Everyone wants a seat at the Public Show and crowds into line to wait... and wait... and wait. Finally, doors open! Show begins!

 

Lots of good acts from ball spinning to acrobatics to unicycles to small man in fat suit to amazing Russians.

 

Jugglers want to be in the gym all night back at the Dousberg but get kicked out early -- 2 a.m. The next morning they go home in everything from funny-painted vans to big cars. Some on bicycles, others riding their thumbs. Everyone says it was great, and gets ready for next Aug. 30-Sept. 2 in Oldenburg, Germany.

 

Naturally though, none of you are interested in crowds or whether I had a good time. As fellow jugglers, you only want to know who was doing what tricks and can you steal them? My personal list of convention awards may help you!

 

HONORABLE MENTION, TRICK MOST LIKELY TO BLOW YOU AWAY: Viktor Pilipovich and Anatoly Myagkostupovy, the Moscow Circus guest stars, launching into flawless 10-club passing out of individual five-club cascades. The fact that they were standing about 12 meters apart didn't hurt their presentation, either!

 

WINNER, TRICK MOST LIKELY TO BLOW YOU AWAY: Viktor and Anatoly doing five club backcross steals.

 

MOST ORIGINAL JUGGLER: Jerome Thomas of France wins this hands down. His fusion of juggling with classical dance practically amounts to a new art form, and certainly merits the sidebar story in this issue!

 

BEST REAR-END WIGGLE: Viktor and Anatoly win here as well. They do a kind of John Travolta thing in lieu of pirouettes.

BEST BOUNCE JUGGLING: Antonio Bucci of Italy bounce-juggled seven balls for 17 minutes. He's also a fluent eight and nine ball bounce juggler.

 

BEST IDEA FOR EXPORT TO THE IJA CONVENTION: It's amazing that no one before thought to combine a numbers competition with combat. Congratulations to Haggis McLeod for winning the five ball combat competition as part of the games in the cobblestoned city square. Other neat games were a three-legged club juggling race and club passing for distance.

 

BEST CONFRONTATION BETWEEN CAPITALISM & COMMUNISM: Michiel Hesseling of, Holland offered the Soviets 50 guilders to drop out of the five club competition. They politely refused, so Hesseling kept his cash -- and won the showdown anyway!

 

MOST BENEVOLENT GOVERNMENT AWARD: To the UK, which set up the Blim Brothers, Alan and Paul of Sussex, with a small business grant to get them started as a juggling enterprise. It bought them a van, printed their publicity material and maybe even bought their silly jester hats!

 

BEST PERFORMANCE PROP: There were several spectacular entries here. Cindy Marvell's piano streamer was a big hit at the Public Show, as was Fred Garbo's inflatable suit. Marchel Scholyen also qualified with the bathroom bowl scrubbers he used in his "Acro­toiletrics" skit, and Jean Paul LeFevre showed amazing creativity with a bicycle wheel. But the winner has to be Heinz Doermer from Germany, who blew up a giant balloon -- from the inside! -- at the floating Club Renegade show.

 

BEST DIABOLO TRICK: One juggler, one string, three diabolos. Jochan Schell, take a bow! He got the third one started by kicking it up from a holder on the floor.

 

MOST DETERMINED CONVENTION-GOERS: Robin D. Public and Kevin Kivuli from Fool Time Circus in England, who -- wearing stilts -- pedaled an oversized bicycle built for two 400 miles from Bristol, England, to the convention to try to raise funds for their circus school.

 

EVERY CONVENTION SHOULD HAVE ONE: A mascot. Maastricht chose Ugly Juggly, a wierd-Iooking, but friendly face with skinny arms and three balls who was carried proudly at the front of the giant parade through down­town Maastricht.

 

NEW RECORD TO SHOOT FOR: Tim Roberts and Mick Noakes of L'lnstitut Francais de Jonglage claim a record for this new endeavor -- showering 100 passes to each other as fast as possible. Can you and your partner beat their 51.27 second time?

 

INANIMATE ANIMAL ABUSE AWARD: To Pinie Treffers and Pieter Post, performing as "Mr. & Mrs. Jones On Holiday." Their poor stuffed poodle over­flew his destination and ended up in the drink at the floating Club Renegade show.

 

THE "I NEVER THOUGHT IT WOULD COME TO THIS" AWARD: Leo Orsal from Utrecht juggled professionally in some very classy places from 1955 to 1963. He had settled down to a stable life as an air traffic controller since then, and Maastrict was his first convention ever. He performed admirably in the Public Show, and took in the whole scene with

grace. He said, "They're totally different people from the old jugglers, but I like them very much. They do what they want and live how they like to live. That's not like me, I had to do this and had to do that in my performances."

 

BEST REASON FOR A SEAT IN THE REAR: After receiving bouquets of flowers at the end of the Public Show, performers began tossing them into the audience. Then someone grabbed the bucket of water that held the flowers and tossed it into the audience, too!

 

COOLEST CUCUMBER AWARD: To convention organizer Lee Hayes. As things were reaching a fever pitch and the crowd was threatening to totally overwhelm the facilities, Hayes was heard to say, "The juggling's getting really normal in the gym. We need some strange things to happen."

 

MOST APPROPRIATE PRIZES: Winners of the games in the city square received full-sized, solid milk chocolate clubs. As anyone who visited a local chocolatier will testify, Maastricht is well-known for its fine sweets! .:.

 

(Barry Rosenberg and his wife, Marilyn, became parents last year. Their daughter, Rachel, made her busking debut at age 16 months.)