|
Several
years of working together finally paid off in this year's Team
Championships for a pair of perennial IJA favorites, Dan
Holzman and Barry Friedman. Appearing as the Raspyni Brothers,
the two 22-year-old Californians mixed comedy with skillful
club passing to narrowly edge an up-and-coming young duo from
Seattle, The Young Gentlemen Jugglers.
The
Raspynis, a team for six years now, has most recently
performed the Renaissance Fair circuit. They perform both
comedy and technical juggling, including nine clubs passed
uninterrupted from double to triple spins.
The
win came after three years of third
place finishes for Friedman and two for Holzman. Holzman
competed in the
U.S.
Nationals this year also, finishing third. "I want that
trophy now that we've won the Teams," he said.
The
Raspynis began with a three club, apple and carrot comedy
skit. For the last part of the program, they let their precise
club passing do all the talking. Beginning
with six clubs, they did a pick-up to seven, with passes
forward and back-to-back. They performed eight clubs passed in
single, double and triple spins, but were stopped by going
over time before their finish trick - six machetes passed
while spinning a ring on a leg and a ball on a mouthstick.
The
Young Gentlemen are Robert Stuverud and John Webster, high
school students from Seattle,
Washington
. They added the extra dimension of a six-foot unicycle to
their club passing routine. Webster
showed his skill on the uni with continuous under-the-leg
passes and in a sizzling three club solo later in the routine.
The pair also passed six and seven clubs while standing on the
floor, with Webster making seemingly impossible passes between
his legs front-to-back. With the combination of Stuverud's
comic ability and Webster's juggling finesse, these two have
been earning far more money in the
Seattle
area than most people with a junior high school education.
A
pair of jugglers from Toronto, Canada, performing as
Circus Shmirkus finished third. Steve Westren and Fred Stinson
did clever steals and unique passes with clubs, but were most
appreciated for their cigar box routine. Each held two boxes,
with a third being passed back and forth for solo
demonstrations of various tricks.
This
is their third year of performing together, but 14th year of
friendship. "We keep following each other into
occupations," Westren explained. They worked in a funeral
home together until 2-1/2 years ago, when they decided to take
up juggling together after seeing Binder and Christiansen.
It is now a full-time occupation, with plenty of jobs
available in the Toronto area, Westren said.
Highlights
of other routines included:
-The
Jongleur Jugglers - (Mike Stillwell, Yvonne Wetherell and John
Creveling) This Florida trio entertained the audience and
judges with action-packed three person, three club steals, two
person synchronized club juggling and innovative work with one
person taking clubs out of a two-person passing pattern. They
completed the routine with nine clubs passed between all three
participants.
-Bryan
Wendling and Scott Burton Last year's Team Championships
winners finished further down the line against stiff
competition this year. Plagued by drops, they worked at some
very difficult frontto-front and back-to-back passing
patterns
with six, seven and eight clubs. The act began with Burton
standing on Wendling's shoulders, each juggling three clubs,
with several passes between them.
-Murph
and Arsene - This popular act was more acrobatics and comedy
than juggling, but did include club passing from Murph poised
on a free-standing ladder to Arsene standing on the floor.
Other notable moments were their hat steals and Murph's
excellent acrobatic and dangerous-looking fall onto the floor
from the ladder.
-Jasper
Juggling Company - (Ed Kosco and Keith Watson) These Tampa
Bay, Florida, jugglers passed six clubs back-toback and
side-to-side, but ran over time before performing their finale
of passing machetes and other deadly implements while standing
on rola bolas. |
