I arrive at the 19th annual Isla Vista Fest on Saturday. It's put on this year by the UCSB Juggling Club. It's in full swing. Scores of jugglers are in the park -- juggling, talking, doing the "Fest thing." Ben Schoenberg and the Renegades sell props. It's late afternoon. This is the way life should be...
I see Steve and Michelle Gerdes, Carolyn and Mike Hatalski, Cliff Spenger, Bruno Saxer and Susie Williams. Dan Bennnett is doing amazing tricks. Mark Nizer hangs for a while. Conversations start... Suddenly we're on "Festival Time." The minutes disappear like socks in a laundrymat. I look at my watch. It's late and the park is clearing...
I walk over to the theater for the public show and run into Kim Johnes and her boyfriend Emilio who learned how to eat fire last year. He still has no facial hair. I go inside and see the Bakalor family setting up for the show. Mark Bakalor tells me that "Drinking beer is like... drinking beer." They work on sound, lights and cues. Dan Holzman is there. So is Dan Bennett and Mark Nizer. Someone hands me a piece of paper. I am in charge of the show order. I feel important. I grab Bob Mendelshon and ask him about the acts I don't know. We decide on an order together with advice from Barry Bakalor. It's become a group thing. We all feel important. I bash on Nizer for not being in the show. Nizer bashes on me for not being in the show. Nizer and I bash on Holzman for always being in the show. It's a good line-up.
The show starts with a dedication to Patty Laney. She's the reason the Fest happens every year. It's a celebration of the life of Patty Laney. The dedication is real, heart-felt and touching. That's a good thing. Another good thing is that the guy who murdered her is still rotting away in jail somewhere. I don't generally like wishing hurtful stuff on other people, but this time I relish it. Say hi to "Big Bubba-Joe" for me, tough guy. He's over there... waiting... behind the boiler...
On with the show.
Barry "The Taller Raspyni" is the MC. He does some bits with his wife Annie. She's wearing a costume -- kind an elf meets Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer meets Tuvok of "Star Trek: Voyager" affair. Very stylish.
The Boogie-Down jugglers pass. They are not naked or "plungered," but they are still good.
Rob Street does a great two-ball routine that looks like a three-ball routine. Nizer leans over and says "I've been working WAY too hard!" Street is good. So is the music he's chosen. He's from England.
Dan Bennett and Bob Mendelshon perform some bits together and apart. Dan puts a bowling ball on his foot and kicks it up to his forehead -- I've seen it before, but it still hurts to watch. Bob does a 5-ball routine wearing a purple suit that makes him look like Barney the dinosaur. Dan and Bob make a bet on stage, lick dollar bills and stick them to their foreheads. They try to flip a club from a chin-balance to an upside-down forehead balance. Nizer heckles from his seat. They do a two-ball, two-man kickup -- Bob's foot to a ball spinning on Dan's finger. Other stuff too...
Everyone on stage makes jokes about Holzman's "Tip Book" and Mom Bakalor. She's Mark Bakalor's grandmother, but never once does she mention drinking beer. Barry Friedman spits a Ping-Pong ball into the audience while Dan hassles him. It hits Mom Bakalor.
Rick Rubenstein clicks his teeth together to make "music," Cliff Spenger does slack rope. Someone moves his knot. It is funny...
Sean and Dave do a rendition of a "mentalism" trick where they ask a volunteer what card they are looking at. They give him TWO chances, because the the trick is HEART.... err... hard... He picks the two of hearts. He is wrong...
Ben Schoengerg does some amazing "site-swap" tricks with balls, also badminton rackets and balls.
Raspyni's pass clubs. They hassle each other. The crowd laughs. The show ends.
It's time for the juggler's beach party at Mark Collier's house. We drive there, but there is no beach because it's high-tide. There is live guitar music and video tapes of naked jugglers torch-swinging in Hawaii. There is good conversation with Sean of Sean and Dave, Renegade Tom, Rick Rubenstein, Dan Bennett and Steve Gerdes and others... It's time to head back.
Rob Gym is the place hang, the place to juggle. It's closed. We move on. We drive to "Santa Barbara Dave's" to spend the night. It's a caravan thing with Steve Gerdes in the lead. I'm in a car, Jess Monroe is in a car. Rick Rubenstein and Ben Schoenberg are in a car. We follow Steve while he gets lost and begins a binary tree search of each and every cul de sac in the neighborhood. After a very long time, we find the answer -- Jess Monroe had directions in his car the whole time. He just liked following Steve. I wonder where the Aerial Mirage Jugglers are so we can have a reunion from last year's car caravan to nowhere...
I sleep in my car in Dave's driveway.
Breakfast at the Blue Dolphin. Lots of food. Lots of coffee. Lots of computer talk. Only 6 hours of sleep. My hands shake from a caffeine buzz. Life is good. Time to go to the park...
Bud Markowitz is juggling. Not dildo's and "Ben-Wha" balls like last year. Regular stuff. It could be because his granddaughter is here... She asks Dan Bennett if he can juggle higher. Of all the people... "Mr. Low Pattern" himself...
Rick Rubenstein wiggles his butt when he juggles numbers more than any other person on the planet. We talk about getting lost the night before. He tells me of his first night here. Barry Bakalor gave him a map to the gym -- last years map. It showed a gym that no longer existed out in the woods, in the middle of nowhere. He did the lost driving thing two nights in a row. Rick tells me about the "Scott Nizer Nausea Betting Pool" that happened Friday night. Scott is Mark's wife. She's pregnant. Mark called her on a regular basis to see if she had chunked. As she cleaned up, the person who picked the closest time also cleaned up. Who needs Vegas? We can gamble anywhere...
The day ends. So does the Fest. I talk with Susie Williams and Timmie and the Aerial Mirage Jugglers. They are all spending the night at "Santa Barbara Dave's" again. Not me. I have to go. Important business meeting in the morning with someone who usually books clowns. I'd rather stay. A great Fest! I'm coming next year...