Tag Archives: performance

Street Performance World Championships

It’s been pretty quiet in terms of post frequency here this past while, partly due to busyness and partly due to trying to form this post in my head. Here goes.

SPWC – I had never heard of it before some time in March when Darragh started mentioning it & how he was going to be involved & how much he was looking forward to it. What started out as a trip to Cork to see some SPWC & visit my sister turned into volunteering for both the Cork and Dublin leg of the festival. I had no idea what to expect but was more than pleasantly surprised by the whole experience.

Grant Goldie as That Man
Grant Goldie as 'That Man'

Out of the 2 legs, Cork was my favourite purely down to the venue (Fitzgerald Park) being able to cater better for the festival and the crowd it attracted. I was mesmerised by the sheer range of stuff I saw from fire juggling to a man going through a squash racket to a man on a 12ft unicycle. And loads more besides. My personal favourites from the festival were ‘That Man’ (Grant Goldie) and Mr. Toons, both for different reasons. The ‘That Man’ show was magical – it combined more “traditional” street performance trickery such as juggling but Grant had the very special skill of being able to interact & click with the audience down to a tee. And all without speaking a word. His contact juggling piece had me totally hypnotised, absolutely beautiful to watch & there are some beautiful shots of this on pix.ie.

Mr. Toons was amazing just for the sheer uniqueness & craziness of his show. From the 12ft unicycle to the giant balloon into which he climbs it’s just mind boggling to watch let alone wonder how on earth he came up with such an idea. Check out the pictures on pix.ie – has to be seen to be believed.

Relaxed by Phil OKane (click for more)
'Relaxed' by Phil O'Kane (click for more)

It’s rare to see such a mixture of generations all mixed together enjoying the day & that for me is one of the things I loved most about SPWC. Anything that gets families, friends, kids & big kids out, about & laughing together is a winner. Being able to do that for free & in the open air (& thankfully sunshine for the most part) was icing on the cake.

One thing that also struck me over the two weekends is how much the performers themselves seemed to love doing their shows. From time to time I’ve had chats with my dad about various professions, our own included & how most of the time you can take a step back and say “funny way to make a living!”. Certainly applies here too to all involved from the performers to the organisers and everyone in between! But I’ll bet they wouldn’t have it any other way.

Blowing Bubbles #2 by Phil OKane
'Blowing Bubbles #2' by Phil O'Kane

Thanks all for a fantastic experience & hopefully we’ll do it all again next year :)

What a week…

SPWC facepaint
SPWC facepaint - can't wait for more!

I’ve had a fantastic week that starts and ends with the Street Performance World Championships. I’m volunteering at the Dublin leg this weekend so hopefully see you around Merrion Square at some stage – no doubt it’s going to be as much if not more fun than Cork!

Monday was a trip to the Olympia to see DCU Drama Soc’s production of Rent. I had never seen the musical before & I was gobsmacked by the performance of the guys n gals on stage. A really tough production to pull off & they did a fab job of it. It’s running till Saturday.

Tuesday was a trip to the Transformers 2 premiere with the Culch.ie gang. There’s a whole mixture of reviews and reactions over there to it! I loved the first one which it doesn’t live up to, but then again what sequel does? Boo factor: long, scattered & possibly weak plot, some dodgy humour. Win factor: CGI is beautiful, loads of machine action and again, it looks amazing.

During the days, I was working on some exciting web projects at X Comms some of which will be going live next week all going well – whoop! Will post links when they’re up and away.

I went to a talk about M.E. (or CFS if you’re so inclined) and learned a heck of a lot about something I was pretty ignorant to. Had forgotten how complicated the human body is to boot :)

My mum passed all her college exams, my little sister got herself a summer job & my dad is back to being himself after a nasty bug. I’m loving hanging out with this crazy mofo and having a fantastic time with my brand new friend Toro :)

It’s awesome to be alive :)

Link platter lunch

Love at the high place 1 by Li Wei
"Love at the high place 1" by Li Wei

My thanks to Jen for sharing this article on the amazing work of Li Wei. It’s performance art meets photography and I love it. Excerpt from the article

After dropping out of art school and dabbling in oil painting, Li decided to focus on action art because, as he puts it, only it “offers a chance to experience an action’s message through one’s own body.”

Darragh is jumping/being thrown out of a plane in the name of charity next weekend. Here’s where you can make your donation. If he manages to TwitPic it on the way down, I’ll give him another fiver :)

Dublin City Soul Festival is hitting Dublin this weekend and it’s shaping up to be awesome.

McAWilliams has some beautiful shots from his first wedding shoot on Pix.ie.

Peter is putting it up to RTE and Richard Corrigan over slaughtering animals on telly.

Ikea Dublin is opening in just 9 weeks on July 27th. God help my bank account. 

Jerry Fish & The Mudbug Club are at the Academy in Dublin this Saturday & they give me my choice of song for the day: