Audio By Carbonatix
Although the skill of tying shoes is a distinct childhood milestone, it’s a boring and ordinary feat. It’s expected. With few exceptions (cowboys, businesswomen, fans of Velcro), people can and do tie their shoes every day. But whistling or making armpit noises–now those are real defining talents. They’re skills learned in spare time, not out of necessity or expectation. The first simple successes can awaken another world, one where the performer belongs to a certain grade of people that can do things–not just any old thing, but entertaining things, things used to amuse others, things that will define the person who does them.
Take roping. As a summer-camp counselor, I watched a self-proclaimed cowboy lasso a barrel over and over again. Someone asked, “Why on earth would anyone need to do that?” It’s doubtful that the wannabe cowboy would ever lasso a live animal. Maybe it was just something to do after he reached the point when belching the alphabet no longer achieved the desired effect. So he needed something else that would set him apart and, above all else, impress a few girls. Without a few tricks, people are just indistinct faces in the crowd. Everybody needs one or two special talents such as card tricks, cigarette tricks, guitar licks, shadow puppets–or even juggling.
Like playing the piano, juggling is a skill many people try their hand at, but most never master. Some reach the level where they can juggle three objects, but stop there. Perhaps they then realize that juggling has the sex appeal of a high-school band uniform. Also, like piano lessons, juggling–even with lots of hard work–rarely pays off, at least in the monetary sense. Unfortunately, it’s a craft in which Scarborough Faire is the ultimate gig and Gallagher the definitive innovator, where even the most skilled walk a fine line between being a real entertainer or a jester.
