Groundhog
Day Jugglers Festival 1999
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A
record 135 registered jugglers attended the twenty-first annual
Groundhog Day Jugglers Festival held February 5, 6, and 7 in the
Grady High School Girls Gym in downtown
Atlanta
. The weather was warm and clear outside, which was lucky because
Grady has walled the stage in for classrooms, limiting our
juggling space to the floor of the gym itself. A powerful new
Halogen light helped make it easier to see flying props, and it
did not feel too crowded even at peak juggling times in the
morning and afternoon. Four out-of-town vendors had tables in the
gym; they all reported good sales for the weekend. The AJA sold
all but 7 or so of the 144 commemorative T-Shirts produced for the
event.
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 Eight
acts entered the competition for the Coveted Phil, kicked off as
always by the Seed
& Feed Marching Abominable band. Our own Bruce
Plott led the band, as Rodger French filled in on bass drum. The
drum made it to the gig but the drummer was held up in Georgia
Tech football traffic.
Charlotte
's Dazzling
Dimuzio brothers took the "Most Magnanimous" trophy,
with a stunning club passing and acrobatics act which culminated
with both brothers juggling clubs while in a shoulder stand on top
of a 6-foot unicycle. It took a household ladder to set this up.
Steve "Elvis" Brown, a yo-yoist from
Tallahassee
, won the "Most Amazing" trophy with an unusual top and
yo-yo manipulation act. The three "No Count Jugglers"
from
Athens
took "Most Incredible" with a fine club passing act
featuring some interesting 7th club work.
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 During
the judging, a group of yo-yoists held the finals and awards of
the first Southern regional yo-yo contest. Other contestants
included local Andreas Dieberger with some startling diabolo work,
Simon Livingston with a juggling puppet act, and Michael Grebe
with a comic dance juggling routine. The Mouse award this year
went to Brenda McClain for her devotion to helping organize and
run the festival.
Yo-yo
artists were a strong presence for the first time at the festival,
as they revved up for their competitions and laid the groundwork
for a national
yo-yo organization. Interested people could talk to
Greg Cohen and Andrew Arvesen about Fiend magazine, a new
publication covering the world of yo-yos, tops, and juggling.
Other sights around the gym floor included a relatively quiet game
of combat in one corner, many people passing many clubs, and
several nascent and mature 7-ball patterns.
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 Around
7:30 Saturday night, the party was further enlivened by a group of
20 Egyptian tourists and their English-speaking guide, who marched
to a far corner of the gym, had their pictures taken (some holding
juggling knives), and left. Rumor had it that they had read of the
festival in the local papers and come out briefly to see what it
was about.
The
midnight Cabaret was held at 11 pm Saturday on the stage of the
Horizons Theater in Little Five Points, generously donated by Jeff
and Lisa Adler. The Deluxe
Vaudeville Orchestra provided music as
Amherst
college student Jake Abernathy and
Boston
comic Cyrus P. Kosky did some polished street work. Rodger French
ran through the famous flag alphabet, Steve Brown popped balloons
off vulnerable places on a volunteer with a razor-equipped yo-yo,
and Rick Purtee and Andreas Dieberger traded diabolo tricks.
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 The
final show Sunday afternoon at the gym started with some ball
juggling, then featured the perennial Henry Huggler and his camel,
a startling yo-yo demo by Steve Brown and professional yo-yo
artist Dale Oliver, and Emory's Amazing Throwing Up Society in a
piece combining dance and juggling to fifties music. About 20
people staggered in to dinner at Thai One On afterwards, all
promising to do it again next year.
— Article
by Charles Shapiro
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