But seriously, my first experience with jury duty is officially over. I’m glad it’s done, but I also think it was a good experience for me to have.

Back to Faneuil

In any case, after I finished with jury duty, I hit up Faneuil Hall once again to check out the performance scene. Once again, there was only one performance going on, and it was the escape artist I saw the first day I went out (who I learned is named Jason Escape). This time around, I decided to have a chat with him.

Jason Escape after freeing himself from his straitjacket

Jason was kind enough to take some time and chat with me over drinks. Or rather, he drank and I just asked him questions. Understandable since I had already eaten and he had just finished two long performances in the hot sun.

Jason was a pretty down to earth guy and talked with me freely about his street performance work. He said he’s been performing in Faneuil Hall for 6 years now (which is why I recognized him originally), and doing street theater for even longer. Besides working in Faneuil, he also does a number of other events, parties, and shows around the world.

I was curious to know from him just how and where he practices hanging upside-down in a straitjacket and getting out scot-free. He said that there is no way you can really train for such a performance other than just doing it. He’ll try some new things out right there in his show and if he gets the response he was looking for from the crowd, he’ll keep it. If not, it’s gone.

That made a lot of sense to me.  With street performance, the audience is an integral part of the whole experience.  You can’t practice certain key aspects of a show without the audience there watching and interacting.  In a lot of ways, escaping from a straitjacket is the easy part.

Now that jury duty is over, I’m wondering what to do now.  Jury duty was a nice excuse to get into the city for the day.  I’m not keen on making the trip to Faneuil Hall just to see if there will be new performances.

I don’t know at this point.  But I must say it has been very rewarding while it lasted.

Today, after jury duty, I returned to Quincy Market to check out the street performance scene.  This time there was only one performer doing a show.  He was dressed as a construction worker and performed a number of acts including juggling, contact juggling, diabolo, and balancing on a rolling globe.

I approached the performer after his show and learned that his name is Brent McCoy.  He is a professional performing artist and does street theater and other shows worldwide.  This was his second summer performing in Boston’s Quincy Market and he said it was a great experience.

Brent McCoy performing in Faneuil Hall

Brent is originally from Greensborough, Vermont and trained in the circus arts at the Celebration Barn in Maine.  Brent also mentioned that he has worked and traveled with Circus Smirkus for about 10 years.  He said he is one of about 13 performers currently working in Faneuil Hall/Quincy Market.

Parkour Jam for Charity

The following is an extended report of Boston traceurs plan parkour charity event for cancer research

After leaving Faneuil Hall, heading up toward Government Center, I noticed 5 guys running at and up a wall.  Naturally, I had to stop and check out what they were up to.  Fairly soon, I realized that they were traceurs practicing parkour.  I then figured I’d head over and chat with them.

After having a little discussion about wall running, the guys mentioned that they are regulars on the New England Parkour website.  The site is a message board and social networking site where traceurs from all over the New England area can chat, exchange info and tips, as well as organize events.  I am familiar with the site since I’d been a member for a number of years; however, I hadn’t checked it out in a while.

The guys also let me know that there will be a charity event organized by NE Parkour going on the weekend of August 13th.  I thanked them for the info and said I’d look into it.

And I did just that.

I found out from the website that the event is a charity parkour jam for the American Cancer Society.  It will be the very first charity jam NE Parkour has hosted.  They are inviting all traceurs in the Boston area and beyond to come out and support cancer research and treatment.

The event will take place every day from August 13-15, starting at noon on the 13th and at 10am on the 14th and 15th.  Each day will run until 8pm.  The Charlestown Baby Pool, a frequent location for NE Parkour jams, has been chosen as the site for the event.  Participants are invited to provide donations or sponsor a traceur.  All money raised will go towards cancer research.

I think the jam is a great idea, and I am looking forward to attending.  I am even considering registering with them so that others can sponsor me!  Wouldn’t that be cool?

Anyway, I’ll keep you posted on that.

As I mentioned, I was called in for Jury Duty, and so I went over to the courthouse today.  It wasn’t much fun and I spent most of the day sitting around in a room, fighting sleep, and waiting for someone to tell me where to go next.

I ended up getting placed on a jury, and the trial is expected to last until the end of the week.  *sad face*

It’s not all bad though.  I am going to be missing summer camp, but at least I’ll have shorter work days for a while.  As a matter of fact, I took the extra time that I had today and decided to take a stroll around the city.

I figured I’d head to Faneuil Hall since there is usually several street performers there, and I felt like watching a performance.  Long behold, there were two performances running simultaneously in Quincy Market.  One was run by a guy I am familiar with who often does escape/magic acts in the area.  He was quite good, as usual.

The other performance I only caught the end of.  It consisted of two jugglers/acrobats and they had a freestanding ladder rigged up by four audience volunteers.  I thought they were especially great because they clearly had been performing/training together for a good while and had a lot of chemistry.  They did improv comedy that was very spot-on and funny, to the point that they could almost complete each others sentences.  I was impressed.

And since I was so impressed by the performers this afternoon, I decided to make it into a ritual of mine to head to Quincy Market after I’m finished with my jury duty for the day.  Hopefully I will be able to see some interesting performances, and I’ll probably flag some down and have a chat with them.  Who knows?

Circus Journalism Update

Speaking of which, when I finally got back home today, I checked my email and saw that I am now officially the new Boston Circus Arts Examiner for Examiner.com.  I’m super excited!  Basically, this means that I will have the honor of covering circus events and performances in the Boston area and publishing those articles on the site.

I think this is great because it will give me an excuse to continue doing this very type of thing that I’m planning on doing this week: watching street performers and other performances in the Boston area and talking to the people who are behind them.  I plan to hit the ground running with this, so I’m going to start with the Quincy Market crowd.  I’m also going to be working my way toward other outlets.

My new examiner website can be found here: http://www.examiner.com/x-59900-Boston-Circus-Arts-Examiner.  Feel free to send me any leads you might have, or otherwise give me feed back.  I’m excited to see how this whole thing goes! 

Thanks in advance for all the support.  More to come soon!

Yeah, no… XP

I was called in to perform my “civic obligation,” forcing me to take off of work… fantastic (*sarcasm*). They couldn’t give me jury duty on any of the days this summer when I was doing absolutely NOTHING? Nope, they had to wait until I’m actually working.

Alas, it is what it is.

I am partially excited if for no other reason than it’s something I’ve never done before. I am curious about how the whole legal system works, even though it kind of scares me.

It’s just extremely inopportune because I am now working with the Simply Circus summer camp. I love the job because I get to work with kids and teach them circus arts. However, the job is extremely draining and sometimes frustrating because I am working with kids and teaching them circus arts. I’m glad I get a day off from the camp life, but I would much rather work with the kids than sit in a courtroom twiddling my thumbs all day.

Wish me luck. Hopefully it won’t be too painful and they won’t actually call me in for the case.

Fingers crossed…

I recently applied for a new job with the Examiner as the Boston Circus Arts Examiner.  What this means is I would write about the local circus arts scene here in Boston and essentially be a circus journalist (which is secretly my dream job!).

Well, I suppose it’s not really a secret anymore is it….

In any case, I just got an email saying I got the job!  Kind of…

I’ve been offered the job, but I still need to hear back from them with all the information I need to start publishing.  I am very excited though!  It’s going to require a lot of work, but I’m up for it.

I’m probably going to end up changing things around here to make this a kind of unofficial homepage for the examiner site.  Examiner is where all the articles will be, and this will be a more “About The Author” type of site.  Not sure just yet how that will play out, but I’ll keep you posted.

Once I get all the info with the site address and all that good stuff, I’ll be posting more about this.  Just thought I’d give you all the good news. 

Until next time!

Here’s something else I just haven’t gotten around to posting.  It’s a demo video made by a friend of mine.

Me, him, and a few other friends were hanging out in the park because it was a nice day and I did some slackline, some juggling, and of course some staff spinning.  And this is what was produced.

I admit it’s kinda silly, but I think it’s great! 

Hope you all enjoy!

Eric Promo Video

Back from China, and let me say that it was a fabulous experience.  Traveled to Shanghai and Xi’an, but didn’t make it to Beijing.  Oh well, maybe next time. 

In any case, you can read up on all the things I learned on my trip here: What I Learned in China.

Didn’t get the chance to visit any of China’s circus schools, but I did see a child street contortionist.  Note: doing contortion before you finish growing can be terrible for your spine.  In Chinese circus schools, they bend kids in all sorts of ways prematurely.  That’s why the kids are so flexible, but it’s also why they rarely grow taller than 5 feet…

but that’s another story completely…

Rope Tricks

What I really wanted to mention is that I finally got some pictures!  No, not from the China trip (t’will be a while before I have those).  I got some pictures from my very first escape act!

A few months ago, I was over at a friend’s place in Nantucket.  If you aren’t familiar, Nantucket is a little island off Massachusetts that is pretty awesome.  They do a lot of fishing and sailing and such over there, so my friend was very familiar with the various knots that sailor use (being a sailor himself).  And as he was demonstrating some of these knots, I asked if he’d ever used them to tie anyone up before.

Naturally, he was caught a bit off guard.  He said he hadn’t, but he could probably do it pretty easily.  So, being the circus artist that I am, I asked if he would be willing to tie me up to see if I could get out of it.  Luckily for me, he agreed!  Albeit, somewhat reluctantly.

I’d picked up some techniques from escape artists, and really wanted to see if they would actually work.  I figured, “When am I going to have another opportunity to ask a friend who knows a whole lot about knots to tie me up?”  And so we got a chair, got some rope, and commenced the tying.

The toughest part was sitting still all that time trying to keep my muscles tense (as is the strategy for escape).  However, once the knots were all tied, it only took me about 2 minutes to wriggle myself out.

Who knows, I might add the act to my repertoire (so long as I have someone around who can do the tying).

I only got a few pictures of the tying process, but you can see them all on the Media Page.

Until next time!

Just wanted to give you a quick update.  I’m actually at the airport on my way to China.  Yay!  Very excited.

In any case, just a few hours ago I performed in Obsession, my very first circus show!  And I am pleased to say that it went extremely well!

But that’s all I really have time for right now.  I’m about to board my flight, so I’ll check back in with you when I get back into the states at the end of the month.

Both of which will be the firsts of my career!

I’ve done little performances before, but never in an actual “circus show.”  Never one where I would be working with other, skilled circus performers.  Never one where we have lighting, and posters, and set design, and costumes.

It’s all a bit overwhelming.  But extremely exciting!

It’s been a long time coming, but I’ve finally pieced together a partner acrobatics act with my good friend Alix.  We needed a lot of help and guidance, but we’re really happy with the way it’s turned out.

I’m also working on an act with my staff, which will (quite possibly) involve fire.  We’re still working on the details of how we’re going to set up the stage in preparation for that, but it’s looking like that will come together as well.  In any case, I have a whole non-fire routine worked out, which is exciting in itself.

We’re still rushing to get all of the final show details hammered out (as is normal for any stage show), and we’re all pretty exhausted/stressed.  But I know I’m pumped to perform!

Hope you can make it!

And it felt great!  It’s a skill I’ve been dying to acquire; although, it’s also terrified me.

The bad news is that I tried the combination one too many times and landed hard on my shoulder.  I made the common mistake of jumping out instead of up into the back tuck that I always have to correct in others’ form.  I think I was focused to much on nailing the back tuck that I forgot to position myself correctly in the roundoff.

In any case, I bruised the shoulder pretty bad and have been icing it the past few days.  I should be fine, but it means that I might not be able to perform in tonight’s show.  I’ll still be able to host, but hoop diving might be out.

I’m sure we’ll work something out.