Scottish Juggling and Face Painting Convention 2005
The Public Show
Britta was compere this year. She did
a good job, and held the show together well. Due to
various things happening in the buildup to the convention,
some of the acts that have done the same routines
for the past few years at this show weren't present.
This resulted in a much more original show thankfully!
The Public show was at 3pm in the Science Centre.
It is normally at night-time in a venue where we have
to catch the subway, so it was good having it so near.
It was well attended by the public who could watch
for free.
My review comes first, then Graham Bensons
is at the end of this page also.
1)
IAN
(FIDDLE PLAYER)
He was good,
but after one song, we weren’t prepared
for him to launch into another 5 minutes!
2)
GRAHAM
BENSON:
Dressed as Britney, performing
club juggling and swinging. It was definitely
a sight to behold, and his 2 daughters were
so embarrassed! - Excellent stuff.
3)
DAVE
BARNES
Diabolo on a string routine.
Something different and unexpected and enjoyable.
4)
RUTH
“Mein Herr”
Sock Poi Routine – The highlight of the
whole show (once again) was the lovely Ruth,
who danced and swung sock poi in an excellently
choreographed routine to a song from the Musical
‘Cabaret’
5)
SURFING
PENGUIN
Excellent once again from
John, with good accompaniment by Ian the Fiddler.
6)
FABULOUS
KRAPROBAT BROTHERS
Entertaining and anarchic.
Good to see this act finally!
7)
BASKETBALL
JONES
basketball manipulation
act, ending on a giraffe unicycle juggling 3
balls. entertaining.
8)
MARIE
BENSON
singing 2 fantastic songs.
So if you ever want to find out if the wee girl
ever found her red yo-yo with the yellow string,
or how the choirboy ended up in bed with the
vicar, then book her fast!
9)
ROB
(tePooka)
Contact Juggling Routine
– I don’t normally like contact
juggling much, but this was a routine that Rob
showed some of us at a STREETNET workshop last
year, when he showed us how we could develop
our own routines to music, so it was good to
see the full performance piece!
10)
2
ACROBAT GUYS
Funny and
entertaining
11)
DANCING
The Couple who did their
dancing.
12)
CHRIS
AND IDA
Seen this act at Circomedia
Showcase last year. Very entertaining and
moving and playful.
13)
PASCAL
(HIP HOP HATS)
Seen this act at Circomedia
Showcase last year. Very entertaining.
14)
LUKE
BURRAGE
still annoyingly better
than most jugglers at everything, but still
fantastic to watch!
15)
DONALD
GRANT
another fantastic diabolo
show from “Mr Diabolo”
16)
MATT
HALL
this years top guest produced
2 awesome acts as the finale. These were brand
new, and went down a storm. Fantastic guy
made a lot of friends at this convention and
constantly wowed us all with his skills.
G
A
M
E
S
A
N
D
P
U
Z
Z
L
E
S
SUMMARY: An excellent
show, different from all previous ones due to
venue (no UV available due to bright daylight
shining into the atrium for instance!) and lineup.
Well done everyone! My personal favourite routines
were Ruth's Sock poi, and Matt Hall.
Graham Bensons Review of the show
At 3pm it was show time and we this
year we had a top line-up: we started with Ian
playing a couple of Scottish tunes on the fiddle,
then Graham surprised us all with an unusual Britney
Spears impersonation followed by Dave with his
Diabolo on a string routine. Ruth from Glasgow
Juggling Club performed a stunning poi Cabaret
routine. After her the Surfing Penguin from Aberdeen
came on stage
with his Italian flag throwing routine supported
by Ian on the fiddle. The Kraprobat Brothers -
Artur and Artur - followed with a comedy acrobalance-juggling
act. The first half of the show finished with
Basketball Jones from New Zealand performing an
amazing basketball juggling act on a giraffe unicycle.
After a short intermission the show
continued with Marie Benson singing three Scottish
songs. Then Rob from TePooka entered the stage
with a very slick contact juggling routine. Ian
Henderson from Edinburgh and Herve followed with
`Glasgow Rendevous', a well choreographed acrobalance
act. Thereafter Ida and Christoffer from Sweden
performed a very emotional club-passing and -swinging
routine. Next on centre stage was Luke Burrage
- do we need to say more? His act illustrated
undoubtedly why he is Britains most innovative
juggler and left the audience awe-struck. Then
we had Pascal Joern from Switzerland with his
fabulous and extremely dynamic `Hip hop hats'
routine. Second last on the bill was our own Scottish
Donald Grand with a variation of his famous Diabolo
routine. The Public Show closed with Matt Hall
from the USA who dedicated his act to his mentor
Donald Grand. Matt's Excalibur- Diabolo act was
the cherry on the cake and the conventioneers
as well as the numerous visitors gave him and
all the other acts of the show a standing ovation.
Thanks to Mayer for doing the sound
throughout the show.
