First Night of the new season

Wednesday marked the opening night for the Bard in the Quad performances.

It's an excellent opportunity allowed to us, and it's great to be working with them again.

I'll just say that Gibby Reynolds (Production Manager) is awesome! :-) Probably the nicest and most helpful Tech person we have ever had the honor to work with! When asked if they had an open plug for us to put the PA system into, he was right there helping us out and getting us going.

We had some battery issues, so it was quite helpful to have a solid power source.

Show's goal was to be 15 minutes, so we actually took out one routine to make sure we fit with the time.

I opened the show by welcoming the crowd and we tried out the "Bard Broadcasting Network" Shakespeare Radio Routine. I think it went well, and it was fun to play along with the radio. Routine seemed to be received well.

Our second routine was the debut of Brenda's Bounce Routine! I think she did awesome considering the space was a bit more difficult than what she was used to. We're going to check out a better "spot" for the bounce before the next show. She kept her composure, and bounced her way to success :-)

Her routine gave me the opportunity to change, and get ready for the next routine, the diabolo. It went pretty well. Chucked the diabolo up high into the wind and it carried it quite a bit further than I expected, so was unable to catch it. Got it off of a double bounce, but will probably be a bit more careful next time . . . heh heh.

With that routine done, it moved us right into the final routine (this stuff moves very quick!) and we finished with our typical closing song.

Sequence for this one was:
Solo start
3 - Club interaction
6 - Club passing - 4 count tricks
6 - Club passing - 2 count tricks
7 - Club Finish

It went pretty well, and I think we can make a few sections even more smooth. Having the Shakespeare part be on audio helps in a few ways:

1. It's always the same. The routine is exactly 5 minutes long. Once the ball starts rolling, we know exactly where it will end :-)
2. No worries about people not hearing it!
3. Plug and Play jugglers :-) We can sub out the "performer" as it's not all that difficult a routine to learn. Just be sure and stretch a bit before entering the "Shakes" part, or you'll be sore the next morning ;-)

I concluded the show with some talk about passing the hat and what we use the donations for. Then Brenda, Crizzly and I went through the crowd.

The show worked out to be 15 minutes on the nose, but we'll need to start just a tad before 7pm to make sure we're done collecting and packing up before our 7:15 cerfew :-)

Gibby was very encouraging after our performance and just solidified what a difference a great attitude has on a show! It helps keep the energy UP and really makes thing be much more positive all the way around.

Plus . . . our first night's take was far more than any of us expected. I'll have to go through the archives and put it into perspective.

Ok, after a brief check, it looks like the take was about 3 times better than either first show from the 2006 or 2007 season :-) Let's see if we can keep that trend going!

Here's the short details:

Performers:
David
Brenda
Crizzly

Collection for the Day:
$129.77