Page 14 Winter 1986 - 87
Of
the 165 days of EXPO it only rained 35. When it did rain, a few of
the acts would be accommodated indoors while the rest of us figured
we'd stand in the rain to work for anyone who would stand in the
rain to watch. One day during a monsoon our PL directed us under an
overhang by a pavilion. We waded through enormous churning puddles
to get there and began our show. During our club-stealing bit, Fred
looked out at a sea of wet, miserable, rubber-bundled folks huddled
under umbrellas, steam rising from their sodden skins, and yelled,
"What's the matter with you people?! It's RAINING!!"
I'd
love to go on with these sparkling reminiscences, but I think I
should get to the highlights. Following is a list of all the
Representing
Canada were: Les Voila, Daniel Ie Bateleur, Derek Scott, Circus
Shmirkus, Archer Mayling, Red the Juggler, and Dick & Dick. From
the USA were: The Flying Karamazov Brothers, Vaudeville Nouveau,
Slap Happy, Garbo, Alexis Lee, Fred Anderson, and Jim Jackson. From
Britain: Chris & Alex and RA RA ZOO. From Spain, Marceline Y
Sylvestre. Finally, Dr. Hot and Neon, of no fixed address.
Here
are a few mini-reviews of some acts: ·
Chris & Alex:
These two Britains perform an excellently crafted, very entertaining
show. They portray a pair of impeccably attired nerds who are very
nervously attempting to put on a juggling act. They set out a
blanket, count the crowd, move the audience about until they've
achieved an eye-pleasing symmetry, and begin.
They
start with two oversized suitcases and do some neat maneuvers,
including 180-degree turns without moving the case. From the
suitcases they pull out clubs. Chris gets his three out and passes
with Alex, but Alex has a rough time extracting his. They work from
three up to seven. As each club enters the pattern Alex becomes more
and more distraught.
After
they've "mastered" the clubs, they try six real wine
bottles back-to-back. For their finish they enlist the aid of a
youngster from the crowd to help them up onto giraffe unicycles and
to hand them six torches. At the end of the show they are totally
dishevelled. Their shirts are torn and hanging out. Chris is missing
clumps of hair and their faces are streaked with soot. A splendid
show.
·
Marceline Y Sylvestre: Playa married couple who barely like each
other. Sylvestre, the henpecked husband, tries his best to support
the juggling displays of Marceline. They have a nice bit right at
the beginning of their show when they organize the audience.
Marceline scurries around the circle showing people where to stand
while Sylvestre very dutifully follows behind spilling out a corn
starch boundary across their feet.
While
Sylvestre is apologetically dusting off their shoes, Marceline does
some nice
·
Red the Juggler: Red
was one of the best known
jugglers at EXPO. If
someone arrived for his show just as
he was finishing, he'd start all over again. Red, who used
to be a boxer, is obsessed with the challenge of numbers. He'd say,
"It's not how many times you drop'em, but how many times you pick'em
up! Some of
the more difficult stuff Red does in his show includes: a long five
ball routine, including very high throws and a ball tossed in by an
audience member; a six ball Mills Mess multiplex; a very long seven
balls; an eight ball multiplex; five torches; and a finish trick of
chin balancing a chair while idling on a unicycle and juggling two
blades and a club.
Red
is very good at
selling his high-level tricks. People leave knowing that they've
seen some hard-core stuff. He makes his own props and his parting
words of advice were, "If you want to get good, you've got to
pick them buggers up!"
·
Dr. Hot and Neon Circus Theatre: Bill
Galvin and Steve Mock present a theatrical
blend of juggling styles. They do hats, canes, ping-pong balls,
clubs, boxes, stacking
cups, apple eating, giraffe unicycles, a three person cage and a lot
of ·
Derek Scott: Nick-named Super Clown by the press. Any time a
memo arrived for the entertainers it was because of something Derek
had done. EXPO insisted that all performers had to wear shirts, so
Derek simply cut the back and sleeves off of his. With three bean
bags, a rubber nose, three cigar boxes and the three oldest Todd
Smith clubs in existence, Scott routinely did 60-minute shows to
huge |
![]() Chris (I) and Alex
contort to draw a crowd. |