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So I've been street performing quite a bit lately. This may seem surprising to a lot of you, but I do street perform at the Santa Monica Promenade.

The thing is that with my immigration status I can't legally work, so I decided to get into street performing a little bit ago. My first few weekends of street performing were so horrible, that I think most of my friends didn't think I'd ever be able to make any money doing it. At some points I felt like giving up. It sucks when you try to do something very hard and it's not working. I absolutely HATE that feeling. But I made myself do it every weekend with kind support from Barry and Mark, and every weekend I got a little bit better.

It took me over a month to go from completely sucking and making no money, to feeling pretty good about my street shows and making decent money. I think my street shows are pretty cool. They probably break every single tradition of street performing and end up still working. I pretty much just do some hard juggling, and talk to people about who I am and my juggling. I don't make anything up to be funnier or more interesting. I don't juggle anything dangerous. I just tell everything how it is and do some juggling.

I hear a lot of talk about general public not caring about juggling and only watching shows for comedy and the thrill of seeing something dangerous. That doesn't seem to be very true. It's somewhat true in a sense that if you just go out there and juggle 5 balls or something, people won't care. But if you go out and whip out 7 clubs, people go wild. People seem to really get into juggling, actually, especially if you explain to them what you're doing. They do require a little more explaination than juggling audiences, but after you tell them a little bit more about what you're doing and give them a frame of reference, they seem to appreciate good juggling.

I'm thinking about videotaping some of my street shows and making a DVD out of it. I do some pretty hard juggling in my shows, and I figured some of you guys might like to see that. I haven't decided yet whether or not I'll be doing it, but so far I'm leaning towards doing it. Let me know what you guys think.

Comments

sounds like a good idea... to make a dvd out of street performances.
too bad i don't live in santa monica anymore, so i can't watch your performances.

Posted by: bernard | July 17, 2006 10:39 PM

street performing!?

Vova,street performing?
Now I can't imagine Jason's face if or when or when you did or WILL tell him that! He he!
Go for it, man. A dvd sounds like a good idea.

Posted by: MMOJ | July 18, 2006 12:24 AM

Vova,

DVD would be a great idea! However, it would require lots of time, energy and creativity to build a decent-looking DVD.

Have you ever thought of making professional DVD and sell it through a web store, Amazon etc.

I am talking about collecting all of your taped material, along with making more videos on juggling, and put together a DVD which would offer sections on your background, childhood, recent work in USA, WJF competitions and - most importanty - visual guide to juggling, a sort of "how-to for dummies".

Now, I know that juggling is by no means trivial skill and but such a DVD would greately help in spreading the word on juggling and you could earn money out of its sales..

I mean, you can see how those videos on YouTube expanded your fan base and made people pause and think hard of juggling.

Imagine what would a professionaly-crafted DVD mean for people out there.

What do you think?

Posted by: Christian | July 18, 2006 03:21 AM

I'd probably purchase a Vova Street Performing DVD.

-Scott

Posted by: master3bs | July 18, 2006 05:51 AM

Hey,

I must say, I don't know if I agree with you Christian about making a sort of documentary ala Vova. Unless that is the pure intention of the video, I do not think it would do very well while juggling is still an often looked over sport. I think juggling was extremely lucky to have Time show interest in it and hopefully more interest is to come.

I think a street performance DVD would be great. As I read the blog entry, I found myself thinking how cool it would be if you would record a show and display it. I was glad to read that you are on the same page.

(I was also wondering if you were going to put an archive of your old videos anywhere. Maybe not all of them of course but some of the more rememerable ones would be cool. I have noticed that it is hard to find good juggling online for free excluding your site, Jason's site, Eden Zak and Gatto. I've only been juggling for a year and it was very helpful to have people to watch to give me motivation. If you know of any other sites to check out, I would love to know.)

Peace

Posted by: Zac | July 18, 2006 05:56 AM

sounds like fun what you're doing, I haven't been working much with clubs lately though not at all to be exact because I'm coming to WJF and my club ability isn't good enough to compete but I would like to get much better with my club juggling.

Posted by: Anonymous | July 18, 2006 08:06 AM

Hey Zac,

I get your arguments but I don't agree :). You see, I think that now is the time to use the publicity generated by Time article. I mean, I am a journalist myself (residing in Croatia) and I discovered Vova and Olga on YouTube two weeks ago. Althought I pitched this article to my editor, he saw no interest in publishing Ogla&Vova's story. I was furious and the fact that Time decided to publish the story is sort of satisfaction as it proved my editor was wrong ;).

However, the publicity is something you can build strategicaly and carefuly. This is a perfect opurtunity for Vova and Olga to use Time article to pitch their story to other media. Surely some media will be interested, thinking "if this story was good enough for Time, it will be good enough for us".

At least, that's my opinion. As for the DVD, I believe nothing wrong can come out of this. It is just another medium which Vova and Olga can use to popularize and educate juggling as a sport. One of the features of the DVD certainly must be footage of Vova performing on the street, young hip kids could easily corespodent with street performance.

I am certainly no expert in juggling. However, I've watched many videos showing other famous jugglers, but I am 100% certain that Vova and Olga have it all: the skill, the character, interesting background and story behind them.

I would really like them to become poster boy&girl for juggling.

Take care.

Posted by: Christian | July 18, 2006 08:44 AM

I think that'd be really cool Vova. I think My favortite part of Jugglng videos is the behind the scenes stuff aswell as the juggling, so if you make it, behind the scenes stuff would be sweet!

Posted by: Brian Koenig | July 18, 2006 09:02 AM

You should definitely do a DVD about both, your street show and your competitions! I would purchase that DVD, even though I havn´t bought any kind of entertainment materials for years!
Good luck for the coming WJF Championship

Posted by: Johan | July 18, 2006 02:04 PM

When Are you doing another street performance? I would love to see it!

Posted by: Carey Pickford | July 18, 2006 05:10 PM

Alright, looks like I'll be making the DVD. It'll probably take me a few weeks. I'll let you know how it's coming.

Posted by: Vova | July 18, 2006 05:52 PM

please, please, please, please, please, go ahead already and make the DVD!!!! oh, you are...thanks!!! can't wait!!!

Posted by: Gian | July 18, 2006 11:04 PM

Could you post a schedule of when and where you're performing, I would love to drive over and check you out (probably only on weekends because it's a 1+ hour drive over there)

Posted by: Shawn | July 19, 2006 11:01 AM

I think posting a schedule of your street performances is a great idea. Because I live in Irvine, it's a long drive to Santa Monica. However, my friends and I might make the trip if we know we can catch you performing.

Anyway, good luck with your show.

Posted by: Elliott Wagner | July 19, 2006 12:23 PM

Hey Vova,
I would totally dig a street juggling video, als are you able to say when and where in the future you will be doing a street show? I live in Irvine and I would love to see you juggle live...

Posted by: Andrea | July 19, 2006 09:28 PM

I recently started street performing myself, and its a relief to hear that someone 10,000 times as good as me struggled with it at first too. The best advice I've gotten so far is "Its not what you do, its how you do it". I think your approach is great, and its similar to mine. I dont crack stupid jokes, I talk to the audience about what I do and why I do it, how I practice, etc. If you are friendly and a nice guy, they'll like you. And if they like you, they'll pay you.

Speaking of paying, I'd love to buy a Vova street performing DVD. As long as you accept a bag full of loose change as payment. :)

Posted by: Lars | July 20, 2006 11:57 AM

yes, giving the audience a frame of reference is key. before i started juggling, i couldn't really see the differences between patterns, just that something had changed about how the balls or clubs were moving. if you're not a juggler yourself, you really have to train your eye to see things like consistancy of throws, number of rotations, or even how many objects are in the air at any given time. my roommate, a (semi) retired street performer, started breaking down the mechanics of different patterns, and my appreciation for what jugglers are doing skyrocketed. since starting to learn to juggle myself, the relative difficulty of different patterns has become even more clear.education *is* key, and it's cool that you make that the focus of your show. your audiences will now approach street shows with a whole new level of respect and understanding for what they are seeing.

Posted by: silverfoot | July 21, 2006 02:02 PM

There is no smoke without fire... Thomasina

Posted by: Thomasina | November 21, 2006 10:09 PM