Groundhog Day
Jugglers Festival 2001

Hosted by the Atlanta Jugglers Association

The t-shirt design this year (shown at top) was drawn by John Lind.

The preliminary count shows 148 jugglers registered for the 23rd annual Groundhog Day Jugglers Festival, held February 2,3, and 4, 2001 at the Grady High School Girls Gym in midtown Atlanta . Jugglers from Philadelphia , Ohio , and New York flew in for the two-day festival, as well as the usual crowd from most corners of the Southeast. Long-time AJA members Rick and L.J. Purtee lucked into cheap airline tickets and flew in from their new jobs in Seattle to take the "Furthest Traveled" record.

Reviews so far are that this was an unusually mellow and enjoyable festival, even though the count of jugglers was well above past years. The weather favored us mildly, and we also lucked into an extra half-hour or so of juggling time on Friday evening, when the janitors simply told us to be sure and lock up, then went home for the evening.

Greg Cohen and Infinite Illusions vendor table

Two juggling vendors -- Infinite Illusions and Andy's Odd Sports -- set up tables full of colorful props in the gym.

Saturday Competition

audience for the competition plays with the big beach ball

sound system guru Hal Baird and MC Rodger French juggling club banners above the audience

Bruce Plott leads the band

The Seed & Feed Marching Abominable Band opened the show on Saturday with our own Bruce Plott as the band leader. Their ever-stylish attire this year was pajamas and bathrobes complete with hair curlers and fuzzy slippers.

The Marching Abominables The Marching Abominables in pajama attire

As always, the festival heated up Saturday morning, with several carloads of folks waiting anxiously in the parking lot for the gym to open. Several very talented jugglers worked alone under large formations of props, while others beavered away at everything from shaky 3-ball cascades through complex club-passing patterns. Late Saturday evening, many of the club-passing groups managed to coalesce into one gigantic mob to practice arcane patterns like the 'Virginia Reel' and a Really Huge Weave, as well as more common large-group efforts such as feasts and rotating feeds. Many folks think that this is the primary purpose of a juggling festival. Patrick Clyne and juggler.net generously donated 40 pizzas for lunch, which were consumed in a short time by the hungry jugglers.

The Saturday afternoon competition featured eleven competitors vying for the coveted Groundhog Day trophy in front of three judges carefully picked for their complete lack of juggling knowledge. AJA founder Rodger French took MC duties. Three juggling teams carried off the prizes.

Eva from Tallahassee, FL Randy with hat and cane

Erica, Jenna and Audrey -- Madison Street Jugglers in Ocala, FL Robbie and David -- Madison Street Jugglers in Ocala, FL

Matt Henry Seth Ryder Matt Gurden

Redefining Gravity Jim and Ian Elsner Diana Elsner

The Elsner Unijugglers, the family act of Jim, Diana, and Ian Elsner, won the Most Incredible prize with an act consisting of ball and club passing and a small girl riding a unicycle while juggling clubs. Both Elsner children are younger than 12 years old.

Another family act, Redefining Gravity, picked up Most Spectacular for their athletic club passing, which featured some unusual steals and ended with a long, solid run of 9 clubs passed between Heather and Darin Marriot. They also got points for costuming for their spiffy red sequin vests and black pants.

Eric Tate puts on a safety vest for juggling The Original Jugglers

The Most Stupendous award went to the Original Jugglers, a team of Russians originally with the Russian circus which went broke here in Atlanta some years ago, stranding many performers. Now based in Athens Georgia , members Natasha Sarygina, Ivan Vlasov, and Mnir Bekchentqev put on a fast-paced show featuring 9-club feeds and back-cross lines presented from tall platforms and the ground. Natasha threw fearsomly rapid and flat back crosses as they ended their act with an 11-club (not 10-club) back-cross line to a gather and sprinting catch by the back man.

Other acts included Matt Henry's 5-ball act, with some fancy multiplex and pirouette moves, Seth Rider with an amusing cigar-box piece including some clever stage business, and Matt Gerdon's showing some clean bean-bag work, good stage personality, and very bare feet.

--Charles Shapiro

winners of the juggling competition

Winners of the competition were the Original Jugglers (Natasha Sarygina, Ivan Vlasov & Mnir Bekchentqev) for Most Stupendous, Elsner Unijugglers (Jim, Diana & Ian Elsner) for Most Incredible and Redefining Gravity (Heather & Darin Marriott) for Most Spectacular.

--pictures by Andreas Dieberger and Joyce Howard

--story by Charles Shapiro

Late Night Cabaret

The DeLuxe Vaudeville Orchestra

The Late Night Cabaret on Saturday featured live music from the DeLuxe Vaudeville Orchestra with four of our own AJA members -- Rodger French, Toni Shifalo, Bruce Plott and Andy Ford. Tim Settimi was the master of ceremonies.

Tim Settimi singing "I'm OK" Pam and Warren Hamilton

John Nations Whitney and Dan dancing the salsa

Jackie Erickson and the Wizard of Odd Trained Humans

Joyce Howard receives the Mouse Award Jesse and James

The Midnight Cabaret show featured several members of the Deluxe Vaudeville Orchestra, with Tennessee performer Tom Foolery sitting in on mandolin. The show started off with two songs by DVO Diva Janet Metzger, singing "Puttin' On The Ritz" and "You Only Live Twice" as the incredible Bambola. Tim Settimi MCed after performing his excellent skate work and signature "I'm OK" song. The Hamiltons , a husband and wife act, next performed their club stealing and passing act, enlivened by radically contrasting costumes. Pam Hamilton sported a radical jester outfit, while Warren was dressed in a very conservative grey shirt and monocolor tie. The act went off with exactly one drop. Atlantans Dan Howard and Whitney Kornegay next performed some hot salsa dancing. John Nations showed a six-ring pulldown and smooth 3,4, and 5- tennis racket juggling, all the while bantering with the crowd. Greg McMahon next performed a humorous handkerchief color change and the infamous throw-over-the-head vanishing trick with volunteer Jackie Erickson, who cooperated gamely in spite of knowing all too well what was happening.

The annual "Mouse" award went to Joyce Howard for her excellent work on the Groundhog and AJA web pages. Matt Henry and Randy Cabral as the "Trained Human Club" were up next, with some eery glow-ball juggling and ramp-rolling on a dark stage. The second part of the act featured comic and musical ball-bouncing on the tops of laminated wooden cylinders. These are called "Cajones" in Latin Percussion circles according to Matt. The finale of the show was "Jessie and James", another husband and wife team, doing a strongly street-influenced act which started with a newspaper cut with a whip (the wife wielding the whip) and concluded with very impressive 6-foot-unicycle clowning and a 6-club passing pattern on 6-foot unis.

The festival concluded at Thai One On restaurant. Fran Favorini learned that they had managed not to put his name on the Many Peppers Plaque after a year. He promised to come back next year to check again. Around 8 pm the party broke up and everyone staggered on home or started on their long journeys out of state.

--Charles Shapiro