Report on the Millennium Jam 2001

Hi All-

Hans Siemons did a phenomenal job getting the Millennium Jam 2001 pictures up on the TMJ and BHQ websites, but no one reported on the rest of the convention. So before my memory completely clouds over I'll try to bring everyone up to date on a few of the highlights. I'm not going to dwell on the competitions, since the pictures are up and I'm sure there will be enough discussion about them. There are Millennium Jam pictures on several websites. They first went up on millenniumjam.com, and now are also on BalloonHQ. Members can comment on the BalloonHQ pictures for the world to argue about. I've annotated this report with links to photos of some of the balloons that I mention. Each link should open up in a different window so you can read without interuption. Here we go with some of the things the convention highlights.

Uwe Lenhardt's (Lenny) Dragon from TMJ 2000

First, the facilities are huge. The convention is held at a resort on a lake and there is a pool, petting zoo, running path, restaurants, and more. Of course I did not use any of those facilities because I was either in my bungalow sleeping (for a few short hours) or in the hotel with the rest of the twisters.

Leo Verlinden and Johan Wijns, the convention organizers and owners of I.B.S. were wonderful hosts. They made the convention flow so smoothly it seemed to run on auto-pilot. They made sure that us foreigners knew how to use the phones, currency, and more. Leo even told me which beers I would enjoy! I.B.S. made sure that the instructors were paid a fair honorarium, so no one had to collect money at the door. They also had a room for other vendors and we shopped for magic, juggling, and balloon toys.

Before the Convention

I arrived in Belgium a few days early and was greeted by huge balloon decorations that Bidou had set in motion. His instructions were simple: Make large, interesting things. Of course twisters have a different way of decorating than most balloon decorators do. We built things without frames, and without a master plan. We were also using non-traditional balloons, especially link-o-loons, slim jims, and workers. And no mylar or ribbon.

As you have all seen from the pictures we built huge versions of traditional twisted sculptures (actually Pat Brown built most of them), a big tunnel, a dragon (made by Royal), some pillars, flowers, a huge sign (mostly done by Sean Rooney) and strings of balloons. The tunnel had a little bit of framing, but that's it. I found the link-o-loons remarkably easy to work with, and very fast to use. The slim jims were another story. They are pretty shabby balloons, and I don't recommend that you twist the striped ones very much at all. The workers are much wider, and therefore much more difficult to manipulate. I was twisting one and it actually knocked me over. I would have been embarressed, but the balloon is bigger than I am and hits pretty hard.

By Monday we done decorating and began to jam as everyone trickled in. The best part about the jamming was that the balloons were free. That's right! The balloons were donated (by Pioneer and IBS) and laid out on tables for us to use. The whole range of shapes from 160 to rounds and hearts were there for people to experiment with. Everyone was twisting like crazy, and showing off new sculptures. One of my favorites was Arthur Tivoli 's Cricket.

At the Tuesday night jam Marvin Hardy had a surprise for us: New 646 balloons!!! He brought a big box of the prototype balloons for us to play with. People immediately began twisting big and fun things out of them. I was lucky to score a clear 646 and put a 350 beagle inside it. Marvin and Rick Mohr made a big dog, and everyone else made a variety of big sculptures. I _really_ think that there balloons are going to be popular. They are very good quality and took a lot of abuse. The jam had various themes, including "make a monument from another country." Someone tried passing off a beer as a monument, but I don't think it qualified. However, the best monuments did not appear until the figure competition with Arthur's Eiffel Tower/King Kong and Guido's one balloon Statue of Liberty. I didn't really follow the themes of the jam because I was distracted by the new 646 balloons.

Somehow all of the jams and classes were translated into English and/or French. This slowed down some instructors, but others just translated themselves without missing a beat. I wish I could do that -- I have enough trouble with English by itself!

The Classes

On Monday morning I went to Lenny's class called "Have a Heart." Lenny was the top twister at TMJ last year and won with figures that used hearts in very interesting ways. He showed us how to make some of his trademark pieces, like the dragon, devil and goofy. They all require raisins inside the hearts to achieve a smooth surface with details coming out of it. In fact the dragon uses 6 raisins! Lenny also showed us how to make a woven crown/jester hat that looks much more complicated than it is. Lenny's teaching style is slow and methodical so no one was lost or fell behind. He also came around the room to make sure that we were doing the right twists.

Then I went to Patrick Brown's class, "Showpiece Balloons." Pat demonstrated how to twist the big slim jim and worker balloons into various classic sculptures. He even had all of us make a giant teddy bear. Most twisters have never twisted anything larger than a 350. Some even limit themselves to 160s! So this was an eye-opener for some students. It was cool to make a fiveifoot bear out of only three balloons. We also used big hearts to make big butterflies. In contrast to the big stuff, Pat also demonstrated detailing techniques using balloon wrapping . He showed us how to make a twist-free leg/foot, a shrunken head, a bottle, and more. There are so many applications for balloon wrapping I think that it should be a standalone class. But then again, so should making huge sculptures. What to do . . .

On Tuesday night S Frank Stringham lead a unique class titled 'Entertaining With Balloons.' It was the first of many times that we would see S on stage. I think that most people expected the workshop to be either S performing (he did that later) or teaching us some bits and routines to use when entertaining. It was completely the opposite. S talked about what it takes to make it in the 'business' part of show business. Such as managers, acts, stagecraft, promo kits, corporations, etc. He also had us break out into small groups to brainstorm amongst ourselves. Hopefully some of the participants will take his advice and move up into the higher echelons of show business.

On Wednesday I went to the "Link-O-Loon Typhoon" class taught by Bidou and Sylvain, both from France. They had built a big puppet theatre out of black link-o-loons and began with a funny puppet show. They they went through dozens of techniques using link-o-loons and other shapes. Sylvain showed us several puppets, and explained that he makes them in a modular fashion for ease of use. He also made a few marionettes. Biddou and Sylvain demonstrated numerous ways to use link-o-loons in bizarre and beautiful ways. Some of the figures were funny faces, and some were animals that made use of the extra 'tail' on the balloons. I just kept snapping pictures as they showed us more and more. Finally, Bidou turned up the music and did a short show with the bigger balloons (slim jims/workers/11-inch link-o-loons). It was a very cool and unusual class.

Luckily, the class got out early enough for me to catch the end of Dave Bartlett's "Quick and Impressive" class. Dave has a great repertoire of figures using one to three balloons. This was a nice change of pace from the jamming, where people show off their more complicated sculptures. Dave made some old favorites, like his dinosaur, dolphin, pooh, ram, and tons more. The advantage of a class on quick balloons is that he can demonstrate many more sculptures then are shown in most classes. I was also there when he showed us his 'happy birthday' balloon routine. You gotta ask him to do it on your birthday. As always, Dave was entertaining, and his work is all very practical in the real world of busy twisting.

After lunch I went to Peter Kramer's class on "How to add value . . ." Peter is a successful performer from Switzerland who taught us how he makes his sculptures more memorable and picturesque. Peter generally twists in situations with huge crowds, so he doesn't have time to make anything with more than a few balloons. So each sculpture starts out simply (like a dog, bear, rabbit) and gets an add-on. First, each add-on is designed to take the figure from being just an animal, to something 'like a picture.' So a dog might be sat under a tree, a swan in the water, a bunny on a flower, and more. More importantly, by adding another balloon, the sculpture has room for a promotional sticker. Peter prints stickers for each client that books him for more than an hour or two. So each sculpture has an advertisement for the client, and announces where new customers can get a balloon. It is an interesting approach, and gave everyone in the class something to consider for their own businesses.

What's Up Doc?

Unfortunately I had to cut out early from Peter's class for something very important: A medical exam. It was briefly mentioned on the list that we were given exams at the convention. But I think that it is important to explain about it a bit more. Many of us have heard or shared anecdotal evidence that blowing up balloons is detrimental. However, like all anecdotes, there are stories on both sides. And no hard numbers. Leo from IBS has a few customers who attribute their health problems to their balloon blowing. So he got in touch with a pulminary doctor from a nearby university to look at us as a group and study our lungs. I think that this was the first time anyone has studied so many balloon twisters so carefully. One of their research questions is whether the powder in the balloons accumulates in our lungs with negative long-term effects (like asbestos does).

Most of the attendees volunteered for this study. We blew into a machine that charted our lung capacity and our ability to exhale. Then we met with a doctor to get some personal medical history such as number of balloons blown up a year, if we smoke, if we are exposed to second-hand smoke, any history of asthma, if we show any symptoms of lung problems, and more. Finally we had a lung x-ray to detect any acculumation of talc. I am looking forward to the results of these tests, both for my personal health assessment, and for the industry. I would like to see this team of researchers at all of the upcoming Millennium Jam conventions so they can track individuals and have a larger sample. Depending on the results I might have to use my pump more often :-)

More Classes

I'm glad I woke up painfully early on Thursday morning because Rick "care to share" Mohr taught a very important class. Most balloon classes fall into one of two catagories: Hands-on or Demonstration. Hands-on classes generally move slowly because each person in the room is making the sculpture for the first time. So the class moves at the pace of the slowest person. In balloon classes, this can be frustrated by beginners, by balloons popping at bad times, and by the volume of the simultaneous squeaking. The benefit is that everyone walks away assured of having learned something that can be reproduces. The other kind of classes are demonstration classes where the instructor whizzes through dozens of concepts, techniques and figures. In these classes much more ground is covered, but none of the students get to practice a technique before the next one is shown. You have to rely on the strength of you memory and camera. It's really a difficult question of how to teach. Most teachers try to compromise by demonstrating many things, and then having 'hands-on' time for a few choice models. Rick Mohr takes a completely different approach to teaching.

Rick taught a class on balloon design theory. The first hour of the class was completely devoid of twisting. I nearly went through latex withdrawal! He used a large sketchpad to show the class how to design their OWN figures with his design system. Before his days as a balloon celebrity Rick Mohr was a cartoonist, and a cartoon instructor. Now, he applies the same 'underlying drawing' techniques that cartoonists use to plan their cartoons to balloon sculpture. Rick demonstrated how to break an object into the proper shapes, and then how to turn the shapes into something recognizable. With the class' help he drew the underlying shapes of a dolfin, terradactyl, and half-a-dozen more animals. In the second half of the class (by then I was properly caffeinated), Rick took those sketches and made them out of balloons. And they looked good! In twisting them he took us through the process of converting a sketch into a 2D creature and then into a 3D creature. Then he showed the underlying drawing of some of his more elaborate models, and we saw that the motion and proportion of those models all came from the original sketch. It's hard to explain his design approach. You'll all have to wait until his book gets released, or else fly to Chicago and track him down.

The final class that I went to was David Grist's "Awesome Multiples." Twisters on this side of the world became exposed to David's work at the last Millennium Jam and at IBAC this year. He's the guy that made the big Pirate Ship at IBAC and won a couple of awards there. He makes very big and impressive woven figures, such as the classic airplane and car that everyone took pictures of last year. When I found out that he would be teaching at TMJ this year I was prepared for an advanced weaving class. I was wrong. His class went through a number of detailed figures. He demonstrated a duck, two Pink Panther parodies, a cartoonish pig, a sheep, and few others.

After the break began the hands-on portion of the class. Everyone in class twisted a sheep and the piglet. The sheep was very popular, and I am going to make one at my next party. It's very clean, and the head/face is a different style than what I'm used to making. The piglet model also used some techniques that are uncommon. First, the head used a raisin twist into a tulip twist. It was clear from the class that most of the participants had never used raisin before. This figure uses only one raisin, so it was a very good introduction to raisins. David uses a scrap of balloon, not a knot (as I did before the class) inside of the heart. He says that a knot puts too much stress on the wall of the balloon and can distort the smooth surface of the balloon. It's also an extra step to tie and tear the know. To hide the work he attached the raisin to the knot-end of the tulip twist and pushed it into the tuliped 260. No double pinch twists were needed to hold it in place. The body of the piglet was also a bit unusual. It was made with a chain of loop twists. Most cartoonish figures that I see have a vertical cluster (like a 'banana twist') for the body. This figure didn't. It was nice cool to see something different for a change.

I didn't have a chance to go to Marvin Hardy's two classes or to Linda Berman's class. That wasn't a problem since I have been to several of Marvin's classes in the past and he told me that his classed would cover just the basics, nothing fancy. Otherwise I'd have to clone myself.

Competition

It's difficult to write about the jamming, because it happened non-stop. Just walking around you could see tons of sharing: Royal showing how to make a fancy Santa Claus, Sean showing how to make a tight spiral, S double-stuffing silver to make a chrome motorcycle, lots of funny hats, and more. You had to be there. And after being there, I want to go to Euro-Jam, which is supposed to be even more intense.

Both the stage competition and the gala had a tremendous variety of acts. And tremendous variety acts. [get it? -- it works both ways!] The styles ranged from high-energy twisting, to comedy magic, to mime, to music, to sketch comedy, to traditional illusions done with balloons, to clown acts, to the biggest and most expensive balloon doggie in the world ($100). Some acts were absolutely wonderful, and some were still a little bit raw. I think I ruined Hans' act by being completely uncooperative on stage. If so, I'm sorry.

One thing that struck me is that some of the most effective bits involved 350 balloons. A 260 is just not visible enough from the back of a room. And unforunately, a 350 just isn't long enough to do much with onstage. Several of the acts tied two 350 balloons together to accomplish what they normally do with a single 260. That means more preparation, or more stage time getting the balloons set. We really need a 3" x 100" balloon for large audiences.

The pictures from the figure competition tell the most of the story. They were awesome. I am definitely a fan of the single-balloon competition. It's a bit 'purer' and surprisingly difficult to twist from a single balloon. It seems that many twisters have been drifting away from single-balloon modeling toward more multi-balloon creations. Maybe this competition will inspire people back in that direction.

The other thing that struck me (besides the domination of the Netherland twisters) is that all 6 prizes in the medium and large catagory went to woven figures. I hope that doesn't discourage future competitors from entering figures built with other techniques. The entries were all beautiful and original.

Speaking of other techniques, the Trekkie Twister's second place winner in the medium category was much cooler than it looks in a static picture on the internet. Jan Lissens built the sculpture around a remote controlled robot. So the entire sculpture buzzed, spun, and raced around the room. We've seem electronics incorporated into balloons before, but nothing at this level. I hope that Jan keeps playing with robots and balloons and next year we can have our very own killer balloon robots! (Probably with short life-spans. POP!)

It is important to appreciate the tremendous amount of time and energy that the artists put into the competition. For example, Guido spent at least 34 hours building the bears and the water for his winning entry in large. That meant that he was not free to go to classes, jam with everyone, or sleep. That's too bad for the rest of the attendees who would have liked to jam with him.

At IBAC, I understand that the competition pieces are built before the workshops begin. That way everyone can both attend the convention and compete. I wish there was a way that we could do that at our shorter twister conventions.

Obviously from the length of the report the convention was busy and educational. There were many people from last year who were missed (Larry, Michelle, Pat, Mark, Flash, Patty, Dianne . . .) and many old and new friends. I hope to see _everyone_ at the next convention!

-Todd Neufeld
AKA, Twistin' Todd