Better Outlook

Ok, the situation has improved. In the past week, I've booked a number of shows, particularly in March. I assume that I'll get more because of Purim (Jewish holiday that has a carnival atmosphere and is highest season for jugglers) on March 14. Most of the shows I have booked in March are actually for bar/bat mitzvahs before and after Purim so I'm still hoping for more Purim-related gigs.

I also need to fill up February better. I've actually got more shows confirmed for April than February. I've also got one booked for May and another already for August.

I still want more...

Comedy Club Show this Saturday Night

February 4 @ 8:30pm (in Jerusalem):
Jerusalem's Off The Wall Comedy Empire presents: Variety Show With Jugglers Scott Seltzer & Josh Phaff
Headliner: Scott Seltzer, the known finale performer for the Cardo Culinarium restaurant (1993-1999). Scott also dabbles in magic, including Houdini style escapes. Aside for performing for your favorite Israeli politicians, Scott is recognized on an elite list of people who have successfully juggled 9 balls.
Feature: Josh Phaff is a very lively performer who incorporates audience participation and comedy. A unique blend of juggling, rope magic, balancing feats, eating and juggling fire- you’ll be entertained.
Special Guest: BorisMelamed (the smart one).
Location: OlaLa Cafe (kosher L'mehadrin, dairy) - 42 King George, Jerusalem
Entrance: 30shekel (students 25shekel).
Contact: 050-875-5688 http://www.israelcomedy.com/ David

Ofer's Offer

An old friend contacted me the other day because he heard I was turning pro. Ofer Blum (animated gif alert) has been a full-time performer for 17 years and has travelled extensively around the world with his mime and juggling act. He's one of the first people I met when I moved to Israel in 1992 but we were never so close and I only run into him every couple years at this point. Based on that, it was very generous of him to call.

He heard my situation from a mutual friend (a woman I went to kindergarten with who is married to a cousin of his).

I'm going to try to meet him this week because he wants to offer me tips on getting good paying gigs. Sounds like just what I need. Thanks, Ofer!

Magic

In the past year I added magic to my show. I already had 30 minutes of good juggling material but it was enough so I decided to add some magic. I've got 4 magic routines now that give me a nice 45 minute show. I've performed the magic about a dozen times in the past year. Mostly I perform my 15 or 30 minute juggling-only shows. But I'd like to sell my big 45 minute show more because it's more money.

On the other hand, it's a big shlep. Whereas my juggling show fits easily in my trunk, the magic props take up my entire backseat. I've got a slightly reduced version that's a bit easier but I've got a major version that also requires a roofrack. The 30 minute juggling show can usually be carried in one trip (or two if I provide a sound system) from the car and the magic can take about 4 or 5 more.

But, let's talk about magic itself. I don't love magic. It's not nearly as rewarding as juggling. I don't practice nor do I do learn magic other than what I think I may use in my show. It's not much of a challenge, either, except for presentation skills. And when you know the piddly secret, it's really not all that exciting. It's basically good for showing off and it does serve that purpose in my show.

Here are the tricks I perform:
1. Throughout my show I display a big empty box and then produce more and more props from it.
2. I take a watermelon from a thin briefcase.
3. I have a great presentation of a card trick.
4. a Houdini-style chain escape.

I'm pretty much done with magic. I'm not really looking for more effects. I will tighten up the presentations a bit, though. I may add something with the boa constrictor I'm buying next month.

Upcoming Schedule

At the beginning of the week, I was chatting with a friend and he asked me how many shows I have lined up for February and March. Although January was quite good, I only had one confirmed show for all of February and March. On average people book me 3-4 weeks in advance but I frequently get things the week of, so I wasn't too worried (although moderately annoyed and a bit embarrassed to admit to my friend).

Throughout the week I got a number of phone calls and have confirmed a few shows and thankfully have a number of pending gigs. Of course I want more...

New Clubs

It's pretty well known that I've been using and recommending Radical Fish clubs since I got them as my first set up clubs back in 1993. My current set is in pretty bad shape so I recently ordered 10 more. They should be arriving in the next couple weeks.

At the same time, I ordered 5 yellow Dube Klassics just for the hell of it. I figured I'd get something really durable and it'd be fun to go for some fat clubs.

The Klassics already arrived a few weeks back and I'm loving them. The first night it took a good 30 minutes to get used to them (compared to nearly any other club which I can generally pick up cold and easily do 5 clubs with) but by the end of the night I was doing 5 club tricks with about the same reliability as with my Fish. So, switching from some of the thinnest, lightest clubs, to something fat and heavy wasn't a serious problem. Even after 3 hours that first night, I didn't feel any more fatigued than usual.

There are a few issues:

• The one-piece is slippery and getting accurate kickups requires more effort.
• Yeah, the handles are hard. But if you catch properly, it's not a problem. My biggest problem is when they fall on my toes (I mostly wear sandals) or last night when I got a nice clunk on the head.
• Scissors catches are a bit harder than I'm used to. Also, throwing from scissors back up doesn't flip well for me so even with a big swing I have to throw quite high to get a double.
• Clean finishes of 3 into one hand are a bit more effort because they're much wider and since they don't have cushiony handles, if you don't absorb the catch properly then the last incoming club can bounce off the held clubs.

One particularly fun thing I tried the first night was to juggle 3 Klassics and 2 Fish. It wasn't terribly hard but I can tell you that visually the Fish are definitely toothpicks compared to the Klassics.

I'm really hooked on these Klassics. Last night was the 4th time I practiced with them and I'm 100% used to them. I always start my juggling sessions with 5 clubs and I had no problem last night from my first run. I spent most of the 4.5 hours at juggling club working on 5 clubs and had excellent success with 744 and 645 and also getting a bit more consistent with 3 backcrosses back to a juggle.

Anyone want to buy 10 brand-new yellow Radical Fish that are arriving in a couple weeks?

Juggling and Love

A couple months ago, a woman named Leah from an online dating site contacted me because she could juggle a little and wanted to me to teach her to juggle clubs. As much as I'd love to meet women who are interested in juggling, her profile indicated that she was considerably more religious than I. So I sent a simple rejection but suggested that a juggler friend of mine might be more suitable. She persisted with me so I gave her a chance - a phone call then later out to dinner and a little juggling back at her apartment. She was nice enough, but not what I'm looking for. I suggested again that she allow my friend Yaakov to contact her and this time she agreed.

One down, one to go. Yaakov took a bit of convincing, too. He resisted, finding fault in her profile. It took me a while to show him that he misinterpreted what she wrote but eventually I got him to contact her.

Well, they went out and clicked immediately. I followed their relationship through her blog and going out with and calling Yaakov. I even get together with them both once.

The wonderful news is that they called me last night to announce that they are engaged. I'm so happy for them. They should make each other very happy.

I'm so proud to be responsible for setting them up.

Who's going to help me find a juggler woman?

Juggling at Work

Well, since I soon won't have work to write about, I'll write about my experiences now.

So, I seem to have influenced a lot of people around me to juggle. At every place I've worked, there's a nice handful of people who have learned to juggle. At my previous company, I think more than 50% of the people could juggle by the time I left. There were even people working on 4 and 5 balls. I keep a lot of balls on my desk and people are often coming by to practice. Several have even bought sets of balls.

One good thing about my current place of employment has been that the ceilings are about 5 or more meters high. That means I can easily run siteswaps such as 95551 while sitting at my desk and have even pulled off higher siteswaps. It's nice that I've been able to get away with juggling so much while at work. I also sometimes go to the roof of my building at lunch and juggle when the weather is good.

My best juggling while working experience was at a company I worked at 7 years ago. My job is software Quality Assurance and I once had to test lots of different variations on installations. The product at the time was on floppy disks and we had one version that had like 8 floppies. I would insert a disk and juggle for a minute or two while waiting for it to ask for the next disk. I would get a good half hour of juggling in for each iteration that I was testing. It was sad when they switched to CD installs.

Appreciative Kids

I've had a few cute responses from kids to my show over the years.

Last night a little 4 or 5 year old girl came over and gave me a couple pieces of bubble gum. Later, she offered me a bottle of Coke. It was so sweet that she felt like she wanted to do something special for me.

Last night was a bit pressured because the organizer called me the day before and told me that she heard from someone that my show was terrible. The person had seen me some six years ago and was probably right (that's when I used to just kind of practice on stage with background music). Anyway, I reassured my client that I've improved a lot and I offered her a guarantee. Luckily, the show went very well and the woman was very appreciative afterwards. Whew!

One of my favorite memories was a Chanuka performance I did last year. After the show, a little boy came up and gave me a hug. It was the sweetest thing.

And of course there's my kids. They're my biggest fans. The little one is so cute: as soon as I put on my performing clothes, she immediately asks, "Eggs?" And the older one begs to go to my shows. I think they've seen it 20 times but they still love it.

Juggling Phobias

In response to my recent usage of the terms juggleholic and workaphobic, I've come up with a list of juggling phobias:

• Notjugglingphobia
• Dropophobia
• Zipperdownonstageophobia
• Brokenpropophobia
• Lostpropophobia
• Sorearmsophobia
• Siteswapophobia
• Ringjugglingophobia
• Havingtomohawkpassesthrownatyouaphobia
• clownormimeaphobia
• Peoplemakingstupidcommentsaboutjugglingaphobia
• Doingahardtrickforsomeoneandtheytellyouaboutseeing-
  someoneeatinganapplewhilejugglingaphobia

Please add more in the comments.

Getting More Shows

For me, performing is simple. The business side of things is very difficult, though. The hardest parts for me are marketing and negotiating fees.

I've calculated a budget and based on that, my goal is to do the following shows every month:

• 4-6 bar/bat mitzvahs
• 1-2 birthday parties
• 1-3 larger events (schools, camps, malls, community centers, etc.)

Other venues that I should try to contact include:

• Cruise Ships - there are several around the Mediterranean that come through Israel
• Hotels - especially in resort areas like the Dead Sea and Eilat
• Amusement Parks - they probably pay poorly but often offer regular work

These are my short-term goals, for the first 3-4 months of my new career. Within a year, I'll need to double those numbers.

Juggling Goals

Ok, the last post sounded like new year's resolutions, so I'll add some of the things I'd like to do with juggling in 2006 and beyond:

• Perform enough that I can support myself. That's the main goal for the future.
• It's always been a dream to perform on a cruise ship. There are some that go around the Mediterranean via Israel and I'm going to see what I can do to get booked.
• Compete in the IJA Competitions. I wrote an outline of a routine in August of 1997 (the first day of the 50th IJA convention in Pittsburgh) and have developed it on paper a little bit. Now I just have to work on the tricks!
• Get 6 balls solid (over 1000 throws). I recently started working on it again and as of this week my best is 168 throws. It feels much more relaxed and possible than 7 balls.
• Get a new best with 7 balls. My average is certainly getting better but my personal best of 156 throws is nearly 2 years old.
• Get more 5 club tricks solid. Of course 5 club backcrosses and 3-up pirouettes are high on my list.
• Post some more original creative/technical videos on my website. I have a small list of trick ideas already.

Um. I hate making these kind of lists because I know that after I write it, I'll think of more things that I forgot to include.

Not Just Juggling

Yes, I'm totally obsessed with juggling. But I want to point out that I have other important reasons for quitting my job.

My daughters are the most important things in my life. Unfortunately, my visitation rights are one night/week, one afternoon/week, and alternate weekends. Because I work until late, on the one nights/week days, I would often get to them only between 5-6pm and there wasn't a lot of time to spend with them before they had to go to sleep. Usually there was just time for dinner and either an art project, game, or video before bed. The one afternoons/week were a total bust and mostly didn't happen since it wasn't practical to take them out for two hours or less (esp. taking into account required travel time).

Anyway, after I stop working, I'll be able to pick them up from gan (kindergarten), and spend all afternoon with them. I'm so much looking forward to being able to do many things with them.

Other things (besides juggling/performing and spending time with my kids) that I will do with my spare time include:

• Expand my freelance computer business. I do web design and databases.
• Volunteer work - I've already contacted an organization that I'd like to help with their computer systems and/or other administrative tasks.
• Be more politically active. I should make more time for the activities of The Women in Green.
• Find a mate. Find out all about me and what I'm looking for from my JDate profile (No, JDate isn't JuggleDate).
• Online projects - personal web pages (including maintaining this blog) and also several things for the IJDb.
• Finish a book that I've been working on for years. Working title is "Five Ball Mastery."
• Try to get published a children's book that I wrote many years ago.
• Personal challenges - I want to learn to do a handstand and maybe to joggle the Jerusalem Half Marathon.
• Have lots of fun!

I'm sure I'll find a few more things to do, too. All in all, I intend to keep busy.

That Eventful Day

I remember well the day that I really decided I was quitting my day job. Yeah, I'd been thinking about it on and off for many months, even years. And even though I was very serious about it for a while, I was nervous about taking the plunge.

I remember calling my friend, Natasha, from work and she told me that I sounded sad. I got off the phone and thought about it a lot on my drive home. Within a few minutes of driving, I knew that I had to quit my job - it was being at work that had made me so depressed.

I can't tell you how relieved and happy I felt for the rest of the car ride. I was breaking free!

From that point on, there was no turning back - I knew what I had to do. Ok, it took me a while to make it official to my boss at work, but that's mostly because I was working out the many logistics. But going back to work has been so much easier since, because I know that the end is near.

Whoopee!

Are You a Juggleholic?

I'm not necessarily saying that if you're obsessed with juggling, you should definitely quit your job (or other obligations), but the first step is recognizing that you're addicted.

To find out if you've got the bug, some very scientific tests have been created: Juggling Lifestyle Quiz (I got 75%) and Juggler's Aptitude Test (I got 61, obsessed).

I'm a certified juggleholic (and obviously a workaphobic, too); There's only one cure - I gotta juggle more!

Guess the Truth Game

A coworker I was chatting with suggested a game: I write down 10 things about myself and she would guess whether they are true or false. Of course, I came up with things about juggling:
1. I can juggle 6 balls for more than 100 throws.
2. I was the first person in Israel to juggle [flash] 9 balls.
3. I organized the 1996 Israeli juggling convention.
4. I taught a blind man to juggle 3 balls.
5. I taught my father to juggle 3 balls.
6. I can juggle and think about bananas at the same time.
7. I juggled 5 balls at the Kotel [Western Wall] during Sukkot of 1995.
8. I saved three Dilbert cartoons about juggling.
9. I juggled 5 balls on the airplane on my way to making Aliyah [immigrating to Israel].
10. I practice juggling for at least 20 minutes every morning before work [the terrible thing I still have to do].

I'll post the answers in the comments sometime. Irena should post her guesses first.

Yes, it's very hard to focus at work at this point. I still have a month to go. Thank God for ICQ.

Added January 22: Here are the answers.

Reactions

I've been talking to friends for a long time about my planned desertion. It's been interesting to hear reactions.

I've gotten a pretty mixed response. Many think I'm being irresponsible, but I have a special appreciation for my friends who support my decision and understand that it's important to pursue my passion. Although one friend (who supported me) called the others idiots, I'll try to give them the benefit of the doubt and just say that they are very concerned - and I'm glad to have friends that care about me. Some seem to be upset because they're potentially affected, people like coworkers and women I go out with. I can't really blame them.

One coworker pointed out the other night something that I hadn't thought of: perhaps I'm having a midlife crisis. I read a bunch of articles about it and a wild career change is certainly a common symptom (thankfully, I don't have any of the other, more destructive ones). From the point of view of the "idiots" I can see how they think I'm making a crisis-induced decision. But from where I'm standing, I'm just living my dream. Also, knowing that the article I posted yesterday was written about 10 years ago suggests that it's not a rash decision in response to my graying hair.

Dreams of Being a Full-Time Juggler

"But I guess our dreams have come and gone
You gotta dream when you are young"
-Harry Chapin in "Dreams Go By"

"A bad day's when I lie in bed
And think of all the things that might have been"
-Paul Simon in "Slip Slidin' Away"

Everybody has a dream of doing something else - even non-jugglers may dream of being an artist, a professional athlete, or a rock star. But we live our humdrum lives in our safe profession always putting off our dreams for more practical reasons: security of money, acceptance in society, etc.

It doesn't have to be that way. We've got marketable skills and we should relax our anxieties about what other people think.

The whole concept for me of juggling for a money is brilliant. I relate it to non-jugglers that it would be like for some people to get paid to eat chocolate. Wouldn't the world be a much better place if everyone got paid for what they enjoyed. I may be a charlatan, but in my ideal world I would do tons more juggling and a lot less working in an office!

I'm not just talking about the performer personality type who thrive on their time in front of an audience. As a matter of fact, this concept is somehow more true for the hobbiest-type jugglers. These are often the ones that really love juggling the most, just for it's own sake. So why should they have to do something else? Maybe they should get a research grant for practicing juggling in order to further the art!

I think we need to move away from living our lives as others expect us to live them, or even as society has convinced us that we should live. We have to do what we genuinely want to do. It might be a bit more risky, but it's better than living with the regret of not having accomplished what the heart really desires.

I wrote those preceding paragraphs nearly 10 years ago but never finished this article. And I was a hypocrite, too; even though, I've been performing semi-professionally for 13 years, I've always had a straight office job. Well, the good news is that I quit my job last week and am embarking on a career as a full-time juggler. I couldn't be happier: my dream has come true!

Coming Soon...

Soon I'll finally publish an article that I wrote some ten years ago titled, "Dreams of Being a Full-Time Juggler." Yes, I recently quit my day job!