Jugglingworld News No.4 -
Using Comedy in your Juggling Routines
August 2006
Welcome to all the new subscribers!
Apologies to all subscribers that it has taken 5
months since last newsletter! Life has been very
busy as you will see from the content of this newsletter!
MAIN ARTICLE - Using Comedy in your Juggling Routines
Many thanks to the fantastic Raspyni
Brothers who ran the workshop at the British Juggling
Convention way back in 2005, from which I took these
notes!
To use comedy in your juggling routines,
you need to build up your show from a solid framework/idea
what stunts are you going to do?
are you going to drop lots /
make mistakes?
Is the topic interesting?
Is the topic too common?
If you had a 5minute routine to perform
and had to describe it in just one sentence, how
compelling would it be? eg bowling ball under a
volunteers leg on a trampoline! Now that sounds
quite interesting!
Where are your comedy and danger
points?
What do the audience need to
know (the details)
When will you tell them (the
reveal)
Any moments of surprise?
Give the audience a specific goal
such as how long a trick will last (so they do not
think that the trick is going to last forever and
turn their attentions elsewhere).
Ability
to Embellish
I
know how hard the trick is, but the audience
do not. If I say something is impossible, and
act like it is impossible, then it looks impossible!
Comedy
Comes from Information
Base
the comedy on the routine and don't just shoehorn
any jokes in for the sake of humour.
Wordplay
The
prop you intend to use... what does it sound
like? What words rhyme with it? Think of common
phrases that incorporate these words or slogans,
popular culture (song titles etc)
What
could go wrong?
Embellish
this! Describe in detail.
Template
of Questions
Creating
a template of questions to ask clients in advance
of a gig, may help you find out some useful
jokes and vital details about your audience
that can be incorporated into the act.
Environment
Look
at the environment you will be performing in.
Any humour to be found there? Did something
happen to the previous acts or earlier on in
the night (shared humourous experience) that
could be joked about?
Off
the Cuff Remarks
Write
down your off the cuff improvised remarks if
they get a laugh. Use them in your next shows
if appropriate!
I hope that you have found these notes
useful. I also have lots of comedy tips from other
comedy jugglers such as the excellent Team Rootberry
who have in particular been very helpful in improving
my comedy input into my routines! Let me know if
you would like some more comedy information and
I can e-mail some more notes to you. If you have
any thoughts on comedy and juggling, then please
let me know also!
Juggling Store News
60 new products added since last newsletter
came out! The juggling store continues to grow from
strength to strength, and many new sections of products
have also been added such as:
YOHO Products - Last month, I
received my first batch of juggling products from
a company called Yoho. The products are sets of
juggling balls, diabolo, devilstick (called yoho
spinstix), poi and LED Poi. Each product is very
reasonably priced and comes with a CD-ROM full of
movies to help you learn lots of tricks. You can
find my Yoho page
here.
FAIRTRADE: I managed to find a
fairtrade hackysack, which has replaced the hackysacks
I used to sell. 85p from the sale of each fairtrade
hackysack goes straight to Toybox Toybox Charity
Crafts who help street children in Latin America.
View Fairtrade
Hackysack
FIRE PRODUCTS SURVEY: I have had
quite a few e-mails lately suggesting that I should
add a fire products section to the juggling store.
Is this something that would interest you? Would
you be likely to visit the page and consider purchasing
fire products? If you can let me know your thoughts,
then I will look into this idea a lot more!
Juggling News
Over the summer months I have performed
and ran workshops all over Scotland in places such
as Inverness, Portsoy, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Orkney,
Cowdenbeath, Selkirk, Galashiels, Jedburgh, Stirling,
Falkirk, Clackmannanshire, Aberdeen and many more!
Orkney At the start of June, my wife and I headed
to Orkney where I had been hired by Orkney Presbytery
(group of churches) to run workshops and perform
gospel juggling shows. We were flown onto some of
the smaller islands such as Papa Westray and Westray,
and ferried around to other places, and had a great
time. We spent 3 days working, and then had 3 days
as a holiday. Orkney is beautiful. The people are
so friendly. Life is so different and much less
hectic on the Islands, and it is good to get away
from it all for a while! View
Orkney Photos here.
British Juggling Convention in Cornwall at Easter-time
was fantastic. Photos and reviews are here -->
BJC
2006
European Juggling Convention in County Cork, Ireland
this summer was fantastic! Rachel (my wife) and
I had a great week. The locals were the most friendly
we have ever seen at a European Convention, and
the Millstreet venue was ideal. Next year is in
Sunny Greece, so I am sure there will be many more
people attending! I plan to add a photos and review
section to the website soon!
G
A
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E
S
A
N
D
P
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Z
Z
L
E
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TOP TIP - Some Drop Lines!
Yell "LOOK AT THAT" and point to
the back of the room. As the audience turn round,
quickly pick up the prop and continue juggling.
Bend down to pick up the prop and say "THIS
ACT IS PICKING UP".
"I am an optimist. I still have two left..."
"You want to see the instant replay?"
(then drop another one)
Point at the dropped object, in a firm confident
voice say "STAY" and then continue
juggling with 1 less object.
Pull out a large book with the words how to
juggle printed on it. Read a few pages and say
"oh, so that is how it is done". Put
away the book and continue juggling. If you
drop again, then pick up the book, rip up a
page inside, and stomp up and down on it angrily.
"STAY BACK!!!! They're dangerous when
they're wounded "
If you have any tricks you would like to add
to my tricks pages, then please send them in!
I can give you full credit, and you can be helping
others to learn even more juggling moves. Everyone's
a winner!
If you like this newsletter...
then please forward it to other
people or send them to my mailing list page
and encourage them to sign up! Many thanks!
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