Little Weed wanted to see the Buskerfest. Last year he thoroughly enjoyed the performances, which seemed to have influenced him to practice more Rola Bola and diabolo. Given the chance the elder Little Weed also came along. This year here in Toronto did not have the impact of last year’s performance, but was still quite enjoyable. In contrast to last year’s 32C weather, where we almost collapsed, this year’s 23C overcast was very welcoming. Here are some reviews of the performers we saw today, Sunday August 28 2011. Sorry I was too lazy to take photos.
Arriving at about 11:00 am, we first saw Fireguy. He did juggling and fire eating. Interestingly he sat atop a cube, put down 4 large cups and proceeded to put a flat sakeboard on top. Atop this he added his 5″ rola and then bola. Getting on was a little tricky. He acually told us about a missed mount, where he cut up his right forearm. Today he did it right. Up he went, and then juggled 3 torches. Fireguy was interesting.
Billy Kidd was a female performer from Edmonton, Alberta. She looked part or all Asian, but also spoke with an interesting British-ish accent. Definitely representing the female viewpoint, her male volunteers were the target of some of her jokes. Card magic tricks are difficult to see from afar. The Little Weed got bored and we left early.
We have seen the Ben Show before. Ben Burland had visited when I was part of the Toronto Unicyclists, so he was a familiar face for me. Highlights included a three-wheeled unicycle giraffe, with all the hype of the mount. Balancing the giraffe on his chin at the end was fun to see. A bonus of the 3 wheeled giraffe is that there is no chain to worry about and adjust. New to his act was the sword swallowing, which turned out great when he showed us that his blade curled up into a roll of aluminium. There was certainly genuine concern in the audience. His tiny bicycle was interesting to see him ride.
Bendy Em from Australia fits herself into a 16 in square box. With an additional small basketball.
Bendy Em, a contortionist from Australia was so sweet to the audience. There was not a bad bone in her from the start. Happy, polite, in excellent physical shape and very strong, she bested her two male volunteers, whom she called her “boys”. She took great pride in taking their shirts off, and then apologizing to their wives! A class act. Unfortunately she was on an elevated stage, which did not allow the Little Weed to get a good view. Her contortions were not visible from my view. I had to hoist the Little Weed up for him to see anything, and then my arms and shoulder became sore. She had a 16″ square box on a 5′ high platform of the same dimensions, so at least we cold see her from afar. Not only did she contort herself into the 16″ square box, with the lid shut, but she also stuffed in a small basketball in the middle. First a shoulder and head, then pelvis. The ball was then repeatedly hit with her left arm until it thunked into her stomach, with a secure thrump. It was as if it had to get by a cork before getting to the inside. Finally the left leg and left arm was in the box. While still talking the box then started to fog up! After a minute or so she started to wiggle her way out. Bendy Em was a class act, but I could not see much of her performance because of the stage.
Chalky was an artist doing a 3D chalk drawing of Mona Lisa on the street. His drawing looked so real.
Close Acts, XL-Insects were from the Netherlands. They roamed around in large insect costumes on stilts. Their master walked behind them with a large stick, glowering at passers by. It was certainly an odd site. Their stilts were mere 2 x 2 round legs. The performer’s actual heads could see through the insect’s upper torso, so you could imagine just how large these insects stood.
Gazzo, from the UK, produces a huge melon from his hat, and oranges from his cups.
Gazzo from the UK is a magician with lots of wit. There were instances that were on the edge though. There were references to him not legally able to get close to children, which was funny in a creepy kind of way. These are issues that are difficult to poke fun at in this day and age. He called to a girl by the title “Virgin”, but when she stood up he asked her who she was fooling and called up this young guy. She was very embarrassed. Maybe it was British wit, but he also insulted the audience for not getting all his jokes. Frankly I did not get some of his jokes, and others that I did get were simply not funny. Still, his performance was quite good. For magic he had three large cups and proceeded to extract large oranges from them. Some of the oranges were so large that he had to tap the cups on his table to get them out. After putting his hat on the table, he exposed a large cantaloupe underneath. How he did this I do not know. Aggressive comedy club humour was his style. Thankfully the kids in the audience did not understand him much.
Leapin’ Louie Litchenstein, from Oregon had a cowboy theme going. This was a little odd because I did not remember many cowboys from Oregon. He did a giraffe unicycle thing and a cowboy lasso trick, where he idled and his lasso encircled himself. There were interesting bullwhip tricks as well. We did not catch all of his show.
We briefly passed Liam McGlashon from Hamilton, playing Maritime fiddle tunes. I actually did not know who he was, but the tunes were catchy.
Pancho Libre, Mexico, hulas a 49kg hula hoop.
Pancho Libre from Mexico was a really good act. Though his English was not great he was able to communicate and humour the audience. He had this 49kg hula hoop, which was difficult to start and maintain. Once going he was able to hula it around his midrift and even his neck. He was also able to brace his body inside the hoop and roll around, all without squishing his fingers or falling out. Being Latin he often flirted with the female audience members. His apparatus was very unique, borrowing from Chinese wushu. He was physically very strong, able to put his body horizontal while grabbing onto a vertical pole. Most impressive.
All throughout the event we saw some pretty cool mostly Asian yoyo guys. They were very well skilled. Most had black gloves on their left hands, I guess to prevent friction burns.
Overall this year’s lineup featured more magic and less overall juggling, and very little unicycling and rola bola. It was still enjoyable to attend. I had problems finding a washroom as there were no porta potties around. If you sell food and beverage on the street you should also provide washroom facilities. The performers were very good and we had a good time.
