i’ve landed a nice uni-gig at a rugby match this saturday.
i’ll be one of 14 entertainers (4 stiltwalkers, jugglers, face painters and a poi-swinger or two) entertaining the arriving crowd just outside the Ellis Park Stadium from 13h00 till 15h00
given the presence of so many stiltwalkers (and it’s added visual appeal), i’ve been thinking about spending most of the two hours on the raffie
i’ve been searching and re-reading a lot of the threads about uni-performances and noticed that there isn’t a lot of mention made of the giraffe as anything but a parade-machine or a big-finish prop
any suggestions of things to do on the raffie to entertain a passing crowd for two hours?
giraffe unicycles are loads of fun i am using my unicycle clubs one this weekend they are loads of fun just to watch peoples reactions in cars i still can not free mount yet which its a big problem but the good old step lander is good enough for me! i can now idle on it which i am happy with but i have to give it back tomorrow just had to ask how you get the pics under your name i looked on the help thing and it did not help! when you say a raffle if you mean a raffle with the numbers on the tickets jugling stuff as they would of just seen you performing and booze always go’s down well if you needed help with the prizes i hope this has been a help
my apologies
i mean ‘RAFFIE’ as a contraction of giraffe
it’s a ‘nickname’ of sorts for the giraffe i picked up while working on a wildlife-based internet radio station
my other favourite nickname for the giraffe is the swahili word ‘TWIGGA’
i try not to use that on the forum as i figure most non-swahili speakers wont have a clue what i’m talking about
We’ve done the “while folks are arriving” gig on giraffes. Mostly they are amazed enough by your just riding.
I found some soap-bubble guns that shot a stream of little glistening bubbles into the air as I rode. That was easy because its a one-handed thing and doesn’t interfere with balancing. They add a nice light-hearted visual element.
I had thought of (but never tried) a Yo-Yo with a very long string.
A pouch of glitter confetti (this could be more of a mess than your employers want you to create)
pretty much the way it played out
the yo-yo looked pretty good while practising at the club on thursday night untill somebody decided to break it
didn’t get around to replacing it
something that did work rather well and made me ressurect this thread to share it is a ribbon (think rhythmic gymnastics)
i bough 5metres of red and 5 m of blue satin ribbon (the colours of the sponsors) and tied it to the front of a 1m piece of dowel
swinging it around while idling/riding the raffie is visually quite arresting and pretty easy to do
this is as a result of my mention of the rhythmic gymnastics, isn’t it?
i used that as the easiest way i could think of to explain what i meant
the style of ‘manipulation’ of the ribbon i used is something i got from a japanese guy who pitched up at our juggling convention last year and has become a bit of a regular
he had a ribbon and a ‘performance’ based more on kendo than gymnastics
the nice part about that is that the (very) rapid changes in direction results in a cracking sound (think whip)
so unless u harbour some deep, strange cowgirl fantasies…
but what about wearing a jester-type hat with long, bouncy “arms” that would bounce around a lot just while riding? You wouldn’t have to DO anything, just ride around and be a piece of dynamic art.
girrafing, yuck.
its not my favourite way to spend an afternoon.
its much more funn to do tricks on a real unicycle.
some promoters realy like the girrafe though. and the public are all dumb enough to think its harder than a real unicycle.
i`ll ride a girrafe if thats what the event organiser realy wants but not if i can get away with doing something more intersting.
i was busking at the edinburgh festival not long ago and i was the only one to do a single unicycle trick. out of dozens of performers,
mind you, i cant realy fault the “space cowboy” who juggles a fire torch, a juggling knife and a scyccle (cresent shaped farming tool) whilst blidfolded on top of a girrafe.
I will admit that riding a chain driven uni is not my fav way to spend an afternoon riding, at this point in my life I would rather Muni or do some urban trials. But I must ask, what is a “real unicycle”? Maybe we should all be riding one ton 40 inch wheeled pennyfarthings with the rear wheel removed since it is commonly believed that is where the first uni came from. Wouldn’t that be a “real unicycle” as opposed to the freestyle, muni or trials uni’s that have just come into existence in the last 20 years.
Have you tried any tricks on a six ft or 10ft uni? People often ask me which unicycle is the hardest one to ride (I use 8 different uni’s when performing), to which I say “Your first one.” The question still persists and my reply is that it depends what you do with it.
Sorry no pix of the bubble shooting guns. Like a pistol and the little bottle of soapy stuff screws on up in front of the triggerguard. Kind of like a goofy non-threatening disney version of an old German Machine Pistol.
Walmart on sale at the time: $4 for two. Kind of cheap. Only one still works well after only one gig. Takes a couple of AA bateries. You pull the trigger and whiiiiirrrrrrrrrr…tiny stream of bubbles.
So what’s a real unicycle? Any with pedals on the wheel axle, or is it limited to certain wheel sizes, etc.?
In walkaround-type entertainment, the giraffe rules.
Walkaround, as opposed to a focused show, is all about being visible. In a walkaround situation, such as what Gild was hired for, promoters usually aren’t interested in tricks on a “small” unicycle. The guy on the giraffe sticks well up above the crowd and provides a large “decoration” or “backdrop” to the event. Anything to make the performer even larger, such as twirling a big ribbon (the bigger the better) or juggling fire, will make an even larger impression, and will generally be favored by the sponsors.
For a focused show, that’s where you want to rivet and amaze your audience. Especially a busking show, where you have to grab them and keep them until hat time. Then you need to impress them with either skill, comedy, or personality and tricks on the small uni pay off much better.
But who brought home the biggest hat? The true test of the most successful performance
Of course you can be an artist, and be more concerned about the show than the hat, but to truly follow that philosophy, you should forego the hat completely, especially when there are other buskers around.
just had to ask how you get the pics under your name i looked on the help thing and it did not help! when you say a raffle if you mean a raffle with the numbers on the tickets jugling stuff as they would of just seen you performing and booze always go’s down well if you needed help with the prizes i hope this has been a help
--chirokid–
