Author: arronsparks

I'm a friendly Winter Mountain Leader, based in the Highlands. I feel most alive up high, playing in cold places. I love being out in the Scottish winter hills.

Penn & Teller: Fool Us

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Yesterday I went to the filming of an episode of ‘Penn & Teller; Fool Us’. Sam Veale was kind enough to hook my up with tickets on behalf of Romany who was appearing on the show.

I was a great afternoon, got to see some great magic but I won’t spoil it for you as you will get the chance to see it when it airs!

At the moment I’m seeing a lot of live magic and I’m really enjoying it. It’s still a relatively new medium for me to watch so it’s still a bit of a novelty.

Off to watch the Shoebox UK tour tonight, which I’m pretty excited about. Been wanting to see one since it started.

Egypt

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Spent a couple of days in Cairo, didn’t have net access ( think if I’d the choice between free water or free wifi, I’d go for free wifi most of the time!) so I’m writing this in the airport waiting for my flight home and won’t be able to post it till I get back. Waste of time, maybe?

Stuff floating in my head….
Taxi driving
Social ladders
Rubbish in the street
Middle classes
The sun
Political unrest
No photos of the police
Pepsi
Empty oil drums
Golf courses
Smoky bars
Unfinished houses
Drumming
Mix grill feasts
Empty plane…

Car
Tube
Bus
Walk
Home.

Technology Tips for Circus Artists – 8

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In this series of posts I’m going to give tips on using technology to make your hours behind your desk that bit easier.

Tip Number Eight: WordPress
Wordpress.orgEven though we are in the age of social media I think it’s still a good idea to have a website.

There’s a lot to be said about outsourcing web-design to a professional but if you’re not ready to spend large sums of cash on a site or you’re willing to invest some time and energy sat at a computer then look no further than WordPress.

WordPress is “A semantic personal publishing platform with a focus on aesthetics, web standards, and usability.” In other words it’s a simple and elegant way to easily create a highly customisable website that you can edit on any computer, smart phone or digital tablet with an internet connection.

Something to be aware of is that there is wordpress.com and wordpress.org. The .com is 100% free but your are limited with the design and other details. The software for wordpress.org is free however you will need to pay for hosting and a url, there are 100s of companies that provide this, you’re probably looking at about £50-100 a year, not exactly mega bucks. For the record I use Fasthoasts. You may also want to pay for a template (this gives the look of the site) which can cost from £10-£50 as a one off fee although there are some free usable templates out there.

Read here, here and here if you’re thinking about making your own site using WordPress.

Otherwise you can find someone to implement a wordpress.org site for you at a much cheaper price than you would pay for a design from scratch (I offer this, send me an e-mail).

If you make you’re own site using WordPress be sure to leave a link in the comments!

Technology Tips for Circus Artists – 7

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In this series of posts I’m going to give tips on using technology to make your hours behind your desk that bit easier.

Tip Number seven: Use YouTube

When YouTube started to attract attention less than six years ago I was skeptical, even a little fearful. I made a video in early 2006 which was uploaded to YouTube and attracted 70,000 views and was featured on the home page, all within 4 days and without my knowledge (and most importantly) my permission.

But 5 years later and I’m a total YouTube convert. It’s quickly become the industry standard for sharing work with agents and clients, replacing DVD as arguably the best way to share your work.

There is a great feature you might not be aware of, setting your video as unlisted. This means the video can’t be found by anyone who does not know the url which you can distribute as wish.

You can rename the title of the video once it’s uploaded os get rid of that ugly ‘whateveryourtitleis’.mp4 extension!

For promo videos it’s best to have your url link in the first line of the description with the full http:// included so it becomes an active hyperlink to your site.

Read more YouTube tips here.

Also worth remembering is jTV, a site setup for juggling videos but also contains some great historical circus videos.

 

 

Sun, BJC, SFF

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Been enjoying the London sun far too much to write blog posts, sorry about that! Here’s a quick, sloppy note of what I’ve been up to….

Last week I performed at the 24th British Juggling Convention (BJC). I’ve been going to the BJC on and off for the past 10 years so I know what to expect…. Sports halls filled with jugglers, from those learning the first throws of the 3 ball cascade to technical masters juggling 7 clubs.

A week of inspiration, perspiration and desperation.

In the show I was performing as half of Inside Loop, doing a ‘speaking/skills comedy routine’. A real contrast to my solo act. Sam is a genius, so much fun to work with. Great to see most of the public show, Wes is a juggling super hero…. I wish I could hate him.

I was asked to compère British Young Juggler of the Year, a real challenge given my appalling memory (still need to train it) and lack of ‘gift of the gab’ (if such things exists). An over all aim for this year is to challenge myself on stage, so I accepted. The show went ok for me, somethings I screwed up and other bits went better than planned. Once the competition was over I was a little disappointed with the results of my efforts. But had some nice feedback from some members of the audience and think it’s something I’m going to try again and improve upon, as I did enjoy being on stage for longer and being able to express myself through voice rather than tricks or physicality.

Over all I really enjoyed my BJC. Massive thanks to the organising team, a group of individuals who sort out an amazing week long event, for over 1000 people without getting paid! Good on you (you crazy, mad, wonderful, generous lot)!

Arriving back in London I received a voice mail asking if I wanted to see ‘Slightly Fat Features‘ at the London Roundhouse.

I’m so glad I did. Honestly one of the best shows I’ve ever been to. A true british variety show, with original skills and theatre. So funny, go see it!

Technology Tips for Circus Artists – 6

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In this series of posts I’m going to give tips on using technology to make your hours behind your desk that bit easier.

Tip Number six: Send large files

Although e-mail storage has increased massively over the past 10 years sending large files with a standard e-mail provider (GMail, Hotmail, Yahoo)  can still be an issue. This is where Dropbox or YouSendIt come in handy. Both allow you to upload large files and send an e-mail to your recipient which will give a private link to the file. Both are free but charge for premium services (which I have never needed).

Do you know of any better methods or services to send large attachments? Then please leave a comment!

Warming up

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Just like athletes or actors, circus performers warm up before a performance. While a warm up may not prevent injury as many think, it can be helpful to refresh the skill set and frame of mind before one steps out on stage.

Having said that, is it a good idea to run your routine in full before your show, should you touch base with the skills or should you do something completely different?

When on a 4 month contract (all the performances were in the same venue), I charted the number of technical mistakes (drops, being behind on cues etc.). For two weeks I did my act on stage before the show, for 2 weeks I did some of the skills in the act before hand, for 2 weeks I warmed up with something completely different and for 2 weeks I did no warm up.

I found despite the warm up method there was negligible difference on my technical performance on stage. It’s hard to be objective as to how well the act was performed but I do feel that the two weeks where I did no warm up were a little harder for me in terms of performing and connecting with the audience. Therefore personally speaking there is little difference in the out come of warming method but it is preferable to do some kind of warm up.

From a phycological point of view I prefer to warm up with a little of the skills I use on stage and then move onto something completely different. For instance in my act I don’t juggle balls so I like warming up with a few short runs of 5 balls, maybe 30-60 seconds. This is enough to relax me, make me think about my posture and enjoy the pattern. I don’t do anything hard as I want to keep drops out of my head and keep my confidence levels up.

I know some artists who like to run their routine in full, others like to run their routine in revers while some like doing each trick 10 times clean. For me this is too much but if it works for you then great. One thing to consider when devising your own warm up methods is where are you going to do this warm up at your gig? I can do mine in a dressing room or in a corridor, anywhere really. It’s worth coming up with a warm up that can fit into a stairwell or other relatively small places that you find backstage as few venues have good warm up facilities.

One specific thing I would recommend is balancing an object on your face, doesn’t mater if you’re a juggler, acrobat, aerialists, actor, dancer or snake charmer. Once learnt, it takes up no room and is very reliable. With in 15 seconds you become still, focused, increased spacial awareness and reminded of your posture.

I would recommend coming up with your warm up plan and then test it out a few times. Get up early, go into your warm up and then do your full routine. If it worked out then great, if not, you either need to change your warm up or make your routine easier.

This is all fairly personal but through planing and testing you can come up with a warm up that will give you the best chances of nailing your perfect show.

Good luck!

Technology Tips for Circus Artists – 5

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The fifth instalment to the series which aims to make your hours behind your desk that bit easier.

Tip Number Five: Use an electronic calendar

There is something brilliant about a Moleskine pocket calendar but times are a changing and using the calendar on your smart phone and desktop is the way to go.

It’s fine to keep a handwritten diary, there are some advantages but my suggestion would be to fill the information into a digital back up. If you lose a pocket calendar then you could be in real trouble.

If you lose a phone with your digital calendar then at least you have your backup on your home computer and online (if you have set it ip to sync!). If you don’t know how to do this then have a look here. I’d recommend Google calendar as it’s free and works across most platforms, Mac or PC, iPhone or Android etc.

The great thing about a digital calendar is you can setup reminders. Set alarms and text messages to go off at any point of your choosing before an event. Say you want a 1 week, 3 day, 1 day and half an hours notice before a meeting, you can easily set up a message to appear on you phone or computer to do this.

If you use this system correctly you should never forget about an appointment again! Learn how to do this with your Google calendar here.

If you found this tip helpful or have any suggestions please leave a comment below.

Technology Tips for Circus Artists – 4

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The fourth instalment to the series which aims to make your hours behind your desk that bit easier. This tip should keep you inspired.

Tip Number Four: Watch TED talks.

TEDI became aware of TED talks in 2007 and ever since I’ve been hooked.

TED is a non profit organisation set up to spread interesting ideas. Originally focusing on Technology Education Design (TED), but now encompassing a vast range of subjects, everything from horse puppetry to the future of wireless medicine.

You can read more about TED here.

I think it’s worth stopping for a second and taking note of the amazing value of the internet. We are now lucky enough to able to watch and listen to some of the most knowledgeable experts from around the globe talk about their most cutting edge and exciting work and ideas, all from and comfort of our own home, for free. It’s an example of the internet at it’s greatest.

Some of the TED talks have entertained me, informed me, challenged my opinion, inspired me and even moved me to tears. The best have all at once.

My challenge to you is to watch a TED video a week. It will make you a better artist and more importantly, a better human.

Here are a couple to start you on your way…

If you you find any inspiring TED talks be sure to share them with us, particularly if they are circus related! As ever, if you have any suggestions please leave a comment below.