and red onions and contained various other meats… I suspect that the ‘Mexican BBQ’ Pizza was provided rather than the requested BBQ Chicken. We had all elected for thin crust and extra grease apparently. But, they were pretty good Pizzas overall. Jenni had selected the Hawaiian Pizza in order to disgust the anti-pineapple Pizza fraternity and to support with The Leeds Juggling Convention (next weekend, Saturday 19th November, Amazing Show Line Up, Workshops, Free Tea and Coffee and Doughnuts, Raffle (has a pineapple in it!), See you There!)
Pizzas consumed, we went back to the main hall which had filled considerably (comfortable stage) and I started practising some headbouncing. Brook and I had already agreed to have a club passing session, each time I looked over he was involved in a multi-person feed which I didn’t want to interrupt so we missed out this convention, we will definitely do some at Leeds (that’s next weekend you know…) Not a ground breaking solo session but not terrible either, I got bit warm so went off to change into shorts. On the way I bumped into Mark (P) and Dave having a bounce juggle session in the corridor, I stayed to have a chat which turned into 3 person 15 ball bounce passing moving onto 18 ball passing. It was really good fun, my problem was my selves ending up in the tramlines of the incoming passes, I need to spend some more time bounce passing. We got it working fairly well in the end.
Games time. Standard convention games took place which were well executed by the games master. I fluffed juggling limbo although it got difficult pretty quickly. Won 5 ball endurance and 5 club endurance, great prize of past issues of Kascade Magazines. Combat happened at the end of the games and it was utter bedlam! Fantastic fun, I always really enjoy it. These games carried on good a long while until just 4 of us remained and we called a halt (Musty Juggler stage). Only one injury for me which was a slightly bruised finger, very pleased with that result.
Time for evening food. Greg had mentioned earlier in the day an Indian restaurant which was not far away so we thought we would give that a go. Mark (P) rounded up pretty much all of Cambridge so we took my car with Katie navigating (no through road, really?) while they walked. I always drive to evening food place as you run the risk of being late for the show if the food is slow to arrive, more later…
Spice Hut was OK, they were quick to set up a long table for all 11 of us. They were good fun when taking our orders and very accommodating to everyone’s requirements. The food took ages to come, I think it arrived at about ten to 7pm (show time) so we ate rather hastily before bundling Brook into the car and rushing back to the venue. My Malayan curry (had pineapple in it, I like pineapple in my curry – discuss) was not very flavoursome although it was OK. I tried some of Mark’s vegetable one and it nearly blew my head off, bursting with flavour, perhaps just my poor choice on this occasion. The food was pretty good for the price £5.95 for a main dish.
The show was already in progress when we arrived and Concrete Circus (MK youth Circus) were halfway through their act. We were in time to see some really good walking globe tricks, some of which scared me a bit.
Mark Watson was the compere for the evening and I always enjoy his style of compering, lots of cheap gags, energy and enthusiasm always does it for me.
Arthur Hyam performed a very slick 1x diabolo routine. Arthur’s diabolo routines have always been a pleasure to watch with loads of very technical and original looking tricks and technique. It was taken up a notch in terms of performance with good smart outfit and plenty of natural applause points. Flawless despite some interference from the small curtain above the stage which hides the lights. Shame about the very final catch. Excellent bow! Great routine, look forward to seeing it again.
The microphone died at this point so I felt bad for Mark although he projects very well anyway. We could hear fine from the back of the room.
Jonathan the Jester and Adam then performed their streetshow style routine. I felt that Adam needs an equally shiny jacket to Jonathan or for them to play the ‘reluctant’ assistant and the showman routine. Regardless, it was quite amusing and I am always quite nervous when children from the audience are put on the performer’s shoulders, but of course it was fine. Too much politics at one point but to his credit Jonathan identified this and swiftly moved on to 3 wheeled giraffe unicycle and walking globe club passing.
Doreen performed a lovely club juggling routine. It was confident, it was smiley, it was stuffed with very elegant tricks and some nice club swingy tricks before hitting some nice 4 club tricks and a final 5 club finish. Very competent, dropless and a lovely bow and smiles. Excellent routine!
Interval and Raffle time. It was a slow start to the raffle with some confusion and a coffee stained trap door, but it quickly became very entertaining as only raffles can be (I like raffles, I think they are funny, Cameron shared my amusment). Sad not to win anything this year, but they were all blue tickets :-(. Nigel gave me a DVD of last year’s show as I had performed in it, Eddie had mentioned it earlier in the day so I hope he got his copy, and I was really pleased as it was an unexpected surprise for me. :-)
There were an awful lot of technical difficulties following the interval which interrupted the second half of the show. Mark performed his duties as compere as best can be expected although it was awkward at times due to bad communication. Technical problems sorted meant we could welcome Tilly Twist to the stage.
Tilly performed a highly skilled hula hoop and hoop juggling routine. Solid 4 hoop box and great hoop juggling tricks, finished with a 5 hoop cascade, very tricky stuff. Good presentation and character throughout.
Jay Rawlings’ performed a comedy magic routine and filled it with loads of great and classic gags. The magic was impressive and the delivery was excellent. Well done Callum for being a great gunslinger.
Brook performed his 3 ball ‘Hall of the Mountain King’ routine which I have always enjoyed. This was the best rendition of it on stage which I have ever seen. Superb, very few drops and all the important tricks hit with a lovey clean finish to the music. Good costume choice and the bow was very good and matched the routine nicely. I was very impressed, should have headlined!
The final act was a Cyr Wheel routine performed by Nader Turiziano. He was good and it was nicely put together, I think the stage was slightly too small which may have put him off slightly as some of the tricks were a little rough round the edges.
The final bow was very well done although the exiting of the stage was not as smooth as the rehearsals had been (I am reliably informed). Overall it was a good strong show although let down by some technical difficulties in places.
We hung around after the show and then piled Mark into the car for the journey back to Leicestershire. Mark and I discussed various subjects on the journey home while Jenni slept in the back, the night closures on the M1 were not expected but ended up not being too much of a problem for us thanks to the A5.
I was pleased to hear that the convention made a profit and plans to return next year. Well done to the organisers and thank you for putting the event together, I look forward to seeing you next year!
Cheers, Jon
(I hope you enjoyed the review. If you did or didn’t then join the discussion. If you attended the event add your own review of the day too!)
#MKJC7
I will not be reviewing the Leeds Juggling Convention next weekend as I have been involved in organising the show. Please attend and write your own reviews, we would love to hear if there are any improvements to be made or just to hear if you liked the doughnuts! Thanks, Jon
Cheers for the review, Jon.
I woke earlier than I expected to, which meant by the time I'd listened to an hour's cricket, gone to pick up Abbi & Robin, driven all the way there, and got in, I was knackered already. I broke out the flask of coffee immediately, and stuck in to the breakfast donut, courtesy of Robin's employers. After enjoying sitting down for a while, and helloing those who passed in the corridor, a collective decision was made that we should head to the hall. Wandered in and deposited bags. Made a slow wander to say hi to a few folks. Strolled over to greet & chat to Jamie F, Mark & Jon. Apparently I've been a lesser-spotted creature at 1-dayers lately, but I blame this on Jon being a Northerner these days. Jamie had brought along an old case he'd unearthed, full of 8 Dubé Americans that he used to perform with with (the Real) Luke. Heavy hand-slapping noisy beasts, but with a lovely slow spin.
Oh, hang on, that means I juggled. I decided to compensate with a brief bit of kendama, but the energy levels weren't really there, so was happy to stop and chat to Jay R for a bit. Then Robin rolled back the years and did a bit of kendama too. Bird was in! Watched a bit of hoop passing, which fills up the air space really well. Juggled 3 clubs for a while, then had a crack at 5. Haven't been trying that for 4 years or so, and whaddya know, out of practise means out of luck. Pushed up to about 20 catches and called it a day. Watched Jamie doing his double Salerno ring, and spotted a minor tech error, so pointed that out to him. Hopefully it helps, not hinders.
(Pack) lunched. Mentioned the kickstarter I'm planning with Jon Udry to a few people. (Don't worry, you'll hear more about it here in time...) Played with one of Susannah's diabolos for a bit.
Watched some idiots bounce in a hallway. :-) Mooched back to the hall just before the games started. Got chatting to Dave for most of the games (realising I'd just missed the start of the money juggling, at one point - damn!) and may have accidentally persuaded him to try out Twitter. Time wandered along, and we went off for grub at The Crown, joining Mandy, Susannah, Caspar, Dee & Graham. Sweet potato fries were acceptable. The three of us were collectively a bit tired, so decided to skip the show, and headed home.
Cheers Nigel & crew. First convention for a long time at which I juggled more than I kendamad!
Glad to hear that you were motivated towards juggling, I would have liked to see it. I also really wanted to try those clubs that Jamie brought as it has been about 20 years since I last tried. I also want to try out his Salerno rings but I'm not sure if my knees would forgive me.
I played a game in my head during the show 'what would Void want to see?' My conclusion was you would have enjoyed Brook and Doreen, found most of the rest tolerable and liked the new walking globe tricks at the end of Concrete Circus act.
Nigel
Sounds like a not unreasonable estimate. I expect Mark & Jay would have made me chuckle at some point too.
I am fairly sure that Jonathan would have made you chuckle at some point (not necessarily when you were supposed to do so). I assumed that you would have seen most if not all of the acts before, when I made my predictions. Jay, for example, did almost the same act at Bristol before it became Broxford. Mark did a great job, especially when covering for the sound problems.
Nigel
"some really good walking globe tricks, some of which scared me a bit."
If you think they scared you, try being the parent of the performer, especially in the tech rehearsal where he was much closer to the edge of the stage. That was one of the major reasons there were two of us stood either side of the stage. Still wasn't as scary as when he first came up with that trick!
Great review John, it almost makes me feel like I was there. Next year I will be. See you at Leeds.
Nigel
What was the trick?
I have not seen very much walking globe stuff, so I have no real benchmark.
Two particularly noteworthy walking globe tricks.
1) Have two walking globes, start skipping on one of them and then continue skipping as you jump to the second.
2) Stand on two walking globes at the same time, move them around and then skip on them.
Both tricks were made scarier by being performed near the front of a stage that is at least 1.2m (4ft) high. The stage was also particularly slippery (as had been demonstrated by previous tricks and would be demonstrated again by the cyr wheel).
Nigel
Yikes!
I can barely skip as it is (no idea if I can walk on a walking globe).
I can understand the concern now....
Re 2), Literally at the same time? .... that's some straddle! Can't even visualise how you'd skip like that. Maybe I should've stayed for the show after all.
Indeed, literally at the same time. The original two globe trick originated as far as I know with Albert and Friends Instant Circus. I've never seen the skipping on the two globes before.
If anyone knows of other difficult walking globe tricks I'd be happy to learn about them. We've already done most of the multiple people on one globe variations (two facing each other, two facing same way, three with two facing and one in between, two high, three in a triangle. We've tried two pairs facing but you run out of space for feet).
Also any good videos showing innovative globe work that aren't easily findable with a YouTube search would be appreciated.
Nigel
lukeburrage - - Parent #
I've often wondered if it's possible to do a four walking globe stack. Three in a triangle, and one on top. I guess they would have to be rubber or sticky in some way. But then you could walk forward and move forward.
If that's possible then the next step up is walking on the back of Charlie Dancey's bouncing beast.
Something for the next Dream Tricks challenge David?
Fully engineered solution here:Thing for https://t.co/yVXCpQve6G pic.twitter.com/cjT3gxXoxb
— The Void (@TheVoidTLMB) November 20, 2016
Probably.
Essentially the whole thing shouldn't work.
The top ball (w.l.o.g.) is moving CW, which means that the front and the 2 back balls are moving CCW. But if the front ball is moving CCW, it would drive the back balls CW or visa versa.
Unless you cheat by making sure that the 3 base balls don't touch each other, or somehow don't grip each other.
lukeburrage - - Parent #
"Unless you cheat by making sure that the 3 base balls don't touch each other, or somehow don't grip each other."
If you've ever made such a rolling stack out of normal juggling balls, the lower balls not touching is part of the desired technique, not a cheat. I presumed that didn't need to be stated in my previous post.
Greg was telling me about this at Leeds, could you ask the performer if you could post a video of the trick, as I am quite intrigued?
Thanks for that... as mentioned to quite a few people during the day, I'm trying to make a list of all events that *may* happen at #EJC2019 and thus will need some for of resources (at the very least time and space). I'd be very grateful if you could add anything to the google document in the link below:
Even if you can't think of any events that I haven't listed, it would be interesting to get other people's opinions on the constraints attached to different events.
Thanks in advance...
The only thing that MKJC does that isn't on the list (and at only just over half the conventions 4/7) is to hold an auction. I'm of the opinion that this could be quite profitable at a big enough event, even though we haven't ever taken much money when running one. (The first was for the widow of a mate who died, the only other big one was when Jackson Lane Jugglers closed)
Nigel
As part of our cunning plans for #EJC2019 I am collecting ideas for what workshops people would like to see available / personally attend at an EJC.
Fill in ideas here to your hearts content: https://goo.gl/forms/9K5bACJvcKAYdra83
View previously entered ideas here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1tYt5DVbD6N7CBU0EEbiBPLfGhBsfz8jlCBtClqVuySw/edit?usp=sharing
Daniel Simu - - Parent #
I would like workshops that go beyond a single skill. Getting into the details of juggling in sessions which require special conditions such as:
Spending at least 3 hours or perhaps 3 days to grasp a concept
Requiring a group such as to share discoveries and inspiration or to build things that can't be done alone
Working on material which can't be grasped instantly and needs to be reflected upon and revisited
Learning concepts which can be best or perhaps only learned from masters who are usually out of reach, e.g. special teachers, retired top performers or cross over teachers (dancers/musicians) who prepare something especially for you.
Single skills, such as this prop + this trick + this level as the form requests, I can find those, not only on every single convention, but also on YouTube or by asking this person in the gym who performs this skill already.
A lot of juggling teaching and research is being done in circus schools, and except for the final acts and videos, a lot of that material never leaves the school walls. I think an EJC is a perfect place to find an audience for similar teachings, and should try and look beyond the simple workshop format!
Does the entry on Line 20 of the spreadsheet essentially sum up your wishes? I'll perma-link to your comment for context.
Daniel Simu - - Parent #
Thanks!. I hope it turns into something :)
For those of you who were not at #EJC2016 there was only one proposal for #EJC2019 suitable for being put forward for approval by jugglers at the General Assembly - do the big news is that the EJC is returning to the UK in 2019 after a trip to Lublin, Poland and the Azores in 2017 and 2018 respectively.
Cedric Lackpot - - Parent #
An FB thread suggested Newark. No idea who the gibbering mentals kindly volunteer team is.
Richard Loxley - - Parent #
I believe the team is being led by Jane Randall?
She has two successful BJCs under her belt, which in my opinion were both superbly run.
A good stepping stone for the EJC I think.
I think the venue is Newark Show Ground.
I presume you are thinking of the two most recent excellent BJCs in Darton. I believe that Jane also co-ran BJC 2011 in Nottingham.
Cedric Lackpot - - Parent #
Jane "just shoot me if I ever contemplate running a BJC again" Randall? That Jane Randall?
She'll be ace.
mike.armstrong - - Parent #
She's as good as her word...
I can confirm that the proposed venue is currently Newark Showgrounds and the team is led by Jane Randall. The site was selected partially because of the accessibility of Newark-on-Trent to the East Coast Main line [which, if there are no strikes, means that it takes about 4 hours from Paris by train and 3 from Brussels]. The final 5 km from the train stations in Newark to the site is proving the most problematic; we are hoping that given three years notice, we can arrange some form of usable transport for the final leg of the trip.
This far in advance of #EJC2019 we are still assembling all of the expertise required and we are also in post #EJC2016 review mode of what worked and didn't from an organisational perspective in terms of the things that we can do anything about. No point in being overly critical of things that are either beyond our control or not applicable to our site.
Right, now to find all the clown cars in the UK for that final 5km....
Seriously though, congratulations to the bidders and let's plan for an amazing EJC in the U.K. - we have a large, active, experienced and multi-skilled community and between us I'm sure we can do wonders!
Thanks Charlie...
We are currently collating a list of things that we liked / didn't really like that we can actively adopt / alter for our site. Also it includes bits that we liked that our site currently doesn't really allow us to do [such as walk to the supermarket] that we have to think of solutions to over the next few years. At the moment it's a bit of a post EJC brain dump, but it's best to get it while still fresh in the head.
You can add your contributions here in this google doc
Subscribe to this forum via RSS
1 article per branch
1 article per post