On stage was another East German musical group called Nebukadhnezzar, or in English, Indian Village People. They didn't sing anything remotely like Y-M-C-A. They seemed like they had stepped out of the castle down the street where they had just performed for the king and his court. Covered in leather and fur, wide belts draped around their bodies, partly shaved heads, earrings in every orafice and knee high boots, they played drums, bagpipes and sitar unlike anything I've heard before. One of the guys performed with about 12 white hoops, putting them around his body somewhat like a native american dancer I saw once, but with abundant expertise and graceful style. I was to perform after that? uhhhh.....

    Not being able to speak German, not able to use my 60's dance music, not able to use anything with metal or plastic...there go the Todd Smiths and the Dube knife. I found I was about to perform with 4 wooden balls I bought at the nearby booth and some wooden chairs that happen to be on the stage. The unicycle was too new and too shiny for this Medieval stage, so hiking my dress up to ride was not even an issue.

    Most of my show had been banished with the props, so I began the bare-bones challenge of creating in the moment. I began to 'mime' my way into the show. It was very difficult to draw a crowd since I couldnÍt speak German and I had no music to back me up, but as I begin, more people began to stop and watch. Instead of 4 men, I chose 3 men and a woman, solely because I couldn't find 4 strong men in my small crowd. Eventually, the crowd grew. Just before the Leaverton Levitation trick, the sole chosen woman decides she has to leave, and jumps off the stage and into the crowd running after one of her kids. OK. Always love THOSE challenges. I bring another man on stage, and make it all part of the moment. Whee. The show was more than challenging and the hat made only a little money, only partly because the public had to pay $6 to get into the fest. But hey, I had a rooftop inn, a hot medieval sauna waiting me and some wonderful new friends to hang out with. All was A-OK. This was the end of my journey across Austria, Germany and Switzerland. I had experienced sleeping in the Swiss Alps, glorious cowbells ringing in my ears and guerilla busking in Zurich in two locations. My performance at the European Juggling Convention in Germany was awesome and humbling as I performed in front of more than 5000 people in the opening ceremonies with European performers such as "Zimmy" Stefan Zimmerman who bounced balls standing on a suitcase balanced on a rola bola cylinder to live fiddle music by or Volker Maria Maier who made Diablos fly with amazing grace and beauty. I definitely realized I needed to put in hundreds more hours of practice to be anywhere as technically perfect as some of these young masters. The organizers of all the festivals had been very professional and well organized. The audiences were continually playful, mischevious and always exuberant to see another show, even in the rain. Overall, I find that European men love to shake their booties to American 60's dance music and enjoy playing Superman with their neighbors watching. Go figure. To Europeans, I guess it's all a matter of personal freedom and a respect for the Variety Arts. No matter what it is, I want to go play in Europe's backyard again very soon. n

One of my last performances for this tour was in Lienz, Austria...that's Lienz, not Linz. I begin in Linz, and finished in Lienz.

    This one was a Medieval Festival of 1500 that was placed in the middle of a city wide festival Stadtfest Lienz. I was to perform on the Medieval stage. My only costume was a bright orange polka dot 60's mini dress, and I wasn't sure how I was to pull this one off. But there was to be free food, lodging and hat money, so I arrived having just driven from Bruck an der Mur. Somehow, I was the lucky busker. They had no rooms at the inn, and instead of putting me up in the barn, I ended up at one of the premiere hotels, with the rooftop room surrounded by an amazing castle, a winding river and the Austrian Alps. Ok, I could live with this.

    I go down to meet my contact, Juergen. He was at his base camp dressed in his 1500 A.D. best peasant attire, bells ringing on his boots. Europeans know how to do medieval. Turns out, East Germans had been brought into the festival to build this realistic village. Those East Germans have something going on. All signs of the year 2000 were dismantled or covered. It was like walking into a time warp. And the weird thing is, I felt completely at home.

    Juergen was cooking a huge brass pot of water to pour into the wooden sauna/bath that was enshrowded in a canopy of cut wood, draped cream cloth, candles with flowers and oils floating in the water bobbling alongside the two large breasted women with nothing but smiles on their faces. Ok, so this is how they do Renessaince in Europe. I think I could get used to this. This would never happen in America. Can you imagine in ANY festival in America, one of the booths would include 2-5 nude people sitting in a bath, rubbing each others backs with bouyant body parts nippling out for all to see? What I loved most was the crowd. Never a moment of disgrace or disgust. Oh no, just the opposite. The Europeans worship their sauna. They prop their kids up on their shoulders so the kids can see the bouyant beauties. Smiles and gleeful suprises were in abundance, and I loved the laid back Europeans even more. They are not only relaxed, but they enjoy personal freedoms fully.

     I find I have a costume waiting for me in Juergen's car. We had to break through into the year 2000 to fetch it. I looked at it precariously, trying to decipher how I was to ride a 6 ft. uni in a full length gown....but hey, I could be the wild medieval wench who hikes her skirt up into her belt showing long Texas legs to the year 1500...yeah, that might work. We'll see.