Fritz Grobe

JW: Tell us about your trip to Fargo.

FG: Steve Ragatz came back to Bloomington from Montreal Friday night before the fest, and we went over my routine about 20 times on Saturday. That made all the difference in the world in terms of ironing out the details. I have a tendency to blur through movements and not hold positions, so we worked on that a lot right before I left. I still didn't do it quite right even in the competition, but the last-minute practice helped a lot. Without that I think I may have dropped a medal level. Fargo was the first time I performed that routine for a real audience.

 

I drove up from Bloomington early Sunday morning with Lisa Thomas, Sandy Amass & Phillip San Miguel. It was really far, 17 hours or so, and I was crammed into the back of their truck. It was about as far as driving to Montreal, a trip that me and Steve and Lisa Ragatz made. I guess we just don't learn!

 

We got in on Monday, and managed to bump into the Gilligan family right off the bat in the elevator in the Radisson where we were staying. It was just a lot of worrying about the competition from there. I didn't get to go to any Renegade except Tuesday night to see Sandy do her plates.

 

I guess I spent a lot of time just talking to Jay Gilligan and Michael Menes, talking about what Jay and I anticipated doing in the competition, and talking with Michael about what makes a good IJA fest.

 

JW: And what's that?

FG: It's such a personal thing that it's difficult for any festival to be successful for everyone. A lot of people thought Montreal was hot and cramped, but I had a great time because I met two Europeans who worked with me on diabolo the whole week. But there are some things that seem to make it good for everyone, like having 24 hour juggling with no interruptions, and having a good guest.

 

Ignatov was one of the best because he was there in the gym every day and you got to know him. It was really fun to see Popovich, but it was too bad we couldn't have seen more of him. I never met him actually. I didn't make it to the workshop, and actually did a bad job of attending this fest in general. My first fest, Baltimore, I was going to workshops and making a point of watching all the good jugglers. I was keeping one eye out for Anthony Gatto all the time! I went to Club Renegade every night. This time I went to bed like a good little boy.

 

JW: And it apparently paid off for you!

FG: I guess so. I had been consistently getting zero-to-two drops in rehearsal and that was really important to me. I had to know I wasn't going to drop. I felt like I was in training the whole week.

 

I was trying to keep the routine somewhat under wraps, because it was important to me that it be a surprise in the competition. When everyone knows what you're going to do it loses its impact. When people asked me about it I told a lot of them, "It's a routine with nothing but ribbons and bullwhips, kind of an artistic statement on my part..." That pretty much dodged the question. I wonder if anyone was surprised later when I didn't do them!

 

I did let Michael Menes watch it, and Andy Head and Jay Gilligan. Michael helped a lot with the lighting. We told the stage technicians we had to do something, anything, with the lights so that as soon as people saw me they would know the routine was completely different. I ended up opening backlit by two blue lights, and as soon as I started they brought up some of the white lights, but not quite the general wash that everyone else had. That helped set it apart I think.

 

I tried to practice three or four times a day for a half-hour or hour, whenever I could, wherever I could find the space. I mainly practiced the routine downstairs in the workshop room all by myself. The ceiling was high enough for everything except the finish trick - two diabolos with high tosses and a flourish - but I had worked on that so much I wasn't worried about it.

 

I love to drop, and I realized a long time ago I really had to work hard to make sure that stuff was second nature. All the stuff with two I worked on doing twice as long as in the routine. I only did three between-the-arm loops in the routine, but I can do 12 in practice. I practiced the hard moves over and over and over, then really backed off in the final routine so I wasn't close to the edge of my ability.

 

I got a videotape of the Fargo performance and it still needs lots of work on the details ­ little bits of timing I didn't get right, not holding poses, and some extra motions I need to trim away. I'm not sure in retrospect it looked like a gold medal routine, but when I walked off the stage I really felt good about it. A lot of the details can be off if the audience is with you. It's the type of routine that'll reach out and grab you. A lot of the other stuff I do is fun, but it doesn't have the same impact. The routine was built to hit people on the head and say, "Pay attention."

 

JW: Were you nervous about your performance?

FG: I was very nervous until Tuesday night before the prelims. The biggest thing I'd done to that point was opening for John Cougar Melankamp last summer. I was nervous for a week before that, then I got calm and just got out and did it. I was anticipating the same thing here, and hoping that the nerves would pass when the time came. The few nights beforehand I was lying in bed going over and over the routine in my head, seeing it over and over. The previsualization worked, but I couldn't get to sleep.

 

When I'm nervous I can't eat, and I had to make myself eat in Fargo. Monday night a bunch of us went out to a pizza place after the gym. A choir was there and they sang for us, "Snuggle Up Just a Little Closer," or something like that, and they changed it to "Juggle Up Just a Little Closer." It was very strange and wonderful.