REVIEWS

 

Books

A Life in the Balance: A Professional Juggler and Comic's Story of Surviving Cancer with Laughter and a Passion for Living. By Scott Burton. An Inconvenience Production, 202 pp. $12 paperback. Order from the author at Minneapolis MN.

 

After reading a passage in Scott Burton's A Life in the Balance where the author has a laugh at the expense of an hospital intern who seems shocked that patients sometimes say "Hi," I paused and thought that author Scott Burton must have been quite a handful during his bout with cancer.

 

And then I thought, "Well, good for him!"

 

This book is about a man's battle with cancer, and especially the effects that the disease - and modern treatments for it ­have on one's mindset. When Burton, who competed in the 1991 IJA championships, is diagnosed with bone cancer in his right thigh, he goes through the common cycles of denial and acceptance. But through the entire experience, the comic and juggler tries to remain master of his life, if not of the disease, by retaining a sense of humor.

 

His approach to the disease changes through the book. At first, having heard that chemotherapy patients go bald - and not realizing that condition is not limited to the head - Burton declares that if he starts to lose his hair, he will shave his head and grow a beard. But as his fight progresses, he realizes that he is not going to be the first person not to experience side effects. And he succeeds in seeing the humor in that as well - after losing most of the hair on his head and body, he jokes that he no longer qualifies as a mammal and will have to apply for amphibian status. Both responses are consistent with a rebelliousness of spirit and an insistence on keeping control of his life that are the main theme of the book.

 

A Life in the Balance gives a fairly detailed account of the year the author

spends facing his diagnosis and treatment. While much of the text focuses on his off­beat way of looking at the disease and the treatment experience, Burton seems honest in describing the pain that he and his family feel. When he tells stories of joyful moments between therapies when he is able to play with his three children, little details, like his son Matthew's fascination with the bright red hat he wears to cover his baldness, make the moment more real for the reader.

 

But sometimes his insistence on seeing humor in things seems forced.

He tells how, the night before his initial operation, his wife says she is afraid she will never see him again. He first admits, "the words caught me off guard ... what started as a quiet, simple time of thoughtfulness became a highly emotional moment."

 

Unfortunately, after showing a little of the pain he feels, he immediately jumps into a description of how a melodramatic Hollywood production would present the moment. This doesn't read like an immediate response and may leave the reader wondering how much of the real moment he has seen.

 

But Burton has the comic's ability to see and tell the truth. His unconventional approach to battling cancer can provide a relevant model to approaching the many adversities one faces in life.

 

And, in many ways that is his point ­ not to focus on a particular disease or problem, but to accept adversities and to keep one's spirit. He best expresses his philosophy in the introduction, when he writes, "Maybe it's not so important whether we cure cancer or not. It seems as if there will always be another disease to take its place - AIDS, diabetes, heart disease, and there are new ones being discovered every day. Maybe an even worse disease is the fear of cancer, the fear of any disease, the fear not of death, but of life."

 

More than a story about one man's approach to cancer, A Life in the Balance is about the importance of humor and the human spirit. And in that, this book is an interesting look into facing life's difficulties.

by Scott Malone

 

Workshop

"Juggling Intensive with Michael Menes"

Michael Menes is an American variety artist and teacher. His "intensive" workshop aims to help jugglers build their work to the level of a "masterpiece." I was one of 14 people enrolled in his workshop at Madrid's Carampa Circus. He also offers the workshop each summer at Celebration Barn Theatre in Maine.

Instead of the usual juggling technique, we were taught performance and presentation. Over the 25 hours, Menes encouraged us to focus on the premise of our piece so that the audience can quickly understand the scene. That emphasis proved equally valuable for different performance styles and levels of experience.

Every day we warmed up with yoga and the isolation of body movements. Then followed group work on such topics as atmosphere and expanding our repertoire of movements. There was also time for individual instruction and scene studies. Menes said the greater range of skills we have to draw from, the better. Fundamentally though, he said clarity of intention and characterization is what can most improve a juggling piece.

 

Since we all had plenty of ideas, he urged us to choose by listening to our intuition, and by building on personal experiences and strengths. In our group, the student's premises for juggling pieces ranged from simply "sharing" the skills to being a sorcerer, story teller or leading a funeral procession!

 

Menes said the audience remembers all the information it is given and must believe in a real character and situation. Entertainers must understand what the people watching are feeling. In critiques of pieces, he often pointed out that scenes were too busy and overly technical. He said that by simplifying an act and convince ourselves of our ideas, we could produce artistry.

by Anna Semlyen

 

Video

The Acts of Venice Beach. By GMTM Entertainment. 56 minutes. $23 includes shipping from: GMTM Ent., Santa Monica CA.

 

Comedy juggler Chad Taylor brought together a dozen performers who got their start on the Venice Beach Boardwalk, and created this tape from a stage performance by these entertainers in a celebration of Venice's 90th anniversary. It was taped before a live audience outdoors at the Venice Pavilion.

 

Taylore produced the video, and appears in it as emcee to introduce the acts and in performance chainsaw juggling and eating the apple on a giraffe unicycle.

 

Juggling is not a focus of the video, but takes its place in the context of street per­formance through juggling acts by Taylor, Sean and Dave (machete and torches around a volunteer), Mickey O'Connor (three orange juggling), and Chester Cable (antipodism). It's not an instructional tape by any means, but jugglers will enjoy seeing other acts that qualify as street performance. They include dancing, drumming, stand-up comedy, pratfalls, fire eating, escapes, walking on broken glass and comic impressions. There's also a few minutes of a swimsuit competition in which the posers all demonstrate wacky auxiliary skills.

 

It's fast-paced and well-produced, including computer graphics generated by juggler and IJA member Bob Mendelsohn. If you're tired of studying juggling videos frame-by-frame to learn new moves, gather your friends and some pizza and give the "pause" button a rest as you watch The Acts of Venice Beach.

by Bill Giduz

 

The 50th Anniversary International Jugglers Association Festival, 1997. Alan Plotkin Festival Productions in association with the International Jugglers Association. 1997. $30 from the IJA; Montague MA; Running time approx. 100 mins.

 

The official IJA festival video should be on your list of "must haves." Aside from tracking lots of new and rising jugglers currently performing, this video commemorates the history of the International Jugglers' Association in its 50th year.

 

Starting with outtakes from gym practices and lively background music, the video begins with lots of energy. Quickly following this we see footage from the European Showcase that seems to be a clubs extravaganza: Toon Scheurmans and Denis Paumier; Didier Andre; Fabian Bisbal; Denis Paumier; Ilka Licht and Luke Wilson. Finally it's Jorg Muller, the eventual People's Choice Awards winner, with his strange world of floating pipes.

 

Mark Faje is interviewed briefly, and then we see some of his comedy act. From there it's back to the gym for more shots of practice, practice, practice.

 

The 1997 winner of the Historical Achievement Award, Ernest Montego, demonstrates his spinning and balancing balls, followed by the presentation of the award.

 

The Juniors competition is exciting and documents the top three competitors: Rick Friscia (Bronze) with some fine ball, pin, and hoop action; Emile Carey (Silver) with control in ball patterns; and all of Adam Kariotis' Gold routine, featuring balls popping out of his briefcase; up to seven balls, seven hoops and five clubs, all done with style and speed.

 

What would a festival be without the unusual and the cutting edge? The next section has some kooky oddities, such as Edward Jackman balancing a bicycle on his head; Larry Vee on a pogo stick and six balls done in multiplex; and Ben Jennings demonstrating that he needs no visual acuity to do three balls behind his back and behind his head!

 

Jay Gilligan and David Deeble, two respected young masters, show off some of their acts, followed by a fine section of diabolo technique by many different participants. Unfortunately, none of the performers / demonstrators are credited here. That's unusual, since everything else on the tape is carefully and artistically credited.

 

Jon Held's tongue-in-cheek interview serves to introduce the Jon Held Dancers mysterious mid fanciful act with floating lights on a dark stage. Airjazz continues to explore even more unusual props and movement patterns in a piece that involves a rope, and a chair, a banana peel and some clubs. They run around wildly, the mess gets bigger, then more serious, then more dancing... Obviously, words fail here and you have to see it to get it!