MONDO HLGCBS CAPS LOCK
Bekah.Smith
MONDO fest, as well as my second time performing at the MONDO public show.
The whole weekend was a blast, and the festival was very well run (I'm
thinking that's the standard for these guys...they're pros!). These were
my highlights:
High:
- Seeing a relatively large Kansas contingency make it to a far-away
fest...w00t!
- The car rides there and back and with the Kansas caravan were a
blast...some people have a way of making anything fun, even normal road
signs.
- Performing in the public show! It was a new routine that was waaayyy
different than anything I've done before, so I was a little nervous about
it. But it went over well (flawless execution!), and the audience at the
show was wonderful!
- The huge hug Kevin gave me during intermission. :)
- Being together with Ryan and Tio in mischief once again, and teaching
them the Wally-Walk.
- Getting to actually juggle again, and seeing some of my tricks and
patterns come back to me. Along with this was doing the best I've ever
done in 5-ball endurance (still not close to the 10+ minute craziness that
ensues at fests, but I'm still proud of myself!)
- Playing on the casterboard thingy! weeeeEEEEeeee!!!
- Playing on the huge pile of mats with fun people...double
weeeEEEeeeEEEEeeee!!!!!!! oh crap, weren't supposed to play on
those....ooops.
- Playing combat, even though one kid seemed to be passionate about
getting me out by any means possible. He got me out a lot, but it was
still a blast!
Low:
- Boulder, CO is really far away from St. Paul, MN...and I don't think
I quite understood that when we set off. Lack of sleep during the weekend
and on the way home caused me to get sick. :(
- No one from St. Louis came... :( I know, you had a gig....I'm still
sad.
Goal:
- To do a good job in the public show...yay!
- Have fun...YAY!
- To get some unicycling in, even though I couldn't bring mine...crap,
fail.
Crush:
- Kevin McBeth. He made the whole trip possible for a lot of us,
including letting a bazillion people crash at his place...and he put a lot
of energy into making the festival great this year. Seriously, I can't
even express how awesome he is.
- Kat...because she's a blast, has tons of energy, and is adorable.
- Matt Hall. You rock.
- Warren. Because he's the most adorable of them all...and he made a
huge effort to spend time working with me and others at the festival and
being awesome in general.
Bane:
- Coming up with something for this section is going to be hard,
because it was a really awesome festival...a great venue, great
organizers, everything. I do wish that they had an organized
Saturday-night party...but open juggling until 2 am is a pretty awesome
alternative.
Surprise:
- The audience got our routine and liked it! score!
- TIO!
- Very little juggling in the public show. I liked that, it was just
surprising
That's all (I think)! See you guys next year!
- beKAH!
--
----== posted via www.jugglingdb.com ==----
Kevin McBeth
OMIGOD, the group that plans the convention.
Highs
- Dave Walbridge's comedy writing workshop. He's a fantastic teacher, and
it's something I've never exposed myself to. It was particularly
interesting to see how he related everything we discussed in the workshop
to things that happened in the show the previous night.
- Peter Kaseman attending my Introduction to 6 Ball Juggling workshop and
saying he found it useful.
- Bekah and Warren's routine. All I can say is that their imagery and
gracefulness left me in tears.
- Watching Superior Juggling
(http://juggling.tv/vaults/view_video.php?viewkey=e97f97846693611f98c1) on
the big screen TV with surround sound and seeing people's reactions
(particularly Warren's).
- Matt Hall's Machine Workshop and the advice he gave me on my own
workshop.
- The Danger Committee's routine. I saw them have a bad night at a
full-length stage performance a couple months earlier, and it was
relieving to see them be great. Mick catching the first throwing knife
thrown at him and Jay catching the second was absolutely awesome (during
the bad night it took them well in excess of 20 tries each). The standing
ovation they received was easily deserved.
- A preliminary count of over 600 festival attendees and a sold out show.
Lows
- One of the 11 people at my place getting sick. It was his first
juggling festival too.
- I was incapable of successfully juggling on Saturday. During the
hour-long warmup before teaching my Introduction to 6 Ball Juggling
workshop, I qualified 6 balls once. Ugh.
- The show. It was a great show, but by MONDO standards it seemed a bit
weak. I couldn't see what was going on with the Hula Hoopist (since it
was a glow in the dark act and I was in the very back), there was a bit
too much unicycling for me (2 big group acts and one duo act), the Tuvan
throat singing act was way too long and weird (too much not-throat singing
stuff), and Bob Nickerson's routine seemed to fall flat with the audience.
I love Bob, but things just weren't working that night.
- St. Louis having the guts to work a paying gig instead of coming to
MONDO... (We still love you guys. ;-))
- Only having half an hour for games on Saturday, and Sunday's games not
going so hot. I've got a lot of notes for ways to make them...what was
it? Oh yeah, fun.
Goals
- Film my first juggling video (nope)
- Campaign a bit for IJA Board of Directors (check)
- Have business cards ready for IJA Board of Directors campaigning (nope)
- Teach the Introduction to 6 Ball Juggling Workshop (check)
- Work out the stack of Shamrock variations we've compiled (sort of check)
Crushes
- Warren and Bekah's big red ball
- Luke Emery for teaching me a ton of great 2 person 7 club stuff.
- The 11 people who stayed at my place for making both the convention and
the time at home really enjoyable.
- Old Chicago for being able to handle the 16 people we arrived with on a
Saturday evening without reservations.
- Chad Lunders for the tasty beef jerky.
- Everyone else in OMIGOD (Omnipotent MONDO Instigators, Gurus,
Organizers, and Directors) for helping me survive my first convention as
part of the planning group and dealing with my complete inability to
actually handle anything. :-)
Banes
- The exhaustion that comes from helping run a fest and hosting lots of
people. I missed part of work Monday and Tuesday to catch up with sleep.
- 4-6 inches (10-15 cm for those of you in countries with sane measurement
systems) of snow falling Friday night. One Club Horse just isn't the same
without Warren and the Kansas jugglers (they were delayed because of the
snow and arrived safely an hour or two late). It also made the drive back
to my condo take about 45 minutes instead of 20.
Surprises
- Bekah and Warren's routine. Jerry Martin said they had sent him a video
and told him not to tell me about the routine. Frankly, if that's what
happens when friends conspire behind my back, I hope they do it all the
time.
- Tio being able to make it.
- Little Wooden Torches by Jerry Martin now available. They're a great
complement to his Little Wooden Clubs (www.littlewoodenclubs.com).
I look forward to MONDO XXI being even bigger and better.
-Kevin McBeth
Ryan.Bradburn
up the etiquette*mumble**kick self**trip,fall down stairs*
nick....@gmail.com
-Having the convention 15 minutes from my house
-Having an excuse to practice for 10+ hours.
-Matt Halls club multiplex workshop
-Tought my very own workshop for the first time ever. It went alot
better (and different) than I thought it would and I got alot of good
compliments on it.
-I'm looking forward to seeing some 3d video footage that Chad Lunders
took.
-I got my club combat fix that I was missing from Madfest.
-11 club gorilla feeding with luke and steve
-Getting back my copy of the Road Warrior from TJ's uncle.
Lows -
-The sneak attack by the snow.
-Staying up to late to get to the gym as early as I'd have liked.
-A few mondo regulars did not make it this year and it felt a little
empty at times.
-Finding out the Road Warrior DVD was not in its case.
Goals-
Teach a workshop (success)
Teach the workshop how to club dribble so I can see tons of people
look ridiculous (I forgot)
Learn something (success)
Crush-
Matt Hall because I kept wanting to ask him questions about multiplex
stuff and I'm amazed by the amount of technical know how the man has.
Bane-
Back aches , head aches , knee aches and hunger pains. All the result
of practicing juggling to long and without breaks (not a bad thing)
I wanted to make this longer but my lunch break is up. It'll have to
do.
Kevin for President.
Nick Laffey
rsy...@gmail.com
Highs: learning new ten club feed patterns, my cousin coming to the
show and enjoying it (she stopped by Madfest last month and was
intrigued by the idea that jugglers actually got together on a regular
basis for festivals), Melonhead's cookies
Lows: not feeling one hundred percent Saturday morning, not getting
around to unicycling
Goals: juggle a lot (check), go to the workshop to learn cool three
club tricks (check), find new props to purchase (fail)
Crush: hula-hoop girl in the show (Jessica Bessette, she must have
incredible abs)
Banes: the physical exhaustion that always seems to come before I'm
actually ready to stop juggling for the night, the microphones in the
show, the glow-in-the-dark unicycle act
Surprises: ten people staying with me (it worked out even though most
of them arrived in cars not staying with me), Warren and Bekah coming
all the way from CO
~Rebecca
Warren Hammond
fault, so, here goes :)
Highs
-Performing in the Saturday night show. I was worried that people might
not “get it” (another crawling across the stage for those of you who know
what I'm talking about), but the crowd thought it was funny and I really
enjoyed performing the piece. Thanks to Bekah for writing a great
introduction and to Jerry for reading it so well.
-Being adopted by Kansas jugglers! At first I was resistant to it
(proclaiming my Coloradoness), but eventually I gave in, they're a great
group of people and really make conventions a blast.
-Teaching a small group of people my 5 ball/club warm up and having it so
well received.
-Seeing Laura again! It had been quite a while.
-Meeting Bob Nickerson. He's an incredibly nice guy and a lot of fun to
talk to.
-Meeting Robin Chestnut. Really good juggler and a cool guy too. Hope to
see him at more fests.
-Nailing a transition from 8 club 1 count asynch to synch with Bekah.
First time I'd thrown the transition into that. It's a lot of fun.
-Having a relatively pain-free weekend as far as my shoulder and neck are
concerned.
-Devil Stick workshop. Got a lot of great advice and some new trick ideas.
-Diving into mats!
-Kevin's recital in his apartment Sunday morning. I love the piano (even
though I'm not too good at it anymore), and had heard he's quite good.
It's true!
-Hot Sauce!
-Juggling with Laffey. Always good times.
-Learning how to play chinese chess. Thanks Ryan!
Lows
-Snow Friday night. We got there after the 1 club horse game!!! That
made me very sad. It was also rough driving back to Kevin's place. I'm
very happy I bought new tires right before we left, or we may not have
made it to MONDO at all.
-No St. Louis! :(
-The days of recovery after the fest. We drove 15 hours to get there and
15 hours back, on the way back we drove straight through...this resulted
in some serious sleep schedule adjustments and alliteration.
-Missing out on old chicago with friends. The tech run for the show was
WAY behind.
-Not getting to juggle with Stefan nearly as much as I would have liked.
Him and his passing partner Ben eerily come up with many of the same
tricks (or indistinguishably close to the same tricks) as Jeff and I do.
It's always cool to see what he's working on.
Goals
-To do double and triples for about 10 minutes (check!!! it was so
relaxing).
-To help Tio do a 5 ball 5 up pirouette (check, though he didn't quite get
it, he definitely improved).
-To come up with something new, at least to me (check, neat little wrist
trappy-trick)
-To do well in the show (check)
Crushes
-Kevin McBeth. He let about infinity of us crash at his apartment, showed
“Superior Juggling” on his big screen, played piano for us, helped run the
fest, and he's running for IJA Board (hooray!!!)
-The Danger Committee. They were the highlight of the show in my opinion.
Truly entertaining, even to a juggling audience.
-Matt Hall. Dude, you always give me new tricks or help me with ones I
already do. Seriously man, I'd pay for you to be at any convention I go
to. Rock on.
-Bekah Smith. For sharing me this weekend, all but dragging me to MONDO
(there were so many technical factors making good cases for not going),
performing with me in the show, rocking out some great passing tricks and
being a blast :)
-Kat Girdaukus. For joining us in our diving into mat games. Its those
little moments you don't expect at conventions that really make them
unique and awesome. I imagine (scratch that, I know) we looked
ridiculous, but it was so much fun.
-The gas station right outside the gym. You kept me fed with pretty good
(for gas station, excluding sheetz) food most of the weekend!
Surprise
-How much people liked what Bekah and I did in the show.
-Tio came!
-Gremlins.
Can't wait for next year's! Thanks everyone who made it possible and a
lot of fun.
-Warren Hammond
dnaygs
>
> This fest deserves more HLGCBS's than its gotten! This is partially my
> fault, so, here goes :)
>
> Highs
> -Performing in the Saturday night show. I was worried that people might
> not “get it” (another crawling across the stage for those of you who know
> what I'm talking about)
DUUUUUUUUDE!!!!!!!!!! Anything remotely similar to crawling across the
stage (AKA the greatest piece of choreography in the history of ever) has
got to be amazing!!!
Bekah.Smith
> -Learning how to play chinese chess. Thanks Ryan!
>
Dude, Shogi is Japanese! Where is Ryan?? He would be ashamed.
Bekah.Smith
Award!!!
Matt Hall
wrote:
>
> Crush:
> - Kevin McBeth. He made the whole trip possible for a lot of us,
> including letting a bazillion people crash at his place...and he put a lot
> of energy into making the festival great this year. Seriously, I can't
> even express how awesome he is.
> - Kat...because she's a blast, has tons of energy, and is adorable.
> - Matt Hall. You rock.
You are too kind. LIke I said on Facebook, your act with Warren
(together with the Danger Committee) was the best act of the Public
Show BY FAR. I freakin' loved it.
matt
Matt Hall
wrote:
> This was my 7th MONDO (1995-1999, 2008-2009) and my first MONDO as part of
> OMIGOD, the group that plans the convention.
>
> Highs
> - Dave Walbridge's comedy writing workshop. He's a fantastic teacher, and
> it's something I've never exposed myself to. It was particularly
> interesting to see how he related everything we discussed in the workshop
> to things that happened in the show the previous night.
> - Peter Kaseman attending my Introduction to 6 Ball Juggling workshop and
> saying he found it useful.
> - Bekah and Warren's routine. All I can say is that their imagery and
> gracefulness left me in tears.
> - Watching Superior Juggling
> (http://juggling.tv/vaults/view_video.php?viewkey=e97f97846693611f98c1) on
> the big screen TV with surround sound and seeing people's reactions
> (particularly Warren's).
> - Matt Hall's Machine Workshop and the advice he gave me on my own
> workshop.
Thanks for that Kevin. As a fellow workshop teacher you might be
interested to know that I have taught the Machine workshop three
times. Each time it gets better, and I learn more about how to
sequence the tricks and scaffold beginning learners up to higher
levels of performance. Heck, I even learned a new variation from
Myron Pauls! What I am trying to say here is that you want to keep
teaching your workshops again and again. It gets better with
participant feedback, introspection, and practice. =)
matt
Matt Hall
> Highs -
> -Having the convention 15 minutes from my house
> -Having an excuse to practice for 10+ hours.
> -Matt Halls club multiplex workshop
Thanks. Actually, that was the first time I've taught that workshop,
and it needs a lot of work. It might be worth it to teach it as a 4
club only workshop, seeing as we didn't even get CLOSE to doing the 5
club section. I'm considering teaching just the 4 club variations and
tacking the 5 club ones on as a final demo section or something. Your
thoughts?
> -Tought my very own workshop for the first time ever. It went alot
> better (and different) than I thought it would and I got alot of good
> compliments on it.
I heard your workshop rocked. I wish I was there!
> Crush-
> Matt Hall because I kept wanting to ask him questions about multiplex
> stuff and I'm amazed by the amount of technical know how the man has.
Thanks Nick. I'm really standing on the shoulders of giants like Jay
Gilligan, Luke Wilson, Sean Blue, and Will Murray when it comes to
club multiplexes. Those guys have forgotten more tricks than I'll
ever master...
matt
Matt Hall
Hammond) wrote:
>
> Crushes
> -Kevin McBeth. He let about infinity of us crash at his apartment, showed
> “Superior Juggling” on his big screen, played piano for us, helped run the
> fest, and he's running for IJA Board (hooray!!!)
> -The Danger Committee. They were the highlight of the show in my opinion.
> Truly entertaining, even to a juggling audience.
> -Matt Hall. Dude, you always give me new tricks or help me with ones I
> already do. Seriously man, I'd pay for you to be at any convention I go
> to. Rock on.
Thanks Warren. The fest was a blast and you/Bekah rocked the house
Saturday night. As for paying for me to be at any convention....well,
that's kind of the idea, eh? ;)
Hope to see you again soon my friend,
matt
Kevin McBeth
>
> Ohhhh!!!! I forgot to mention in my original post that Kevin got The
> Award!!!
>
I feel so special. :: tear ::