We got in line in a particularly timely fashion for this one, knowing that the big top was really just a bit too small for purpose. Front of the queue. Get in. I missed it, but I feel it’s worth mentioning that while we were stood there Norbi made a comment about me hating him. Which I don’t. And now I feel terrible. I’m giving him a (+1).
Rod helped out as Official Drop Counter and had to wade manically around the tent collecting money from people. It was noted that he did actually respond to the call ‘Rod!’
Ady started out with his Baby Bono character. It would appear from talking to a few people about it that I go against the grain when I say ‘nah’. Fair play to him for thinking about his character and running with it for the entirety of the act (+1), but I felt there was rather too much character stuff going on and not enough juggling (-1). The whole thing seemed generally more unpolished than last year and the false finish followed by a bizarre, out of character, big trick thing just confused me (-1). However, I may be wrong. Everyone else seemed to think the whole thing was consummately brilliant.
This was Harry Smith‘s first time on stage and he managed quite well, I thought. Although he was evidently petrified beyond belief (I could smell the fear up on the top row) he’d obviously worked bloody hard on the routine and got through it all at a good steady rate, showing not a little skill (+1). He’d also managed to pick good music. But, of course, he needed to smile/develop a bit of personality. His only problem was the lack of stage experience which made his movements a bit jerky and rehearsed (-1). Breathe next time. Bonus points for the massive look of relief once he’d finished (+1).
Sarah Biskup rocked. She had much, much more style to her this year and managed to move across the stage and acknowledge the audience even though she obviously hated every second of it (+1). Once again there was some terribly decent juggling in there which she made look fantastically easy. A good mix of solid technical stuff and high energy moving-around-the-place. (+1) Bonus point for hilariously failing to find her way off the stage. (+1)
Ken Carlisle looked about 30. He’d made an obvious effort with costume and inevitable drops but he got truly flustered by a couple of big drops and tangles and ended up not doing himself any favours (-1). He had some good tricks though and was enormously cheesy. It smacked just a bit too much of variety show cabaret for my liking (-1).
Freddy Sheed impressed me, which I really didn’t want to happen. I hadn’t expected him to try anything other than stand in the middle of the stage and do hard stuff. But he’d actually thought about his act, so as well as being technically very good he was-at times-clever and funny too (+1). There were a few bits where he could have polished up his setting up for the next trick time and sorting out positioning on stage (-1) but other than that I thought he was pretty faultless. He certainly had the audience enthused (+1).
Garner screwed up royally by, again, being droppy and being affected by it (-1). But to give him credit, the stuff he did pull off was fluid and laid back in a good way (+1). His big exhaustive vertax stuff won him a lot of favour from the audience but even that didn’t save the act and he left the stage never having really pulled the whole thing off.
Reuben was another one on stage for the first time and stayed pretty much statue-still for the whole routine. Granted, it’s his style, but he was small and hurried and static in a way that I didn’t enjoy(-1). I felt like he needed to allow time for the audience to actually appreciate the stuff he was doing, which-to be fair-was very good and mostly above my head (+1), but he raced through everything without really playing to the audience (-1). Again, nothing that a bit more experience wouldn’t sort out, but I wasn’t impressed.
Nina Adams deserved credit for having the balls to enter BYJOTY with an act other than juggling or diabolo (+1). She had a costume and if being a young sexy thing counts as character she had one of those as well (+1). But she dropped like there was no tomorrow and couldn’t really claw the act back from that (-1). Points for trying, or is that just too condescending?
Luke Galloway was inspired by-but unfortunately for him-nowhere near as good as Jon Peat (-1). He’d sorted himself out with some good music to do his stuff to, but his stuff happened to be body moves which he made look clunky and awkward (-1). He snatched a lot at all the tricks he tried and at one point looked perturbed by the lack of clapping forthcoming. He had the nice idea of performing to all sides of the audience (+1), but it didn’t really make much difference in the end. Below par.
David Haslam did a spot of poor, nativity-play quality acting at the beginning of his routine which was completely pointless (-1). Having marginally succeeded in establishing a character with it he just failed to make any effort to develop it through his juggling (-1). Technically, his numbers stuff was good albeit droppy (+1), but he was nowhere near as good as I’ve seen him before. A poor showing that didn’t do him justice.
Matt Wright did devil stick, so again kudos for doing something other than juggling/diabolo (+1). He was apparently under the impression that a long coat and leather trousers = attitude (-1). He really needs to be disabused of the opinion soon. He had poor music but allowing his hard tricks to fail because of his costume just smacked of poor planning. (-1) Nothing inspiring.
I started off feeling really sorry for Luke Hallgarten because he was having to contend with playing second fiddle to Tom and getting heckled. But I gave up quite quickly because of the entirely professional way he handled it all (+1). He didn’t let it faze him and managed to get the audience back on track. This was by far the best effort at an ‘act’ all night (+1) but he also managed to cram quite a few really good tricks in there (+1). I was very, very impressed with him.
Jon Booth was very entertaining and had great stage presence (+1). He knows how to play up to an audience and is possibly the boy the phrase ‘cocksure’ was invented for. Although I didn’t think his routine was as good as the one he performed last year (-1) (and I didn’t vote for him this time around) he was a big crowd pleaser again and kept me interested. Fair play to him.
Freddy cleaned up on the awards, which was pretty inevitable. He won Silver, Judges’ Choice, and BYJOTY none of which I have a problem with. Luke Hollgarten won Silver and the Lesticle convention prize (yey). Again, no problem there. Ady also won Silver, and I cannot for the life of my see why. Alright, so he had a character of sorts, but his act basically consisted of him flailing around on stage interspersed with a bit of ring juggling. Yeah? So what? It wasn’t a finished, polished act. It wasn’t professional. It wasn’t technically stunning. It wasn’t even particularly funny. And don’t get me wrong; I like Ady. I think he’s a cool kid and bags of talent, but he didn’t show himself to his best advantage and his act was average. I also have slight reservations about Reuben winning the Crawley convention prize, having seen how small and statue like he is, and how huge the Crawley stage is. A lot of work needs doing before August, methinks.
BYJOTY 2008 scores +4
FYI, “Galloway”, “Hallgarten”, “Matt Wright”.
I feel really upset that i dropped WAY too much and the act at the start was rubbish, i wish i had of done something else instead.
Editing…editing…
I strived to perform good, technical and clean juggling alongside with a good character, an energetic performance, crowd interaction and a costume. I spent months planning it and put more effort into creating something special than I have ever put into anything else.
On Friday evening of the BJC 2008 I put on the best performance I have ever put on and performed the best act out of all acts I have performed. Maybe it did not match the standards of the star of the night, IMO, Luke Hallgarten, but I hit all my targets right on the bullseye. I am so sorry if you did not like it. I honestly thought I had a gold-and I am my best critic.
Don’t sweat it Ady. Whatever you do you’ll never be able to entertain absolutely everyone. You did well and got a silver; that’s the highest award anyone’s got at a BYJOTY. Well done.
As Clurb says, she seems to be out of step with most of the audience. That’s personal preferences for you.