JuggleFest: Just a Big Room Full of Jugglers

I never feel like I can explain why JuggleFest is so much fun. Mostly it's just a bunch of people hanging around in a big room juggling. But I got someone to show me how to do a rope spinning trick, and learned some new contact juggling tricks to try...you can hardly avoid learning new things in that environment.

Jugglefest is this weekend

Jugglefest 2009, the big annual Austin juggling event, is here Friday through Sunday, on the UT campus. More info here.

Grandpa's Trunk show

My "Grandpa's Juggling Trunk" show is an exploration of the props and memories found in "Grandpa's" old trunk, the relic of his world-spanning career as a juggler.

From my beat-up trunk come an assortment of juggling props, each with a story that relates to Grandpa's travels around the world as a juggler.

I start the show by teaching the audience how to be an Amazing Aaron audience...when to count me off, when to applaud, and especially how to shout "That's Amazing" if I should drop something. I mean, you wouldn't want me to get embarrased.

This is silly and works like a charm. I now find that people I hardly know holler "That's Amazing" to me when I run into them on the street.

The prop routines neatly divide the show into chunks, so I can adjust the length of the show by adding or omitting routines. I start with a three-ball routine, and then perform the devil stick, followed by spinning plates and then clubs. Then I may do my Dice Box routine, a four-object juggling set using large rubber dice. Then I do cigar boxes (hey, I've got video of that), some audience participation tricks, and finish with a balance board act...juggling clubs while spinning a plate on a stick in my mouth, all while balancing on a board on a roller.

Each routine is two to three minutes long (the audience particpation takes longer), and the whole is about 30 minutes long.

I'm not currently using any sound amplification or lighting, so I can show up to a site, open the box, and get started right away. Before I get started, I lay out a rope line to let the audience know where they can sit and where they can't.

If you're interested in booking a show, go here.

Spin a plate on a knife?

I was trying to come up with knife tricks, and I thought of this one. A casual search doesn't reveal any references to it. If you've ever seen this done, spot me a comment, willya? 

Jugglefest is coming, February 20-22, 2009

The big annual Austin juggling event, Jugglefest 2009, is coming up fast. There will be a free public show on February 21. The festival itself runs the whole weekend long, on the UT campus. More info here.

Boar's Head pageant 1/10, 1/11/09

I found another way to use my renaissance costume this season. I got hired to juggle in the St. Albert the Great church epiphany pageant, called the Boar's Head pageant.

I don't think I've seen an event quite like this before. It' s not a play, precisely -- there's no narrative -- it's mostly about getting groups of people into costumes and having them parade around. This is in the grand tradition of church pageants, historically. But here it's accompanied by singing and music. They had a 25 piece orchestra, which was nice to see.

The pageant enacts the epiphany story, combined with a board's head feast. The costumes were amazing. There were so many people involved that it was a major feat of logistics: there were swiss guards, jesters, nobles, king and queen, the three visiting kings, angels, on and on and on.

The church has been doing this show for six years. Admission is free-but-please-donate.

I didn't think a middle school medieval feast would be a big deal

I didn't expect, when I went down to Hill Country Middle School to perform this morning, that nearly all the kids and a bunch of adults would be set up in elaborate Renaissance costumes.

On the way over there I started to worry, because the impression I'd gotten was that I'd be on a stage in the cafeteria, while the kids were eating, and I thought I was going to be up there alone for a full hour, and that it would be hard to interact with the kids since they'd be eating.

But because it WAS a chaotic cafeteria environment, I instead wandered from table to table, got right in the kids faces, and did my bit. It was a lot of fun.

They even had baskets of french bread on the tables, so I was able to break and juggle the bread, a favorite Madrigal Dinner trick of mine.