DaiDonDen, street performance festival 2014

The escape artist Pepper Zero climbed into a huge balloon, blew up a rubber glove with his nose (and made it explode) and did a straight jacket escape. He also did some juggling. I later met him in a bar and talked about magic (which he also does).

Every year we have a street performance festival in Sapporo called DaiDonDen. For two days they block off several big streets in the city center and have 15 or so spots where different street performers ply their trades.

One of the few magicians this year was Kerendo from Asahikawa, who I know. We were on the same TV show.

There are lots of jugglers every year. There are invited guests from other parts of Japan. There are escape artists, magicians, dancers, balance artists, musicians, and much more. It is usually a lot of fun.

Akkey, a magician I know, did many magic performances this year. He is always very entertaining.

Since several people I know perform at the DaiDonDen, I also try to see my acquaintances. This year I got to see a lot of fun and interesting performances.

The pantomime guest artist Yamamoto was very funny.

I have seen the juggler Morita many times, and he is always very impressive. He juggles 7 balls, and he does super many spins in place while juggling, to name just two of his many very difficult feats.

Kirigamist Chiaki is another of my acquaintances. She does "kirigami", traditional Japanese paper cutting.

Yuki is a very funny performer who does a lot of yo-yo tricks and who is extremely good with at diabolo juggling.

Kaamu had a very original act.

A children's kung-fu ballet group was impressive.

Juggler Ko-hei is from the same university as me (the one I work at now).

Sakurakoji was the name of a funny woman who did caricatures while singing and dancing. She had one of the funniest stage personas I have seen in a long time.

I like the surreal comedy of the pantomime group S'il vous plait

These shamisen (traditional Japanese instrument) players are always entertaining.