TJam 01. Saturday, Day 2

part of Balloon fun : Bork at TJam 01

Second (and last) Offical Day

Saturday was the day of seminars. There were six speakers, but only two opportunites to hear any particular one (so pick the 4 you want to hear and ask folks about the other two).

The first seminar I went to was Marvin Hardy talking about detailed figures. Marvin has been in balloons for 20 years, and general entertainment for 20 years on top of that. He was in the army as a career entertainer. He lives in Utah (which bought the winter olympics for 2002), and has been contracted to do exhibitions of balloon figures with winter sports themes. Marvin's figures are very detailed. I left the floopy disks for the digital camera up in the room, so there are no pictures.

The second one was Norm Barhart on comedy magic and balloon comedy. He showed a number of bits of business and routines (15 bits in 20 minutes!), showed how some birthday party magic tricks worked, and explained the psychology of the balloon snap.

After lunch (mmm... cold cuts...) was Ken "Flash" Stillman describing some of his modular cartoon characters. We built a "Goofus" character, a "Blue Genie", and a generic "spinach eating one-eyed sailor man". (The real names are copyrighted trademarks of very large media organizations who employ vast legions of lawyers.) I managed to snap some pictures of that class.

The final session I went to was Patrick Brown's class, which covered the "gramma" hat (actually a set of hands you can attach any face to), a butterfly made out of heart balloons, button eyes and the infamous Illusion Eye. (I was actually able to make both of those eyes, much to my surprise) I was too busy to take pictures since the pace of the class was so fast. Patrick was the winner of the TJam 99 top twister award.

Between the last class and dinner I went and photographed the competition entries.

After the seminars was the banquet (no texas bbq like last year. bummer), and the floppy disks for the camera were full, so I didn't catch any of the banquet mayhem. Imagine dozens of long balloons flying through the air like missles as folks were eating. After the dishes were cleared, each table was given a big handful of balloons and instructed to make something collectively (as a quasi competition between tables). Our table made a woven trampoline and a large rocket-ship, using the trampoline to launch the ship.

Class Pictures


Goofies in repose.
Ken "Flash" Stillman in the Genie hat.
A sea of Genies as the class progressed
A group picture of some of the class (the total attendance was probably around 50)
Detail of the hand-hat.
Detail of a face that Patrick did.
While the rest of the class was making the butterfly, Mark Verge made Superfly.

Competition Pictures

I'm missing a floppy of pictures, which has the "large" category winner. I'll post that when (if?) I find it.
Tim McConeghy, Lord of Latex with his stormtrooper.
Some cool foot decorations some folks walking around the competition were wearing.
Charm Snaker.
SanFranZilla
Sheree's fish pond. If you tapped on the surface, the fisherman would twitch (motorized) and make the fish bobble around. This won first place in the "medium" category.
Todd Neufeld's self-portrait, which placed third in the "large" category.
Todd Neufeld's Rock Band. Second place in the "medium" category.
Royal Sorrel's Centurion at the Colliseum. Second place winner in the large category.
Another view of Royal's entry.
Big red butterfly by Stacey Schmude.
Tractor. This would probably go over well in Leechburg.
Daniel Herrin(?)'s second place winner in the "small" category.
The way I wish all of those damned tweety bird cartoons would end up. Couldn't stand that annoying little bird. John Perry created this. At Millennium Jam in Belgium last June he alo made a tweety with Sylvester in his stomach.
Tanks for the memories.
Mark Verge's Superfly!
This almost looks like a portrait of Hans.
I have no idea what this is. Johnna Perry says that this a bear made from 6" Link-O-Loons, made by Carol "Bananas" Fields from Kansas.
I feel this urge to sing Celene Dion songs...
you can never have too many penguins.
Diana Smith (Lollipop the Clown)'s WB Frog
This dragon breathes smoke, and those are real goldfish in its tummy.
There were lights in part of the alien that blinked on and off. Created solely of Betallatex products, using each of the new shapes into the sculpture.
First-place/small winner from The Lord of Latex, Tim McConehey.
Demon giving us the rasberry, by Stacey Schmude.
Brad Matchett's third-place winner in the "medium" category.
He is everywhere.
Looks like some objectivists sneaked in.
Hirsch's muscle man. Yes, it's anatomically correct. Contains balloon nudity. Proceed at your own risk. You have been warned.
So that's what the Vikings really looked like.

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