Page 16 Winter 1990 - 91
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REVIEWS by Bill Giduz
Dr.
Bosco Covers It All in the 1990
Festival Video. - $39.95 If
you feel like
you're missing out on a big part of juggling because you haven't
attended any IJA Annual Festivals yet, you can now do
the next best thing.
The
IJA Maverick Media video of the 1990 festival in Los Angeles is out,
and takes you minute by minute through the whole thing. You'll see
what the Pauley Pavilion hardwood looked like covered with jugglers.
You're there at workshops. You feel the midnight frenzy of Club
Renegade. You're inside the Big Toss Up. You even get a look at the
table of items for the auction.
For
the first time this year, the festival video gives a complete look
at the action, rather than concentrating exclusively on performances
and championships as has been the case in the past. Also
for the first time, the video uses a narrator to explain the action.
It's Dr. Bosco, the cigar-smoking puppet with the big schnozola who
represents the alter ego of Boston-based performer Rob Salafia. As
Dr. Bosco explains in his introduction to the video, "I was
there, I saw it all." Indeed, Salafia and Dr. Bosco were in LA,
and performed in the Cascade of Stars show.
In
visual appearances and narrations, Dr. Bosco carries the viewer in
chronological order through the festival during this 100-minute
video. The championships are handled nicely. The complete act of
only the winner of each event is shown, while other entrants are
covered in a few highlight seconds. There are interviews with
championships officials and the winners themselves. Video clips of
the medal ceremonies are skillfully used to help with the transition
from one scene to the next. The complete acts of all Senior
Individual and Team entrants is available in a separate video also
available from Maverick.
The
nice part is that every performer in the stage events gets a
mention, and every winner in all events is mentioned and shown. That
includes the plethora of joggling races and numbers events.
But
this video is not just an introduction to festival events, it also
does a good job of introducing the viewer to some festival
personalities. Tom Kidwell explains the origin of Club Renegade, and
then we meet Ngaio Bealum on that stage doing his personable job of
emceeing the show. Albert Lucas gives a serious interview about Team
Exerball's task of trying to break the fourminute mile relay, and
then celebrates wildly when the mark falls. And Michael Menes is
brilliant in a seven-minute, uncut segment showing his quirky,
unique three ball style during the three-ball workshop.
The
last major event covered is the Cascade of Stars show on the final
evening of the festival. There are clips from almost all the acts,
and several minutes of Kris Kremo. Earlier in the video he is shown
on the gym floor and interviewed about his career. There's even a
beautiful, short clip of he and his father, Bela, from one of their
perfectly simultaneous performances of yesteryear.
The
1990 festival video is a wonderful way to help your friends and
family understand your passion for the art, or a great way to
convince other of you juggling friends that they need to start
making plans
now to come to St. Louis in '91! . Beyond
the Cascade. By
George Gillson. Copyright 1990. Cascade Books; Seattle, WA
98109. $10. The
subtitle of this manual is "Stepby-Step Guides to 88 Classic
3-Ball Juggling Tricks." While you might not
recognize all the tricks described in its 103 pages as
"classics," the material presented does seem to be an
excellent guide to vastly expanding the average juggler's three-ball
repertoire. Gillson, an artist, writer and amateur juggler living in New York, collected the tricks he" presents during a four-year period. He and juggler/publisher Larry Swanson then collaborated to put the collection into print.
The
author seems genuinely thrilled with the mystery and joy of juggling.
His enthusiasm for the subject comes through clearly in both his
technical descriptions of how to do tricks and occasional jokes and
poems sprinkled through the volume.
Gillson
tries to "unravel the paths that they travel" with simple
drawings showing ball and hand positions as they change during the
trick. The illustrations, along with accompanying written
instructions, seem clear and comprehensible.
He
doesn't waste much time on the basics. The cascade takes up four
pages, and by page ten he's working on "Carry to the Opposite
Elbow." Though Mill's Mess is not the final trick described,
Gillson treats it as a sort of juggling Holy Grail. He writes that it
is the ultimate juggling move, "a mind-boggling pattern of
circling balls, crossing and uncrossing hands, and unexpected
catches." He
breaks it down into several one and two ball practice moves, then puts
it all together
in an explanation that should help folks learn this puzzling pattern.
There's
a lot in this book for three ball jugglers who want to learn new
tricks. Don't expect to find any tips on how to put them all together
in a routine, however. Gillson just addresses the physical tricks
themselves, not their incorporation into an entertaining act.
But
the physical format of "Beyond the Cascade" doesn't
match the quality of the material inside. As an instruction manual, it
is wrongly bound - perfect bound rather than spiral bound. That means
it won't lie flat and stay open to any particular page, making it
impossible to work on
a trick and look at the instructions at the same time.
And
while the cover of the 5 x 8-inch paperback is two color, and
professional, the quality of the type inside is crude. Though type
quality doesn't change the substance of the words, it can affect the
reader's impression of the material.
Physical
faults aside, though, "Beyond the Cascade" is one of
the best instruction manuals on the market, an exciting book that will
give three ball jugglers many hours of challenge and a lot of new material. |