From: zetie@vax.oxford.ac.uk (The Edible Dormouse)
Newsgroups: rec.juggling
Subject: BJC at Coventry, a review
Date: 14 Apr 92 10:48:19 GMT
Organization: Oxford University, Dept of Antiquated Physics


    5th British Juggling Convention, Coventry 1992, A personal Review

The convention opened to jugglers on the Thursday night but I travelled up on
the Friday morning, figuring that given the paucity of instructions (despite
advance registration) I stood a better chance of finding things in the light
than the dark. It was just as well, as on arriving we discovered that Coventry
consists of a ring road and little else. After a couple of false starts we
found the sports centre and checked out the facilities:

Large sports hall, smaller hall for workshops and all the benefits of a sports
hall on main site. Camping a mile away, van park and big top (for all the
shows) a mile in opposite direction, other halls in a school ten minutes walk
away. A bit spread out but the organisers had had a lot of trouble apparently,
as the city council had reneged on various deals and didn't believe 2000 people
would turn up. 

Hit the main hall mid-morning  and spent a long while warming up. I haven't
done any serious practice for months, and Newbury had left me aching after one
day, so I resisted the temptation to start passing clubs immediately and got
some good ball work in first. Lunch at the Poly canteen was passable for mass
catering, but I didn't return over the weekend, preferring sandwiches and
snacks (a lousy diet but it's only for a weekend...). Back to the main hall and
get some serious and silly work in, inlcluding trying to pass 7 clubs to a
friend on a rola bola (not very successful). Looking around the hall, the
standards weren't terifically high - about 2 or 3 people working on 7 balls,
another couple on 5 clubs, with two guys passing 9 clubs being the highlight.
The practice session wound down towards evening as people prepared for the
cabaret (Renegade show).

We headed off to the van site to pitch tents in gravel and slag (it was an old
goods yard) - this seemed a better bet than having to traipse back to the
campsite after each show and miss out on all the partying. The van site was
pretty awful, having one water pipe and a few portaloos. Fortunately several
vans supplying veggie food, music etc had turned up and large fires were
constructed to help the party atmosphere along.

The Renegade show was hosted by Stompy the Clown in fairly insane manner. The
main highlight was the band (the tossers) who improvised through most of the
acts and jammed between them in a very impressive manner. On stage we were less
fortunate with a series of one-schtick acts with tedious build-ups. The
performance standard was poor and the entertainment value was low. The few acts
which were well-rehearsed stood out. Anna Jillings club swinging with
fluorescent coloured clubs and body paint under UV light went down extremely
well (all the more impressive for the fact that she has a broken leg!), and
James Brommage did a nice act based around a Frnak Spencer imitation (froma 
British TV show, Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em), although it would have been better
for non-jugglers and the 7 ball bounce didn't last very long (which is a pity as
he can do over a thousand throws usually). Club Meeting, a five person act with
Haggis failed to manage a complex passing routine but followed it with a very
funny 'jugglers anonymous' sketch (I can cut down (from 5 to 3) anytime...etc).
Nice one, finishing with Haggis attempting to cure the rest by showing off with
7 balls. Also, Chris O'Brien did some lovely fireswinging with long pole and
nunchaks (essentially). Must make myself some of those...

After the show we piled out to party and fire juggle for a few hours until
sleep or exhaustion overtook us and we crashed out. I was up good and early,
though not bright-eyed and bushy tailed it must be admitted. Arrived in a
nearly empty hall and got down to a good day's practice which included passing
left-handed for the first time and some fun 3 person passing routines including
switches between dropbacks and feeds. The afternoon brought us the grand parade
and the games. There was the usual hanging around at the start of the parade,
but the sun was shining and everyone was in a good mood so the time passed
pleasantly enough. We then strolled through town to the amazement of the
onlookers ("What a bunch of weirdos..." etc) ending up in a shopping centre
with a big balcony for the games. Here the fun began with people passing up to
the balcony, passing on shoulders and giraffes, etc etc etc. Max Oddball  and
Haggis did some very impressive passing including loads of things I had never
seen before: examples? How about catching three incoming clubs as you walk
towards partner, catch a 4th, toss it up and then throw the three high for
partner to do a three club start after he has unloaded the remaing clubs to you
ina shower. Whee! Receiving into a five club pattern looked mundane after some
of this stuff!

I opted out of the games as they are very sameish but apparently two of our
FireNoise crew won events (Bob the one stick devil stick endurance/gladiators
and Dave the normal  gladiators). I headed off to investigate the historic
parts of coventry - the bits that didn't get bombed and the city council
didn't rebuild in concrete. There are some lovely tudor houses around the
cathedral and some very pleasant narrow lanes. The cathedral church of St
Michael was bombed out and only the spire and walls remain standing. The new
cathedral, built in the 50's by Sir Basil Spence is a glass and concrete
structure which is very airy inside. I like it but it is not to everone's
taste. Even the altar hanging is a modern art tapestry, and the main cross is a
twisted symbolic copy of the post-fire altar cross of the old church. This
building butts onto the old one at 90 degrees so the old shell is like a
narthex to the new catheddral, giving an odd sense of continuity and balance,
but a very daring and effective statement.

Enough architecture! More juggling followed by...the Public Show. The problem
is, of course, that with 2000 jugglers and a 2000 seat big top, not many public
get in. Those that did would have been disappointed. This is supposed to be the
cream of our jugglers doing their best acts. The atmosphere was the same as for
the cabaret (same venue, same audience, some of the same acts) and most of the
acts were poor, badly rehearsed, not entertaining, not skillful or all of the
above. Notable exceptions were: a flashy las vegas style piss-take by James
Brommage, Club Meeting passing sitting down at a club meeting (natch) and
UltraVisions. I can't say too much about UV as I work with the memebers but the
only time the audience wasn't applauding wildly was when they were stunned into
silence. The show was well rehearsed, slick, well thought out and very
entertaining, combining UV technology with some excellent skills in juggling
and object manipulation (swinging, ring spinning and passing,  cigar boxes
etc). They'll go far one day.

Saturday night was another party (inevitably) and Sunday seemd very quiet. At
the business meeting Birmingham was selected for the next convention,
Manchester for the year after and Norwich for '95. Not only had we brokn the
'one year n advance' precendent, we'd done it doubly, but if you want to
accomodate 2000 people, you have to book sites a long way ahead. Discussion
moved on to the British Juggling Foundation which CHarlie Holland and Roland
Pascoe were trying to form. Details in a nother post if people want them.

Back to the sports centre and a few long chats with people about he future,
about the BJF and about UltraVisions. A bit more passing with some recent
friends from Cambridge and a massive Gladiators (Combat) game. In this country
we use real clubs and no-one seems to get hurt. Perhaps the Americans play
differently? Anyway, things wound up around 6pm and we trogged home, tired but
happy. Looking back it was a great weekend  even if, at the time, we were
picking holes in the arrangements everywhere.

Thanks to the guys who organised it! See you in Birmingham '93...

ken zetie
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