Portland Boasts Reputation as Biggest and Best

by JAG

 

What can be said about the largest regional festival in the Western United States! Well, I would like to start by thanking Eric Bagai and the "No Problem, Easy Pickup" jugglers for organizing it, and Reed College for hosting it.

 

Orange Jugglers Steve and Michelle Gerdes, Jeff Daymont, Chuck Fernald and myself were on hand for the'event last April. Jeff gets the added recognition of being recruited as one of the headlining acts for the public show. He did his ten box stacking routine, and then a comedy routine with a volunteer in which he juggled machetes on a rola-bola.

 

While I'm on the subject of the public show, I might as well tell you about it. It was emceed by Rhys Thomas, a Portland local who apparently has quit his day job. He was very funny, and even juggled a little between sets, including a nice combination trick with a paddle ball, spinning ring on leg, spinning ball on mouths tick, and two balls juggled.

 

Other acts included "Shoehorn," a guy who can tap dance as well as any I've seen. He also plays an alto sax blues solo better than most guys I know, and I've played the saxophone myself for 17 years! He can also put the two together into a one man band that has to be seen and heard to believe!

 

David Brittain, "The Kite Guy," invented the new sport of indoor kite flying, which is truly a sight to behold. He manipulated both a single stunt kite, and then a five-level stunt kite up and down the theater, up to the ceiling and down to just barely skimming the heads of the audience. He finished by knocking a can off the top of Animal's head. (Animal is the wild man with a shaved head who hosted the Renegade show and has shown more of his body to the juggling community than anyone cares to remember)

 

The Mud Bay Jugglers did a wonderful routine from an Italian restaurant. There are four of them: a customer, the cook, the waiter, and the maitre'd. They enact an engaging scene without dialogue in which they manipulate a wine bottle, pass clubs, and do an amazing walkaround steal that includes three people sharing the customer's jacket while maintaining a passing pattern.

 

Jason Garfield made an impressive display of sheer glitzy juggling talent. Backcrosses and pirouettes galore, with ridiculous numbers of props... Karen Quest did trick roping and whip cracking, dressed up like a real cowgirl. Next was wanna-be cowboy turned unicycle-boy, Rob Brown, with impressive riding combined with a long, amusing western adventure story.

 

My personal favorite was Ochen Kaylan's diabolo routine. He has a unique style which employs an extremely short string and very quick movements. His Chinese whip style of accelerating the diabolo reminds me of an old man playing a banjo. (This was accentuated by the straw hat he occasionally wore during the convention.) His final trick was a double suicide, in which he swings the handstick around twice - not to be confused with Donald Grant's "duicide," in which he lets go of both handsticks. Ochen only lets go of one, but this trick is twice as hard - trust me!