BY CONAL MULLEN

 

Jugglers have carved a happy niche over the years among a variety of strong street acts at Edmonton's annual Street Performers Festival. The festival is one of the most successful in North America, and virtually grew up on good juggling shows.

 

Producer Dick Finkel balanced the mix of acts for the tenth anniversary edition, which was held for 11 days in mid-July in Alberta, Canada. Its 52 acts included mimes, magicians, clowns, musicians, dancers, singers, acrobats, and, for the first time, a female impersonator!

"But jugglers still predominate the street scene," said Rick Lewis, a Vancouver-based performer who drew massive crowds with his 12-foot unicycle.

 

It seems, though, that acrobats might be closing the gap. "I used to refer to myself as the token acrobat," said Dan Looker, a regular from Connecticut. "Now they're falling out of the woodwork. It was great to see quality stuff drawn from different parts of the world."

 

One hot show this year was Le La Les from England. After a spot of torch juggling, chair balancing and comedy acrobatics, Mark Digby stripped down to a loin cloth and dived through a flaming hoop. Partner Ali Houiellebecq belted out frenzied music as their act moved from dignified concerto to total chaos.

 

Peter Boulanger and Ninon Parent brought a new twist to acrobatics with a 7­1/2-foot tall "tesseract." The device, made from three aluminum poles in star formation, looks like the framework of a tepee. The pair balanced and performed on the moveable structure.

 

While acrobats like Razz and Pino of the Pickle Family Circus helped bring balance, there was also a great lineup of musicians, such as Hokum W Jeebs from Seattle, with his piano on wheels, the Easy Ts from Winnipeg and Vancouver's Arrogant Worms.

 

In respect to jugglers, Sean Grissom, an animated cello player from New York, performed a slick juggling manipulation with his bow before he played. "When Dick Finkel calls, you come," said Grissom. "Churchill Square is like his 'field of dreams.'"

 

Other jugglers taking part this year included Ned Kelly with his renowned cigar box routine, Tash Wesp and her zany character, Mildred Hodiddle, Jonathan Park, who kicks cups and saucers to a stack on his head, and Al Shakespeare with Cindy Day.

 

Also juggling were Canadians Nikolai and Young Raoul. Vancouverite Michael Wolski juggled three fake mice during his clown/cat show. Members of the Edmonton Juggling Club taught an hour­long juggling work­shop for five evenings of the fest, and Tony Montanaro, founder and artistic director of Celebration Barn Theatre in Maine, taught a professional development workshop.

 

Performers without exception said the festival is tops for the way it treats people. "Other festivals say 'Over there,' and that's it," said Baffle-O Bill Smith of the World Emergency Circus, "but the street performer is treated like a star here."

 

The Butterfly Man, Robert Nelson, said Finkle has followed a critical key to success by making little things important. This year performers were housed at the Hilton Hotel and treated like royalty with free yummies and beer. Finkel said volunteers do their best for performers.

 

The festival was developed slowly, step­by-step, he said. This year was one of the

most successful, with estimated crowds of 160,000, despite four rainy days. While no one complained about the donations they collected in hats after street shows, some performers noted that having as many as seven circles running at a time in Churchill Square was too many.

 

Stilt performer Craig Stokes, just back from a three-year stint in Japan, said he was encouraged by the hats and amazed by the generosity of Edmonton audiences. 'They really appreciate you getting up there and doing it," he said.

 

Jim Cellini, a master street performer and magician, was highly popular. An American based in Switzerland, Cellini held the crowd riveted with his unique comedy presentations of such classics as "professor's nightmare" and cups and balls. The Antebodies, Australian mimes Nani McMullin and Wayne Condo, performed a romantic story about a doll that gets involved with an audience member.

 

"We don't juggle or anything," said Alex Dallas of Sensible Footwear, a singing trio from England now resident in Canada. Instead, they've developed a popular feminist singing style that has become too risque for the streets. This year, they moved indoors for an adult-only show. "It's great that there are so many diverse people at this festival," said Dallas. "We've watched people over a few years here get­ting better and better."

 

One homegrown talent is Kate "The Great" Hull, a juggler and actor who highlights such bizarre and original acts as "lying on a bed of males" in her nightdress.

 

Almost everyone spoke of the strong camaraderie between performers who play Edmonton. "It's like a convention of old friends," said physical comedian Tom "Murph" Murphy, who has played the festival since the beginning.

 

"This is by far the most performer­friendly festival in the world," said mime Owen Anderson. "Everyone wants to perform with each other. Usually at street performers festivals, everyone wants to look out for themselves."

 

Two who teamed up were jugglers Laura Green and Mardene Rubio of Variety in Motion. They joined forces after Mardene, who was doing a solo show, injured her arm early in the proceedings.

 

In fact, all performers joined forces in the sun one afternoon to stage a water ballet in the pool outside city hall. The "synchronized" swim team later passed hats to collect for magician Gaao, who missed the festival because of illness.