Synergy

Synergy

syn·er·gy The interaction of two or more agents or forces so that their combined effect is greater than the sum of their individual effects.

“Synergy”, that was the title given to what turned out to be the largest juggling project of my life so far. It started out as a simple concept; I was speaking to Chris Fowler one day, tossing around the idea that we could do a collaboration project together, myself and him. He quickly shot that idea down and said that we needed a few more people. So in my mind I’m thinking ok, it’ll have about 5-7 jugglers and be a nice little juggling project. Fast forward about 6 months, and the project was released with 33 jugglers participating.

The project really came together in two main steps, one of which I managed and the other Chris. Fowler would be in charge of editing, my task was to be to get jugglers to participate. I think it is important for a moment here to take a reality check, who is David Stephens? Why would anybody want to participate in a project that he was putting together? Well, I honestly still don’t completely know the answer to that intriguing question, but the fact remains that many did. (Due in no small part to the inclusion of Chris Fowler’s name in my invitations, or so I imagine). I sent out around 150 invitations, with addresses gathered from rec.juggling as well as the Anthony Gatto Forums. Then the long task of waiting started. I really thought to myself, no one is going to want to do this, but then I saw the glimmering light that led me to believe this project had a chance. I received an e-mail from David Cain saying he was interested. I was completely floored. David Cain is no ordinary juggler; we are talking about a 15 time IJA gold medalist that has performed over 10,000 shows. He also was of special interest to Chris and I due to the fact that we have both performed some of David Cain’s routine in our shows. After his confirmation the e-mails started to pour in, and out, as I spent hours upon hours responding to e-mails of interested participants. All told it took about 3 weeks to gather names and send out invitations, as well as collect responses. Once I knew everyone that was participating I set a date for which clips were to be due. At which point I said, Chris it is out of my hands have fun. And have fun he did as I would often get instant messages and e-mails late at night from a very frustrated “JuggleBoy” striving hard to get this project perfect.

Within a couple days of gathering clips we released a trailer to start the interest peaking, You can view it here: http://www.jugglethis.net/filemgmt/singlefile.php?lid=759

The response was staggering, and I knew we just might be on to something. The next task I set out on gave me more information into the history of juggling than I imagined I would ever have. I pulled out all the records of every IJA competition as well as the WJF. Painstakingly, I went through year by year competition by competition to calculate the total number of medals held by Synergy participants. I couldn’t bring myself to stop there, so I also went through and looked up all the world records we held, as well as the number of performances everyone had combined. The answers to these quests appeared in the finished product of this teaser:

33 Jugglers

30,000+ Performances

87 Championship Medals:

66 International Jugglers’ Association
19 World Juggling Federation
2 Circus World Championships

42 Gold
29 Silver
16 Bronze

1 Silver Clown
Festival du Cirque de Monte Carlo

10 World Records
1 Never Before Verified

Synergy

syn·er·gy The interaction of two or more agents or forces so that their combined effect is greater than the sum of their individual effects.

Coming Soon

Come soon it did, and I was floored by the finished product. The entire process of was actually a huge learning experience and honor for me. First of all, I figured out that sometimes all you really do have to do is ask, because let’s be honest is there really any reason the likes of Dick Franco, Neils Duinker, or Scott Sorenson (Just to name very few) would be willing to participate in a project I organized? The juggling community has always been an incredible one, and is now one that I feel a lot closer to. Maybe one day I’ll run in to some of the people who decided to be in this project and be able to say, “hey I’m David Stephens, you were in Synergy…”

Anybody who was in synergy, I thank you for your participation, it was quite a ride, but I wouldn’t have had it any other way.

Participants: Adam Stewart, Adrian Pole, Alex Duhig, Bounce Dicks, Brett Sheets, Brian Gadomski, Caio Leon, Carey Pickford Jr, Chiok Sing-Li, Chris Fowler, Clinton Holzhauer, Dave Kelly, David Cain, Dave Sallee, David Stephens, Dick Franco, Haavard Hvidston, Jamie White, Jeff Peden, Joe Showers, Marcus Roel, Mark Collis, Michael Karas, Samuel Karas, Neils Duinker, Norbi Whitney, Peter Bone, Scott Sorenson, Sondre Ribe-Overby, Tom Derrick, Tony Pezzo, Wes Peden

Synergy: www.norbithejuggler.co.uk/synergy

- David Stephens
Just your typical Juggler Next Door