Glasgow reveue
Graham Benson
I don't think I'm the person to write this, but I will attempt to give an
unbiased view of the weekend. If you were at the convention please feel
free to add your experience to this.
For me the Friday started by the arrival of one of the acts Peter and
Jochen. Next task was putting up the signs to help you get to the venue.
During this I got a phone call from the security, they had turned up early
to do a recky. "Graham there are some people putting up a tent at the hall"
they said "I think they're Scandinavian". As I was in the area I went to
investigate. It was three Germans that had turned up on an early flight.
They had decided to pitch a tent on the waste ground opposite the hall to
keep out the snow. I offered them the choice of coming back to my place or
they could put the tent up in the wee garden of the hall. They moved the
tent to the garden. I later got two phone calls about them, one was to check
who they were the other was a neighbour suggesting we should let them in
before they froze to death.
By 6.30 pm people had started to arrive. The music was on, the coffee was
made and we started to just chat and do a little juggling. This laid back
feeling was to continue throughout the weekend. Some went off to the
off-licence and brought in their carry outs, others enjoyed the tea, coffee
and biscuits put out by the organisers. The second of the star acts
arrived, Max. When he had settled in, Max, Peter and myself did some
passing. I learnt a new trick so I was happy with the juggling side of the
convention.
As the night, sorry morning, got later some were thinking of sleeping
places. Gandalf was keen on there being a music off time. I asked every one
to shout when the wanted the music off: 2 am, 3 am, 4 am, 5 am, 6 am - no
one wanted the music off so I left it to the last one standing to turn it
off. Gandalf decided to head back to my house to sleep. The three acts
found a spot on top of a large cupboard to sleep. They put down the crash
mats and turned it into the pent house. (they were offered a bed). I left to
get some sleep.
Saturday morning I returned to find bodies and beer cans littered all around
the hall. The security told me it was 7 am before they settled. All the
juggling workshops planned for the morning just never happened. The face
painters had their work shops planned to the second and somehow stuck to it.
Bread ,toast and jam was available to all the people in the hall to get them
started (as well as the tea and coffee). The hall gradually got cleared of
the rubbish and bodies. And people made their way up to halls 1,2 and 3 to
find the juggling space and traders. A tight rope was set up in the work
shop hall. Some in our club now want one for us to keep. Work shops then
started to happen but in a very informal way.
4 pm the 24 hour hall was cleared to set it up for the show and give the
acts a practice before the evenings event. To change the hall I had made a
large saltier for a back drop. The sound man set up his equipment and went
off to get the lights. The other halls were cleared about 6.30 is for a 7 pm
start to the show. The show went well with only one or two technical
hitches, sound man not returning with his lights until the show had started,
and the fuse blowing in the interval.
I was asked to do the comparing, and did some magic between each act. The
acts conceded of a mixture of local jugglers, conventioneers and the two
acts brought up with the assistance of New Circus Initiative. The show
opened with Jock and Geordie from Stirling doing an escapology act. Geordie
handcuffed and chained was put into the double duvet of death. He was given
3 minutes to escape or he would be pummelled to death by a wee girl with a
pillow. To make it more dangerous a teddy bear with a flatulence problem
was put in the duvet as well. The next act was a young lady of 13 (looked
17-18ish) called Zoė in a body stocking painted in u.v paint dancing to
Michel Jackson. The paint on her was in an underwater motif and was the
result of the body painting workshop given by Rick Mills (the green man)
earlier that day. This was followed by Andy, a Glasgow juggler doing some
contact juggling. I was told something about a flag in the ball, but from
were I was I could not see it. Later I saw the video and wow there was a
reflection of the saltier in the crystal rolling up and down his arms. The
penultimate act of the first half was the Geogedeini Diablo Project. George
from Stirling performed a very lively act with his Diablo concluding with
throwing up two Diablo's skipping then catching them. I know he was worried
about the height of the ceiling , but he pulled it off first time. The
first half was drawn to a conclusion with a double act doing some simple
passing and ending with knocking out a cigarette from the victims mouth. Oh!
that was me and Charles.
The second half was opened by Bridget and Andy club/poi swinging to some
ravy type music. One of the agents present was so impressed they approached
Bridget to see if they could use her for some bookings. This was followed by
another Glasgow act Jamie with a funky devil stick routine. He had a bit of
a problem with the sound track at the start so everyone started to sing "if
your happy" until the music started to play. Light were dropped for the
next act Charles and his glow in the dark balls. This superb routine was
performed to "It can only get better". Well it did, the next act was Peter
and Jochen form Bristol with a very slick bouncing ball routine and a table.
The show was brought to an end with Max up from London. He started his act
with some contact juggling then broke into ball juggling. The whole routine
flowed with a mixture of dance and acrobatics. The show turned out better
than I had expected but you should read the opinions of others who were
there.
Between the show and dancing we had a raffle. Every one got a strip of
tickets for coming. And those who helped got extra strips. The raffle was
drawn by Gandolf, all prizes were donated by, Beards, Wind Things, Tactical
Magic, Crosslands Bar, the local Indian take a way, Fuzzy, Val, and the
convention's only t shirt.
We brought the very full day to a close with a ceilidh. The band Rerr Terr
set up and started to play. The first dance the Gay Gordon's was a couples
dance. The passes for the convention were playing cards two sets were used
one for the blokes one for the girls. You had to find you partner card for
the first dance. This got the jigging of to a fine start and went on till 2
am. In the middle we had a haggis supper (yes all the haggis was eaten and
we even had veggie haggis). I staggered home not long after the ceilidh
ended.
On the Sunday the campers in the 24 hr hall woke to the smell of bacon
frying and coffee wasping though the hall. "Anyone want bacon rolls" shouted
Marie and heads popped out of sleeping bags, Sunday breakfast was enjoyed
with the Sunday papers. The jelly forgotten from last night was even put
out, and the lot scoffed. The jugglers made there way up to the halls
juggled some workshops were done, but I don't know how many. At 3 pm the
games and haggis juggling took place in the 24 hr hall. Charles got two of
the records and Stefan from Germany got one. (They are posted on the web
site)
The convention did not have the feel of a convention, it was more like, a
laid back party. Thanks to all that made it so.
Fed up typing I hope to have the web sorted out with photos, it may be a
couple of weeks but keep checking. And see you next year at the Scottish.
Graham
Val
Hello, I am recovering slowly, risen to the clamour for info on the
weekend with these two emails. You did such a fantastic job, and folk
appreciated the weekend so much.
Thankyou, thankyou,
Val
Part 1
Friday Night
Glasgow was covered in a carpet of snow, coupled with the high winds it
made travel difficult.I arrived after sorting out the kids things at
about 8pm,(I had Caspar 15, Zoe 13, and Beth 9 with me) entered the hall
to find Dobby, Anne Arden, Emily,Rick, and Carole in the hall.
Brilliant, piles of hugging, and could not believe we were actually
there! I went into the main juggling hall, and just STARED, all these
guys doing totally amazing things with every type of juggling equipment
you could imagine. Never seen anything like it before. Tall, short,
smart, hippy, german, french, english... total variety. Eventually we
tore ourselves away to the Indian takeaway. Grabbing our brochure to get
the discount. We met Lorry and Kate from Tactical Magic enroute.10 mins
walk away we ordered and waited for the food. Took a wee while, so
grateful Anne brought the gin to keep the party spririt going. Back to
the hall, and sat and watched the show of all these guys doing their
bit. We yacked, ate food, we dug out the balloons and had a laugh with
them. The two sides blended pretty well :-) It was great for folk to
meet Graham Benson, and understand his "other side" in that he is an
artist, and sculptor, as well as a terrific performer. His appreciation
of GOOD, CREATIVE face painting is what pushed this idea forward.
Brilliant bloke. It was very, very late, certainly after 3am, when I
left the hall. My kids were welcomed completely, and having a great
time. Beth wailed when she had to go. We had use of a kitchen piled high
with coffee, biscuits, tea, fruit,all stuff folk had brought and piled
in there. The guys were still going when we left. Carole braved the
hall, and I must admit I was wondering why I had bothered to book a
place to sleep...
Sat am
I had breakfast with Lou and Adam at the B and B which was lovely. Drove
on over to the hall to find where the painters were.Delighted to
discover we had the cosiest one, with the trade stand, so we could pore
over the paint on Tactical Magics HUGE stand, and dream over the things
on Beards. Lorry did a brilliant talk/brainstorming session on Face
Painting for the Corporate Market. It really made us think, about what
we did, the value of what we did, and what a difference doing a good job
makes. Ideas for marketing and business contact were flowing like the
tea and coffee from the kitchen. Fiona Dalgliesh, Andrea, Rita and
Caroline Kelly braved the cold to join us. It was well worth it. I
bought piles of stuff from the stand too. I hope Tactical Magic were
aware of just how much genuine affection and respect we have for them in
Scotland. Where there are no decent paint shops their consistantly good
service, total reliability, is very important to us. It was great to
hear from Lorry as her business skills are second to none, and their are
my favourite agency to work for. Some of the jugglers were listening to
to her talk, it was as relevant to their business as ours.
Sat pm
Jugglers still at it in the main hall, things going on in their other
two halls, plans for the evening in motion...Rick was getting started on
painting up Zoe for the show, some painters headed off the shopping
centre, very close. Typical Glasgow community shopping centre. A chance
to paint up some extremely enthusiastic children, the smiles were
terrific, and grab some lunch. I think Scottish work is bolder and
funkier than English, interested to see what the folk from the South
felt... A lot of fun. I wandered back to the bodypainting before the
shopping centre finished to see how it was going with Zoe, and to make a
start on Rick. Rick was taking pix of his UV master piece. It was very
very good. Zoe was to dance, so it had to be bold, impact stuff. He had
chosen batik type tropical fish. Fitted with the paint colours so well.
So good. But would it work? On stage?With the lights etc? Would Zoe
seize with nerves??? I started painting Rick to discover that the paint
supplied to me by those whose name I dare not speak on the list would
not work, the order was well mucked up, and to finish it the paint just
clogged. I tried, prob too long, till I gave up and stared sponging on a
15ml Grimas grass green, by this point convinced the Rick should just go
have a shower, and I should give up, but I kept going :-) In under 2
hours I completed a full body Green Man, with Carole helping shade the
legs, and I was pleased, done on time, complete and just what I wanted
as a "character" for the show. Rick was a total sport in posing for
photos, and wandering about at the hall before the show.
The Show
Graham showed off all the skills I really like him for in pulling this
together, from sewing the Scottish Flag background himself, to rigging
up the lights, and coping when the lighting engineer decided to scarper
off to the pub... He was the compere, and he did it well, very funny,
very skillful, totally relaxed with the kids joining in. One of the
funniest moments was when Adam(3) shouted out " Look Mummy, it's a funny
man!" to us all sitting there it was like the big smile in the mirror we
get, and the jugglers loved it, HUGE round of applause for him. A
child's comment was totally appreciated and echoed round the hall. The
show... well... I just could never explain that one, I HAVE NEVER SEEN
SUCH SKILL, such audience participation. Such showmanship. I would have
paid a fortune to see that. The world record holder for the highest
diablo toss did his bit, so good, so full of personality, (Lou was to
paint him him later). Zoe's dance was so good,so proud of her, in total
darkness, under UV, it was GOOD!! It really worked. When Michael
Jackson's Scream stopped, the cheering started. Jamie with his devil
sticks, a totally dynamic street performer if ever I saw one, want him
to travel to every youth club.... , the contact juggler with his
crystal ball was mesmorising, beautiful to watch, gravity defying stuff.
Charles with his glowing balls.... I knew he was nervous about this act,
spoken to him Wednesday, but in total darkness to see these inner
glowing balls doing thier bit, I loved it. So smooth, professional,
consumate performer. Bridget with her UV poi, stunning under the lights,
and UV juggling. So cool and funky. The show act was two very
professional blokes who do an act with small bouncy balls, the speed the
work at, the positions they took while doing it.... WOW! I was at this
point helping Carole cook the haggis supper. Got that running, then took
Rick and Zoe home to shower and get ready for the Ceildah. The UV
lighting for the show was mine, 2 5ft tubes and a UV cannon, and it had
been brill for me to see it raod tested like this. It gaveme a lot of
confidence in planning a UV body/dance for future.
Ceildah
After the show, Philip, Tamsyn(4) and Katie(13) arrived as I ran out the
door with the folk to be showered. Haggis cooking away. I returned to
find the band playing away, and they were good! It had been a
"discussable" expense to go for this band, and they were worth it.
Everyone discussing it had felt that live music was the only choice for
the event. Real entertainment, a disco would have lost the mood I think.
Painters returned after nipping out for a quick chinese meal, and paints
were dug out again, some nice painted faces graced the ceildah and added
to the feel I thought. I am going to nab more jugglers next year....
Great night, I enjoyed the haggis supper, eaten with pizza too.... Lots
of mad dancing. After the dance was over we watched more jugglers,
chatted, drunk wine and enjoyed the company. Headed back at 5.30.
Sunday
Slowly we woke and roused ourselves, turned up at the painting hall for
Lou's Demo clutching bacon, cheese, rolls, tomato sauce, juice and used
the kitchen facilities to pig out :-))) The kitchen's were so useful and
I know saved me a fortune!
Lou's Demo
Lou is a highly creative face painter, loves to do individual creations
for children, brush skills terrific! So she was my first choice for a
demo. The night before Graham and Lou had asked for a volunteer from the
jugglers to be a model... she got no fresh faced youth, she got the
bearded jugglers with loads of laughter lines. She rose to the challenge
beautifully. He had said he liked all colours, and he wanted something
for HIM! That was what he got. A beautiful winged juggler against a
background of rainbow colours. His beard was carefully coloured with
bronze. It looked amazing.... Zoe was painted with an enchanted
landscape that had us wanting to run off and practice with our fan
brushes. Beth had a total crowd pleaser of a flower face, lovely and
delicate. Great demo. (One of the highlights was Adam (her son age 3)
climbing the ladder, skipping the queue, demanding that his mummy
painted him a Santa, very cute).
Bodywork
Lou and Rick had a go at a bit more bodypainting on Rick's back.
Airbrushes were out and folk had a chance to handle and experiment with
them. I gave a great demo on how to clean airbrushes of green paint
:-)))) Carole had out the aquacolour and stencils, and folk had a lot of
the mysteries of airbrushing vanish. More last minute shopping :-))
There were still classes in juggling, tightrope etc going on (once the
jugglers woke up LOL) and the games were started in the main hall. The
world record for haggis juggling was set, by Charles and 5 haggis'.
Everyone seemed to enjoy these, I had things to talk to Kate from
Tactical Magic about some things, and have a look at this wonderful CD
rom they have just brought out. It allows you to paint a "virtual face"
and print out the results, great fun. Just £13 too. Books were around
the hall, lots of coffee drinking and peering at Mamaclown's magazine
and the Creative Face Painting book.
Waaay tooooo soon it was time to go home. Packing up time. A chance to
catch Graham and both confirm the total 100% positive feedback. Next
year though we are dropping the "Glasgow" and replacing it with
Scotland" figure we earned that. Know we can do it even bigger and
better next year.
We all learned a new phrase over the weekend "Wheet-weee-oh!" which was
what one of the girls said about Graham in his kilt, and I reckon
applied to the weekend :-))) Zoe sat in the back of the car, still with
Lou's beautiful painting on, with big tears rolling down her cheeks in
silence, just did not want to leave. Big blue painty tears... :-((
Caspar can now juggle with his new glow in the dark juggling balls, Beth
can do tricks with a diablo, (shown by the word record holder with such
gentleness and caring) Tamsyn was genuinely applauded for being able to
walk round the room with a spinning plate on a stick. She was so
desperate to join in with something... The children were so welcomed it
was great, they were loved for showing their appreciation, after all,
what are a bunch of entertainers without a bunch of children??
The whole weekend, from all sides and angles, jugglers, painters,
traders, was one of cooperation and encouragement. Every person left
there having learnt something new and feeling even better about what
they do for a living. The enthusiasm for entertainment was
astounding...
So yes, there are pictures to come, and we will show them off with pride
:-)))
--
The Facepainters perspective - from Val:
Steven Thomson
Face Painting and Juggling Convention was! I am looking forward to next
years "Scottish" Convention!
We read out both of your stories at Stirling Juggling Club's AGM last night,
and the room was filled with much laughter as you both vividly recalled
certain humorous incidents. The only extra incident I can think of to add
to the previous stories is:
1) Stirling posse winning most of the raffle prizes (6 prizes and there
were only 6 of us)!!
George was very happy at receiving some photo's of himself with the face
paint on, so thanks to Val. We enjoyed ourselves so much, that we are all
currently trying to raise enough funds to get ourselves to the British
Juggling Convention, so watch this space...!
God bless
Steve
http://www.stevensworld2.com/jugglingworld
Alan Mackenzie
-0000:
> Thanks to Val and Graham for their really good stories of how great
> Glasgow Face Painting and Juggling Convention was! I am looking
> forward to next years "Scottish" Convention!
Me too! (Who said you're not meant to say that on Usenet?)
> We read out both of your stories at Stirling Juggling Club's AGM last night,
> and the room was filled with much laughter as you both vividly recalled
> certain humorous incidents. The only extra incident I can think of to add
> to the previous stories is:
> 1) Stirling posse winning most of the raffle prizes (6 prizes and there
> were only 6 of us)!!
Hey, and I won a raffle prize for the first time in my life! A
pulchritudinous purple plastic plate with a pointed stick. (And they
even let me on the aeroplane with it afterwards.)
Then I drew a ticket out the hat myself. Number 1. Yes: One, won, uno,
eins. That freaked me out a bit - of all the numbers you can pick, you
_never_ _ever_ pick number 1. Yikes!
> George was very happy at receiving some photo's of himself with the face
> paint on, so thanks to Val.
Did George get up early on Sunday or something?
> We enjoyed ourselves so much, that we are all currently trying to raise
> enough funds to get ourselves to the British Juggling Convention, so
> watch this space...!
Probably won't make it myself. (Sob!). Have fun there, though.
> Steve
--
Alan Mackenzie (Munich, Germany)
Email: aa...@muuc.dee; to decode, wherever there is a repeated letter
(like "aa"), remove half of them (leaving, say, "a").
Charles O Donoghue
Glad you enjoyed yourselves.
The pictures should now be on the website.
Looking forward to seeing everyone next year!
--
Charles
Glasgow Juggling & Face Painting Convention
22/23/24 February 2002
www.glasgowjugglingclub.co.uk