Street Performer Sneak Peek
Apr 08, 2022 | Roanoke, VA
On the walls of Golden Cactus we had noticed an advert for a "Street Performer" show that was going to happen over multiple days, with a preview version of the show at GC. One of the performers on the poster went by the name of "Hilby the Skinny German Juggling Boy", so it seemed like a must-see show, as far as I could tell.
We made our arduous 1 minute walk down to Golden Cactus Brewery and ordered a couple beers. The show was supposed to be outside, but it was a bit cold so I said we should stay inside until we absolutely had to go out there. Turns out we never had to do any such thing, because it began raining and therefore the performers had to make a last minute switcheroo to an indoors performance. This ended up being favorable for us in all kinds of ways, because it turned out that the table we were already sitting at became a front row viewing position to the newly-moved show. And not only that, but we had some people join us at this premium viewing table who ended up becoming our pals for the night (and beyond...?)
The show was seriously good. We saw 4 performers: Hilby (the aforementioned Skinny German), a guy who themes his tricks around baseball, a lasso lady, and an Australian dude who did a couple different tricks including passing his body through a squash racket and juggling a chainsaw. They were all excellent show-people who mixed in constant jokes and audience interaction. Somehow I was right about Hilby the Skinny German Juggling Boy, because he was our favorite hands down. Just really goofy and funny, excellent tricks with a lot of variety, and great at improvising jokes based on whatever the audience was doing.
The people we met were Courtney (and her doggy Ajax), Cain and Alayna. After the show was over they invited us to the after-party at Martin's Downtown, which was a spot that had been on our to-do list for a while. They had a large table seated with the performers of the event which was a bit surprising, but we began to realize that our new buds were kind of well-connected in the social arena of Roanoke. The connection to the performers turned out to be that they were friends with a guy named Johnny who ran the non-profit that organized the event. But the funny thing is that we had been seeing Johnny around ever since our first day arriving in Roanoke because he lived in the same building as us which only has a few units. So really if we had said hi to him a few times maybe we would have entered into this friend circle from another direction.
We had a lot of drinks and stayed out till almost closing, then we walked home. Very fun night.
Oh, PS: After we got home Erika passed out but I wasn't ready to go to bed yet, so instead I shaved my head into a mullet. This time paired with a mustache. Don't be jealous.