Theatre / ABC Tour
Juggling from A to Z
Jon Udry had an unusual request for the staff at the Bristol Loaf in Redfield the other morning. He wanted an old baguette, not to eat but to balance on the tip of his nose.
With the day-old baguette now delicately balanced, he was able to finally complete a trick that he forgot to do on a recent evening.
On only the second of what will eventually become 26 performances, taking in venues starting with every letter of the alphabet, Jon visited the Church Road bakery at the start of August to perform an hour-long set of juggling and stand-up comedy.
is needed now More than ever
He had the baguettes ready in a basket by the counter, but it was only when the audience had left the premises that he remembered about them.
Jon’s ABC Tour has so far taken in Bristol Aquarium, Bristol Loaf, Usk Castle in Wales, a door shop (Doorworld on Russell Town Avenue in Lawrence Hill), the Eden Project in Cornwall and a forest (Overscourt Woods in Gloucestershire).
‘F’ for forest
The unusual escapade is to celebrate the former apprentice electrician’s decade as a juggler and comedian.
“I have spent 10 years performing in a lot of different spaces,” Jon explains. “I liked the idea of going against that, choosing lots of different spaces not designed for performance, taking somewhere that’s not a venue and turning it into a venue. It’s a way to experience something that will never happen again.”
Jon’s initial idea was to crowdfund this 10th anniversary tour, with those donating able to choose the venues in which he performed.
But that wasn’t so successful, so he came up with the idea of the ABC tour, called Bristol Aquarium and a few days later found himself performing in front of one of the fish tanks at a staff party.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1BJnXb8h48
“I was amazed that they said yes,” Jon admits. “I’m amazed that the Eden Project let me in as well!”
Jon has to adapt his show to each venue, with a promise that he will stay away from what he describes as juggling cliches, such as getting on something high like a ladder or a unicycle, juggling anything that looks dangerous but is nor, and juggling anything that glows in the dark or flashes.
“I like to get a prop and I like to get the most out of that prop,” Jon says.
At the Eden Project, he juggled with water, transferring the liquid between pint glasses. “It was mayhem! Water was going everywhere! I did that because I was trying to think of the most unjugglable thing and that was water.”
Jon started juggling as a child growing up in Perranporth, just along the north Cornish coast from Newquay. After being sacked from his electrician apprenticeship for taking a juggling gig, he decided to give himself a year to try to make a career of it.
That was now 10 years ago, with Jon now performing across the world and living for the last two years in St George, a short journey to Kingswood where he teaches juggling as part of the foundation degree in circus at Circomedia.
In between teaching and earning money from his regular gigs, Jon is currently organising the ABC shows – which he hopes to finish by next summer.
“It’s a logistical nightmare to be honest,” he says. “I cannot book ‘k’ before I have booked ‘j’. I can only book venues as I go along. But I love it. I have always loved performing in places like comedy clubs that are downstairs in a pub.
“Up until the point the show starts, you’re in somewhere like a bakery. Then when the show starts, you forget about that. You’re in a venue watching a show.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iipx06nMWMw
On Saturday, September 16 at 7pm Jon will be performing at a gallery, Hours Space in Colston Yard behind Colston Street; and on Wednesday, September 20 at 8pm he will be at a hairdressers, Shotgun on Bond Street. All of his ABC Tour shows are free to attend.
To keep up with all the latest ABC Tour dates, visit www.jonudry.com/abc-tour.
Read more: Circus City returns to Bristol
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