This was what the main gym looked like when transformed for the show. I was waaaaaaaaaay back. I've never understood why they never make the stage high enough. You just couldn't see everything that happened. If anything happened on the floor, everyone who wasn't on the front row craned their heads back to look at the video projector screen.
These were the comperes, I can't remember their names. They were alright, had lots of ideas. However, the chemistry between them was nonexistent. And they were highly annoying. The guy was like "Look at me! I'm fantastic! YEAH!!! and that's Gabi..." He actually said that, and the way he acted towards her was just the same.
The first act were called... um... I dunno, they did some acrobatic stuff. That's great if you love acro... I often find it tedious.
This guy did a long cigar box bit as well as some club juggling. His cigar box routine was fun and fast, with lots of tricks I'd never seen before. And his club juggling was nicely performed 3 club swinging and slow multiplex stuff. Very nice.
Some woman did a one woman band thing. Wasn't funny or clever. Unless you think playing penny whistles through your nose funny or clever, that was the highlight of the act. Pity.
Haggis did his hat routine. Again. "I get a kick outa you..." If I hear that music again I'm gonna scream. The problem is that the act is actually very good... I've just seen it lots.
A nice contact juggling routine that I couldn't see, due to him being too far off, wearing black and being covered in smoke. I heard it was quite good from those who could see it.
This 64 year old man got up on stage and did some tricks from 64 years ago. He won the prize for having most props in his act. All the tricks he did were big, gaudy and not very pleasant to watch, no matter how hard they were. Here is a picture of him doing Brunn's Classic Combination trick. Unfortunately he missed out the two rings spinning on his leg and only managed 4 catches of the 3 rings in his right hand. That is like saying you are going to try to jump 20 busses on a motor bike and then taking 18 of them away at the last minute. As a juggler, I was pretty disappointed in this overly vegas style act. Some people said he was keeping an old tradition alive, I say let it die. Or do it well. Or add something new to it.
These Ethiopian acro troup closed out the first half. I love their act, even though I've seen them loads before. High paced, fun and doing loads of cool shapes. They also added skipping and hat juggling to their act, which I've not seen them do before.
Toby Walker! I've no idea why they didn't put the best juggler on last, considering it was a juggling show. 5 clubs mills mess, continuous 5 club backcrosses, 7 clubs for some really long runs. You can't get much better than this. You can see him doing 5 club mills mess on the movie select page of this website.
Another cigar box act, doing exactly the same tircks as the firast cigar box act, just not so well. He dropped quite a bit and where the fist guy had excellent form, catching the boxes almost perfectly each time, this guy was a bit scrappy. He actually started his act with a backlit shadow screen thing, which was very clever. However, he didn't use it much and I was pretty annoyed when he came out from behind it and did a rather average act, rather than something special.
This was an act called something like Homo Erectus. A funny off the wall juggling act with silly props and silly costume and silly noises.
I want to see more acts like this.
Where as the previous act was homo erectus, these guys were deffinately Homo Erotica. Naked guys hugging each other and holding each other on a podium. Well, I was sitting next to Little Paul for the show, this was probably his favorite act... no idea why.
Two 'cellos on stage, one of them was played and the other was juggled. I loved the idea of live music to a juggling act but the tricks the juggler did didn't flow every well. I was impressed, it's just I think the act needed rebuilding into something stronger and more dynamic.
Somebody Brunn, a relation of Francis Brunn. She did a smooth trick cycling act with lots of riding round in circles. Apparently she is the first woman to perform a handstand on the handlebars while rolling circles, she was obviously excellent at what she did. And she smiled lots, which was strange for someone to do on that stage. And she fell quite badly near the end, which looked painful.
Take That Out were better at the British Juggling Convention Show. They dropped too much in this show.
You can't fault them though, they are pretty hot jugglers.
What did I think of the show over all? Not bad but not all that great either. I didn't like it when the organisers came up and danced on stage at the end, they should have got up before the performers and thanked then. Then the acts could have got back on stage for a final performance. As it was, most people had left their seats by the time the house lights came back up. It just left me with an impression of a sloppy show. Maybe I'm being too cynical. It was alright.
Right, I've heard that this guy did a 24 hour act.....
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