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Jan / Feb 2001
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Busking
Festivals in Austria are
like
a newly developed teenager -
fun, fascinating, lively, young, exciting,
and completely supported by the townsfolk.
Many times the audiences themselves are a bigger part
of the show than the performers. |
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Tales
of a Woman Busker in Europe
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For my first tour in Europe,
I found that Austrians are not only more laid back then
Americans, but they are much more extroverted and want
to entice the performer into awkward situations. Especially
when it comes to my show.
My
busking show, officially titled The Super Hero Juggling
Show of the New Millenium, was wildly popular across
Austria at busking festivals. The reason being: Austrian
Men.
In my show, I bring 1-4
men up into the circle at different times to help me
with varying tasks of performance. Mounting the giraffe
unicycle proved to be sometimes more absurd than it
ever was in Canada or the United States. The men, well...they
sometimes decided they needed to challenge my dimensions
of height and balance requirements. As I would fall
over them when I jumped on their backs to mount the
uni, I sometimes would be incredibly surprised as they
would throw my skirt back and spank me for all to see.
Of course, it had nothing to do with me trying to give
them a wedgie or trying to steal their wallet while
hanging upside down draped over both men. This is not
a position the Zena Warrior Princess would ever get
herself into. But hey, I've never been able to master
those special effects.
After I was upright and sitting on the tall uni, they
would think that comedy was derived by pushing my unicycle
for me around the circle while I am 'balancing' on it.
Not being able to speak German more than a stern Nein!
I sometimes was at their mercy.
This really only happened once, and proved to be scary.
The drunk ring leader was definitely a wrong choice
for my safety, but what a crowd pleaser. Add a little
fear into the show, and the crowds go wild. Luckily
no one got hurt and laughter and applause prevailed.
This, of course, increased the hat at the end of the
show. My festival tour began in Linz, Austria at the
Linzer Pflasterspektakel, one of largest European busking
festivals with about 500 artists and 200,000 visitors
for three days. The weather was incredible, the crowds
huge, and performers strutted their stuff from every
facet of the globe.
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The Austrian men love to play dress up in the Super Hero
capes and masks I placed on their bodies. They would then
take turns frolicking, ballet dancing, cartwheeling and
fire juggling all to achieve their moment of Super Hero-dom
with the Leaverton Levitation Trick. This is where all
four men sit on four stools, positioned strategically.
They lay back on each others lapsand I pull the 4 stools
out from under them, one at a time. The four men remain
in-place, legs on the ground, 'levitating' their bodies
above the ground. Then, if the foursome is strong...and
usually they are, I am able to stand upon their chests
and juggle 3 clubs. You can imagine those four men get
an eyeful from their perspective, and boy do the crowds
go wild! Then it's time to pass the hat.
For me, my big green purse was
my 'hat'. It became a fluffy pillow of paper money, the
lighter the hat in Austria, the better. You want the bills,
not the change. But after the exchange rate from Deutsch
Mark to Dollar, I realized my time in Europe was not about
making loads of money.
For
European performers, the hats were very generous because
their exchange rate is about the same. American exchange
is like changing dimes for quarters. You give someone
a quarter, they give you a dime.
I
then performed in other Austrian towns of Feldkirch, Villach,
Bruck an der Mur and Lienz. Driving a car in Europe was
exhilerating driving at 120 mph and more. Either you dodge
the amateur European race car drivers or you join them.
So I joined them. Boy does that keep you awake on the
road! Knowing there was no steely toed cop pointing a
radar gun at me, I knew it was up to me to decide how
fast I wanted to go, and that's a whole different mindset.
It's a personal freedom that Europeans take for granted
that I found exhilerating.
With
each stop, the festival was shorter, the town smaller
and the crowds and hats were smaller from Linz. But the
excitement of performing in Austria never stopped. I finally
learned enough German to
communicate the few words I needed like 'Halt!' and 'Auchtung'
and 'gept mia gelt', which loosely translated means 'Give
me Your Money' in German slang. |
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