On Saturday the workshops really kicked in with 14 sessions, every hour on the hour, in three different locations. . . and 12 more workshops on Sunday. Aside from the expected basic and advanced classes, some popular repeats from last year were Club Pick-ups (Stuart Celarier), Unicycle (Rob Brown), Plate Manipulation (Rhys Thomas), Lariat (David Lichtenstein), Contact Juggling Oames Ernest), Physical Theater (Rudi Galindo), Baton Oill Westover), and Show-&-Tell. New workshops were the 3-ball panel Oack Kalvan, Rick Rubenstein, Steve Mills, and Neil Stammer!), Unstable Platforms (Rhys Thomas and Cliff Spenger), One-Handed Juggling & Multiplexing (Dale Jones), Club Flourishes (Chris Baer), and Clubs with Movement (Cindy Marvel).

I was most impressed by how Baer, Marvel, Galindo, and Neil Stammer in a devil sticks workshop all emphasized many of the same things: continuing the flow of movement, establishing a pace or style, extending the line of the body, and other dance-oriented concepts. I particularly enjoyed Cindy's class (it was the first time she had tried it) where everyone learned a rou­tine that she demonstrated, showing not only what to do, but telling why it was done that way and to what effect. If no one mentioned it to her then, I'd like to say now that it was a brilliant piece of work.

The Saturday night public show, billed as "The Juggling and Vaudeville Extravaganza," was a sellout, with more than 500 people filling the Reed College Commons. Sight lines were not great (from the third row and back, the performers had no feet), but the show made up for any inconvenience. The Checkerboard Guy (Dave Aiken) hosted, and had a running gag between sets with Mildred Hodiddle (Tash Wesp), which culminated with Mildred spinning a ball on her nipple. The evening was filled out with a sketch by Clockwork, Cindy Marvel doing several lovely pieces with exotic equipment, Dale Jones doing a six-ball multiplex and child intimidation bit, Rob Brown on (and off) a unicycle, Ben Schoenberg with a musical spatial-relations act, Mag Hughes and Dan Fogel doing a reprise of their frisbee mania, Kenny Schultz doing multibag foot-juggling, Rudy Galindo in an astounding mimed history of the Chinese experience of migration and integration in America, Jill Westover keeping three or more batons in the air, and finally, the Mills Family and family dog being a one-family-circus.

Sunday afternoon the Ben Linder Memorial Award was given to Rhys Thomas. Each year the winner is chosen from attendee ballots for the most inspirational juggler at the festival. Ben Linder was a Portland juggler who took his unicycle, clubs, and engineering skills to Nicaragua to help build a small hydroelectric system with a group of peasant farmers. He was killed by Contras while sitting beside a stream, making sketches of plans in his notebook. A portion of the receipts from each festival go to the Ben Linder Fund, which will help to complete the dam this year.

By late afternoon everyone was tired, and I was ready to go home. But the last event of the Festival was The 3-Egg Enduro, and because it was my idea, I had to stay. The rules were quite simple: Start juggling with as many eggs as you want. When you have fewer than three eggs unbroken, you are eliminated (and may then contribute your remaining eggs to someone else's pattern, wardrobe, or hairstyle). The last person left with three eggs in the air wins. I was one of the first to be egged out, but then I egged on several of my friends. Out of a beginning field of about 30, our winner, world champion, and Defender of the Upper Left Coast, was Ben Schoenberg: un-egged and unbeaten. . . 'til next year!

My only other significant contribution to the '94 Portland Juggling Festival was to introduce Elliot (The Plunger Guy) Cutler to the delights of a pastrami sandwich with Terminator stout. (Well, it was meaningful to him.) And the best contact juggling tricks I saw were a two-handed eight-ball flat palm-circle, and a one-handed four-ball two-over fold, both effortlessly demonstrated by Jack Kalvan. I still can't do them, but at least I know they can be done.

Will there be a 1995 PJF? Yes! So plan on joining us!

Eric Bagai is a member of the "No Problem, Easy Pickup Portland Jugglers," a book and magazine publisher, and antique computer hacker. He first saw contact juggling at the 1987 Isla Vista Festival, and has been obsessed ever since. [Websters 3rd Intl: contact

juggling v. from: Australian rules, full contact juggling].