2005 Portland Juggling Festival
Next weekend is the 2005 Portland Juggling Festival. I went to last years and it was a interesting experience.
It was my first festival and I'd only been juggling for about 9 months. I had recently hooked up with the Corvallis Juggling & Unicycling Club and so I basically hung out with one of their jugglers and bounced around through the workshops.
I realized while I was in the beginner juggling workshop that I enjoy helping people learn to juggle.
I learned how to contact juggle from Greg Maldonado. Contact juggling is much more relaxing than Toss juggling is, but popular lay opinion thinks Toss juggling is relaxing... go figure! Oh, and Greg told me he would be back again this year to teach more Contact juggling. Hooray!
I was allowed into the Extravaganza during the performers' warmups. That was AWESOME! I got to see Jason Garfield, the Galchenkos (sp), Ivan Pacel, and the Stanford Juggling Research Institute goof around while getting ready. I have to say that the warmups were more entertaining that the show and there were only 20 or less people in the auditorium!
Funny thing, before the Extravaganza, I while I was at the festival, I saw this huge, muscular, bald guy walking around outside. He looked pissed off. He had a tank top on that I could have swore had the letters UFC written on it. I used to train in Mixed Martial Arts and those letters mean Ultimate Fighting Championship. I thought this guy had come to the festival to break some jugglers' arms. Turns out the shirt actually had the letters WJF and the huge, muscular, pissed off, bald guy was Jason Garfield.
And when I was inside, I saw Ivan Pacel do 5 Ball bounce juggling with tricks while I was walking by and I said something corny like "Well done!" I had no idea he was a professional too. If I had, I would have asked him to do something harder :-)
To say the least, I'm excited about going to my second juggling festival. I wish I could have gone to more throughout the year. Nevertheless, I'm going to this one and it will be a great time!
Oh, and by the way... I'm going to perform in the Renegade show this year. I put together a 9 move 3 Ball routine so I can get in front of people and see how it feels and if I can do it without any mistakes! After that, I want to challenge everyone there to a 3 Ball 360 competition. The winner gets a buck! I really hope that someone takes up the challenge.
Labels: Festivals
posted by Ed Provencher @ 4:06 PM
3 comments
3 Comments:
JUGGLER'S SOAP BOX
I talked with Jason Garfield briefly at the IJA in 2006. He wasn't rude or anything. I asked him for some help with working on ten balls. He didn't tell me what I was looking for, (miracle pattern that would make five in one hand easy to learn effectively) but instead told me to work on tricks with seven. Personally I would like to push numbers but I've learned you have to have a strong base to handle all the variables involved. Which I think Jason is limiting himself with if he doesn't put a little humor in his routine. It's not a mockery of juggling it's a added skill that is very difficult. Doing a six hour a day practice schedule of the same tricks will do a lot but it's not enough, it doesn't inspire creativity or true art. It's to boxed in by design to create that "it" factor that really captivates an audience of jugglers or an audience of ordinary people. Put some realism in your performance and send a message that you know has good in it and give respect to your audience. Give some feeling to the abstract viewer and thus build a strong base for the juggling world. This I think should be a goal for all jugglers including the best.
ah~! you saw Jason Garfield, Galchenkos in Portland Juggling Festival.
I think Festival and convention offer paticipants many famous jugglers.
some day I will participate in juggling festival and take a picture with juggler,
listen to workshop. I is expected by only thinking about it.
You have an episode about Jason Garfield. I may, when i saw his juggling vid in youtube i also suprised.
by the way When you showed people 3ball,do you perfectly play it without mistakes?
It is inconvenient not to have a your video here.
Ah~! you know tomorrow is 설날.
I'm going to go to the couson's house.
what are you doing on 설날?
Festivals and conventions are the best ways to see professional jugglers and damn good hobbyists like Matt Hall among many others.
I make lots of mistakes with three balls. So, you won't see a three ball video from me. If I make another video, it will be for 4 ball tricks.
I'm going to see a traditional Korean music and dance performance in Seoul on Monday. I'll relax more on Tuesday.
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