Variety Arts Resource

5 Ways to a Better New Year

by Brad Weston

It’s already the 6th of January and if you are like me, you might not have taken the time to set out a list of goals for the year, even though you meant to. The easiest thing to do at this point is wait till next year. But, and this is really important…

It’s not too late!

Here are five simple things to think about to make it the best year ever:

THINK
Take stock of where you are. Think about who you are and what accomplishments have made you happy. This is really important because sometimes we hold on to goals year after year because we think that they will bring us happiness, but when we look back we realize that they aren’t meaningful for us anymore. Think about not just where you want to be in a year and in 5 years, but think about why you want to be there.

PLAN
This is the goal making step. Write them down. First brainstorm a big list, then choose the things that you actually want to work on. The next step is to break each one down into smaller tasks and put those tasks on a calendar. This step will make it pretty clear to you what you actually want to commit to working on, and it’s vital. It’s okay at this point to decide not to spend an hour a week on a goal. Take it off your list. But if you don’t make a plan of action and commit it to your calendar, then it is a dream and not a goal.

BELIEVE
Now I don’t want to go all “The Secret” on you, but belief is one of the key ingredients to success. If you have faith in your ability to reach your goals then you will be acting appropriately along the way. A frightened person won’t be able to take the necessary risks in order to succeed. A lot of times you need to be brave. Praise Audacity! Write that down and put it on your wall.

ACT
Look at your calendar! Is there something on it that you should be doing. Do it! This can be the toughest part for most of us. My advice to you is this: It is easier to get something done if you are already moving. Dropping the query letters off at the post office is a lot easier if you just got back from the gym.

GRATITUDE
How will you know that you will enjoy reaching your goals? Without gratitude, you won’t. This is something that I have struggled with. I managed to achieve a life-long goal: getting on the Tonight Show. I did it twice but I still felt unsatisfied. I always wanted to be further along the path. I still have to work on this (we probably all do) but it turns out that you have to consciously appreciate things in order to be happy. So take ten minutes right now and make a list of things you are grateful for. You don’t have to show it to anyone, this is just for you. If you are not in the habit of gratitude this may be difficult to do, but I promise you it will get easier over time.

Happy New Year!

Brad Weston is a writer, juggler, and goal setter from way back. For more information about him and his work check out his website at http://www.bradweston.com

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This is my last article for the Stagecraft Corner column of the IJA Newsletter. It has been a great year for me and I hope that my readers have gotten something out of it as well. I really appreciate all of the feedback I have received during the last 12 months. That brings me to my final topic, which I can sum up in one word:

Gratitude

This is a difficult business. It is a challenging art-form. First you have to know how to juggle. Then you have to know how to catch and hold people’s attention. Finally, the audience should enjoy the performance and not simply be compelled to look as if at a traffic accident in progress.

A great entertainer connects with the audience. It feels like a relationship and they become someone the audience could imagine inviting over to dinner. If you are simply using the crowd to stoke your ego, they will know. If you aren’t having a good time, they will know that as well. This is why, if you are going to be a great performer, you have got to love what you do.

If you want to sustain that love over the long haul, it may take a little bit of work. It’s easy to love something when it’s new. Beginning performers are often swept up in the giddy romance of it all. Constantly learning can keep you in a flow state, where you are fully engaged. But what happens after you have experienced most of the problems that a particular act has to offer, when the learning becomes more subtle? How can you stay engaged in the process? Gratitude.

The ability to juggle makes us special. To be able to perform, we are lucky. To be able to share something that we love with others, we are blessed. Let us take a moment during every practice and every show and reflect on this. Let’s not be so carried away with our desire for more and more skills that we lose track of the wonderfulness of the process.

Let the audience feel your gratitude. You don’t have to come right out and tell them how much you appreciate them, although some performers do. You simply need to find little moments during your performance where you deeply feel gratitude. If you feel it, it will make it across to the audience.

This can have a profound effect on how the audience sees you. Hecklers will be less of a problem. Audience focus will be easier to maintain, and people will want to talk to you after the show, resulting in more bookings. Be grateful!

Thanks for reading and letting me share my personal performing philosophy with you. I wish you a joyous and profitable new year.

Brad Weston is a writer, juggler, and performance philosopher from way back. For more information about him and his work check out his website at http://www.bradweston.com

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What have you learned lately?

In the beginning of a career or hobby we take in a lot of information in a very short amount of time. It is an exciting and exhilarating process. For many of us, this physical and intellectual push is what got us into the variety arts in the first place.

After a while, however, things can start to lose their luster. This can happen for a number of reasons. Perhaps most significantly, the learning curve can taper off, especially with the physical skill element of what we do. The gross motor skills that beginners learn can be picked up fairly quickly. As our level of achievement gets higher and higher, the refinements that we make tend to be finer and finer, smaller and smaller.

This is why our progress can start to slow down. With juggling, to get from 3 balls to 4 is not that big of a deal. Being able to juggle five is somewhat more difficult. Getting a handle on 6 and seven takes a significant deal more of work. The higher numbers take longer. Furthermore, learning tricks with 3 balls can come pretty easily as compared to learning tricks with 5.

It’s easier for us to simply stop the learning process. Many people take a break from regular practice or stop all together.  A lot of folks justify it by saying, “I am doing gigs. My focus is on booking myself now.” Or they tell themselves that they just juggle or do magic so that they can socialize at clubs. The problem with that attitude is that over time, things can get a little boring.

 Are you feeling bored with your hobby?

If the answer is yes then you should ask yourself what it will take to feel more stimulated. The easiest way to get excited all over again is to challenge yourself. Set some goals. Learn something new.

What to learn, though? An important aspect to rekindling your passion for an art is not to focus on what you “should” be learning. Rather, approach it with a sense of play. Try practicing to music, something new or unusual. Find music that brings you joy, and then do your practice inspired by the music. Make it a joyful dance instead of a physical chore that you have to do.

You might try practicing in a new location. Maybe at the beach or under a bridge or in the woods. Find a place that can inspire you. Let the architecture or the natural forms around you suggest the direction that your play takes.

You can learn more by playing than you can by being a drill sergeant.

It helps me to pick up odd objects not intend for juggling and find out how they move and balance. Essentially, I just open myself up to playing with weird stuff and this has led me to make discoveries of interesting shapes that are fun to work with.

Don’t forget: when all is said and done, our passion about our art-form is meant to serve our life. It is meant to make us happy. If your goals are draining your life of pleasure, then you should reassess why you are doing what you do and figure out how to have more fun.

Brad Weston is a writer, juggler, and  joy-seeker from way back. For more information about him and his work check out his website at http://www.bradweston.com

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Vote for your favorite Gig Horror Story by going to

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Click “Like” to choose your favorite.

This is a contest where performers share their worst and/or most hilarious performance experiences. In some cases the names have been changed to protect the innocent.

Entry By Dave Walbridge

A women’s bowling league

Their end-of- the-season awards banquet.

{Well, a “banquet” that you can order from a bowling alley.}

I’m there, I’m pumped and my comedy is ready…they’ve never seen anything like me.

Let me say that I DID give the hostess my intro and was very clear about it; its simple, its funny, it works…

So I’m off stage, 1 minute to show time and this is what I hear…

” We couldn’t get the guy we wanted, so here’s Dave.”

Vote for this story by going to
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This is a contest where performers share their worst and/or most hilarious performance experiences. In some cases the names have been changed to protect the innocent.  Entry By Biz The Clown

Like many performers, i have my share of horror stories. Insufficient space, crazy expectations, deadbeats, children throwing rocks (just the once)–I’ve seen them all. My horror story will be one that was really my own fault.

I was on the last birthday party of a five show day. It was a hot summer day and I had been outside in the sun or in my AC free car since the morning. I arrived at my last gig, and it was a small family birthday party in the area behind a tall apartment building. The concrete yard was full up with tables and chairs so the only place to do my show was tucked away under the big wooden fire escape. I had about five feet square to stand in, two dozen kids were all sitting at my feet, and I was about ten minutes into my comedy juggling show. The wind shifted a bit and the smoke from the three big grills started wafting right at my face. I started to feel a little light headed. I grabbed a chair, and told the kids that the clown just needed to sit down for a minute…

I woke up in the hospital, totally dehydrated, an IV in my arm, still wearing my clown shoes and nose. The nurses, (who had taken good care of me) couldn’t help cracking up. I had to call for a ride, and slink back to the party to get my props. I had no memory of passing out, traumatizing the children, or getting loaded into an ambulance. Needless to say, those folks got a refund.

Moral of the story? Hydrate people!

Biz the Clown

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