Glasgow Face Painting and Juggling Convention
Convention Revue (by Graham Benson)
I don't think I'm the person to write this, but I
will attempt to give an
unbiased view of the weekend. If you were at the convention
please feel
free to add your experience to this.
For me the Friday started by the arrival of one of
the acts Peter and
Jochen. Next task was putting up the signs to help
you get to the venue.
During this I got a phone call from the security,
they had turned up early
to do a recky. "Graham there are some people
putting up a tent at the hall"
they said "I think they're Scandinavian".
As I was in the area I went to
investigate. It was three Germans that had turned
up on an early flight.
They had decided to pitch a tent on the waste ground
opposite the hall to
keep out the snow. I offered them the choice of coming
back to my place or
they could put the tent up in the wee garden of the
hall. They moved the
tent to the garden. I later got two phone calls about
them, one was to check
who they were the other was a neighbour suggesting
we should let them in
before they froze to death.
By 6.30 pm people had started to arrive. The music
was on, the coffee was
made and we started to just chat and do a little juggling.
This laid back
feeling was to continue throughout the weekend. Some
went off to the
off-licence and brought in their carry outs, others
enjoyed the tea, coffee
and biscuits put out by the organisers. The second
of the star acts
arrived, Max. When he had settled in, Max, Peter and
myself did some
passing. I learnt a new trick so I was happy with
the juggling side of the
convention.
As the night, sorry morning, got later some were
thinking of sleeping
places. Gandalf was keen on there being a music off
time. I asked every one
to shout when the wanted the music off: 2 am, 3 am,
4 am, 5 am, 6 am - no
one wanted the music off so I left it to the last
one standing to turn it
off. Gandalf decided to head back to my house to sleep.
The three acts
found a spot on top of a large cupboard to sleep.
They put down the crash
mats and turned it into the pent house. (they were
offered a bed). I left to
get some sleep.
Saturday morning I returned to find bodies and beer
cans littered all around
the hall. The security told me it was 7 am before
they settled. All the
juggling workshops planned for the morning just never
happened. The face
painters had their work shops planned to the second
and somehow stuck to it.
Bread ,toast and jam was available to all the people
in the hall to get them
started (as well as the tea and coffee). The hall
gradually got cleared of
the rubbish and bodies. And people made their way
up to halls 1,2 and 3 to
find the juggling space and traders. A tight rope
was set up in the work
shop hall. Some in our club now want one for us to
keep. Work shops then
started to happen but in a very informal way.
4 pm the 24 hour hall was cleared to set it up for
the show and give the
acts a practice before the evenings event. To change
the hall I had made a
large saltier for a back drop. The sound man set up
his equipment and went
off to get the lights. The other halls were cleared
about 6.30 is for a 7 pm
start to the show. The show went well with only one
or two technical
hitches, sound man not returning with his lights until
the show had started,
and the fuse blowing in the interval.
 I was asked to do the comparing, and did some magic
between each act. The
acts conceded of a mixture of local jugglers, conventioneers
and the two
acts brought up with the assistance of New Circus
Initiative. The show
opened with Jock and Geordie from Stirling doing an
escapology act. Geordie
handcuffed and chained was put into the double duvet
of death. He was given
3 minutes to escape or he would be pummelled to death
by a wee girl with a
pillow. To make it more dangerous a teddy bear with
a flatulence problem
was put in the duvet as well. The next act was a young
lady of 13 (looked
17-18ish) called Zoë in a body stocking painted
in u.v paint dancing to
Michel Jackson. The paint on her was in an underwater
motif and was the
result of the body painting workshop given by Rick
Mills (the green man)
earlier that day. This was followed by Andy, a Glasgow
juggler doing some
contact juggling. I was told something about a flag
in the ball, but from
were I was I could not see it. Later I saw the video
and wow there was a
reflection of the saltier in the crystal rolling up
and down his arms. The
penultimate act of the first half was the Geogedeini
Diablo Project. George
from Stirling performed a very lively act with his
Diablo concluding with
throwing up two Diablo's skipping then catching them.
I know he was worried
about the height of the ceiling , but he pulled it
off first time. The
first half was drawn to a conclusion with a double
act doing some simple
passing and ending with knocking out a cigarette from
the victims mouth. Oh!
that was me and Charles.
The second half was opened by Bridget and Andy club/poi
swinging to some
ravy type music. One of the agents present was so
impressed they approached
Bridget to see if they could use her for some bookings.
This was followed by
another Glasgow act Jamie with a funky devil stick
routine. He had a bit of
a problem with the sound track at the start so everyone
started to sing "if
your happy" until the music started to play.
Light were dropped for the
next act Charles and his glow in the dark balls. This
superb routine was
performed to "It can only get better". Well
it did, the next act was Peter
and Jochen form Bristol with a very slick bouncing
ball routine and a table.
The show was brought to an end with Max up from London.
He started his act
with some contact juggling then broke into ball juggling.
The whole routine
flowed with a mixture of dance and acrobatics. The
show turned out better
than I had expected but you should read the opinions
of others who were
there.
Between the show and dancing we had a raffle. Every
one got a strip of
tickets for coming. And those who helped got extra
strips. The raffle was
drawn by Gandolf, all prizes were donated by, Beards,
Wind Things, Tactical
Magic, Crosslands Bar, the local Indian take a way,
Fuzzy, Val, and the
convention's only t shirt.
We brought the very full day to a close with a ceilidh.
The band Rerr Terr
set up and started to play. The first dance the Gay
Gordon's was a couples
dance. The passes for the convention were playing
cards two sets were used
one for the blokes one for the girls. You had to find
you partner card for
the first dance. This got the jigging of to a fine
start and went on till 2
am. In the middle we had a haggis supper (yes all
the haggis was eaten and
we even had veggie haggis). I staggered home not long
after the ceilidh
ended.
On the Sunday the campers in the 24 hr hall woke
to the smell of bacon
frying and coffee wasping though the hall. "Anyone
want bacon rolls" shouted
Marie and heads popped out of sleeping bags, Sunday
breakfast was enjoyed
with the Sunday papers. The jelly forgotten from last
night was even put
out, and the lot scoffed. The jugglers made there
way up to the halls
juggled some workshops were done, but I don't know
how many. At 3 pm the
games and haggis juggling took place in the 24 hr
hall. Charles got two of
the records and Stefan from Germany got one. (They
are posted on the web
site)
The convention did not have the feel of a convention,
it was more like, a
laid back party. Thanks to all that made it so.
Fed up typing I hope to have the web sorted out with
photos, it may be a
couple of weeks but keep checking. And see you next
year at the Scottish.
Graham Benson
Scottish Juggling Conventions
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