Mood:
don't askNow Playing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eb7Qq8yHuKk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eb7Qq8yHuKk
"Bring me something new."
Wes Peden. The future of juggling now. Right? I mean, the kid can do no wrong. He doesn't even age, I don't think. He gets better and better and better and remains 17. It's really a sweet deal. He was voted the #1 most popular juggler in the world in 2007 by rec.juggling which is the equivalent of world juggling president. Gatto is the Pope. Infallible. Wes is the president. The Wesident if you will. The Manipulator in Chief.
As a result, this meer teenager wields a global kind of power over our niche community of several tens of thousands of jugglers. A new wes peden video rivals a lunar eclipse in the juggling world. We all wait with baited breath for his next installment of juggling goodness.
Which is exactly why the juggling world has been thrown into a tizzy over his last experimental trilogy - Skull Candy, the Rooster is Dead, and Marshmallow. To cover my thoughts on all these videos would take too long, but suffice it to say that the first two videos of this trilogy made people think that wes peden had gone off the deep end. Personally, I didn't mind them and even found them interesting and thought-provoking provided they weren't just made as a practical joke to make us dumb Americans scratch our heads and lament our inability to "get it." The third video was a schizophrenic return to what we love about wes - insane experimentation, crazy control mixed with high energy and more tricks than you can fit into a very large pickle jar.
Most wes fans took a collective sigh of relief when marshmallow was released. After all, like eating a warm yummy marshmallow, our expectations were fulfilled again. We got our fix. Wes was juggling weslike again and we could relax. As of tonight, "Marshmallow" has received about as many hits as "Skull" and "Rooster" combined.
Then Mr. Peden did something unthinkable - he released a video without any juggling at all. Entitled "What the Duck", it was a plea to the juggling world for the rebels to wake up and create. What I like to see as an ultimatum. Wes Peden, a role model that all of us look up to, sat us down (below grass level; notice how Peden looms above us in the video) and started asking us questions.
Basically, this is all just a big lead-up to how I personally feel about the video. Know that when I write this blog, I am basically "freestyling". I don't plan out what I'm going to say ahead of time. So I'm just going to go with the flow and see where it takes me.
In many ways, I think "what the duck" is really an argument that wes is having with himself. Many people felt like wes was unfairly chastising jugglers for not coming up with new material when in fact, my belief is that the video, just like the graffiti of "make something real" on the wall on the way to circus school, is a reminder to wes. Some people think Wes comes off as cocky in the video. I don't really see this. In fact, I see the opposite. I see a lot of selflessness and admission of failure and shortcoming. Wes admits that he is scared, that he has fear, that he has made videos strictly to please an invisible audience or WJF judges, etc.
In other words, "what the duck" is wes sharing an internal scolding that he has already had with himself.
"What the duck" is a call to change and a call to think. "Why" is the greatest question any artist can pose to himself and Wes uses this three letter word a lot in his video. In the MRL DVD (which I may talk about soon on this blog if anyone is interested) Jay constantly reminds his students that we need to ask "why" in everything we do. At least answer it. The answer doesn't need to be long and convoluted. If you juggle to impress Jason Garfield, at least admit it. I would actually be super proud to see a juggler openly admit it. In theatre, we learn that there is a motivation behind every action we do. Every step gets us closer towards a goal, even if the goal is taking a shit. How is a step different from a throw or a catch? A throw is a part of a routine which is a part of a show which is a part of a festival in which people I'm hoping to impress/entertain/offend are sitting in the audience. Who are those people?
Wes is clearly a lifer. There is little doubt in my mind that wes's life will be dominated entirely by the study, practice, and questioning of juggling. So I think we should encourage the fact that he is putting down his props for five minutes to think about why he spends so much time doing what he does. And luckily for us, he has shared these frustrations with others. Notice that he doesn't offer a solution. Nor does he say that he is following his own example. He admits that he falls short of his own expectations.
If you are a hobby juggler with no intentions of performing ever, then I wouldn't worry too much about the video. If you are a hardcore sports juggler who really only cares at this point about perfecting juggling technique and execution, I wouldn't even put this video on your radar screen.
"What the duck" is a fire designed to burn under the asses of the rebels that are sitting on the fence at the moment, unsure of which direction to go.
In as humble a way as possible, I would like to suggest that I am one of those rebels. I feel this way because watching "what the duck" made me feel partly ashamed and partly inspired.
Literally four hours after seeing "what the duck" for the first time, I performed at the RIT Open Stage using two routines. One routine was a marshmallow - "Kiss Kiss." People know that Michael Karas is fun to watch when he does hip-hop routines. And this one didn't disappoint. Tons of people came up to me and said that they loved the new hip-hop routine. "It was so fun!" "You choreograph so well to the music!" Just the compliments I like to hear but...they are the same compliments I've heard before and I realize that I am doing something that people expect of me.
Michael Karas: fun juggler with modest technique who specializes in three balls and green props and juggles well to the music.
Then I also performed at RIT a new routine called "Gravity" in which I explore the notion of "frustration" by purposefully dropping about 5% of the throws in the piece. It is a piece that ends sadder than it began. It begins with hope and ends with failure. I got far fewer compliments on this piece. It's not typical juggling nor typical michael karas. A few people said they enjoyed it though and these were people whose opinion I really value.
So, on a personal note - Wes, if you're reading this, thank you for making your video. It re-energized me to think about why I spend so much time doing what I do. It helped organize my priorities as well - do I really want to create pieces that speak to a panel of judges or do I want to create pieces that speak to the human condition, to beauty, or even to the beauty of object manipulation?
All that being said...Wes, did you really lose your American dialect that quickly? ;-D
