A producer/director of variety shows in Pennsylvania invites jugglers to contact him about work. Send resumes and/or videos to R.G. Smith; c/o Elegant Evenings of Comedy and Magic; Chambersburg PA.

 

The Third Annual "Mr. E's Night of the Jugglers" will feature the artistry of Michael Menes, Brian Patz, Disorderly Conduct, Jay Gilligan and IJA gold medalist Fritz Grobe. It will occur this year on March 26 in Upper Darby, Penn., on the outskirts of Philadelphia. Call for more information.

 

Look for an article by Dan Kirk, "The Juggler With The Yellow Shoes," in the March issue of "Guidepost" magazine, the top-selling Christian magazine in the country. In the 2,000-word essay, Kirk discusses the trials and tribulations along the road to his decision to make a full-time living as a juggler, and how he was helped by the Lord's guidance. Kirk lives in Menasha, Wis., and performs motivational shows throughout the upper Midwest. He enjoyed the Fargo IJA festival and hopes to bring his whole family to Burlington.

 

The late Markus Marconi won the Press Prize at the 1991 Oranjeboom Straatfestival in Rotterdam, Holland. Its sponsor, De HavenloodslHot Zuiden, was so impressed by Markoni that when they heard of his death they renamed the prize in his honor. Befitting his memory, they commissioned an artist to make a statue of a hand holding the top hat that was such a part of Markoni's act. The first winner of the Markoni Prize, named at the 1993 fes­tival, was Wil de Wel van de Zuikerspin Tent, a Dutch performer who dresses up as a woman and sings.

 

According to a Japanese newspaper, The Flying Dutchmen (Michiel Hesseling and

Jean-Michel Pare), won a gold medal and $20,000 in a buskers' contest hosted by Shizuoka-city in Japan. The­two-year-old contest, dubbed the "Buskers' World Cup," involved 61 performers from 13 countries, and the winner was determined by vote of the audience. The Flying Dutchmen have been to Japan six times and learned enough of the language to pepper their routine with many Japanese puns and gags.

 

NBC television is looking for wacky stunts. Former IJA president and Guinness World Judge for Juggling Gene Jones has developed a relationship with the network, and is happy to pass along (at no charge to jugglers) videos of 10-second sports- or skill-related stunts to the proper NBC personnel for the network's consideration. He placed a video of Ashrita Furman pogo-sticking in the Amazon with both NBC News and the Today Show in October. Send videos (which cannot be returned) to Jones; c/o The Jugglers Network; New York NY.

 

Reg Bolton and Australia's Suitcase Circus represented their country at a Chinese festival of circus skills, the Wuqiao Festival in Shijiazhuang in November. Reg and his spouse, Annie Stainer, their children Jo and Sophie, and Chinese-born Australian Ms. Mei Dan, presented a ten-minute act about the absurdity of competition, inspired to some extent by the competition between Sydney and Beijing for the Olympic Games. "Taking an acrobatic act to China would have been like taking coals to Newcastle," said Bolton. "Ours was a clown act." It included juggling, balance, unicycling and mime.

 

New juggler babies this issue include Sarah Paulina Promislow, born Oct. 15,

1994 to Eric Promislow and Judy Walker.