Page 18 Winter 1988 - 89
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Local
company, Fool's Paradise, consisting of Michael Hirshbach, Norman
Engleberg-Schneiderman and Linda Donnelly also have a
strong juggling component to their show. There are some nice three
person passing patterns with six and seven clubs. Linda steals clubs
from the pattern and replaces them in inventive ways from the sides,
behind and from below. Linda does lots of nice acrobatics through
the patterns, including a handstand with open legs under a shower of
six fire torches. Also, in Waldo-Woodhead style, Michael &
Norman chase three clubs around and inject a broom, ball, and giant
tennis racket into the pattern. They have a unicycle routine with
formations and comic moves. Schneiderman rides an 18-inch midget
unicycle.
Comedian/musician
AI Krulick of the Al Shakespeare Side Show does one juggling
number, the infamous "tomatoes of death" routine in which
he catches a tomato on a knife held in his teeth.
My
apologies to jugglers Glenn Singer (from West Virginia), Alex
Elixer (from British Columbia), Robert Nelson (a.k.a. The
Butterfly Man)" and Jerry Rowan (from Baltimore) whose
acts were not among the 40 or so which I managed to catch.
The
Street Performers Festival idea holds considerable promise for the
future. As part of an effort to "franchise" the Buskers
concept to other locations, two mini-festivals, in Ottawa and
Fredericton, took place prior to the big bang in Halifax. Each site
had some 15 performers and ran four or five days. These performers
then continued on to Halifax.
In
Ottawa some 90,000 people attended while in Fredericton 55,000 people
came, creating the largest crowds seen in the city since the end of
World War II! Twentytwo cities have asked to participate in the
future and festival organizers will select six of these from possible
sites across Canada, the United States, Britain and West Germany to
take part in next year's festivals.
The
economic benefits to the busker are also no laughing matter. Buskers
are notoriously tight-lipped about exactly how much money they make,
but on good days one of the better acts could expect to earn upwards
of $200 per hat on Halifax streets. With the exposure and
possible financial rewards that the festival offers, this will
And
speaking of financial rewards, the festival awarded a number of prizes
(see Fall 1988 Jugglers World for a complete listing) which included
quite a number which went to juggling acts. WaldoWoodhead walked off
with first prize ($5,000) in the big People's Choice Award.
Last year's winners, Variety in Motion, were second ($3,000). Ray
Jason; The Bounty Brothers, Lee Ross, William Lee, Robert Nelson,
Tri-Jesters, Mickey O'Conner, Daniel Looker and Jerry Rowan all shared
in other honors. In an outstanding display of busker solidarity, the
Friendship Among Buskers Award went to Ron Doug Parks, a local
musician, who had to leave the Festival early when it was discovered
that his son had leukemia.
I
don't know whether we are witnessing
the birth of a new phenomenon or if this is a return in new guise to
the commedia del arte, and ancient origins of theatre in the streets,
but it certainly holds great promise. Not only is it great family
entertainment, which draws people of all age brackets and gets them
out of their homes and away from their television sets, but it also
has rosy economic prospects for buskers and the cities which play host
to these festivals. If I had to bet, I'd wager that a network of
buskers festivals is going to be a major feature of the juggling
landscape within the next decade. For jugglers everywhere this is
going to translate into a major economic and artistic opportunity.
Hang onto your hats! (Christopher
Majka, writer, biologist and juggler, throws objects in the air and
sometimes catches them - in Halifax, N. S., Canada.) |