My Pittsburgh adventure
It started Sunday night around 9 when Wes finally arrived at my house. In the morning, we were going to embark on a trip to Pittsburgh to see one of Jay Gilligan's juggling shows. This was no ordinary show, it was a culmination of the last ten years he's been working as a solo artist. He would come out, explain the reasoning and ideas behind his routines, then perform them. He called it his ten year retrospective tour... only to be performed three times in North America. But we're still on Sunday. I took Wes to Denny's to meet up with Emily, Geoff and Jared. Nick and Marshall decided to show up too. It was cool, Jared was more of a douche than normal and Wes didn't like him. Oh well. We came back, watched a little 9-1 and went to bed.
Monday started with a bang. We ate a little breakfast, then hit the road early. Leaving about 9 put us in Pittsburgh around 2. The road trip was delightful. Listened to music, most of it from juggling routines, talked about juggling and other stuff, then bam! We're in Pittsburgh. What a great city. It's so visual when you first get in. Picture a great day, 55 degrees and sun shining on a ground that has most of its snow melted off. The road is going over a hill while you're down in a valley and you haven't seen any buildings for five miles. All of a sudden, in front of you there's a huge yellow bridge spanning across a river, flanked by Heinz stadium and every other skyscraper in the city. It was glorious... like the Emerald City in Wizard of Oz. The city is just beautiful, so many good sights, we'll get to that later. We meet up with Michael and got a parking spot, then went to Point Park University where his dorm is. City colleges work by having all the dorms, cafeterias, libraries and classrooms in one building. It was so weird at first, but turned out to be a really great experience. We chilled, exchanged tricks and waited for Jay. He got there within another hour and we went to go greet him and help take his stuff to the stage. Jay is such a cool cat, it was great to hang out with him for a bit. Wes, Tony and I were in the theater juggling while Michael and jay were setting up on stage. Then people started arriving for the show and we had to move outside. I juggled for people and since Wes was working on his laptop, I was the best one there. I met lots of new fans and gave people advice about seven balls and five clubs. It's what I'm good for.
The show was nothing short of amazing. Jay inspires hundreds of jugglers around the world and I'm one of them. His routines aren't just showing you what he can do with clubs, balls or rings. He uses lots of different objects and manipulates all of them very skillfully. Such a great performer. After the show, Michael, Jay, Tony, Wes, Michael's brother Samuel, Michael's sister Anna and I all went out to eat. We had fun there. I almost got in a fight while leaving the parking garage, because the security guy didn't like me. He was muttering something about "...if he turns around one more fucking time...". I was ready to throw down. Dinner was great, but we got another asshole serving us. He was angry the whole time. We had fun messing with him. Went back to Michael's house and went to bed.
Tuesday we woke up, ate breakfast, said our goodbyes and then went into the city. Wes and I were making a juggling video, but the problem is, juggling around the city is nearly impossible. So many people want you to move along, because you can't sit around any place with benches for too long before a security officer asks you to leave. We got kicked out of five filming locations, but not before getting something on camera. Ha, devious filmers we are. The shooting expedition was great. We were at one place, trying to film reaction shots. Wes walks up to a guy with the camera on and says "What did you think of the..." and the guy says "I wouldn't do that... I wouldn't do that! I'm wanted in four states". Camera off, run away. Along the way, we met this woman Shannon. She had her 13 year old daughter with her. She was 29. Do the math... that's a mommie at 16. Turns out she has another kid, 15 years old. She followed Wes and I around for a bit, showing us different locations to shoot at. Then, out of nowhere, I kid you not, she asks me if she can have a copy of the video, then she thrusts a piece of paper at me with her name, number and STREET ADDRESS. Then she says "You know, if you don't have a girlfriend when you're in the city next...". I burst out laughing. That was probably rude, but how do you respond to someone making that kind of offer? Especially since I'm not a man whore. We filmed at one final location, where a group of four girls were watching us. They seemed impressed, and said we should have a hat out. I asked them if we had a hat if they'd give us money. They said yes. I borrowed a hat from a guy I saw sitting on a ledge, and the girls filled it with 7.50! They must have really liked jugglers.
So we filmed a video and made enough money to pay for the parking ticket. Awesome! Drove back, hung out at the house for a bit before Wes left, then slept a lot. What a great two days.
Monday started with a bang. We ate a little breakfast, then hit the road early. Leaving about 9 put us in Pittsburgh around 2. The road trip was delightful. Listened to music, most of it from juggling routines, talked about juggling and other stuff, then bam! We're in Pittsburgh. What a great city. It's so visual when you first get in. Picture a great day, 55 degrees and sun shining on a ground that has most of its snow melted off. The road is going over a hill while you're down in a valley and you haven't seen any buildings for five miles. All of a sudden, in front of you there's a huge yellow bridge spanning across a river, flanked by Heinz stadium and every other skyscraper in the city. It was glorious... like the Emerald City in Wizard of Oz. The city is just beautiful, so many good sights, we'll get to that later. We meet up with Michael and got a parking spot, then went to Point Park University where his dorm is. City colleges work by having all the dorms, cafeterias, libraries and classrooms in one building. It was so weird at first, but turned out to be a really great experience. We chilled, exchanged tricks and waited for Jay. He got there within another hour and we went to go greet him and help take his stuff to the stage. Jay is such a cool cat, it was great to hang out with him for a bit. Wes, Tony and I were in the theater juggling while Michael and jay were setting up on stage. Then people started arriving for the show and we had to move outside. I juggled for people and since Wes was working on his laptop, I was the best one there. I met lots of new fans and gave people advice about seven balls and five clubs. It's what I'm good for.
The show was nothing short of amazing. Jay inspires hundreds of jugglers around the world and I'm one of them. His routines aren't just showing you what he can do with clubs, balls or rings. He uses lots of different objects and manipulates all of them very skillfully. Such a great performer. After the show, Michael, Jay, Tony, Wes, Michael's brother Samuel, Michael's sister Anna and I all went out to eat. We had fun there. I almost got in a fight while leaving the parking garage, because the security guy didn't like me. He was muttering something about "...if he turns around one more fucking time...". I was ready to throw down. Dinner was great, but we got another asshole serving us. He was angry the whole time. We had fun messing with him. Went back to Michael's house and went to bed.
Tuesday we woke up, ate breakfast, said our goodbyes and then went into the city. Wes and I were making a juggling video, but the problem is, juggling around the city is nearly impossible. So many people want you to move along, because you can't sit around any place with benches for too long before a security officer asks you to leave. We got kicked out of five filming locations, but not before getting something on camera. Ha, devious filmers we are. The shooting expedition was great. We were at one place, trying to film reaction shots. Wes walks up to a guy with the camera on and says "What did you think of the..." and the guy says "I wouldn't do that... I wouldn't do that! I'm wanted in four states". Camera off, run away. Along the way, we met this woman Shannon. She had her 13 year old daughter with her. She was 29. Do the math... that's a mommie at 16. Turns out she has another kid, 15 years old. She followed Wes and I around for a bit, showing us different locations to shoot at. Then, out of nowhere, I kid you not, she asks me if she can have a copy of the video, then she thrusts a piece of paper at me with her name, number and STREET ADDRESS. Then she says "You know, if you don't have a girlfriend when you're in the city next...". I burst out laughing. That was probably rude, but how do you respond to someone making that kind of offer? Especially since I'm not a man whore. We filmed at one final location, where a group of four girls were watching us. They seemed impressed, and said we should have a hat out. I asked them if we had a hat if they'd give us money. They said yes. I borrowed a hat from a guy I saw sitting on a ledge, and the girls filled it with 7.50! They must have really liked jugglers.
So we filmed a video and made enough money to pay for the parking ticket. Awesome! Drove back, hung out at the house for a bit before Wes left, then slept a lot. What a great two days.