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So, I went to Primm. I'm not going to go into my somewhat unpleasant Travel Experience getting there, except to say that a bus which everyone says runs every hour shouldn't have been changed to every two hours the week before I get there. I was happier when I found another juggler (Jason Garfield- I think he juggles, anyway) waiting for the bus at Vacation Village. Made me feel at home to have someone to scowl at.
Primm was as isolated as I'd been led to believe and more so. There are three casinos in the not-a-town (no one lives there), all owned by the same company, which quickly explained why the night-time coffee shop menus all looked basically (but not exactly) the same. The casinos were as filled with smoke as casinos always are, the lines for the food places were long, the temperature outside was above 110 degrees every day of the festival, there are some serious political problems (in my opinion) with the organization, the juggling room's bad lighting was often supplemented with strobe lights from the life-safety system which was being tested during the finishing construction of the "outlet mall" which opened on thursday, attached to the casino. The food was mediocre and the staff was at times surly. Quite a few people I normally see at the summer fest weren't there.
I had a great time. The company I did have was great, the juggling was great, and at 5am being with a bunch of zoned out comedians at a bad 24 hr. coffee shop is really _exactly_ the right place to be, and that experience can even be enhanced by having to trek all over the place finding the one that's not being cleaned tonight. I can only hope that I added half as much to others' experience as they did to mine.
Because of the above referenced Travel Experience, I missed most of the opening night show, but I did catch the Russian Circus act on the rola bola, which was most impressive- all your standard rola bola tricks done with two people side by side- I expect we'll be seeing a still shot of the two men in yellow sport shirts standing on their hands on two tables stacked on a rola bola, with their ties dangling straight down, quite a bit. I wouldn't have guessed that a jazz-persona rola bola act could ever work, but it was great, and the finale', a 5-cylindar stack which seemed impossible when it looked like just one of the pair was going to do it, took the act just a bit further than I could have demanded.
Movie night wasn't disappointing... I wasn't expecting much, and got about that, and it's not at all clear where the IJA gets the copyright permission to do a paid ($5 tickets) public presentation of presumably protected television footage, though during it, i had a brief religious discussion with a unitarian, a lutheran, an atheist, and a mormon, with basically no disagreement at all.
The Official Injury of the 1998 IJA Festival was a dislocated left shoulder, suffered by David Hussey on sunday night (a fieldball injury, but don't let that dissuade you! most people hardly get hurt at all), and by Terry The Great (a performance injury, but don't let _that_ dissuade you either! these things are very rare).
Speaking of fieldball, this year's games were less intense, perhaps, than in years past, but a lot of fun nonetheless, and the game was introduced to quite a few people, including some from the 12-14 year old set, who have too much energy for anyone's good, and to Penn Jillette and Edward Jackman. This year I brought a dozen orange traffic safety vests, because I finally got tired of the team identifiers being "shirts" and "skins", since that sort of seems to maybe keep some genders of people from playing, or if they do play, always being on the same team, which for various reasons, mostly involving relative experience with the game, makes for unevenly skilled teams, which then leads to those on the "losing" side losing interest, since it's not much fun to play when the teams aren't at least sort of even. The vests also give the game some more visibility and respectability. That's my story, and I'm sticking to it. Anyway, the vests were a hit. Also introduced this year was Geriatric Fieldball, a variation which doesn't allow running or jumping, which allowed Owen "knee surgery" Morse and David "No, really, playing with one hand is a handicap" Hussey to play, along with quite a few others who don't have a great interest in fast runstop knee killing. New to the game this year included several 12-14 year olds (who DO have a great interest in fast runstop knee killing), Edward Jackman ("I like this a lot better than combat"), Penn Jillette, Martin Frost, and Craig Barnes.
The competitions Wednesday night were great. This year, the teams and individual competition order were mixed together, which helped to make a more interesting and varied show, and also meant that "Le Tourisk", the fantastically entertaining and winning teams act from Canada, was able to close the show to a sustained standing ovation. I'm not sure what to make of the one judge who was not only the sole dissenter against "Le Tourisk" receiving the gold, but who put them fourth among the teams. Nevertheless, several of the other teams did some great juggling and passing work. Jason Garfield and Dana Tison seemed very close for first and second place in individuals (Jason got the gold), while Brian Patz was clearly the bridesmaid.
On Thursday night, instead of the "traditional" public show (which is more or less what the opening night show was, instead), Tim Roberts, the juggling instructor at the Centre National des Arts du Cirque in France, brought over some of his students to perform, and if I said nothing else about them, I'd say that they certainly did _perform_. I was very impressed. And, in fact, I think I will say nothing else about them.
The public show was shorter (and tighter) than any of the shows earlier in the week, which meant there was a couple of hours of juggling before the gym cleared out for the "midnight show" (not a renegade stage), which is the traditional fieldball time, but since we heard that THIS TIME FOR SURE there'd be lights and sound, and since david deeble was MC'ing, and several good performers were going to be in it, we went and watched that show, which I believe was the right choice, even with the razorblade diabolo act in it. Terry The Great (I really don't know his last name) was given the Clubhead's "best dressed of the fest" award (last year it was a "best vest of the fest" award, so you can start trying to figure out another rhyme to try to win it next year). Peggy Reuss signed and danced to "Shadowboxer", by Fiona Apple, which was very beautiful. Katya Ignatov reprised her Sunday night performance (with similar results, I'm told). Jason Garfield did a comedy burly juggling act, which was going to be "tricks I shouldn't and didn't put in my competition act last night," but which he changed to, "tricks I shouldn't have put in my competition act last night." First place may be swell, but when you're Jason it's just not good enough. And finally, Sam [unpronounceable, much less spellable, Armenian last name] did his hat juggling, which is really cool.
So, I'm back home, wishing I could see people more than once a year, but looking forward to next year's IJA festival, no matter how lame it might be.