After two plus weeks with no performances, the Supreme Court Jesters had their first show of 2016 last weekend at the Fryeburg (Maine) Health Care Center.  Actually, I was the only one on the team who did the show as Rose, 14, had dance class, and my wife, Sue had to get her there and back.  Fryeburg HC is often one of, if not the, first show of our year, almost always being scheduled for January.

Since we had two weeks without shows, I had plenty of time to work on new and / or revised routines, and knowing the folks at FHC are a forgiving sort, I decided it was a good place to try out some different things.  For example, I've always enjoyed contact juggling (manipulating balls without any of the tossing and catching of traditional juggling) but never felt I was really smooth at it.  Consequently, I incorporated it into shows very rarely.  But over vacation, Rose videoed my contact routine to Mahalia Jackson's "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands".  I've got to say, it was way smoother from the audience point of view than I expected.  I thought I'd give it a whirl at the show last weekend, and it was well relieved.  It certainly can be included more often.

Also over vacation I resolved something else I've wrestled with for quite some time.  I have a fairly intricate four, five and six ball routine, but the truth is, it's not do-able in most venues due to not enough ceiling height.  So I developed a new routine (fully intending to keep the original as well, when space allows).  The new routine involves four and five balls, but sticking only to tricks that can be done in, say, a room with an eight foot ceiling.  Obviously, this means the routine needed to be shorter (no pun intended) so I choreographed it to the W's song "the Devil is Bad".  Okay, the song is hardly a profound theological statement, but the brass driven swing music is a lot of fun.  Again, I was pleasantly surprised with how it went when I debuted the routine in Fryeburg.

I also performed a new magic routine with appearing and disappearing candles based on Mathew 5: 14 - 16: "You are the light of the world."  It went off with only one hitch: I couldn't keep the candles lit.  Upon coming home, I immediately read the directions, and that problem has been resolved.  I guess there's something to be said for reading the directions first.

The rest of the routines were standards: ones I do regularly in similar venues, but the audience was gracious in letting me use them to try new things.  For that I am grateful and I'm confident now that I'll use them again soon.