Scottish Juggling Convention 2007 Review by Steve Thomson Photographs Public Show Review Back to Conventions Homepage

Review from Steve Thomson

PUBLIC SHOW: See the show review page

TO PURCHASE BEACH FLINGO, PLEASE VISIT MISC JUGGLING EQUIPMENT PAGE - PRICE is £10.00

The Ceilidh seemed to go well. Rerr Terr are a good Ceilidh band. There was always a packed room when I looked in, but I was far happier to practice juggling in the downstairs hall. I found a group of people from Aberdeen Street Entertainers Club trying to play keepy uppy using their shirts, and so I introduced them to Beach Flingo which we thoroughly enjoyed playing for large parts of the weekend!

Renegade

Only one Renegade this year, and I signed up to be the opening act! Sarah Bizkup was the compere and did an excellent job.

• Songs Mix Routine: I had planned on doing my Songs Mix routine last year (which I wrote especially for the StAnza Scottish Poetry Festival as it mixes words and movement), but couldn’t find a tape player, so it was a year late in premiering at a Juggling Convention! It was well received.
• Snooker Ball Joke: I read a joke a while back which involved snooker balls, and I managed to come up with a way of telling it while juggling 5 balls, and it went down well also!
• My Favourite Act was Miles doing a Cigar box routine using 2 cigar boxes and a balloon! Ingenious!

Jonathan Root congratulated me after the renegade for my routines. This was particularly pleasing as I had attended a Team Rootberry comedy workshop a few years ago and Jonathan has e-mailed me loads of comedy notes afterwards! Marco Bonissimo posted on rec.juggling “I had to laugh a lot seeing the first act at the renegade.” so I am very happy and enthused to develop some more routines for future renegades!

Haggis World Record

• The 5 haggis world record is now 41.4 secs as set by Luke Burrage
• The 4 haggis world record remains 1m 31secs as set by Tempei
• The 3 haggis world record is now 14m 12secs as set jointly by Luke Burrage and Bill Berry.

For the 3 haggis endurance, I managed to last until the final 4 jugglers this time round, but dropped at around the 5.5min mark!

Juggling Games / Raffle

Raffle could have been done at the same time as the 3 haggis endurance just to keep things flowing a little smoother. It would also have been more appreciated if we got to quickly pick our raffle prizes instead of being handed items as it meant that most people received something that they weren’t keen on getting! I got a set of absolute rings from Beard, but as I sell them in my online store, they were just added to stock - thanks Beard! Allen won a set of DX Balls which I would have been able to choose way before his number had been called!

Summary

A big well done to the hard working team behind this years convention! The only downside to the convention was the lack of space at the Science Centre. Many people have commented that they would be quite happy to just stay at the Kinning Park complex all day and everything could possibly happen there? I would personally prefer to use Science Centre during the day if a deal can be arranged where we can get a decent amount of space as in previous years!

I feel encouraged by the response to my renegade acts this year, so I plan on coming up with some new material to perform next year! Another great convention, and a great chance to meet up with old friends and make some new friends also! Bring on next year – wherever the venue may be!