Mousetraps and Morons: the 1998 Lodi Fest Public Show

show pics by Qarin Van Brink are posted here.

Show producer Barry Bakalor and Festival Coordinator Andrew Conway definitely learned from last year's mistakes and put together another great public show for the 10th Annual Lodi Juggling Festival (about an hour south of Sacramento, California, held October 9-12). Last year's show suffered from a mean heckler at the sound board, music in the first act that prominently featured the word "motherf****r," overcrowding and a very late start.

The show was scheduled for 7 p.m. on Saturday night, and many folks got there in plenty of time to buy their tickets (which were the only souvenir of the fest, a take-home refrigerator magnet). The publicity this year was just right, and there were maybe only a dozen folks left without seats. The kids were piled up front (to create a soft landing for unicycle acts gone awry, I suspect), Stilts once again was providing pre-show patriotism with his Uncle Sam character, and I collared Barry ahead of time: he seemed pretty calm, sporting his very nifty JIS polo shirt (sorry folks, it's just a prototype).

Andrew took the stage at about ten minutes after seven, and gave out tickets for Sunday's Mark Nizer show for those participants who hadn't yet missed a Lodi fest (it looked like about a dozen folks fit the bill). It turned out that the number of festival volunteers this year (60) was about equal to the number of participants the first year. He then introduced the "cuter" half of the professional juggling Clockwork, our emcee Rick Rubenstein.

Rick had done the same job at Lodi four years ago, and was warmly welcomed back to the stage. After (almost) reading the seven words that would NOT be allowed during the evening, he proceeded to get the show off to a snappy start by introducing the first act, which happened to be his partner, Jack Kalvan.

Jack has been working on a solo show for a while now, and although I got to see his very slick and bright brochure at the Primm festival, this was my first time watching him on his own. His character was a classic gentleman juggler, with a silent performance done to upbeat music -- a smooth three-ball routine involving lots of great facial expressions (the guy has a grin that won't end!) and clever comic bits -- I particularly liked his reverse back-drops (the balls just lifted themselves from one hand to the other, behind his back), and a funny gag where he appeared to tie two balls together with a hair. A very strong opening, indeed!

The next act up was the stage debut of the two Conway boys (Ian and ?? sorry, I didn't get his name...), chasing each other on unicycles with foam swords -- sibling rivalry combined with a healthy dose of prop abuse. It was cute for the first thirty seconds, but it dragged on for quite a while -- and it might be suggested that the level of performance didn't quite match up with the other acts of the evening. Maybe it would have been better as a Renegade act? However, these little hams will have plenty of opportunities to try again, I'm sure!

Folks who have suffered through some of my other festival reviews will remember how much I enjoyed the emcee team of Tim Kelly and Scotty Meltzer at the Isla Vista fest last spring (despite the fumes). They returned to the stage as the team "Comedy Industries," and were very well received. Their rapport has only gotten better with time, and even those of us who saw them before were soon guffawing again. They did a bit involving club passing and three club tricks, with a finish of a leapfrog steal of knives (a trick they had muffed twice demonstrating earlier that day in Clockwork's team workshop).

Three-ball wizard-in-training David Pozinanter (sorry, I probably messed that spelling up but good) made his stage debut with a quick and pretty piano concerto (on a woefully untuned piano) and a beautifully fluid glowball routine to a jazzy sax number in the dark. Several morons took flash pictures, including a dim dame sitting in front of me who continued to flash poor David even after I poked her. Sorry, Dave, I tried! Rick got up afterwards to make the "no flash" announcement he should have made at the beginning -- and was promptly flashed from several directions. "Aww, see? You made me drop!" he whined.

Merry Mary and her nine-year-old daughter Mary next brought some culture to the show with a presentation of "The Three Witches." Mary Sr. operated a whimsical witch puppet, who read two poems: the classic "The other day upon the stair, I met a man who wasn't there...", followed by a delightful condensed version of "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" -- which I later found out had been written by Mary back in her high school days.

Since both members of Clockwork were present, it was inevitable that we would be treated to a rendition of The Flowerpots -- and we weren't disappointed. If you haven't seen it, well, it defies description. Well done, boys.

Next up, James Jay confessed: "I used to be a mime." To atone, he performed a long William Lake poem and book manipulation routine. In addition to reciting the poetry with great interpretation, his performance combining the arts of dance, toss and contact juggling, cigar boxes, and more was truly the freshest and most creative act of the evening. Rick next presented Andrew and Barry with bottles of bubbly, in appreciation for their dedication and devotion to the Lodi fest. Big warm fuzzy hugs followed, and then Gary Carp closed out the first half with a acapella version of a jazz classic (I don't know who wrote it, but you've heard it: "My analyst told me, I was right out of my head...") -- with cameos by Scotty and Tim.

After a ten minute intermission, we were treated to a unicycle extravaganza by John Foss (wearing a killer vest). He performed ballet on one wheel, reminiscent of figure skating, soaring along on his uni in every position you could think of. Lots of flash and razzle, then he moved into a comedy routine where, among other things, he hopped up a set of stairs and leaped over a volunteer. His finale was an amazing jump from his normal sized uni to a six foot giraffe, with no assist at all. Rick returned to the stage, and proceeded to show off some of the three-ball mastery that he is so well known for. However, when he offered to demonstrate the trick named for him, Rubenstein's Revenge, he was beset by David P., Tim Kelly, and Ben Schoenberg (all three-ball whizzes in their own right), all coaching Rick in performing his own trick. Ben brought out one of the FlickTrick books he sells, and Rick was pleased: "I bet even David Copperfield doesn't have his own FlickTrick."

Contact juggling was well-represented next by the sinuous, sexy moves of Lance Coombes, sporting his new green hair. He began with one, then two, acrylic balls, and wowed us by juggling two balls with one hand and contact juggling the third with his other hand, ending with a forearm roll and balance. He moved into a three ball routine that featured an unreal twisting of his arms, and his trademark overhead cascade where he drops to his knees and lies back to the floor, returning to a stand without interrupting the pattern. Later I learned that this was the first time he had performed to this music (he had left his own at home).

Tonight was my introduction to the barbed humor and ball skills that make up the repetoire of Bob Mendehlsson. He did a routine featuring (all together now): "Five Little Yellow Rubber Balls." A fine display of comedy and juggling.

Ben Schoenberg took to the stage with a wonderful hoop routine to the "Star Wars" fanfare music. Leaps, twirls, body rolls... I think I saw him do Mill's Mess with three of them (these things must have been two feet across at least -- think Hula Hoops at 75%) -- then four with a pulldown and a finish with five (from off the stage). Sprinkled liberally among his amazing physical feats with these new props was ample evidence of Ben's gentle style of self-deprecating humor -- a classy act and well-deserving of the long applause it earned. Will those hoops be in the next Serious Juggling catalog, Ben?

Marcus Raymond next came out with a sweet little number featuring skilled top hat manipulation and plenty of comedy (between him, Mendehlssohn and Bob Nickerson, I have hopes for myself as a chubby juggler). Marcus made even three hats in motion look so easy, which was a dead giveaway of how fantastically difficult his routine must have been!

Tim and Scotty returned with an odd mousetrap routine -- I won't ruin it for you, in case you ever get a chance to see them in action, but I later found out that the traps snapping under Tim's bare feet were real. The things some folks will do for a laugh! Steve Healy's clothing was featured heavily in this routine, and although Steve never made it onto the stage, he did treat us to a quick display of his abdominal muscle control. Sadly, the climax of the show was missed by most of the audience. Mark Nizer was set to show off his laser diabolo, but the person operating the fog machine absolutely flooded the room with far too much mist -- we could see occasional flashes of something that looked really cool, but the vast majority of the crowd had to wait until the full Nizer show the next day to get the intended effect. It was only a slight bummer, though, and we left the auditorium (with its visibility of about six inches) in a great mood, ready to brave the nippy air for our turn at the flamethrower back at the festival.