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Yale Fest Revels in Cox Cage

by Don Scott

Once again the folks from the Yale AntiGravity Society and the Suspended Animation Juggling Club put together a very credible juggling festival. Fran Favorini and his crew deserve a "Big Toss-Up" for the effort they put out so all of us jugglers could goof off while they work and sweat out the details!

One of my favorite parts about the Yale fest is the venue. Cox Cage is a very cool place to juggle. Basically it is an indoor track field with a 70-foot ceiling. It's made with brick and has about 60 % coverage by windows - including the roof. So you can watch the sea gulls try sliding around as they try to land on the roof in the spare moments your brain finds as your attempts at seven balls fall apart. It's also fun to try to crash your diabolo into the rafters and contemplate the potential of smashed glass raining down after the ultimate high toss!

Also, the floor is a neat rubbery surface painted like the dirt and grass of a track. I want to put this stuff throughout my house because it's perfect for dropping juggling props without fear of smashing them to bits.

The workshops were a major improvement over last year, well-scheduled and plentiful. Mike Howden did a fine job as coordinator of the effort. They included "Stupid Human Tricks," "Siteswaps," "Learn the Diabolo," "Devilstick" and "Three Club Tricks." I heard the club passing workshop was quite large but I missed that one. Rob Peck gave a workshop on hat manipulation, but I got called away to teach a beginner two diabolo workshop. Jay Gilligan taught "Unicycle Tricks." Fran, Greg Strempel and Rob Peck gave a good bounce juggling workshop where we all tried to be graceful while chasing our balls around.

Segue to the show - "A Juggling Extravaganza" - for just $5! Mr. Juggling Capitol, Neil Stammer, emceed the show. His refusal to write up his bio for the show program and request for the audience to write one for him (for a chance at a $50 gift certificate) gave him some good comic material. As it turned out, Neil gave the gift certificate to some kid who was celebrating his 18th birthday that day. As Neil said, he made up the rules so he could change them!

Charlie Peachock did his club act. He juggles clubs like a Vegas juggler without making it seem cheesy because he's soooo good. Name a club trick and he did it - three through five - finishing with five club back crosses with his back to the audience. His "little" brother Mark did a ball juggling act that was prone to a few drops, then these guys did their passing routine from the IJA championships. Blink did one of their "spinning flashlights in the fog pieces" with the dry ice and strobe lights. Shana Miller did a graceful trapeze piece, and Rob and Linda Peck did a three ball, hat swapping and vest swapping act.

Ben Jennings from London juggled and posed with balls. He did a few tricks, then went to some neat balance pose with a lighting change. Cool images!

Tony Duncan's style of manipulating three to five silicones around and around in his hands and balancing them on his head is simply stunning! He must have one (or two) great dents in his head! Tony finished his act with the famous "tricks I can't do because I haven't worked on them for more than five years" routine. This guy is amazing. Case in point... He holds a four-inch stage ball in a head balance, drops it over his shoulder, kicks it up with his foot, and catches it balanced on his nose! Who cares if it took a few tries. He did it!

For me the star of the show was Greg Kennedy. He retired his "Orthogonal" piece for a cool new piece called "Quadrilithe." He had the bottom half of a cube (one comer down) with two sides made of wood and the two facing the audience made of glass or plastic. He bounced four balls within this structure in true Greg Kennedy style, but without the grungy music and fog, even a smile now and then.

Also, Greg and Ben Jennings did a performance art type of thing called "Gestalt" with a big collection of dowels that were hinged together so that they could open and close this huge geometric contraption in different shapes while walking around in it. Then Greg did his "Hemisphere" routine that won the 1996 IJA championships. An image of the routine was projected above him by a rear projection camera, as opposed to the mirror as in Rapid City.

After the show we all went back to Cox for some more juggling, a raffle and a Renegade show. Renegade was pretty cool on the whole. Otto "the" Mann did his routine from Pittsburgh, Greg and Ben did a funny "travel" version of their dowel piece. Ben wore the thing over his shoulders for most of the evening, looking sort of like a long-haired football player. A juggler from Spain did a spirited club juggling act that was interpreted humorously by Sky King. Whenever he dropped he would do thumb"rolls with both hands, alternately waving them up and down. So that became the drop response from the audience for the rest of the evening.

The games on Sunday were plentiful. The big hit was Jenn Lanski's idea - Wet Soap Juggling. Take three bars of soap, dunk in a bucket of water, and juggle! The most catches wins. Mark Peachock won that one with 29 catches.

Other winners were: Five Ball Endurance - Bill Pierce (2:24); Club Gathering

- Morty Hanson with 38; Diabolo High Toss - Geoff Way (3.71 sec.); Three Balls Blind- Allen Knutson (2:52); Five Club Endurance - Charlie Peachock (1 :09); Devil Stick Combat - AI Moniz; Club Balance Simon Says - Ben Jennings; Four Quarter Endurance -Mark Peachock (25 sec.); Seven Ball Endurance - Morty Hansen (14 sec.); and Three Ball Simon Says - Charlie Peachock. Club Combat went several rounds, and winners were Chuck Hawley, Charlie Peachock, Greg Kennedy, Mark Peachock and Bill Parks.

All in all it was a great fest. The t-shirts continued the theme of a cut-away drawing of a nuclear powered, nerd fantasy, juggling prop - the "Yale Copernican Massively Parallel Omni-Directional Spherical Projectile." ("Ball" to the un-nerdy.) Many thanks and congratulations to the folks at Yale and the performers in the show. Nice job, guys!