Groundhog
Day
Jugglers Festival 2003
181 jugglers and
yo-yoists attended the 25th annual Groundhog Day Jugglers Festival on
Jan. 30 through Feb. 2, 2003 at
Grady
High School
in
Atlanta
. We juggled, contested, drank, set world records, saw some
amazing shows, unicycled and then juggled some more.
 Many
folks achieved personal bests at various arcane and difficult multiple
and solo patterns. Other firsts also marked this quarter-century
of the Groundhog Day Festival, some not so obvious as others. An
mp3 player plugged into the sound system replaced the usual CD player
for a few hours Saturday morning. The Atlanta
School of Massage offered free massages to jugglers.
A
good crowd watched Will
Howard beat the world record 3-ball joggling mile, which had
been at 4 minutes, 43.8 seconds since 1986. Will's official time
was 4:42:36, as measured by 3 independent stopwatches. Will said
that he could probably have beaten the record by a little more, but the
track outside
Grady
High School
has stadium seating on only two sides, creating a wind-tunnel effect
which can slow a runner down. Will ran his fastest empty-handed
mile in 4:12. For comparison, the world record mile is 3:43 and
change, and most hobby runners consider themselves fast if they cover a
mile in less than 7 minutes.
 Other
entertainments at the festival included a fairly serious Combat game
late Friday and Saturday nights, and a Unicycle Polo game in the parking
lot Sunday. Two teams of four each lined up to play Uni Polo,
which features a whiffle ball, croquet mallets, and street-hockey
goals. We broke only one mallet and no bones. The star (and
the only one to score any goals) was a kid from
New Orleans
. His club plays Unicycle Polo weekly. Skill on the uni is a
great asset for the game, but playing also helps to build unicycling
skill rapidly.
+
Ten competitors
vied for the specially created 25th Annual Groundhog trophies this
year. Winners were Heather and Darin Marriott (Most Breathtaking),
Carlos Nieves (Most Overwhelming), and Rob Kuhn (Most
Flabbergasting). The Marriotts nailed a technically difficult act
featuring a walking globe, a shoulder stand, 6-club passing on two
8-foot unicycles, and a ring-passing build-up to an 8-ring pass.
Nieves scored with a minimalist act which included Mills Messes with
rings and clubs, ball bouncing, and some 4-bean-bag work. Kuhn's
act included segments with knives and fire.
Other notable
acts included Jake Abernathy's heavily street-influenced but low-key
offering, featuring some clean head-roll action and a 3-up club
pirouette, Aaron and Seth Rider doing a very po-mo but funny act
involving toilet paper and chin-balancing of various unlikely objects,
and Joel Anglin's 3-club slap-backs and flourishes, 4-club floats, and
5-ball half-shower.
Our own Bruce
Plott broomed for the Seed
& Feed Marching Abominable Band's annual
appearance. The band sounded very tight since his ascension to
Music Director last year.
Again this year
several salsa dancers led by Dan Howard entertained the crowd with hot
Latin dancing while the judges deliberated. Bill Giduz presented
the Atlanta Jugglers with a special Groundhog trophy for "Most
Dependable" to commemorate 25 years of juggling festivals.
Here are more
pictures of the entire show taken by Madison Bryan.
The Georgia
Regional Yo-Yo contest featured 19 sponsors this year and 3 tiers of
contest, with yo-yoists vying for honors in such tricks as Skin the
Gerbil, the Atom Smasher and the Kwyjibo. Tier 1 winners were Tim
Brewer(1),Bruce Plott(2), and Daniel "Chipper" Davis
III(3). Travis Bish took first in tier 2 by the simple expedient
of being the only competitor. Tier 3 honors were Tom
Hebblethwaite(1), Kevin Brumfield(2), and Jerry McCormick(3).
Hebblethwaite also won the Team Tarkin Controlled Chaos award for the
competition. Honors in the Fixed Axle Challenge were Kevin
Brumfield(1), Tim Brewer(2) and Bruce Plott(3).
Toni Shifalo
M.C.'d the Midnight Cabaret, which featured house band the DeLuxe
Vaudeville Orchestra. Mike Garner opened the evening
with a self-referential pop song. Jake Abernathy followed with the
second half of his competition routine, cut for time -- a solid 4-club
juggle atop a free-standing ladder.
Aaron Rider next
did a compelling toilet-paper escape. Meredith Gordon teamed with
Tim Settimi for a charming romantic duet.
The Fabulous Tap
Smears -- 6 women plus one hefty guy in drag -- were next with a
glorious clogging routine to the DVO's live rendition of My Little
Runaway. Next up was Aaron Rider, with an act featuring a club
nose-balance rollover and a fabulous junk trick which featured a hula
hoop, two bean bags, a basketball, and a nose flute attached with rubber
bands.
Rodger French
next played the entire William Tell overture on accordion, including the
seldom-played movements (It's now on CD -- go
here to buy one!). A naked to the waist Alex Burke
showed his ball-rolling skills.
Linda Mooney
(Brenda McClain's mom) won the Mouse award this year for tireless
service behind the front table. Next the Georgia Gentlemen
performed Barbershop Quartet songs. The
Hamiltons
rounded out the show with their trademark club-stealing routine followed
by some 7-club doubles passing.
After a full day
of juggling Sunday, we retired to Adams Garden of Eatin', drove the
long-suffering blues musician out of the room, and drank, told lies, ate
dinner and promised to meet again next year until everyone staggered off
to recover.
Report
by Charles Shapiro
Photos
by Bob Kuhn, Don Lewis, Jack Wagner, Emory Kimbrough, Joe Hartman, Dan
Howard and Joyce Howard
T-shirt
design by Randy Fenster (recycled from the shirt at the first Groundhog
Day Jugglers Festival)
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