Juggling Mike

Montreal is well known by circus affectionados. Although primarily dominated by the Cirque du Soleil, one venue that I keep going back to in the Tohu. It offers some incredible circus performances in a small intimate setting. I have mentioned several shows I have seen there, but last night I saw one of the best shows ever. It is called PSY and is the newest show from the troupe Les 7 Doigts de la Main. I had seen their previous show La Vie and loved it, so there was no way I was missing this one.

PSY in French is short for psychiatrist. The show’s stars are all suffering from a different psychological issue. Whether it is insomnia, schizophrenia, agoraphobia, dependency or anger issues, they are all there waiting to see their psychiatrist. Some parts of the show are from when they have to interact with each other and others are by their flashbacks. Two of my favourite scenes involved the same guy. In one, he remembered his 8th birthday and everybody appeared as it did so long ago. They were about to play “Pin the Tail on the Donkey”, but instead of a normal knife, they had juggling knives. One actress started club spinning with the juggling knives. There is something hot about women spinning knives and acting psychotic… or maybe I’m just insane as well. The other scene with the guy involved juggling and a cane. It was a scene outside and people would keep passing by where their object was a juggling pin instead of the actual object. A homeless man had a pin inside a paper bag (bottle), one couple were nursing a pin (baby), a dog had a pin in his mouth (stick), etc. He would grab these object and start juggling or balancing them with his cane. It was quite fun to watch. Part of what made this show so enjoyable was the mesh between acting and circus. There was a story being told and the circus elements blended in with the rest. Everybody has their own skill and it was all fleshed out depending on their addiction.

The music was also great. Most of it was a sort of techno/old school recordings and it sometimes felt like I was at a DJ Shadow or Kid Koala concert. The acts all worked in sync with the music playing, and in case I never mentioned before, I LOVE that. I could go on and on about the show, but it just won’t do it justice. It is the type of show you need to see to properly enjoy, but hopefully this video will give you a glimpse of what it is like.

Tonight was the last night it played at the Tohu, but if ever it comes in a venue near you, you really should check it out.

2 Comments »

The end of the year is always accompanied with gatherings and events which take up most of your time. For the last two weeks, any day where I was not working, I was busy at an event. It is amazing how fast time flies when you are kept busy, and next thing you know, it has been over a week since you last posted. While I missed a Music Monday, I hope you were all too busy with the holidays to notice!

The Cirque du Soleil is currently back in Montreal with Alegra. This show started touring in 1994 and is still going strong. They changed their format in 2009 to fit in arenas, but the show is still the same. Since I had never seen it before (as if I need an excuse), I bought my tickets as soon as they were available. Unfortunately, my “awesome” front row seats (not on the floor, but first row in the bleachers) were directly behind some projectors blocking out part of the floor. Luckily, one of the attendants gave us seats in the third row which had not been sold for that night. Regardless of that slight annoyance, the show was great.

One thing you realize when you see many circus shows is that the acts all start feeling familiar. I had a sense of deja-vu throughout the performance. While that didn’t dampen my impression of the show, it is something to consider. My favourite act of the show was definitely the clowns. I often find that clowns are never fully fleshed out in Cirque shows, but I loved the dynamism between the two in Alegria. They were really funny and did a great job. It was no surprise that they had the biggest ovation at the end of the show.

Another great part of this Cirque show is the music. As usual, there is a live band and singers and it adds to the overall experience. The Alegria theme song is probably the most known Cirque du Soleil out there, and it brought me joy to finally hear it live.

Overall, I really enjoyed Alegria, but I didn’t find there was much that was new to me. This is my fourth Cirque du Soleil show in 2009, so after a while, the acts tend to repeat. If you are new to the Cirque du Soleil world, then Alegria will definitely impress, but if you are used to circus shows, then you will enjoy yourself, but will find nothing really new. To those who have seen the show and loved the clowns, I have only this to say: “Never surrender!”

Watch the official trailer here.

No Comments »

I love the audio/visual. I’ve owned my DLSR for a couple of years, but I have never owned a camcorder. I was going to wait until there is a Nikon SLR body with proper 1080p video capabilities, but I figured I could get something smaller for now and upgrade later. I ended up choosing the waterproof Sanyo VPC-CA9 720p camcorder. It is not the best quality, but it is not too shabby either. It can go up to 5 feet underwater, so I will not be afraid of getting it wet outside. I have already tested it in my Oktoberfest mug!

While I have done a bunch of sample videos, I finally uploaded something online. It is probably the least suitable video to show off the HD, but that doesn’t matter. It is another video of me juggling my glowballs. Once again, there is nothing impressive in this video, but I had fun doing it. One thing I discovered is that I really enjoy finding the proper audio to go with my video. I’ll probably shoot some more footage in the coming weeks and post something more interesting. Until then, enjoy the short video. Or, if you prefer, watch it in HD.

3 Comments »

The Cirque du Soleil has had many shows over the year. While the origins of the show comes from Montreal, I have never really went to see any of them. It was not until 2 years ago when I decided to go check out Kooza. Naturally, I was blown away and I felt rather stupid for missing out on all the previous shows.

Since Kooza, Cirque returned to Montreal with the arena version of their touring show Saltimbanco, but I decided against seeing it. It was not until late 2008 that my interest was sparked once more with the announcement of their new show to celebrate their 25th anniversary. At the time, the show had no name, and we were given no details. That didn’t stop me from buying seats, and come May, the time had come for me and Dharti to go to the circus.

Ovo is the name they chose for their newest show. It takes place in a land of bugs, where grasshoppers, ladybugs, spiders, and other insects live. A mosquito arrives carrying a large egg, and on his arrival, he is tricked, and his egg is stolen. Thus begins his adventure on finding the egg, and at the same time winning the heart of a local bumblee bee. It sounds weird, but it turned out to be a lot of fun. The show’s pace was very similar to Kooza, in which it felt like act after act with a thin plot carrying each act forward. I didn’t mind, as some of the acts were incredible, and the storyline played by the clowns was pretty funny. The music was awesome, and had a very joyous theme to it. I really want the soundtrack.

While many of the acts were incredible, the most impressive act (in my opinion) was the guy on the slackline. While slacklining is quite common in the Montreal parks, this guy took the cake. His final stunt was slacklining while standing upside-down on a giraffe unicycle. Just process that for an instant, and remember that a slackline, unlike a tightrope, will move left and right as you balance yourself. Another act that I quite enjoyed were the men that would trapeze from either side, flip in the air, and land on top of other people situated on a center platform.

Part of my enjoyment of any Cirque show is the stage, which is very modular. What seemed like a normal stage at first, evolved into something much larger than expected. By the end, the small center stage had become longer with hidden trampolines, and culminated into a rock climbing wall with more trampolines!

Overall, Ovo was pure joy, and the only bad point I can mention was “the man with no neck and a giant head” that sat directly in front of me. Still, even with my view obstructed, I had a blast, and I was even more excited for my next Cirque du Soleil show. I left for Las Vegas the day afterwards, where I got to experience two more shows, each more varied than the last. I will elaborate on these in future posts.

Ovo plays in Montreal until July 19th, so if you live in the area, go check it out!!

1 Comment »

I went to see a circus show last night at the Tohu, one of the many circus friendly locations we have in this area. This was the third show by the “Les 7 doigts de la main” troupe. I had never seen any of their prior shows, so I had no clue what to expect, but they had been getting great reviews from the newspapers.

The show is called “La Vie” (”Life” in french) and revolves around how you should appreciate your life, for when you die, it is over. The stage and the audience are essentially in purgatory and every person is there to witness their sins. One member of the troupe plays the host, and others are essentially people who have died and have to face their death. Depending on how they died, their portion of the show reflects on how they try to coup with their loss. Naturally, how they react all have to do with the many arts of the circus and it was great fun. There were many aerial acts, hand to hand, dance, and some more traditional juggling, such as diabolo, cane manipulation and flair! Unfortunately, there was no act involving ball or club juggling, but everything else more than made up for it. The diabolo act in particular was incredible. I have embedded a very similar diabolo act by the same two guys from another show they’ve done.

While it is all good and fun to have some good circus acts in a show, you need good characters and acting to really grab your audience, and they did a great job at this. The main host (played by the bigger guy in the video) did a great job entertaining the audience, while the other diaboloist could have been considered as the jack-of-all-trades character and clown. He played the role of a new member in purgatory and didn’t know how to get around, so he was quite funny. One memorable character was the contortionist who was a crazy girl who tried to escape from the insane asylum. She was a lot of fun and was always in character which was great. She also had an aerial act on the long “curtain ribbon” (not sure the exact name of that) which was meant to expose how she died. As the host put it “She had enough material to escape from the third story window, but unfortunately, she lived on the eighth floor.” One character is actually the troupe’s DJ and he has his own act in the set as well. Overall, every character was great and the numbers were all well mixed together.

The schedule is almost over, but some supplementary shows have been added in November. If you want to see a great circus act, (and it does not cost very much either!) go see “La Vie” at the Tohu. You will not regret it. I had a lot of fun and I will be recommending it to everybody I know. You can buy your tickets here as well as see a promo video of the show in action. It is funny, sexy, imaginative, and totally worth it. GO SEE THIS SHOW!

3 Comments »

I received my glowballs today via le snail mail, and I am really happy with my purchase. These are rechargeable LED juggling balls that feel like stage balls. They have a small hole around the size of a dime that holds the switch to turn them on and off, but honestly, you don’t feel it when you juggle. Since I bought the rechargeable version, the hole also holds the charger input to juice them back up. I have no clue how long the batteries will last, but so far so good.

I decided to film myself to see what it would look like, so I turned on the trusty webcam and turned off the lights. While the quality of the video is pretty much crap (what do you expect from a webcam?) I liked how the videos overall turned out. Given my creative nature, it wasn’t long before I had Windows Movie Maker open and I made some sort of video.

Note that I am not showing off ANY juggling tricks or skill here. I am simply “jamming” with my balls and having fun. I also recorded the video before adding any audio, so if it looks out of sync with the music, it is because I never planned it that way from the beginning. That said, I like how it turned out.

As for the music, it is the song Alice by Pogo. You can download the track on last.fm.

10 Comments »

I’m 3 days late, but I am finally back. I have ridden the lobster, travelled across Nova Scotia, and survived. I now have a black hood on my car, but it survived the 1300km trip back home. Tomorrow I get to go back to work. Vacations end way too early.

Upcoming goals:
Learn how to unicycle
Stop being so blobby (aka, get in shape)
Sort through all the pics I took and upload them

Thanks to everybody who supported us throughout the event.
Ride the Lobster was AWESOME!

6 Comments »

We’ve done it. We rode the lobster.

We officially finished the race on Friday, and Saturday stayed around Baddeck for supper. I am currently still in Halifax as I am waiting for them to finish fixing my car. I was supposed to show two of my teammates around Montreal, but since I am stuck here they will be leaving without me. One already left by train, another left directly for Singapore by plane, and Jiahui is leaving for Montreal by plane tomorrow morning. She’s taking the bus to New York tomorrow night, so she will only have a couple of hours to check out Montreal. I should be leaving for Montreal by car tomorrow night. I will probably take my time and do it over two days. I hope the wildlife avoids me this time.

I had a really good time this week with my team. They were a lot of fun and we laughed a great deal. We ended up 34th out of 35 teams, which is impressive since we used smaller wheels with no gears. On Wednesday, we participated in the time trials (21 km stretch) and got rather good times. These guys are fast. We also did the Criterium, which is a race we did in downtown Truro in closed off streets. That was rather impressive to watch, and was a great opportunity for me to grab pictures (coming soon).

On Thursday we got back to long distance racing, but we borrowed a 36″ Coker unicycle from the German team. This gave us a slight advantage from Monday and Tuesday since it allowed for faster racing. It was the first time the team used it, and on Thursday, only one of us used it. Considering they had never tried it before, they did really good. This was the first day we actually finished the race. It might not sound like much, but spending over 12 hours racing across a province, you are really happy when you can go through the finish line. The biggest issue about that day was that our Coker rider got injured. He could barely walk, so the rest of the race was completed with only two riders constantly switching. A LOT of it was uphill, so I am really proud of them. I spent a lot of time stopping the car at the top of hills, then running down halfway in case they needed help mounting the unicycle again. While it is nothing like what they were doing, I got my dose of exercise that day.

On Friday, both male riders used the Coker and we started off really well. We were competing with much faster teams, which is always a god morale boost. Unfortunately, our injured rider from the day before pushed his limits again and he was out of the race about halfway through. At the end of the day, everybody was really tired, but we finished the race and were quite happy about it.

It is hard to believe that it is actually over. It sounded crazy when we started, but now it is hard to believe that we actually did it. It was one hell of a race and I met a lot of new and interesting people from all over the world. The generosity and friendliness of everybody involved surprised me and helped make it an unforgettable event. I think most of all, I am going to find it really hard to accept that my new friends are going back to the other side of the world. There are chances that I might never see them again, but you can be damn sure I will do my best to go visit them in Singapore next year. This time, I will make sure that I will be able to ride a unicycle and I will tour their country on one wheel beside them.

Expect lots of pictures soon!

No Comments »

It is midnight on Tuesday night and we are currently sleeping away our muscular pain. Well, I’m not, but the three riders are hurting like crazy. Since I want to sleep soon, I will keep this update short.

Friday night - Saturday night:
I left home at 11:30 pm to reach Portland, Maine for 7am. It was a very pleasant ride, but I came close to hitting two moose along the way. Those creatures are FREAKING HUGE. I also saw three raccoons, a fox, a porcupine and other various critters. Heck, I saw more animals than people. I was going through the United States to grab the ferry from Maine to Yarmouth, Nova Scotia. It is a bit expensive, but saves you a lot of time. On the ferry, I met two of my teammates as well as about 10-20 other unicyclers. We all kept each other company for the 6 hours on the ocean.

We arrived in Yarmouth and headed off towards our first stop in Annapolis Royal. We were three people in my cramped car, but it was a beautiful day and a pleasant ride. Along the way, I was telling my story about the animals the night before when disaster struck. A deer ran directly in front of my car. I had no time to stop and hit it head on. It flipped over my car and landed on the side of the road. The deer died instantly, and while none of us were hurt, my car was badly damaged. We managed to reach Annapolis Royal, but it turned out that my radiator was leaking, so we had to stop every 20km to add water to my radiator. There was no way I could get that car to Montreal. Not a good start to a vacation.

Anyways, at Annapolis Royal, we met everybody else and had a good time. Our third rider was already there and we were finally all together. Everybody was SUPER friendly (racers and the locals). We ended up bringing my banged up car to our motel (where it still is at the moment). We slept, but with how the day had progressed, I did not sleep too well.

Continue Reading »

7 Comments »

Next week, I am heading out to Nova Scotia to participate in a 800km unicycle race. That’s right, eight hundred kilometres on one wheel! While I will not be actually riding in this race, I will be acting as the support member for my team. The race has a total of 35 teams with riders coming from all around the world. My team is coming from Singapore, and includes Jiahui who’s site is linked in the “Friends” section of the right menu bar.

The race lasts 5 days with day three acting as a “speed trials” event. Even though it is a relay race, it should prove to be a tiring and tough challenge. On the official race days, roughly 200km will be driven, so between 3 people in a team, each rider will be riding close to 70km each day. Here’s hoping we get nice temperature and no rain!

You should be able to follow the race from their website once it begins. The puck the riders will be carrying is a gps unit and the details should be available online as the day progresses. You can already get a good idea of what roads we will be voyaging with this interactive map.

Our team is called “Masticating Bunnies from Hell” and I think we will have a really good time crossing Nova Scotia. I’m greatly looking forward to hanging out with unicyclists from around the world and hopefully making new friends. There is still a week left of anticipation before I head off to Nova Scotia, but every day I think about riding the lobster!

6 Comments »