Crumpled

What's a non-juggler supposed to do at a juggling festival?

The Humboldt Juggling and Unicycling Festival was last weekend. As a friend of a couple of the jugglers in my area who really wanted to make to this fest, I agreed to be the surrogate car renter and de facto driver. I knew it would be a lot of fun, and that I would probably meet a lot of cool people. What I didn't expect was how well this would effect me.

Not only did I have a great time, but I was inspired by all the talent, and found that talent is a contagious thing given the proper environment. The capability of creating such an environment is the real talent. I got to see this work. I saw an entire household built around this idea, and I saw this household expand into the general public for a weekend.

The people I went with ended up practicing juggling with so many other people. For 8-10 hours. Then the after-parties were more exchanges of ideas, some more juggling, a lot of conversation. Various altered states were achieved. Then at the end of the night 3-4 hours of sleep and back to practicing and taking workshops.

Saturday night was fire night, a cacophonous free-for-all of people spinning, twirling, juggling, passing, various objects aflame, to the sound of a vaudevillian band and the abundant whoops and hollers of the onlookers. The circus people all the way live.

I got to do all of these things. It was awesome. I'm still not going to try and add “juggler” to the list of attributes that define me, but I did have a great time hanging with these wizards, and I would consider doing it again. Even as a non-juggler, I picked up each object and played. All day long with the other people, albeit with less skill than them. I picked up three balls and tossed them till they could stay up there, and I tossed them some more. I attended workshops along-side the skilled.

I found a new skill or two, including my favorite one, roping, which I'd really like to learn more of. Great food, great friends, long drives, and silly raps about genies with diabetes, or picking other peoples noses, or being Godzilla.

I had such a good time. Thanks to Kevin and Tom of Mountain Mischief, and Karen Quest who showed me roping by dressing me like a cow and tying me up (and a workshop), all the folks at Humboldt Circus, Erin Stevens, and the huge delegation from the 209 giving my home such a sweet rep.

The non-juggler does what everyone else came to do, practice, learn and have a great time with great people.

posted by Elex  # 11:53 PM