So Dara and I spent the weekend in NUIG practicing. I thought about what I should write on this blog - most people reading this wouldn't know much about juggling...or care very much about juggling, for that matter. But perhaps some people are curious as to what we actually... do? I mean, you've all seen me perform in shows or videos or festivals at one point or another. Or if not, you've seen another juggler somewhere. But what actually goes into a show? If you don't care, you may want to stop reading now. Unless you're bored anyway, then you may as well read on. My writing is still gonna more interesting than most things on TV right now. And I'm better looking, too.
The first thing I'd like to mention is the ridiculous number of hours spent per show. For example, the one we're preparing for at the moment is the Gala Show for the Galway Juggling Convention - kind of like a music festival but with juggling. It's not a paid gig. We get free entry into the convention, but that's about it. It's one we love doing as it's the home crowd, and it's a show for other jugglers - not some corporate event. They actually care. And the less you pay performers, the less everyone has to pay for the convention, and everyone's happier. Plus hey - it was at events like these that we began our juggling lives - it's nice to give back. We've spent about 16 hours of practice so far preparing for this show, and will probably do about 24 in total. That's not including all the planning and discussion that comes with a new show, of course. Or warm-up that we'll do before it on the night. Even if it were paid, this definitely isn't something that makes sense as a living. If you want to make a living you need to work an awful lot more than you would in a normal job (like the one I've leaving this week!), and you'll still get paid an awful lot less. For the love, man, for the love.
As practices vary, I'll just go through yesterday's.
We arrived at around 2 in the afternoon. First, we set up an area to be the stage, with all the various props we'd be using. Better to always practice in the same environment, so that you're familiar with where you're meant to be for each trick/which direction you should be facing etc.
Next we warmed up, we both do similar practices (though at different levels - Dara's a much better solo juggler than I); some stretches before we pick up the clubs, lots of double spins, some messing around to loosen up. Then some 4 club juggling to get accustomed to the higher speed involved - this makes everything you do with 3 clubs feel much slower.
We then ran through the whole show, figuring it all out. This show is split into 3 parts, so the first thing we had to do was to link them all together. Spent an hour running the table-juggling part over and over again (it doesn't sound like much, but an hour doing the same 1 minute routine gets very repetitive, and is probably the biggest thing we've improved at since starting to perform a few years ago - patience).
After a break, we started actually doing the whole show. This is hard to practice again and again, as it involves lots of physical lifting from both of us - so after 3 or 4 runs I simply can't lift Dara anymore. Fat bastard. When this happens we pick a particular area/trick, and run that over and over again. One funny thing about this show is it involves us doing a little funny dance at the start. But this was easily the hardest bit to get right. And I mean seriously,. it's not even dancing. It's a strange feeling when you can quite easily juggle on someone's shoulders but neither of you can seem to remember "Forward, forward, forward, back"!
By 6 it was all coming together. We both were fairly confident on every aspect of the performance. Including the improvised bit. We got some pizza and kept working. All this for 8 minutes on stage, that people might half-remember for a few days.
When I got home I felt a bit overwhelmed - Dara wants to practice as much as possible in the evenings this week, but with two open mics and my going away drinks with work on Friday, my week is already pretty full. Means no time off at all really, except possibly for a rushed visit to the cinema tomorrow evening. It really is hard to have two hobbies that require so much time. I don't think I can realistically do them both. For the past 4 years I've tried, but it's always been a few months of doing one and ignoring the other.
I really, really hope that leaving my job will mean enough time. It's not gonna be easy though - too easy to fill up your day. I get the feeling that my sister, who has nothing to do during the 40 or so hours I'm in work each week, is no less busy than I am.
As practices vary, I'll just go through yesterday's.
We arrived at around 2 in the afternoon. First, we set up an area to be the stage, with all the various props we'd be using. Better to always practice in the same environment, so that you're familiar with where you're meant to be for each trick/which direction you should be facing etc.
Next we warmed up, we both do similar practices (though at different levels - Dara's a much better solo juggler than I); some stretches before we pick up the clubs, lots of double spins, some messing around to loosen up. Then some 4 club juggling to get accustomed to the higher speed involved - this makes everything you do with 3 clubs feel much slower.
We then ran through the whole show, figuring it all out. This show is split into 3 parts, so the first thing we had to do was to link them all together. Spent an hour running the table-juggling part over and over again (it doesn't sound like much, but an hour doing the same 1 minute routine gets very repetitive, and is probably the biggest thing we've improved at since starting to perform a few years ago - patience).
After a break, we started actually doing the whole show. This is hard to practice again and again, as it involves lots of physical lifting from both of us - so after 3 or 4 runs I simply can't lift Dara anymore. Fat bastard. When this happens we pick a particular area/trick, and run that over and over again. One funny thing about this show is it involves us doing a little funny dance at the start. But this was easily the hardest bit to get right. And I mean seriously,. it's not even dancing. It's a strange feeling when you can quite easily juggle on someone's shoulders but neither of you can seem to remember "Forward, forward, forward, back"!
By 6 it was all coming together. We both were fairly confident on every aspect of the performance. Including the improvised bit. We got some pizza and kept working. All this for 8 minutes on stage, that people might half-remember for a few days.
When I got home I felt a bit overwhelmed - Dara wants to practice as much as possible in the evenings this week, but with two open mics and my going away drinks with work on Friday, my week is already pretty full. Means no time off at all really, except possibly for a rushed visit to the cinema tomorrow evening. It really is hard to have two hobbies that require so much time. I don't think I can realistically do them both. For the past 4 years I've tried, but it's always been a few months of doing one and ignoring the other.
I really, really hope that leaving my job will mean enough time. It's not gonna be easy though - too easy to fill up your day. I get the feeling that my sister, who has nothing to do during the 40 or so hours I'm in work each week, is no less busy than I am.
No comments:
Post a Comment