Internal Tail-Wagging
Mood:  energetic

I am excited to travel to Montreal today for my first ever JAQ fest.  I don't speak any French and so really feel like an idiot when I go to Quebec for festivals.  This will be my second, after having experienced the fantastic TurboFest back in January.  Speaking of JANuary, there's a juggler named Jan Oving whom some of you American jugglers should research. 

Anyway, I asked back at TurboFest if I could be in the Montreal Gala Show and Pierre graciously gave me a spot.  I'm going to be doing two pieces Saturday night.  One of them is a piece that I've performed at Texas and RIT with a few minor tweaks.  The second is a piece I've performed at Philly and Boston but with a complete and major overhaul.  What's exciting for me as an actor and as a performer is that the two pieces are extremely different.  One's meant to be a crowd-pleaser.  One's meant to be a juggling experiment.  We'll see how they go.  You're not going to see either one online so if you're interested in the pieces, get thee to Montreal this weekend.

While I'm talking about shows at juggling conventions, I would like to mention one thing that irks me a bit sometimes.  For the most part, juggling conventions do not pay performers.  Many like Philly create great shows out of volunteers.  Others cover the performers' travel expenses and meals.  Unless you're a huge draw (Vova, Dietz, Peden, Garfield, Gilligan, Gatto), a juggling convention is probably not going to pay you for your physical act.  This is why I wish that more jugglers would use juggling convention shows to test new material.  I know that the EJC has open stages every night where a lot of performers try out works in progress.  I also think 531 has a similar night of unfinished works.  But I've been to almost every northeast US weekend juggle retreat this year and have often been disappointed to see the same act from the same juggler 2-3 times. 

Often I love these acts.  Vova's robotics.  Irish's footbagging.  Cate's handstands.  However, it gets to a point where your audience is largely made up of the same people and therefore why not bring out that new routine you're working on that's maybe "not quite ready" in your opinion?  Personally, I'd rather see something that's new and a bit droppy than the same old stuff that (even if I love it) I've already seen.  Juggling conventions are the places to push the envelope, to experiment with material before you unveil it to the general public.

My goal is this: to encourage the creative minds that are already out there (you know who you are) to use the supportive environment of the juggling convention stage to show us jugglers the depth and breadth of your work and research. 

I certainly don't pretend to be an amazing juggler by any technical stretch but I am very proud of the fact that at every convention I've performed at, I have shown something new to my audience.  My goal as a juggler is to be just as creative as I am unpredictable.  When an MC mentions my name at a juggling show, I want the audience to eagerly wonder what I'm going to do this time.  A simple and perhaps silly long-term goal, I know, but I've realized that this same air of anticipation and unpredictability is what I feel before performances by my favorite jugglers.

Internal tail-wagging.

The Silver Chair
Mood:  blue
"Even in this world, of course, it is the stupidest children who are most childish and the stupidest grown-ups who are most grown up." - C.S. Lewis, The Silver Chair

Big Announcement!
Mood:  lucky
Now Playing: Poster design by Allie Andreano

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.

What the Duck!?
Mood:  don't ask
Now 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

Great 9-1 Song!
Now Playing: "Good With the Mothers" by melpo mene

Okay, here goes: my first short post:

 9-1 Nordic Objects is one of my favorite juggling DVDs.  Ever.  If you don't own it, buy it.  I won't be disappointed with you as long as within a fortnight, it's in your DVD player.

Anyway, one of the things that makes 9-1 so enjoyable to watch again and again is the music.  I recently stumbled upon one of the songs used in the film on iTunes.  Check it out!

It's called "Good with the Mothers" and it's by Melpo Mene from his album 'Holes'.  Download it legally please and enjoy.

If anyone has a list of the other music used in the film, please list it in a comment.  I'd love to create a 9-1 playlist.

My car runs on juggling.
Mood:  energetic

So with gas prices so high, I've actually decided to start running my car on juggling.  I don't know why I didn't think of this sooner.  I get about 744 miles to the gallon and the only waste product is hard drive space!

But seriously, I'm trying to wrap up the question of how juggling can positively impact the world and the final frontier of yet undiscovered discussion is the practical side to this question.  How, quite literally, can the tossing of objects make the world a better place? 

The juggling-fueled car is a stupid example but I'm literally racking my brain trying to think of how juggling as an activity can positively affect the world.  I suppose that if we stopped looking at juggling as either art or sport and instead focused on physical benefits, maybe we could find some answers.  Juggling as exercise!  Yes, some people do it, and Dube does market Exerballs, but how many people strictly juggle for exercise?  Any joggling experts out there?  Does the act of juggling while jogging really multi-task exercising in different body areas as well as I assume it might? 

Could we use juggling to harness energy?  The basic motion of a 3 object cascade involves a circular motion of the wrists.  If we attached some sort of device to the wrists of a juggler, say connected to a turbine, could we harness kinetic energy and turn it into work?  I mean, I suppose it's stupid and primitive and far less productive than using the sun or Hoover Dam but c'mon people, I'm trying to find practical implications for something that is so hard to justify as practical.

And if the physical act of juggling can't necessarily benefit the human race, maybe the theory of juggling can. 

Which came first, juggling or braiding hair?  I ask this because the act of braiding three strands of hair is exactly the same as the three object cascade.  Each strand of hair crosses, stays on one side for two beats, and then crosses again.  Siteswap 3.  Could we use juggling and even siteswap to improve machines?  Perhaps instead of one machine screwing a hole in every sheet of metal, we use three machines punching a hole in every third sheet of metal.  Perhaps we rearrange the paths of satellites using juggling theory so that each one achieves a peak position at predictable intervals.  Juggling theory could be put to use in what could eventually be an automatic driving system (like in I, Robot the movie) where we look at a highway like a juggling pattern.  On a four lane highway, the far left lane is a siteswap 5.  The far right lane is a 2 (a hold).  In the middle we have 4 and 3.  The cars use distance calculations and siteswap theory to determine when it is safe to merge.  You can't merge a 2 to a 4 as a 5 is falling perhaps.

And, as a final statement that is far less global, yes, juggling can always positively affect your world because if you are good enough at it or know the right hack jokes to insert, it can bring you MONEY.  MONEY is an IDEA that humans give VALUE to.  VALUE can be exchanged for basic human needs - food, shelter, and clothing.  If juggling can bring you food, shelter, and clothing, then at the very least you have used a skill to positively affect your life and, if you're so fortunate, the lives of your immediate family.

Doctors, scientists, and engineers are most likely always going to be more important to the survival and advancement of the human race than jugglers.  That doesn't mean that we as jugglers shouldn't become friends with doctors, scientists, and engineers.  Perhaps they may have some good ideas that I haven't stumbled upon. 

However, the important thing to remember is that art is part of culture and culture defines us.  It used to define certain countries and peoples.  Now with the interconnectedness of the human race through the Internet and globilization, future art is going to define us as a species.  Let's juggle so that thousands of years from now, when all that is left of juggling are the hard drives floating through space with every single video file ever, those who find it will find it impossible not to pause with amazement at how a small portion of our species dedicated so much time, thought, and energy to the manipulation of objects using the rules of earth's gravity.

So you really think you can change the world, huh?
Mood:  accident prone

The first couple days of blogging were a bit depressing because I didn't get any feedback in any form at all.  I think that's why I likened blogging to throwing your voice out into the void.  Sort of like, does a keystroke make a noise if no one's there to read it? 

Well, apparently, one or two blokes/chaps/buggers have been frequenting this poop-colored page and even enjoying it.  In fact, a friend of mine named Ed did something that I hope more readers do in the future - he called me out on a post.  In other words, he wanted me to clarify something I said earlier.  This is exactly why I started writing a blog - so people would force me to back up my blabbering.  His questions, based on my blog's genesis, were:

1)How can your juggling impact the world in a positive way (as I suggested)? and

2)What good is an unforgettable theatrical experience?

Wow.  I literally just took a 30 second pause to stretch.  You think I'm joking.  These are tough questions but I'm glad Ed called me out on them and I'm going to do my best to answer them.

First, how can my juggling (or yours) impact the world in a positive way?  The answer's not simple and i think I will probably fail a lot while trying to accomplish this lofty goal. 

I view juggling primarily as an art.  A form of art.  A specific medium through which art can be expressed.  In my opinion, art is extremely intimate.  Therefore, it is often difficult and frustrating to come up with any sort of statistics on how art is positively impacting the world.  Right?  After seeing the movie, "You, Me, and Everyone We Know" I was immediately inspired to start connecting with people more.  That week alone, I started calling lots of friends that I had lost contact with.  Because of some of those phone calls, certain friendships have been renewed.

BUT...neither the movie's screenwriter nor any of the actors in it know that that movie had such a positive effect on me.  And neither do my friends.  I didn't want to tell them that it took a movie to get me to call them.  I wanted them to feel (because partly it was - I just needed the right impetus) that it was out of missing them that I called them.

So my point is that juggling as art in a theatrical setting can affect hundreds, even thousands, but on so many unique, intimate levels that it is impossible to ever gauge the effect you have had with your juggling.

So, as long as my juggling deals either with impressing people or self-expression, my impact on the world, whether great or small, will be largely underrecorded and difficult to calculate. 

UNLESS you deal with inspiration, which to me is a force to be reckoned with.  How many people who have seen me perform live or on video have gone on to train harder or to try something new they might never have tried?  It goes both ways.  My juggling routine at Philly Fest in 2003 would never have existed without the inspiration of Viktor Kee.  Remote inspiration again, of course, unknown to him.  I have had many people come up to me at festivals and juggling clubs all over America and tell me how a certain video or performance inspired them to either start juggling or to explore new territory and technique.  Inspiration is also hard to calculate, but less so than other emotional consequences of your art.  People are more likely to tell me that a routine inspired them to start juggling than they are to tell me that a certain routine made them remember an old relationship, even if both are true. 

Wow, all that writing and we're still having a hard time visibly affecting the world?  Damn, this is hard.  Don't go though - stay with me.

So what is the next step?  Analogy!  Some of you aren't going to like this one, but it works and it works well.  I currently work for a company named FoodPlay productions.  They tour a show to elementary schools which uses juggling as an analogy for healthy (and sometimes unhealthy) eating.  During the show, I juggle five balls to impress upon kids that they should eat five fruits and vegetables every day.  I do the yo-yo trick to demonstrate the ups and downs of being on a mostly sugar diet.  And yes, I even eat the apple (get over it) to show what good foods can do for you.  This may cause some jugglers to groan but this stuff works.  The inherently visual-kinetic power of juggling is undeniable.  It takes words, thoughts, and ideas that may otherwise be abstract and makes them comprehensible, even to young minds. 

I recently performed and am still working on a piece that deals with relationships, especially with the one person in your life that you can't shake off, for better or for worse, no matter how hard you try.  Like a good actor, the piece isn't necesarily about me - that can slowly begin a slippery slope to onstage therapy.  (Every love song is NOT personal.)  But it definitely has a personal touch to it - my goal in performing it is to use juggling as a visual analogy for something that many people out in the audience may be feeling either now or in the past.  The analogy is in a ball that is attached to a string around my neck.  All the patterns in the piece deal with the special properties of this one ball being able to swing freely from my neck, even when it is dropped.

Does anyone else cringe when they hear about a juggler making way too much money to appear at a corporate retreat and teach stuffy businessmen time management skills with the use of juggling?  I roll my eyes as well but that's because I'm a juggler.  To a stuffy businessman, the use of juggling to explain time management may just be exactly what he needed.  Who am I to judge the effect juggling can have on non-jugglers when used as an analogy?  After all, there are many more important things in life than juggling so why not use what WE love to tackle real issues and events that occur in the general human experience?

I'm sorry, I gotta quit.  You guys are going to stop reading my blog if every entry is this long.  I will finish this question and attempt to tackle #2 in my next entry.  Ed, thanks for the prompt.  I love forcing my brain to work.

Flat Reverse Shoulder Throws Trend?
Mood:  surprised

I am not a juggling historian.  I am no Karl.  But as someone who has been in the game for a bit longer than a lot of these upstart WJFers, it's interesting to look at trick trends.  One of the more random trick trends over the past year has been the overabundance of jugglers practicing flat reverse shoulder throws or "lazies" as some people like to call them.

I am actually a huge fan of the trick when it is done well with maximum backward thrust, with catches as close to the knobs as possible and a general disinterested forward focus :-)

However, I think it would be fair to say, even if we don't like it, that internet is THE defining force in global juggling trends although certainly large conventions also have an impact.  So when exactly did flat reverse shoulder throws first appear on the internet and who was doing them?

 My answer?  Quite simply, Kristian Wanvik in the trailer for Juggling in Stockholm, Oskar Wrango's first publicly available juggling film.  It is available to watch on YouTube with Kristian doing the trick around 0:48.   See it here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVElkx96UAE 

 I would be very interested in anyone with an internet video containing this trick and dating earlier than the release of juggling in stockholm.

Since then, I have seen jugglers from both "camps", artistic and sport, doing this trick.  Marcus Monroe and Brett Sheets.  Sean Blue and Vova Galchenko.  Jay Gilligan and Doug Sayers.  As far as I can see, it was the coolest way to juggle the siteswap 3 in 2007.  My prediction for 2008 is that "shoulder pads" will become the cool new way to juggle "3".  The earliest appearance of them flashed is on Wes's "Proper Fun" video.  The earliest appearance of more than a qualify of shoulder pads is on my Normal Like You video.  Again, please prove me wrong if you can.

As with any trend, I think that within the next few years, people will become so oversaturated with lazies that it will enter the "basic tricks" category even though for someone like me entering in on the ground floor, this was a very hard trick to solidify, taking over a year and a half of practice! 

This is the other amazing thing about juggling.  Tricks that we slave over in 2008 are going to come easy to young jugglers in the future because they will be done by so many people that the newbies will assume it is easy and their brains will make the learning process quicker.  This is how juggling will evolve.

Trends become prerequisites.  Watch them.

Mindless Juggling
Mood:  rushed

Once you become a professional juggler (meaning, you are being paid to juggle), juggling becomes a source of income which means that, in a way, it is your work.  I'm sure the best jugglers, just as the best artists of any field, would tell you that the minute juggling becomes "work" you need to quit.  I think that's a little strong.  I think the minute juggling becomes work, you need to shift gears.

For example, I think this is why I may never be a great circus performer because I cannot stand to work on one particular routine all my life.  Folks like Viktor Kee and Anthony Gatto - these guys spend years and years polishing their 7 minutes.  Me?  I have been in the game long enough for people to admit that I am always trying out new material in my shows and at conventions and such.  Not because I feel I have to for anyone's sake.  It's because I NEED to for MY sake.  It's this process of creating new routines that often fuels my thought process. 

However, on the flip side, coming up with new material all the time is annoying.  Nothing is ever perfectly polished, and although you find yourself thinking that you should work harder on a particular routine for a second go-around, you discover a new prop or piece of music that gets you even more excited.  If juggling routines were women, I'd be a player.

However, there even comes a point when working on routines becomes boring.  There's no energy in it anymore.  This is why it is often wonderful to return to the state of the hobbyist and do some MINDLESS JUGGLING!  As VISTA says, neither Cancel nor Allow.  With the nice weather back in the northeast, it's good to just go out and let an hour or two pass you by, and not necessarily feel like you've become a better juggler.  Yes, you should learn alberts, but who really wants to put forth the energy today of all days?  You've got your backcrosses down, do those instead.  Be mindless.  It's okay.  You will make a mistake, which will lead to a new trick, which will lead to new technique which will get you excited all over again to create professionally.  Let the funk iron itself out.

 This has been a letter to myself.  :-)