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REVIEWS

Highlights of the 1992 IJA Festival,July 21-25, 1992, Montreal, Canada. VHS. Two hours. lJA Videos. Price: $35.00

For those of us who couldn't make it to the IJA Festival, this video is truly the next best thing to being there. The camera operators and editors have done a fine job in culling some of the best high points.

Awards in the various categories of Championships are a definite highlight of this video. Junior, Senior, Individual and Team competitions are all well-displayed and should prove a treasure trove of new ideas for aspiring performance jugglers. We get brief glimpses of Lotte Brunn and Michael Moschen, respectively, receiving their awards for Historical Achievement and Excellence. Perhaps the most touching moment on the tape is Lotte Brunn's talk to a small workshop audience where she tells us she is leaving her props, costumes, and memorabilia "for the future."

There are also brief outtakes from some workshops, notably Peter Davison's; selections from the Club Renegade midnight shows; some of the numbers juggling (surprising that there were so few entries); a bit of the joggling competitions; excerpts from The Games; and acts from the Cascade of Stars Juggling Review, including the delightful Mills Family, the Passing Zone's clever verbal wit and smooth prop control; and Peter Davison's elegant three, four and five ball routine. Michael Moschen pulls out a portion of his "stick" act, and finishes with a single large hoop that emphasizes his grace, control and utter concentration on the integrity of the object.

The editing is generally crisp and balances seeing enough single acts with covering the widest possible range of events. I found some of the emcees and jokes a bit long and tedious and would have rather seen a bit more of other juggling events, however the juggling performances are captured clearly. My only suggestion would be to find a slightly elevated camera position for performances in the auditoriums. When all those standing ovations occur, we see only a sea of black silhouettes and no performer. This is a small point, but it does take away from the completeness of the performances for the video viewer.

I would also like the audio portions of the workshop sessions to have a bit more clarity. Peter Davison is unintelligible in his workshop question/answer session. Just better miking here would help a lot.

Watching this video, it is easy to see the vitality, excitement and energy that the IJA is developing among its members and the steady progression of excellence in entertaining and teaching the art of juggling to the world. If you were there in Montreal, this video will bring back wonderful memories; if you weren't there, Highlights of the 1992 IJA Festival can make you feel as if you were in the front row. Kudos to Steve Salberg and his crew for a terrific effort.

- by Craig Turner

Brendan Brolly's Book of Diabolo. By Brendan Brolly. 1992. 54 pages soft cover. Illustrated by Carina Milburn. BB Books. Available from: Ugly Juggling Co.; NewcastleUpon- Tyne, England. £6.50 (including postage & handling) by international money order in pounds sterling only.

Diabolo Stick Grinds And Suicides. By Donald Grant. 1992. 48 pages soft cover. Illus. Suitcase Circus; Fife, England. £5.50 (including postage & handling) by international money order in pounds sterling only.

Stranded in a tropical paradise or just Philadelphia, you begin to wonder if your diabolo was the right prop to have brought along. With so much practice time you've perfected the few tricks you know and now your fantasies begin to center around technique books. If only there were beginning and advanced diabolo books arriving on the next boat.

Soon there may be! Recently released in Great Britain (that's England for those of you

in the outlying school districts) are two diabolo instruction books for the tropically or merely inspirationally marooned.

Brendan Brolly's Book of Diabolo is a fine workbook covering first time basics and over 35 tricks. If you're still dirtying your first string, this book can teach any willing beginner such classics as whipping, around the world, climbing the string, around the arc (or leg or body), cat's cradle and more. Or, if you're currently fraying your fifth skein of string and feel ready for more advanced maneuvers, Brolly teaches Chinese whipping, thrown starts, scooping from around the arm, and leg snags, as well as dual and even triple diabolo challenges.

This valuable text owes much of its success to Carina Milburn's stylized illustrations of a faceless "every diabolist" in hiking boots. Her drawings often clarify Brolly's minimal instructions. In fact sometimes the text is so sparse it barely gets you started. An example: "The person on the left throws the arc to ... the other person. There are now two diabolos going around on one string." If only it were that easy! Brolly needs to explain catching technique more thoroughly, e.g., the catching hand may have to move, and catches are most accurate when made near the stick. The book also lacks trouble-shooting tips, something I hope will be remedied in a second edition. (For extra credit, see if you can find the subtle error in the str ing climb.)

Constructive criticisms aside, several friends and I found Brolly's text, Milburn's illustrations, a little thought, and plenty of trying, quite enough to teach any delightful tricks. For those of you with hard-earned calluses who have long ago park your diabolo training wheels, you might consider adding Brolly's concise manual to your library as a source for teaching sequences. It also makes a nice review before opening Donald Grant's graduate-level book.

In Diabolo Stick Grinds and Suicides, Grant explores catching the diabolo on the control sticks (grinds) and releasing the control sticks in great swooping and potentially bruising tricks (suicides). His thorough and engaging style draws you through over a dozen grinds and a baker's dozen suicides with trouble-shooting tips throughout.

Each "grind" is explored with clear and charmingly illustrated instructions. Grant leads you through basic inward and outward grinds, rolls and throws to the increasingly difficult overheads, rainbows, swing, rubberwrist and other demanding variations. To keep you inspired, he concludes each grinding lesson with a witty performance tip or inane encouragement. Some "British-isms" are fun to find, such as, "very comical, I don't think!" and the infamous "willy grind," a betweenthe-legs genre not for the friction wary.

Appropriately, the tone becomes more sober with the suicide lessons, although Grant does recommend practicing the basic suicide "to death." These hara-kiri stick releases are dramatic and the many variations in this book make it well worth the modest price. "Twuicide" (twice around before stick catch), figure of eight (direction reversal-acide), and suicide variations of such old standbys as under the leg (or arm), trebls, and string climb are followed by some particularly self-destructive tricks.

Next time you are really depressed, consider Duicide (both sticks released). Or you could attempt the appropriately named Edicius (possibly obscure Latin for something spoken or done, but not written), which the author paradoxically does attempt to write and ends up with "the up-in-the-air-behindt he-back -loop- the-Ioop-let-go -of - the-stick trick." A combination grind and suicide entitled Smokingjoe is the coup de grace.

Catching the stick at the end of a suicide attempt can be confusing. Grant needs to explain his technique more thoroughly. The catch I found most natural to me with an inverted stick. Very comical, I don't think! He also said nothing about correcting the diabolo tilt during a grind, something I found possible with a twist of the wrist - on an inward grind, twist to the right and the diabolo tilts down on the left, twist Ieft and it tilts right; on an outward grind, a leftward twist tilts left and a rightward twist tilts right.

Grant finishes with a "Further and Beyond" section. On this last page he advises practice with imagination, and gives several tips to "get the old grey matter working" including double diabolo hypotheses. This sets the tone for a second volume which should be available in Britain later this year. In Diabolo II: Crazy Cradles and Baffling Bodymoves, Grant promises "25 new moves including stirring the pot, reeling in the fish, magic knots, tiger's cradle and many more."

American merchants have yet to catch up with their European counterparts in the fine cultural areas of wine, cheese and diabolo technique books. Consequently, if you're stranded in America or just Hawaii you'll have to hunt up an international money order to send for these necessary additions to any gyroscopic juggler's library.

-by Rhys Thomas & Stuart Celarier