Waiting for Gatto
Mood:  a-ok
Now Playing: http://music.hyperreal.org/artists/brian_eno/oblique/oblique.html

I am speechless.  I have finally seen juggling perfection and I almost want to cry.

Today I went to Hartford, Connecticut to see Kooza by Cirque du Soleil.  This is my fifth cirque experience, the other four being quidam, alegria, dralion, and varekai.  The show was good I suppose, but the majority of the production pales in comparison to what was one of the greatest moments as of yet in my career as a juggler:

I got to see Anthony Gatto perform live.

As much as jugglers tend to argue and debate about everything under the sun, it seems that we all agree on one thing - Anthony Gatto is the best juggler in the world.  What's funny is that I've been heavily involved in juggling for almost seven years and have witnessed and met many of the greats in the field.  Some of them are even my friends.  I've had lunch with Jay Gilligan.  Vova and I have exchanged jokes at conventions.  Thomas Dietz and I have spoken German to each other.  I shook hands with Viktor Kee after seeing him at Dralion.

 And yet I have never been graced with the opportunity to be in the same room as Mr. Anthony Gatto.  Until today, April 26, 2008. 

Anthony was in the second act of Kooza which made me sweat a little bit because I was banking my entire ticket price on seeing him specifically.  At intermission, I was nervous that maybe he was taking one of those precious few days off that you read about every now and again on Gatto Forums.  But he showed up about halfway through the second act and I strapped myself in for what I knew would be the most amazing and confident display of technical juggling skill I've ever seen.

He.  Was.  Dropless.  You always hear about people going to see Gatto perform and saying he was dropless.  But to actually see this man go through such difficult skill sets with the ease of tying one's shoe makes you wonder how one person can be so consistently precise.

7 ring 5-up 360.  9 ring to pulldown.  Double qualify of 5 club dub backrosses.  5 ring 5-up.  5b 5-up.  5 ring pancakes.  7b halfshower.  He didn't do 7 clubs and I'm not sure why but I didn't really care.  His entire routine was full of a love for what he was doing and an energy that radiated into his props.  My friend made the comment that he made the clubs almost appear liquid.  When I say dropless, I also mean to say that he was perfect.  There wasn't an errant catch.  There wasn't an extraneous movement.  Every trick was pulled off with such ease that it almost made me mad to know that 90% of the people in the room had no idea how hard his routine actually was. 

For any jugglers out there who haven't seen Gatto perform live yet, you owe it to yourself to do so as soon as possible.  Money is not an excuse.  See this man own you live.  You will feel simultaneously inspired to train harder and depressed at how inferior a juggler you are. 

I've always said that Gatto is the best because I believed it to be true.  Now I've seen Anthony perform and I KNOW he is the best juggler in the entire world.  Fuck whether juggling is an art or a sport.  Anthony eats amateur jugglers like you and me for breakfast.

I once took a three day workshop with Jay Gilligan in Buffalo, NY at the 2004 IJA.  On the final day, Jay sat us down and gave us ten provocations for creating new juggling material, based somewhat on Brian Eno's oblique strategies.  Three examples of these provocations include "take the longest route", "multiplex", and "back to the same place."  I will never forget however that one of the ten provocations was "Anthony Gatto", plain and simple.  Jay relayed this provocation to us with complete sincerity. 

Now I know why.