the timboucher experience

As soon as I started juggling on the Ave today, a girl who works at Golden West asked me: “What’s with the USA theme?”

“Gotta have a theme,” I said. Each one of my juggling clubs has one letter in black tape, U-S-A. I wear an American flag bandana around my neck.

“Do you?” she said.

“I don’t know.”

I’m working on becoming more witty. You just gotta think on the spot. Not think even, just react. Keep the ball rolling. Of course, as soon as the girl took off, I thought of a more concise answer to that question: freedom.

And that’s not schtick either, that’s the truth. That’s why I’m doing it. To show people there’s another way. Most people will never look at it like that, of course. But that’s fine. Most people who walk by still pretend like they don’t see me. But that just tells me I have to become more engaging as a performer. But juggling and goofing off in public one to two hours a day all over the city for a month ought to help cure that. That and a friend of mine is donating a unicycle to my efforts.

I also made a hand-lettered cardboard sign to put up behind me before I left work:

THIS IS
A SIGN.

Simple, but hilarious. To me anyway. It’s actually a throw-back to a similar sign I made in highschool and spent a few weeks walking around in public areas with: “I’M HOLDING A SIGN.” Used to get great reactions for that one. I once took it into the lobby of a movie theatre, where I got stopped by a security officer:

“What are you doing?” he said.

Smiled broadly, like I’d been waiting my whole life to be asked that question, “I’m holding a sign.”

The officer cued his shoulder-radio and transmitted to an unseen location, “He’s holding a sign that says, ‘I’m holding a sign.’”

The radio crackled back: “What’s the purpose of that?”

The officer looked at me.

“I just thought it was funny. Should I leave?”

Flashing back to present day: my favorite Hampden reaction was from one guy who drove by, shouted and smiled, “Quit clowning around!”

After about a half hour, I went over to Falls Road and stood in the no-man’s land between Rite Aid and the laundromat. As soon as I started juggling, a really messed-up older junkie lady came over and talked at me for a while. I didn’t mind. I realized immediately that when you go out into public to interact with people, you don’t get to pick your interactions. But you can learn how to drive them. I couldn’t really get much of what she was saying, accidentally hit her with a juggling club on the arm, and mostly just interacted with her in whatever small ways we could, considering the barriers between our respective states of consciousness.

My show ended last night, so I figure this would be a good way to keep the ball rolling on performing in public. Looking around for contracts for the Fall still. My stage manager referred me to a place I’d heard about in Virginia and which I’ll be contacting in the next couple days, the Barter Theatre - whose history I absolutely love:

During the Depression, Robert Porterfield, an enterprising young actor, returned to his native Southwest Virginia with an extraordinary proposition: Bartering produce from the farms and gardens of the region to gain admission to see a play.

So on June 10, 1933, Barter Theatre opened its doors, proclaiming “With vegetables you cannot sell, you can buy a good laugh.” The price of admission was 40 cents or equivalent amount of produce. Four out of five Depression-era theatre goers paid their way with vegetables, dairy products and livestock.

Finished up the planter boxes in my backyard and planted most of the vegetables we got from the farmer’s market. Learning a lot from going through the whole process, and looking forward to potentially planting one or two more gardens around town before I leave for Cape Cod.

Speaking of which, I’ve been researching routes like crazy and came across a project in the works called the East Coast Greenway. Though the trail system is still very much under development, it’s an effort to connect Maine to Key West via trails that are free of automobiles. According to their website, 21% of the route is already done. One of the things I love about their website is that they actually offer highly-detailed Google maps, using the KML file format (the Google version of the GPX file-type, from what I understand). There are also turn-by-turn cue sheets you can download for free - unlike the Adventure Cycling route information which you have to pay for (and which I’m still probably going to buy - unless I can find scans on bitTorrrent or similar).

Getting ready to buy the Cannondale touring bike via a friend this week. Once I have it, I’ll be exploring some of the trails and routes around Baltimore and surrounding areas as I train for the long haul. Have already started liquidating my possessions: been bringing much beloved books down to the Baltimore Book Thing, a center where you can donate books or pick up books for free. Gonna bring my winter clothes down to the Vincent De Paul drop box down by the homeless tent city across from the Shot Tower. Beyond that, I can’t say I own too much more than a guitar, some small tools for tinkering, laptop and that’s about it. Through juggling and prepping myself for distance bicycling, I’ve been re-modeling how I think about being outside. What objects am I carrying on my person? What can I fit in my bag? Do I have enough water? Can I find food, make money helping someone with chores or find a good safe place to sleep nearby? The world is a big wide open place out there and I’m only just getting started…

• George Washington Slept Here.
• Something in the oven
• Poetry Meets Crytography
• Car Bombs & Apollo Creed
• The hops - hemp connection in beer