Weight training for injury prevention by Steven Ragatz

Warming Up by Steven Ragatz

Visualization and Juggling by Steven Ragatz

Numbers Training by Steven Ragatz

I'm a firm believer that it's never the audience's fault.

It's easy to label the audience with terms like "good", "bad", "live", or "dead". In some respects, the performer is the one that has to control the conversation, leading the audience along through the collective experience. If the performer is unable to lead, then the audience will go where they want to go, and the performer is the one being led. Bad scenario.

I also think that there is no need to not realize the stereotypes for what they are. After all, they are what the audience brings with them to the performance. As performers, we can use that to our advantage by either conforming to the expectation or by purposefully opposing it. If you get negative remarks from your spectators, wherever they may be, then you may simply be falling short of their expectations. Nothing wrong with circus, mime, juggling, clowns, ventriloquism, etc. In the proper context, and with the right motivation, any discipline can provide a valid performance medium. If you are offended because someone associates juggling with circus, then perhaps that is a reflection of your own biased associations?

I was particularly struck by this at the fest in Madison watching Mark Nizer's act. Now I know Mark well enough to know that all of the mime jokes were in place for effect only, and that Mark doesn't really have anything against mimes, but the acceptance of such an attitude is unfortunate. That kind of humor is a little to easy.

Most passer-bys don't know how to react when they see juggling in public. Heck, many of them don't know how to respond in a show situation! If they say anything, they are probably impressed, but simply don't know how to express it. Personally, it is more insulting to be jamming on a shred-trick and have everyone simply walk by without acknowledging anything.

If you want to be hard on someone for not paying you the respect you feel due, perhaps you should consider the situation from their viewpoint. When observed from the outside looking in, most of the time what you will see is simply a grown person, in public, playing with plastic bowling pins.

Then there is always the possibility that the tricks just suck. It happens.

Steven Ragatz