Hello,
With all the attention that Kenny Strasser has been getting lately I thought you folks might like to have a real yo-yo man on your show sometime.  My name is Mark Hayward, I grew up in Madison, and I am a full-time professional juggler and yo-yo man.

I’m sure you will want to do some checking into whether I am the real thing, so I’ve got some easy credentials for you:

- I used to work with Carleen Wild’s [one of the evening newscasters] husband at REI just behind West Towne Mall
- I have been on your show before.  I was the guy doing the talking in the July/August 1999 interview with the MadFive juggling team with Mike McKinney (my hair was long then)
- I have performed in the Kids in the Rotunda/Crossroads show every year for many years.

I grew up in Madison, but live in Pittsburgh now.  I am contacting you now, of course, because of Kenny Strasser.  I don’t know anything about who he is, and I am not part of whatever he is up to, but since he is basically making a big joke out of what I do for a living, I thought you might like to get another side of the story.

I will be travelling near Madison around May 30/31 on my way to an internship with a master spin-top maker in Omaha Nebraska, so I would be glad to come by for an interview if you are interested.

Here’s what they wrote back:

Mark,
Thanks for the offer. However our producers have decided to pass on
Yo-Yo related  live guests.
Best of luck.

Oh well.  It was worth a try.  Apparently the News Director is sick of the whole yo-yo ordeal.  I asked them to let me know if they ever change their minds.

After the shows, I got really lucky and got to have a quick personal tour of the two big theaters in the new Overture Center. John, who had been running sound for me, offered to show me the newly remodeled Capitol Theater (formerly remodeled as the Oscar Meyer Theater, but now returned to its original name), and the brand-new Overture Theater. It was awesome.

I have actually performed in the Capitol Theater twice, and it was fantastic. Unfortunately, one of the shows was on 9/11, so John and I share that bond since we both were working that day. The Capitol Theater is one of the two massive ones in town that were built in the days of Vaudeville. First the Civic Center, and after that was demolished the Overture center, were built around the Capitol Theater. So inside a sparkling, new, modern building you have a gorgeous old Vaudeville theater. I was worried that the remodel (to make it smaller) was going to destroy it, but they did a great job.

The newly renovated Capitol Theater

The brand-new Overture Theater is pretty great too. It has a TRIPLE balcony! It’s an astonishing sight standing on the stage looking up at the house when it’s empty, so I can only imagine how great it would be to play to a full house there. They have a new giant symphonic pipe organ, and a really cool retracting symphony shell that allows all the sound to go out into the house instead of getting lost backstage, or up in the grid above the stage. I don’t think it’ll be happening any time soon, but I sure hope I get to perform to a full house on a stage as grand as this one.

Overture Hall

MadFest is the annual regional juggler’s convention that is held each January in Madison Wisconsin. I have helped organize it to one degree or another since it started. For the last six years I have been in charge of the Public Show.

This year, as usual, we had a fantastic show. We had great jugglers like Luke Wilson (Brittish, living in Germany) and the Dew Drop Jugglers (Minneapolis/St. Paul MN) and we had great variety acts like The Rope Warrior (Chicago) and the Flybar Pogo Stick Demo Team (Chicago/Ohio), and sold out our 1300 seat theater once again. It’s always a challenge convincing people to go to the show, but once they go they are usually astonished at how great it was. For the most part, once people have seen the show they make it a family tradition to go every year. Initially it was frustrating to me that people didn’t seem to believe me that the show was going to be good enough to be worth seeing. I eventually got over the fact that not everyone thinks juggling is as cool as I do, although that never seemed like the whole story. This year I think I have seen the light, and my frustration has changed to a slightly different form: I think that American society no longer believes that live entertainment is worth the trouble.

I don’t know exactly where this lack of faith comes from, and of course there are exceptions like Broadway and rock concerts, but for the most part Americans won’t make the effort to see live shows. In our modern society people tend to be more isolated from their neighbors than ever before. There is more fear than ever about the dangers of the wide world outside (sometimes justifiably), and that is combined with less reason to leave the home to find high quality entertainment. People just don’t go out as much as they used to. With the amazing advances in technology we can have more top-quality entertainment at our fingertips than we will ever have time for. But, in my opinion, nothing can ever beat being in the audience of a great live show. Ever. This is where Chris Bliss comes in. Stick with me though, I’ll get back to him in a minute.

I have long wondered why the great old vaudeville theaters are so grand, and modern theaters are usually so boring. For a while I thought it was just the style at the time, or that we don’t value ornate buildings anymore, but that’s not it. I have been reading a history of Vaudeville called “No Applause, Just Throw Money” by Trav S.D. and it has shed some light on this question. It all comes down to money. When the great Vaudeville theaters were built, Vaudeville WAS the entertainment industry. The whole thing… or nearly so anyway. The content of the shows was always changing and the customer never completely knew what they were going to see. As a result, one of the only ways the theater had to bring people to their shows, and not those of their competitor across the street, was to build a fantastic theater that people wanted to come to. Part of the reason that it was worth the expense was that live performance was the only game in town. Radio was in its infancy and television did not yet exist, so if you wanted entertainment you went out to the theater. It was a big market.

Ok, back to Chris Bliss. One of the reasons his video was such a big hit is that it struck at just the right cultural moment. Many jugglers complained that his performance was not particularly good because the juggling wasn’t difficult, but there is no question that it was a great performance if you listen to the reaction of the crowd. Although I think that with fairly little effort Chris Bliss could make that routine a lot better, it is definitely a great performance, and if the point is to make a living, a great performance is the most important thing of all.

The Chris Bliss video is not a live performance, but it is a recording of a live performance, and the reaction of the crowd is infectious even through a computer monitor. So what the video turns out to be is a live performance that happens to be in just the right format to get in front of millions of people who don’t go out to see live performance, and they loved it.

That is exactly why the Chris Bliss phenomenon was so frustrating. I do not know Chris Bliss. I have nothing against him or his performance. If we were friends I would give him some constructive criticism, and he might or might not take it. I have seen many, many truly great performances in my time as a working professional entertainer, and as an avid attendee of juggler’s conventions; what frustrates me is that my knowledge of great live performances shouldn’t be anything special. It should be something that all Americans have in common. We have an astonishing number of truly great live entertainers in this country, and most people don’t know it. If we had a successful network of cabarets and other smaller more accessible live entertainment venues like they have in Germany, the Chris Bliss phenomenon would not have happened because Americans would already know that great live entertainment exists. There are many great performers from around the world who live and work in Germany because there are so many performing opportunities, and Germans appreciate live performance.

By the popularity of the TV show America’s Got Talent it seems as though there is some demand in this country for variety arts, but that show will not be the one to deliver it to us. After reading some of their legal documents, and talking to former contestants, it is clear that the show was created to find musicians and sign recording contracts.

I know how convenient it is to not have to leave your home to get a movie, or how easy it is to just flip on the TV and find something great to watch, but I think that American society as a whole is really missing out on a great resource that is within easy reach. What we need now is a venue for it, and to get up off our collective butts and see some great shows.

resources:

Chris Bliss Diss video by Jason Garfield. This one got a LOT of heat, and made it to the national news. It is from the viewpoint of a highly technical juggler.

Amazing Juggling Video. Perhaps the best juggling video I have ever seen. Keep in mind that videos and performances are not the same thing.

Also, we will once again have the Wisconsin State Yo-yo Contest at MadFest this year.  Unfortunately, this was the year of starting everything later than I should have, so there aren’t many details up about the contest yet, but that should change soon.

I was hired to perform at the Zoo by the Milwaukee Zoological Society for their annual Memeber’s Kids Nights. Each year they keep the Zoo open late for three nights (Tues, Thurs, and Fri.) so the members can come and enjoy the Zoo without all the non-member riff-raff getting in their way. It’s a really nice event. It’s evening, so it’s not so hot, the crowds are entirely managable, and they have special things like entertainers and free pickles. This is something like the 6th or 7th year they have hired me in a row. I really like this gig, and I know that someday my luck has got to run out.

The shows went as well as could be expected considering that we were in a basically undisclosed location due to the rain. Normally I perform in the outdoor theater that they use for the Bird of Prey Show. In the time I have worked there I have performed solo, alternating with a ventriloquist, and this year I’m alternating with a sound effects guy in his 80s named Wes Harrison. He’s awesome.

In general I always try to get to a show about an hour ahead of time. It’s not as critical to have that much time if I’ve done the show before, or if I know in advance that they are really organized, like for a library show. On the other hand, gigs like Summerfest, or the WI State Fair require that I get there several hours in advance because there is a lot more ground to cover, and I can’t drive right up to my performing spot.

After my two shows were finished at the Zoo, I headed back to the car in the rain, and let the dog out for a very brief stretch before we headed off to Lynn’s house. At this point it was about 8:45 and I was starving, so I stopped at good ol’ Taco Bell for a Crunch Wrap Supreme with beans (no meat). Taco Bell and Subway are the saviors of the travelling vegetarian who’s in a hurry.

Lynn was already asleep when we got to her house, but that didn’t stop Vader from going up to her room and licking her until she woke up. Lynn and I are on nearly opposite schedules. I’m a night owl, and am usually up until 1 am or so, and Lynn usually is up at 4:30 am, 5:00 if she decides to sleep in. It can be a bit tricky, but it’s worked out so far. One side effect of being a performer is that you get pretty good at changing your sleep schedule. I read for a bit and went to bed.

As usual, Lynn, Vader and I were out the door at 7:40 am to go on the dog walk with a bunch of other dog owners. I usually wait to eat breakfast until we get back, when I am fully awake. By 10:00 I was reading in bed, and well on my way to a nap. Today I don’t have to work, but tomorrow I will have to leave for the Zoo at about 5 pm. The plan for the rest of today is to write this article, and go practice juggling with my buddy Marcus Monroe in a raquetball court. Tonight Lynn and I are going to eat her awesome marinated mushroom and green pepper sanwhiches, and watch the movie The Day the Earth Stood Still.

I will leave Milwaukee Saturday morning to head home, with a brief stop in Chicago to pick up some of my wife Lenore’s artwork from a gallery there. I get to be home Saturday and Sunday. We have some friends coming into town to look for an appartment, and then on Monday I am off to Portland for a week for the International Jugglers Association annual convention where I will practice, learn new tricks, network, socialize, sit around, and be the MC for the Cascade of Stars Public Show. After that I will be home for a few days before Pierogiefest in Whiting IN on July 29th.

Vader travels with me whenever I am going somewhere dog friendly for a few days. Mostly that means Lynn’s house in Milwaukee, but he comes with me when I go to my Mom’s house in Madison WI, to my friends Jeni and Adolfo’s house in Green Bay WI, or to my sister-in-law’s house in Geneva IL.

That’s pretty much how I live when I’m working. Winter is less busy, and there is more doing stuff around the house, doing office work, seeing friends, going to the dog park, and working on computer projects. I hope that this was interesting for you, if not, then you are not the audience I wrote it for. ;)

After my shows at Summerfest today, Vader and I head off to Madison for a few days since my brother Kent and his new fiancee Lissa are in town. I’m really looking forward to it.

The show in Madison was a lot of fun, as I expected. I actually asked to come back to this one after I did it a few years ago. As a part of the intensive week-long music clinic for middle-school kids they also bring in entertainers so that the kids can learn to be good audience members, and therefore be more appreciative when they have a good audience themselves. It’s a really nice theater packed full of kids, and it’s always a great show.

Evansville was a lot of work (five 45 minute shows at five different locations in 2 days) but it was a great time. It’s always interesting to see how different the shows are when you do a series like this one. Some of them were packed, outrageous riots, and some were more low-key, calm, lightly attended affaris. The shows were great, and something I didn’t expect at all was that there were a bunch of kids who came to more than one show. One kid came to three! One show on the first day, and two on the second.

At one point in my show I tell a story with yo-yo tricks, and one of the tricks is the Runaway Dog where you throw a fast spinner, take the string off your finger, and the yo-yo rolls away from you. I always aim this trick at a specific kid so they can grab it and throw it back to me, but sometimes they miss the yo-yo as it rolls by. At one of the shows on the first day in Evansville, the kid missed the yo-yo so I asked for someone to go and get it. About 6 kids got up and sprinted for it. As they did, I sarcastically said, “Yeah, that’s a great idea. Fight over it. And see if you can knock some teeth out while you’re at it.” I’m not used to people taking me seriously. The kids actually started fighting! No teeth were disloged, but neither were any parents. I had to go over and break up the fighting kids myself. It was very strange.

It was a slow drive back up to Indianapolis that evening, but I had my Berries & Cream Dr. Pepper so it was ok. I LOVE that stuff! It tastes like cough medicine. It’s awesome.

I REALLY didn’t want to have to get in the car for more driving on Thursday to go up to Skokie. The show ended up being delayed a few hours because of the rain, but that actually turned out to be good since I got to have lunch with Harper and some of the threadless.com guys. After lunch there was a short Half-Life video game session where we played in a level that Ivan had made to look like the threadless office. It was really cool.

Since Monday I have driven over 1600 miles. Yow.