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The Renegade Stage at the Lodi Juggling Festival began at a very civilized 9 p.m. (after the Primm shows, this was a decided relief!). Overall, the show was relatively tame, but it never strayed too far into the realm of "suck." We had a few good laughs under the able guidance of our host, comic Bob Mendohlsson, and what more can you ask for? Things got rolling once he got his bottle of Pale Ale open, which he generously offered to share with the performers.
Festival producer Andrew Conway opened the show with a demonstration of his newest whip cracking tricks, overcoming such difficulties as the stage's well-timed snag of his longest whip, and a painful self-inflicted welt appearing uninvited midway through his performance.
In an impressive demonstration of timing, Will from Berkeley dropped to his knees and juggled a solid three-club pattern. His cohorts Chris and Teresa performed a very nice set of steals and returns, forming Karamazov-like syncopations and rhythms.
Magician David Birnbaum, commenting on my Lodi review of last year (where I took his buddy Adam to task for teaching my three-year-old how to chant a rather naughty word), led the audience in a slogan advocating freedom of speech: "If you can't say 'F***,' you can't say 'F*** the Government!" He then did a sort of medly of unusual card tricks -- flamenco cards, flowerpot cards, and cardtact juggling.
Stilts did a quick little quarter-toss bit, followed by Marcy and Sue in pioneer outfits, demonstrating "The Graces" (tossing a small hoop using a pair of sharp sticks).
Jer & Eric, aka "Los Dos Super Pendejos" (it means something about pubic hair, I think) had troubles with their music, and my bet is that their contact juggling routine appeared to be a lot lamer than it was supposed to be.
Paula Conway (completing the Conway Family Stage Series) ably performed both roles in a duet from "The Music Man." A fellow whose name might be Fred, Neil, or Barney, spelled Paula's name via unicycle onstage.
The lights dimmed as David Birnbaum, David Pozinanter, and Tim Kelly did their imitation of a Christmas tree, each juggling five glowballs (fifteen total, with four colors among them). Ben Schoenberg provided the spectalular finale, briefly juggling seven of them.
Corey Conners, age 12 ("Wanna swig, kid?"), showed off his stuff with a sharp ball and club routine (do we have a future Juniors competitor here?). This kid is hot -- he ran some very impressive continuous chin rolls, and after a few tries, nailed a chin balance with a head roll back into the pattern. Jason Garfield, look out!
Ken Williams provided the first fire of the evening with a flaming devil stick routine, to the Beatles' "For the Benefit of Mr. Kite." Saying she'd picked this up in a gay bar a few years ago, Pat Zurra's fan dancing routine had us all cheering. Maybe it's more like fan swinging -- very graceful, sexy manipulations of two hot pink fans. Not your usual bar pickup...
The next act was the longest and funniest of the evening. All night, Bob had been dealing with a heckler (also a Bob, I believe -- a little guy with a big mouth who resembled Sonny Bono in several ways, including his voice). When Eric Cumberland took the stage for his fire eating routine, he chose Bob Heckler as his volunteer assistant. Excited beyond reason, Bob ran up with relish, stopping first to throw his arms around Bob M. The impromptu clowning that followed was pretty damned funny. Before Eric started the fire-eating, he tried to get Bob dressed in Eric's volunteer firefighter turnout gear. Once dressed, Bob flung himself into the holly bushes just below the stage. Finally dragged back onstage, Bob made a menace of himself with the extinguisher he's supposed to use if Eric tries to torch himself. Eric removes the extinguisher from Bob's reach. Finally, Eric does the fire-eating (he was hired to do this in a movie a few months back -- he was supposed to wear greasepaint, but convinced the producers that it might not be a good idea. He was talked into wearing some false eyebrows instead -- we were informed that they've just grown back). The bit ended with Tim and Scotty throwing Bob Bono into the holly again ("The Dwarf Toss Workshop will be held at 10 a.m. tomorrow morning,"), and Bob mooning everyone once he finally got the gear off.
Once everything had calmed down, Mike Brown and Julie Curry performed a madrigal song: "Since First I Saw Your Face," a classy bit that must have been hard to do following the previous act. They held relatively straight faces throughout, but the effort was visibly difficult.
Greg Edward's daughter, Iris, and Keith "The Leaf" did some fire stunts: he played with his fire Slinky (yes, a fire Slinky) and fire staff, and she did some fire ball swinging.
Tim Kelly closed the show with his new finale: he set a board across the chests of two men lying on the stage (one was Scotty), balanced his rola bola atop the board, leapt on top and juggled three torches. "Remember those mousetraps, Scotty?" he jeered as he waved the torches. However, the stunt went off without a hitch and we happily came to the end of the '98 Lodi version of Club Renegade.
