29.03.08
Some funny or misreadable quote wot I heard but have now forgot
Friday at BJC
Early start with crappy weather waking me up. During the day I de-camped and shifted my stuff to my physio room and the car depending on how useful/valuable each bit was.
This turned out to be a good move as we were all warned about impending hideous weather.
And the room turned out to be a good place to kip as well. Hurrah.
Anyway that’s at the end of the day.
Absolutely knackered all day due to poor sleep.
Managed to get some good passing done and that’s my juggling finished for the day.
Shows:
BYJOTY
Presented by Pola this year (except for the important announcements at the end when Luke took over for some reason). 13 contestants this year.
Rod was picked out to help with the drops competition (126 btw) and the opening 15 mins of show saw him dashing around the place accepting pound coins off strangers whilst writing their names down for later.
Show kicked off by “Baby Bono” aka Ady Pole. Nice little routine with loads of “performing”. Nice to see. And it kept on. Loads of them actually “performed” ie they didn’t stand there and just do tricks. Very nice to see indeed.
We also had 2 girls in it this year. A new record.
Stand outs for me included: Ady for performing (see above), Sarah for pretty solid hard ball stuff, Reuben for very nifty and nippy 3 ball (think fast and accurate) with a nice personality, Luke Hallgarten for playing with expectations and engaging the crowd, Freddy Sheed for being ludicrously talented and prolly some others. Oh and Tom D wasn’t in the show except as a stage hand and he did have to be a stand for a table at one point. One of the funnier moments.
The standard just keep going up over the years. Very impressed indeed.
Winner of pretty much everything was Freddie. Deserved for technical merit, but not for the crotch pointing.
I also noted something worth mentioning. I was sat next to Clurb through this show. For those grumpy arses who think she’s just grumpy and negative for no reason should have heard the heartfelt “ahh”s coming from her direction when someone who was impressing her dropped or fumbled. Just like me she wants to see good stuff and people doing well.
Open Stage
We can call this one the International Stage after the delights of the BYJOTY just before it.
I didn’t have a pen and paper with me but as far as I can recall first act was Kiko (from Italy) doing some very nice ball juggling, combining foot juggling with normal. Nice music and well choreographed. An excellent start to the show.
Next up was another Italian, Cecilia. Letched at by the compere until he found out that she’s only 16. She’s been impressing us all in the gym anyway so this was her showing off good and proper. Shame the music kept dying but the juggling was good and she kept going well despite the tech hassles. Clubs from 1 to 5 with loads of movement and some proper hard tricks. Very good indeed.
Now my memory goes a bit awry. Apologies to all those I miss. But there wasn’t a duff act in the lot. A great show.
Vodka and Orange – spinning, poi and tutu. Physics themed version on Meg’s SJC act with Vodka as chavvy student.
Sylvia – more Italians! Hula girl who was at Nottingham. Still excellent hard hulaing (?huling) and rightly soundly applauded.
Some dancer doing tap dancing on a table and then adding in the beat of bounce juggling to the mix. Very nice and different and memorable (except his name, sorry him).
Wes Peden finished the show with a sweet 2 club routine. Lots of manipulation, movement, good music. Basically a very good Wes piece. I do hope that doesn’t sound dismissive, it’s not supposed to be.
As I said, not a duff act in the lot and the compere was decent and engaging too. Fantastic.
Renegade
I’m not the greatest fan of renegades but this one had a couple of things that would make it memorable.
First was that Jay was compering and I’ve never seen him work before. Not that he did a lot mind you. No tricks, no nuffink. Except harass and cajole folk into performing. Some rubbish and some other rubbish as per usual.
And then the point. Apparently a couple of years ago Tom D lost a bet. His payment was to be to perform a poi act whilst dragged up. He was originally supposed to do this at Bungay one year but didn’t go. Then he was supposed to do it at the BJC last year but the lack of sleep and food got to him and he collapsed one night and wasn’t well enough to do it.
So this was where he paid. Drag consisted of a cheerleader’s kit. Poi was actually pretty good despite probable slight drunkeness. He rather stupidly asked for a drink at one point and accepted Mini’s proferrings. Bad idea. At the end of his act he dashed away quite sharpish to try and find some water. The magic of chili vodka. Well done for Tom though.
And then it was to bed. Just too knackered to do much else.
A fantastic day.
PS Just remembered the quote (ish). “That’s not insulating tape, it’s a cucumber”