Wrote this while it was still fresh on my mind. Looking forward to the next one! Sorry its long, but there was so much I wanted to say :)
Highs:
-Seeing so many people having fun at the lounge. Thanks to everyone who came up to me and said something about it too. Really means a lot to hear.
-Competing. Reid and I were much less nervous this year, had a lot more fun leading up to comp, and had a blast on stage. We also hit all our biggest tricks on the first shot! This was also such a great year to be a part of the teams competitions. 6 teams! There was such a wealth of talent too. Couldn't have asked to be part of a better competition.
-Leading workshops. I taught three this year and all were very well attended and I think people enjoyed them and learned.
-Attending workshops. I especially enjoyed Luke Wilson's workshops, really great stuff.
-Busking competition. I was actually much more afraid of this competition than I was of the stage competition. For the majority of my street show I don't do anything that would impress a juggler, so I basically cut my street show in half, threw in a few harder tricks, then did my finale. I had an absolute blast during my show and got the biggest hat I've ever had!
-Meeting Daniel and Dominik. Those kids are a lot of fun and enormously talented jugglers. I can't wait to see what they do! Hope they come back to many more IJAs.
-Getting to know Paul Arneberg a little more. This guy is incredible! I can see now how he has such a successful group of jugglers. If I have a tenth of the success he does with his group, I'll consider myself a resounding success.
-Comraderie with the competitors. We had a lot of fun either messing with the other competitors, or hanging out with them beforehand. It was great to be able to have fun with everyone beforehand and keep the feeling light-hearted and fun.
-1 club horse with Tony, Adam, Jeff and Justin. It had been too long since I'd had a good game of that!
-Seeing Reid Fierheller the day after he had surgery on his arm back in the gym working on 3 clubs in 1 hand.
-So many people donated things to the Boulder YEP program! It was incredible to see that kind of support. I'm happy to be a part of such a wonderful community.
-Meeting new people and getting to know others better. I'm sure I've forgotten some names, but people like Tony Steinbach, Adam Weisgerber, Danny Rose, David Uhr, Danny Champ, Rick Rubenstein, Mike Sullivan, Kim Laird, Dave Pawson, Robin Chestnut, Richard Kennison, Tim Furst.
-Seeing my 2nd cousin, Anne Macklin at the festival! I first met her at the 1997 convention in Pittsburgh, and was able to reconnect with her a few years ago after I moved to Colorado. I wish I'd had more time to spend with her this festival, but it was still wonderful to see her there.
-Seeing David Deeble again. We miss you in Colorado man! Glad to hear things are going well for you though.
-Meeting Michael Davis and getting to see him perform. He is a living legend.
Lows:
-Hearing that Reid Fierheller broke his arm on the 2nd or 3rd day of the festival. It just made me sick to hear that happened to him. I hadn't seen him in a couple years and was excited to see him at the festival.
-Wii got stolen on the first night. I'd like to think this wasn't a juggler, but if it was I'm really disappointed in you. It was a small amount of money in the grand scheme of things, but people were really enjoying it and I was sad to see it gone.
-The mistake in scoring the teams finals. This kind of thing shouldn't have happened. Unfortunately since it did there's no real ideal way to handle it. The team who got third definitely deserves their time to be recognized on stage in front of everyone for what they accomplished, however it was hard to see how it affected the team who ended up in fourth. I do appreciate how the IJA and championships director handled the situation and I know they handled it in the way they thought was best and most graceful and for that I'm thankful to them.
-The parents of the kid in the balcony during the cascade of stars. There was a child (maybe two?) who was being a kid (loud, not paying attention) which is excusable. However the adult in charge of the children did not remove them even though from the very back of the BALCONY it was obvious that everyone in the theater including the performers on stage could hear them. This went on for many acts during the second half. Are you so selfish that you would tarnish or ruin the experience of everyone else in the theater by allowing your kids to continue to disrupt the show? I was also disappointed that no one involved in the theater staff or the show that night had them removed from the theater. I think this would have been a perfectly appropriate action to take.
-Sound miscue during mine and Reid's performance. It was a pretty easy cue and it went fine during rehearsal. Thanks Richard for being there to call the show and getting it stopped before it got too far into the song.
-No field ball :(
Goals:
-Compete well in the Team Championships. Check! I could not be happier with how well Reid and I did. We trained hard for this and it all paid off.
-Compete in the busking comp. Check!
-Compete in X Juggling. Fail.
-Compete in numbers. Fail.
-Work on slapbacks. Check, but barely.
-Hit a new trick. Check on many counts!
-Come up with crazy stuff with Stefan. Check MANY times over.
-Get all brainy with Falkov about juggling. Check! On the last day :)
-Teach successful workshops. Check.
-Set up a fun lounge. Check.
-Compete in Indy Prop. Fail (never wrote a routine and didn't want to just get up there and juggle).
-To screw around with the competitors before competition. Big time check! Thanks especially to Ben for being such a good sport about it! I hope you don't hate us too much after that :) D&D were fun and took it well too.
-Perform at Renegade. Fail, something came up the only night I was really available to perform that needed to be taken care of, so that was too bad.
Crush:
-Dave Pawson. What a guy! So happy he is a part of the board now. I got to know him during Fun Fund meetings earlier in the year and was looking forward to meeting him. I had a lot of fun hanging out with him this festival as well as working with him. He did a lot to help make this festival a success and I hope he is in a position to do the same thing next year despite whatever obligations he will have within the board.
-Dominique. Thanks for letting me crash in your room the last few nights! Much appreciated :)
-The Condor.
-Everyone who helped me out with something during the week. Many people were eager to help when I asked them to and even came up to me at times to ask if there was anything they could help with. I'd especially like to thank Dave Pawson, Jeff Lutkus and Scott Sorensen.
Bane:
-My neck. On the car ride to the festival I got a crick in my next from taking a nap. I have a pretty bad neck so this ends up being a bit of a situation if I don't take care of it properly. Luckily after a couple of days of resting properly it went away and I was able to enjoy the festival.
-Humidity. I hate it.
-The schedule on Friday. Four competitions in the same day? Really? This was not only unfair to competitors but also to audience members.
Surprise:
-I left the festival with just about as much money as I got there with. I actually broke even!
Until next time,
-Warren
