A professorial looking character, glasses on his head and calculator on his belt, without flash or pizzazz comes to center stage and begins speaking. "Hello, and welcome to the second semester of Advanced Analysis 402, section one.  I am Elliot Cutler."

 

Shortly, the conventional looking professor pulls out a conventional looking plunger and proceeds to dazzle the audience (his class) with an amazing demonstration of plunger flips, slips, tip taps, stick stops, heel hops, hops and catches.   This is accompanied by a calm and unrelentingly detailed explanation of each move, all of which had apparently been covered last term. The class is also given detailed instructions as to the proper (fun) etiquette of what to say in the event of a particular plunger catch, or drop, as the case may be. The class follows the plunger closely through its paces, shouting their responses until they fairly shake with positive reinforcement.

 

The plunger routine has been performed at a number of regional festivals and at IJA festivals. At the 1992 Montreal IJA festival, Elliot received the Peop!e's Choice Award and Wild Style Award.  He and his plunger were featured in the Public Show. A portion of his act, including the flaming plunger at Club Renegade, can be seen on the Montreal Highlights Video. You can also catch his act on the most recent Portland Juggling Festival video.

 

Elliot's act is a character  piece.  For jugglers, it's a case study in making the most with the least and how to develop a characte and performance appropriate for one's personality.

 

JW: Elliot, can you tell us how you came up with you unique plunger act?

EC: Well, I had been doing the plunger, that is, practicing the moves, since 1976, within a few months of when I learned to juggle. Up to that point I had been doing magic, restaurant close-up primarily, and later with a plunger hanging from my belt.

 

The plunger in the restaurant was not appreciated by the management. I didn't have an "act" for the plunger other than to demonstrate it and talk about the language used to describe it, which is rather amusing. I ran through it on Renegade in Baltimore that way.

 

JW: Just a dry bland demonstration?

EC:-Thanks, yes, no character or entertainment value beyond so called technical "mastery."  I had also shown it off at my first juggling festival, the Illinois Juggler's Spring Fling, a few years before. I felt terrible at first because all those people were so good!  So I put down my homemade clubs, picked up my plunger started to plunge while I thought about packing it up and leaving.

 

JW: A lot of us know the feeling! Buy what happened then? 

EC: Well, I  looked up and there was a small crowd around me.  I said "Hi" and one of them said "Hi, wha tthe hell are you doing?"  "Oh, this? It's just a plunger..."

 

JW: How did you begin to develop the professor character?

EC: A few years ago I met a juggler who couldn't tell me enough about the importance of developing a performance character, and you know what? He was right! Up to that point I had been "just" a magic / juggler guy. I started thinking about what kind  of character I could be playing.  The key point that I didn't realize was that it is essential that the character be a familiar one to you, not a big stretch beyond your abilities. 

 

Then I took some improvisation  classes. Jugglers, it turns out, are adept at handling invisible objects. The improv was also great practice for entertaining. You are faced with the prospect of "being entertaining" without props to hide behind. You are forced to develop stage presence apart from your technical abilities. Through the people I met there, I was asked if I could come up with a juggling act for a show  some people were planning for a rather strange location.

 

JW: Strange in what way?

EC: Their act was a rather adult puppet show presented in a sort of punk / performance art bar. I decided I'd write the character for that audience and that location and try to make a real act out of my demonstration.

 

JW: So you made a punk plunger man? .

EC: Brash, loud, rude, like that, but the same technical language, just abusive.  Not my  character at all. I knew if I came out and started with "Good evening ladies and germs" etc. etc..that I'd probably wake up in the parking lot without my pants...

 

JW: And the plunger taking your temperature.      

EC:  Thanks.

 

JW: How long did you keep that character?

EC: A friend of mine watched the show and told me that the character had to go. I had been so nervous and preoccupied with learning the bit that the character hadn't really occurred to me. I had done character for that audience, no for myself. I trimmed the bit until only the character of the intensely interested verbose, and accurate proffesor remained.  It's enough that I can improvise during the act when I feel like I have to.

 

JW: Where did the professor character really come from?

EC: In school, I majored in mathematics and took other sciences so I've got a lot of experience with teachers and technical subjects and how it feels to be on the receiving end of a blindingly accurate lecture.

 

JW: How did the act come together once you had the character picked out?

EC:  That was the best thing about it.  Once the character is fixed, then the tricks and appropriate lines are much easier. You can look at all the tricks you can do and say, "these fit and these don't fit yet."

 

JW: How can a trick be made to fit a character?

EC: You create a theatrical / context (i.e. an excuse) in which you can use the prop, motion, or whatever. You eventually come up with a reason why your character would do the trick, or action Ieading to the trick. In each case, a trick is either the character's goal or else something unexpected that happens along the way.

 

JW: Why so you use such complicated language in your show?

EC: I decided early on that I would take all the descriptions as physically and mechanically accurate as I could.  With my background, that was easy.  Since I would be playing to mostly adult audiences, many of them would understand some of it. And, it plays as double talk to those who don't. I get people coming up afterwards telling me that they were thinking all through the act, "keep It up, keep it up, don't  stop!" They

don't expect technical talk to be amusing and don't think I can maintain it.