Flying Dutchmen:
Pirates of the Streets!
Amsterdam's Michiel Hesseling is a Mozart of his profession. Only
twenty he started juggling six years ago and already he is a world-calibre
performer. He juggles five balls with virtuosity, seven capably and five
clubs with numerous flawless variations. What he does with three clubs is
pure visual poetry. Perhaps only a fellow juggler can appreciate the
awesome difficulty of some of the maneuvers he seems to perform with
effortless ease. He incarnates the juggler's dream of making objects dance
on their fingertips.
I catch him in a pensive mood, brooding on career, future, love and life:
"I know I could make more money and become more famous if I got my act
together and joined a circus or started performing the clubs or on the
cruise ships, but you know, being a busker is hard enough. At least this
way, you're your own boss. When you get bored you pack up and move -- and
I get bored easily," he says flashing his Mick Jagger smile.
His new partner in The Flying Dutchmen is Jean-Michel Paré,
a flamboyant unicyclist who, evidence to the contrary, continually claims
not to know how to juggle. Paré, one of the few people who can
free-mount (i.e. climb up unassisted) a three meter 'giraffe' unicycle,
also epitomizes the footloose life of the professional busker. Born in
Quebec City he calls Toronto home although his girlfriend is from Los
Angeles and he is currently living in Munich having returned from Japan
with his Amsterdam-ba sed partner -- whew, where does he pick up his
mail?
Paré is a unicyclist extraordinaire who constantly claims not to
know how to juggle. "You wrote that I dropped a lot," he says buttonholing
me at a reception. "Jean-Michel!" I protest, "I only said you dropped a
lot trying to pass eight clubs!"
"Well," he adds with the widest smile to be seen in Halifax, "This year
you can write that I don't drop at all -- that's because I don't
juggle!"
Argyle Street -- 8:00 P.M. -- Hesseling & Paré in goofy matching
suits clowning around. Hessling picks things up and juggles them
absent-mindedly, doing tricks that I would give my eye teeth to be able to
perform. He seems to forget about a club that spins endlessly on the
fingers of his left hand. They start their routine and Hessling opens with
5 balls doing half-showers, reverse cascades, head rolls, high throws and
his patented hand-crossing cascade. Non-juggler Paré tries to
upstage him and does a fiv e ball reverse bounce -- no drops. Hesseling
continues with 7 balls and Paré, responding to the challenge, tries
to reverse bounce 7 bean bags -- nothing but drops.
They then fire a cigarette out of a girl's mouth showering 6 clubs and
then launch into a routine which begins with synchronized tricks.
Paré wisely vamps Hesseling's solid back-crosses on doubles but
gamely keeps pace with everything else -- hardly any drops. They then cut
into a passing routine with Paré playing the straight man to
Hesseling's remarkable assemblage of throws with every kind of
over-the-head, round-the-back, behind-the-leg and across-the-arms chops
you've ever dreamt of, combined with all kinds of doubles and triples and
pirouettes. They finish with Hesseling taking 5 clubs from a shower
straight into a 5 club cascade. Did my eyes bulge -- only choreographed
drops!
Paré shows off some of his virtuoso unicycle technique with
wheel-walking, one leg riding, a 180 degree spin of the unicycle
underneath him (i.e. while he is in the air!) mounts from a regular
unicycle to a 6 footer and then to a 9 footer with a finale free-mount of
the latter beast. Hot stuff!
Get in touch with Michiel
Hesseling.
[Back to Buskers Page]