Great America…..of DEATH!!

Our first weekend of juggling at the Six Flags Great America theme park for Fright Fest went very well. My friend Brian arranged the show, and got ahold of our third member, Ragnar, a dude from Brian’s old high school. We perform as the Jugglers of Death on the Market Stage, but I haven’t seen the rest of the park and have no idea really where we are. Our shows are full of danger. We never juggle clubs or normal balls. To get the audience excited, we have them yell “Death!” at us whenever we say death.. So there’s a lot of stuff like “And now Matiss is balancing on his face a pitchfork….of DEATH!” and the audience yells back “Death!”…etc. Breakdown of the danger: I do a solo knife routine, Brian does a solo torch routine, Ragnar does a solo devil stick routine..Brian and Ragnar together do a diabolo routine. Brian and I pass torches, and finish by both catching a torch between our legs simultaneously. We then blindfold Ragnar, put a carrot in his mouth, and start passing knives. We have him step into the pattern blindfolded, and then I cut the carrot. Then the three of us do a nine torch feed, Brian exits the feed and stands between Ragnar and me as we pass torches. Brian then does a headstand, and spreads his legs. He gets up, grabs some knives, and gets back into the feed so we’re passing a mix of knives and torches. Then we finish. Huge crowds form, especially for the carrot part, after which half the audience leaves, thinking we’re done. Then a huge crowd forms again for the torch feed/headstand part.. It’s been really fun, with only minor injuries. It’s not too cold, and we often keep the curtains down on the sides of the stage to cut down on wind chill/interference.

October 9, 2001. General.