Dropping Values

Not long ago, I performed my 45 minute show to a fantastic crowd, and without tooting my own horn, it went very well. Afterwards the manager gingerly slunk up to me with a sympathetic look and said “Eeesh, quite a few drops eh?!”. This was not said with a tone of banter amongst lads. No no. This loosely translated as “Wow. You do this for a job, yet you dropped a lot. You must feel pretty bad and ashamed right now. Sucks to be you”. 

What was interesting about this conversation was that, my show was 100% clean. No drops! So I couldn’t quite figure out how this manager came to this conclusion. He is a manager of shows in a venue. He sees shows every day. How could he be so off the mark?

The thing about my show is that there are moments when the props hit the floor, I’d admit that, but these are NOT drops. When this particular show is 100% clean, it contains 3 drops. So if you see my show and there are 4 drops, you know that only one of them was not on purpose. These drops act as integral part of the show and they each have their individual purpose. Each intentional drop, is followed by a joke or action that initiates a response that far surpasses the response that I’d get if the drop was absent. When you see the responses that follow from the audience, I struggle to believe that anyone could see these intentional drops as anything other than successes. The audience gets it. So manager, I say to you “Wow! You do this as a job? Yet you didn’t recognise the reaction from the crowd when the props intentionally hit the ground. Sucks to be YOU!”

It got me thinking about the different value of drops as a juggler. Obviously, these are going to vary due the individual opinions, but I’d like to share mine. If we rate the severity of drops from 1 to 10, 1 being a minor drop and 10 being a major drop, below are some examples that I’ve come up with. 

Intentional drop (Drop Score: -1)

When you purposefully make a mistake, so that you can deliver a particular joke or action, and it improves to the show. I feel like if it is improving the show, it is only fair to give this a -1 on the dropping severity scale. 

Fluke drop (Drop Score: -1)

Another example of a drop that can improve a show, is the fluke drop. Example of this:

• you drop something, it bounces, and then you catch it and go back into the pattern as if nothing happened

• When you drop and the prop does something extraordinarily rare, such as a club landing upright on it’s end.

• A drop dropping and landing in an unusual place. For example, a bounce juggling ball, landing in someone’s top pocket. 

No one would see any of these drops and consider them a negative to the show. Well, maybe one person I can think of!

Classic drop (Drop Score: 3)

When you drop, and you simply pick it up and do the trick successfully on your next attempt, WITHOUT letting the drop affect you in anyway, then I don’t personally think it’s that bad. I give it a 3, because sure, it’s not ideal, but it’s not the end of the world. Obviously, if this happened on every trick, then maybe we’d have to reassess the score! 

Second drop (Drop Score: 5)

When you’ve just been hit with the Classic Drop as stated above, but now you have the extra pressure of having to successfully complete the trick on your second attempt. If you fail this, this is not an easy watch for anyone, therefore I’ve given this a scoring of 5. I could continue with this format of what happens if you drop on the third, fourth and fifth attempt, but I’m sure you get the idea. The more attempts, the higher the score. 

Classic drop with unwanted chaos (Drop Score: 5)

You’ve just been responsible for the classic drop, and instead of pausing, taking a second, and simply picking it up and trying again, you go into panic mode. You go to reach for the prop, but in a flap of clumsy butterfingery, you’ve kicked it across the stage. Your mouth starts drying up, and you’ve got beads of sweat cascading down your back. You try and smile, but all the audience sees is a forced grimace. You finally get hold of the pesky prop, and fumble and drop the other props that you were holding. This unintentional slapstick, is not as fun to watch as it sounds. So I’ve given this drop a 5. 

Diabolo string tangle (Drop Score: 6)

A good diabolo routine can have a beautiful circular flowing motion that can captivate an audience into a hypnotic trance. When the string gets tangles, and the flow grinds to a halt whilst the performer is desperately trying to undo this knot and set the diabolo free from it’s newly founded restraints, this is not a nice thing to see. Whenever I see this happen, I just want the performer to get some scissors out and get the job done. 

Cigar box (Drop Score: 6)

I love cigar boxes, but when it goes wrong, oh boy, it’s not an easy drop to watch. Firstly, when done well, they create a illusion of magnetic magic. So when that fails, reality comes flooding back and disappointment sets in. Secondly, the noise! When 3 cigar boxes are dropped, the clang and clatter is so much worse than dropping a juggling ball. It’s so dramatic. Therefore it’s a 6 from me.

Contact Juggling (Drop Score: 8)

If you are unfamiliar to contact juggling, it’s the one people often do with what looks like a crystal ball. It’s the one that David Bowie was appearing to be doing in the film Labyrinth. When it’s done well, contact juggling produces a truly magical effect. But, similar to that of the cigar boxes, the noise from a contact juggling ball hitting the floor, snaps me so far back into reality, that I regret ever watching the routine in the first place.

Breakages/setting fire to things/damages (Drop Score: 9)

A prop flies across the room and smashes a table of drinks. A fire torch catches the stage curtain alight. A club smashes a stage light. These are unintentional, potentially very dangerous, and not always hilarious. Hard to watch, and often real showstoppers, but not in a good way. 

Injuring someone (Drop Score: 10)

A club slips out of your hand and smashes someone in the face and breaks their nose. You slip up and kick a lady in the face. A juggling ball lands in someones hot soup, causing it to splash and scald someone. Not cool. I have genuinely done one of these! It’s not a good vibe, so I’m giving that a 10.

Obviously, we can take this further and talk about juggling drops causing huge car crashes and genocide, but I personally don’t think death-talk is the right subject for this light hearted blog post. I have no doubt people will read this too and disagree with my scoring system, and that’s total fine, because like you said, it’s my scoring system and I like it just how it is thank-you very much! I’m sure I have missed out a few more examples of drop severity, but let’s not forget, this is just a bit of fun!

I hope you all (even you Mr Manager) have enjoyed reading it. Have a good day and try not to drop.