So my friend Frank has a delightful habit of swinging his flaming balls every which way. This may sound crazy at first but there is a perfectly reasonable explanation. You see Frank is a performer and flaming balls on the ends of chains are one of the things he twirls for the entertainment and amazement of others. It's actually a pretty awesome show. It turns out Frank isn't the only one who does this.(By the way that is not frank in the picture off to the left there) Lets go back a few months to Penguicon 2010, a Sci-Fi convention in Troy, Michigan where it all began for the Narfster.
Penguicon 2010 was much like any other Sci-Fi event I had been to with one peculiar exception, Satori Circus. When I flipped past the name in the program book I dismissed his act completely. After all I had better things to do than go see a damn clown show. If things had ended there I probably never would have been introduced to this delightful world of Circus, Burlesque. Even though I never saw Satori's show I did end up seeing one of his songs later that weekend at the Costume Contest. Satori was the MC for the event and when he burst into bizarre song during one of the interludes my jaw hit the floor. It was hilarious and delightful and I started kicking myself for having skipped the full show. A YouTube search turned up more of his performances and led me to others who do similar work. I knew at that moment that I had to at some point get to a live show.
It wasn't long after this epiphany that I noticed my friend Frank's FaceBook page was literally cluttered with circus performer friends and he wasn't the only one. I quickly sent out dozens of random friend requests to as many of them as I could before FB actually killed my ability to send requests. (did you know if you have enough pending requests at one time you get checked out as a possible spammer?) Anywho, much to my delight many of them actually accepted and before long I was getting event updates for shows. A few days ago I saw that there was one I could actually fit into my ridiculous schedule, Dubstep Circus #6.
Saturday Morning: Harry Potter movie marathon, Leave early for Dubstep, Leave that before the end to drive 1 and a half hours home for a couple hours of sleep before my Discgolf Tournament Sunday Morning, Take a short nap after the tournament before going to my third shift job and go to class after that Monday morning. Someday I am going to get over 4 hours of sleep in a row and then I won't know what to do with myself.
Once I had decided to go to Dubstep it was imperative that I bring my camera. Those that know me personally know that I have been shooting video professionally for over 5 years and usually have my camera with me most places(unless there is water involved, someday I will get a waterproof rig and try some under the surface stuff!!) Anyway, the wonderful, talented, beautiful, (thick enough? hehe) Angela Pal was kind enough to let me come shoot the show and I ended up with a ton of video. There were a few hitches in my giddeup but a lot of it actually turned out ok. The lighting was an issue so some of the video is kind of grainy(video lesson: "gain" boosts the light intake but makes the picture grainy and there is loss of definition) There was another thing that caught me by surprise.(but shouldn't have) The base was booming so hard that I had some vibration issues. Thank God I don't shoot on DVD.(those cameras are the suck anyway!! NEVER buy one) I used my foot as a shock absorber for some shots, which helped but there was a bit of video that is not like I wanted it because of the shaky.
Well, to make a long story not quite as long, I did get some good video, I got to see an amazing show and I met some great people. I have the first few acts cut and I am going to link them right here.(Click the pics) If you like what you see, check back from time to time over the next few days because I will keep adding more.
Penguicon 2010 was much like any other Sci-Fi event I had been to with one peculiar exception, Satori Circus. When I flipped past the name in the program book I dismissed his act completely. After all I had better things to do than go see a damn clown show. If things had ended there I probably never would have been introduced to this delightful world of Circus, Burlesque. Even though I never saw Satori's show I did end up seeing one of his songs later that weekend at the Costume Contest. Satori was the MC for the event and when he burst into bizarre song during one of the interludes my jaw hit the floor. It was hilarious and delightful and I started kicking myself for having skipped the full show. A YouTube search turned up more of his performances and led me to others who do similar work. I knew at that moment that I had to at some point get to a live show.
It wasn't long after this epiphany that I noticed my friend Frank's FaceBook page was literally cluttered with circus performer friends and he wasn't the only one. I quickly sent out dozens of random friend requests to as many of them as I could before FB actually killed my ability to send requests. (did you know if you have enough pending requests at one time you get checked out as a possible spammer?) Anywho, much to my delight many of them actually accepted and before long I was getting event updates for shows. A few days ago I saw that there was one I could actually fit into my ridiculous schedule, Dubstep Circus #6.
Saturday Morning: Harry Potter movie marathon, Leave early for Dubstep, Leave that before the end to drive 1 and a half hours home for a couple hours of sleep before my Discgolf Tournament Sunday Morning, Take a short nap after the tournament before going to my third shift job and go to class after that Monday morning. Someday I am going to get over 4 hours of sleep in a row and then I won't know what to do with myself.
Once I had decided to go to Dubstep it was imperative that I bring my camera. Those that know me personally know that I have been shooting video professionally for over 5 years and usually have my camera with me most places(unless there is water involved, someday I will get a waterproof rig and try some under the surface stuff!!) Anyway, the wonderful, talented, beautiful, (thick enough? hehe) Angela Pal was kind enough to let me come shoot the show and I ended up with a ton of video. There were a few hitches in my giddeup but a lot of it actually turned out ok. The lighting was an issue so some of the video is kind of grainy(video lesson: "gain" boosts the light intake but makes the picture grainy and there is loss of definition) There was another thing that caught me by surprise.(but shouldn't have) The base was booming so hard that I had some vibration issues. Thank God I don't shoot on DVD.(those cameras are the suck anyway!! NEVER buy one) I used my foot as a shock absorber for some shots, which helped but there was a bit of video that is not like I wanted it because of the shaky.
Well, to make a long story not quite as long, I did get some good video, I got to see an amazing show and I met some great people. I have the first few acts cut and I am going to link them right here.(Click the pics) If you like what you see, check back from time to time over the next few days because I will keep adding more.
UPDATE September 21, 2010
So I think I pretty much have all of the performer videos posted now.(There were other great acts and DJ's and crowd shows and the like that I can't guarantee I will get posted here but I gave the Folks over at Dubstep Circus a copy of all my raw video so I would encourage you all to check them out too. I will also be going through all of the raw myself (a bunch more times) and plucking out some cool frames and putting together a photo album on my FaceBook.
Here is the link to my Facebook photos of the show. I will start getting the photos up as quickly as possible and keep adding to them until my eye's bleed and my fingers wear down to nubs. If you know anyone in the pictures TAG THEM !! Thanks (:
Photo Album
And here is a link to the Dubstep Circus #6 Facebook Page
Dubstep