50 YEARS OF JUGGLING
The Keynote
Speaking Engagements
As a speaker, I adjust my presentations according to the event and audience at hand. All I need on stage is a brief case and my business attire. My thoughts are reinforced using powerpoint. For my keynote, juggling is minimalistic. I like to offer a keynote as not every situation is ideal for my very physical juggling performances. It goes over well in the context of gatherings that are educational, business related, a fine arts focus, scientific, all things creative, food for thought, the alternative, as well as, of course, audiences of my juggling piers. Below are several universal topics that I tend to cover in every keynote.
the whole point of it
Actually, the whole point of being a performing artist is really, self-improvement. There really isn’t a need to justify the arts into education. The arts are there to provide a means of developing character through elevating our virtues. This is simple and it’s certainly nothing new. Take a virtue. Symmetry for example. To practice being symmetrical in how we use our right hand and our left hand will never be perfect. Biologically, we favor one side. At birth, it’s approximately a 20% favoring. By the time we are adults, we favor one side by as much as 80%. In juggling, we try to create new neural pathways so that our left hand can do what the right hand is so much faster at learning. Or vice-versa for a left handed person. As we improve our symmetry, our consciousness expands. We’ll never perfect it. But that’s not what virtues and being human is about. Even by improving marginally, the impact of achieving greater success in life is astronomical. We take it with us. We are not the same person. Working on your weaker side is an exercise in humility that is direct, first hand experience. The virtues overlap. Working on one tends to improve many others. So we become more humble by practicing our symmetry. So as we become more humble, we also learn to be more patient with others as we are more empathetic. Empathy, humbleness, symmetry, and patience, all virtues, are intertwined. In my book, Dynamic Play, I cover approximately thirty virtues which can be isolated and developed through exercising virtues. Often, without really planning it, these exercises can awaken very interesting and profound possibilities.
the conditioned mind
We all have preoccupations. It’s normal. We are preoccupied with something and as we are preoccupied, we aren’t even aware of things occurring often right in front of us. It’s when we become aware of our preoccupations that we begin to see things that were once invisible. This process of our conscious awareness observing the mind’s thinking is what provides fresh starts. It’s so simple that it’s deceptive. Our minds are conditioned by modern life through advertising and keeping up with the neighbors to consume and produce in order to chase down happiness. We become unconsciously conditioned to preoccupy ourselves with these two drives. To produce more. To consume more. If a creator isn’t able to see and stop this preoccupation, what occurs is one of two things. First, they base what they are doing with trying to find more things that they can exploit as production. They look for things that they already know might work. They blind themselves to things that don’t fit those parameters. So this is not really researching anything new. It leads to predictability that stays on the same level. Perhaps they might get a passing grade. But nothing unexpected or surprising occurs. Because they know it, they look towards things that others have done. They basically copy things because they need to produce and they need to consume. The only way out is to very strategically claw back practicing creative sessions in which exploitation is not the centerpiece of the mind. In essence, it’s reconditioning the mind that leads to great progress. I am well aware of this as I have been the victim so often in the past and continue to push back in the present.
PLAY VERSUS WORK
The preoccupation with producing and exploiting shifts the focus into a working mindset. When we work we paint a different picture than when we play. The attitude is different. We are the worker. We are on the outside doing it. We are getting something done. The task is separate from us. Play, on the other hand, is not interested in necessarily getting things out of the way and over with. Play is an intrinsic activity. The concept is often tainted by the kind of play that lacks dynamism. Like on a playground at recess, children do a lot of horsing around. Dynamic play is something else. It’s not horseplay. When we become adults and especially when we become professional artists, we have responsibilities. We talk about our body of work. We might describe something we do as a work of art. We want to be paid for it. We want it to have value. We want what we do to be respected. We toss out the word play. A leading professor in neurology has scientifically shown the state of mind and what occurs in the brain when we are at play. What prevents the brain from fully engaging in play is anxiety. Anxiety produces chemicals that block creativity. So it is essential that we find the time to practice dynamic play in which stress has been eliminated or at least minimized.
We go to the theater for relief. We want to take a break from the hectic fragmentation we experience in daily life. These days, fragmentation has only become worse. A good juggling routine isn’t fragmented. No matter what the style, there is something organic about it. Each move, each transition, each rest all have reasons that fit one after the other. Francis Brun, the legendary German juggler, famously told an interviewer one time when asked, “What is your most difficult trick?” He replied that no part of his act is more difficult than the other. He said his entire eight minute act was one long trick. Many jugglers today stitch things together from other tricks they’ve seen performed by other jugglers. With technology, this has become insanely worse as jugglers watch other jugglers over and over again on YouTube or by scrolling on Facebook or Instagram. The opposite of this Frankenstein effect of fragmentation is a fine piece of art in which the entire piece comes about organically. This process takes much longer to do. A good act takes seven years or longer to come to fruition. One minute on stage should be one year of practice. The older we get, the more difficult this is to do. When we’re younger, we have fewer responsibilities. Things are less complicated. We have more baggage. However, this doesn’t change anything. Nature takes 100,000 years for an ice age. Seven years is nothing.
FRAGMENTATION
ONES CALLING
We are so inundated with choices, ideas and ways of seeking attention, that we struggle to have a clear idea of what our calling really is. As a result, we stray all over the place. I admire how Arnold Schwartzenegger didn’t have a Plan B. He had one vision for himself and he went for it. It’s critical to know our calling. To get at it, we need to find something which is intrinsically satisfying as possible. That which we want to do without anyone else’s approval, applause or compensation. Would we do it if we were all alone on this planet? When we figure out for ourselves what we intrinsically enjoy and love, we have a clear purpose and direction. When it becomes less clear, everything becomes very complex. There are five intrinsic motivators that I talk about in my keynote which are reinforced in my book, Dynamic Play.
My Credentials
A juggler for 50 years and counting, I have performed for over a dozen luxury cruise lines, for fortune 500 companies, and on international television programs. Promoting physical and mental fitness through coordination, hard work and focus, juggling inspires everyone to be active, creative and ambitious. Awarded the Founder’s Award by the International Jugglers’ Association, I am regarded as a pioneer in the art of juggling by my piers and have a national and international reputation as one of the top creative jugglers in the world.
BIO
Michael Menes (pronounced Men•ness) is a contemporary vaudevillian who has performed all over the world. A juggler for over 50 years, Michael has performed in festivals, theaters, television, and on a dozen luxury cruise lines including Disney Cruise Lines, Royal Caribbean and Holland America Line. Michael’s television credits include appearing on the SOLTROM SERIES produced by CIRQUE du SOLEIL for the Bravo Channel, three appearances on French TV Variety Show “Le Grande Cabaret du Monde” in Paris, JUST FOR LAUGHS in Montreal, and on the “INTERNATIONAL HUMOR FESTIVAL” TV Special on CCTV in Beijing, China, a program that aired to over 200 million people across Asia. When not on tour, Michael makes his home in the Oxford Hills Region of Western Maine where he has his own retreat and arts studio.
