Jugglers Plow Through Weather For Groundhog Fest

BY BILL GIDUZ

 

Light snow and ice shut down the city of Atlanta over Groundhog's Day weekend, leaving juggling as the only game in town that wasn't canceled. More than 60 jugglers managed to get into town before an East Coast storm closed the airport and made travel impossible from points north.

 

Despite the weather outside, the gym was well heated and events proceeded according to the regular festival schedule. Saturday afternoon's competitions were preceded by the usual wacky marching antics of the Seed &: Feed Marching Band. A panel of three non­judges watched six acts, then decided that Joann Swaim was "Most Amazing," Steve Athern was "Most Stupendous" and Jimmy Robertson was "Most Incredible." The judges gave a special creativity award to the seven members of Emory's Amazing Throwing Up Society (EATUS) for their ensemble work. Other entrants were Mark Peachock and Richard Kennison.

 

Swaim and Athern were attending their first Groundhog Fest. Swaim, who was combining the trip with some visits to prospective colleges, stuck with ball juggling. She showed off a four ball on one foot kickup start, a lot of multiplex and triplex throws, five balls and a seven ball flash. She and her father, Bob, were also happy to pass around nice photos taken of Joann taken during filming of her recent appearance on the "Mr. Rogers Neighborhood" TV show.

 

Athern, who has polished his act with summer work at Six Flags and Hershey Park, demonstrated some highly technical juggling and multiple prop work. For his finale, he lay on an antipodist table, spun hoops around both legs, balanced a spinning plate on a stick in his mouth and juggled three machetes. This senior at Rutgers University in New Jersey has been juggling since age 8, but gave it up for about six years before beginning serious training again in 1993. He said he enjoys breaking complex tricks down into their component parts, and is working now on balancing four poles at once.

 

Robertson won his first "Phil" trophy, though he and his partner, Todd Blair, have entered several previous competitions. "I'll put it on my trophy case with my trees from Charlotte, flamingos from Tallahassee and IJA gold from Vermont," he vowed. (He and Blair won numbers club passing in the IJA arena in 1994.)

 

In this solo effort in Atlanta, however, Robertson demonstrated some athletic ball and club tricks and highly skilled unicycle riding. Robertson lives in Atlanta doing computer work, and performs occasionally in a show with some rhythmic gymnasts. He and Blair plan to work for the sixth summer in a row at Kings Dominion theme park in Virginia.

 

Other notable names in Atlanta this year included Bruce Sarafian, one of only

two people in the world with a certified flash of 11 balls. He claimed in Atlanta to be close to achieving 12! He and Rob Vancko were both thrilled to be doing seven ball take­aways with each other, having never done the trick before. Vancko was also enjoying passing nine clubs with Steve Otteson, and both found that a double­spin self throw was making the pattern a lot slower and easier. Fred Stremple and Fran Favorini were seated in chairs in the lobby facing each other, bouncing 12 balls back and forth. The balls bounced twice traveling from man to man, creating a beautiful industrial­looking pattern.

 

Sarafians partner, Todd Kay, led off the public show on Sunday with a clown routine, and Neil Stammer closed it with his lightning-fast manipulation of three balls and a long staff. Between those two, festival co-founder Rodger French showed the most enduring lesson from his Navy days by conducting a spelling lesson with semaphor flags, Captain Mike Heidtman did some magic tricks, Mark Peachock and Rob Vancko passed clubs, and the Atlanta Jugglers Association gave festival co-founder Toni Shifalo a "Mouse" award for unexplained cool-headed heroics the previous evening.