Page 25 Fall 1995
While
only the elite dare enter the championships,
Games
director Scott Slesnick added three new contests this year that caught
the popular fancy. In "club gathering," contestants grabbed
clubs out of the air as they were passed with double spins in an even
cadence from a feeder. Whoever could hold the most clubs-cradled under
an arm, pinned between legs or held between teeth-before dropping one
was the winner. The numbers went higher and higher as people learned
from the mistakes of others, and Alex Karvounis finally topped
everyone by holding 40 clubs before dropping!
The
other two new games were "Three Ball Simon Says" in which
the moderator called on entrants to exercise all sorts of body
contortions and juggling tricks, and "Balloon Dog Races"
which tested foot speed, hand quickness and lung power.
In possibly the most outstanding performance of the day, last year's IJA champion Tony Duncan kept three balls going in a cascade with his eyes closed for 5:07, even after other competitors in the "Three Ball Blind" competition pressed close and kidded him to try to make him drop! Yo-yo aficionados occupied one end of the juggling hall, and ended up crowing Bill deBoisblanc as winner of the top division at the end of about three hours of competitions. (See accompanying list for complete Games results.)
Numbers
jugglers competed on Thursday, the final day of the' festival, and
followed new rules that successfully speeded up the
While
the winners made the headlines, most of the fun for folks was in
seeing new people and old friends among the 575 registered jugglers on
the festival floor. Or in not seeing them in the black-light darkness
of the "Glowing Experience" room, which was illuminated on
several occasions for people to try out their day-glow and fluorescent
props.
Or
swapping tales about the occasionally irreverent and hilarious
routines on the Club Renegade Stage. Many audience favorites who
didn't appear publicly elsewhere during the festival did make at least
a cameo appearance at Club Renegade, including Butterfly Man, Graeme
Ellis, Frank Olivier, Henrik Bothe and David Deeble, who won the
"Dan Holzman Sound-Alike Contest." The Passing Zone did a
routine which parodied "only |
The Karvounis Brothers as "Doubble Troubble" passign from a high perch in the Cascade show (Calzar "The Great Ballini" photo) |
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![]() P.J. Kelly mixing his juggling media (Bill Giduz photo) |
![]() Seeing jugglers doubled - Nick and Alex Karvounis with Becky and Laura Provance (Bill Giduz photo) |