Debrief & a reminder

This Thursday the members that came along to the weekly meeting had a little bit of a brain storm about what we did right and what we could improve on at the Pontardawe Summerfest event. So here is a bit of a summery of things that were mentioned.


Things we did right:-

• Despite height and space issues with the bandstand area, we worked with what we had, squeezed in, carried on, improvised and did it all with a smile.
• Everyone felt we did well in the parades, engaged with the crowd and showed off our circus skills well.
• The short performance we did at the end of the Torch Light Parade was well received and our en masse 5 minutes of 'showing off ' (for want of a better description) did grab the crowds attention.
  
• On Saturday we didn't let the fact that the stage we were meant to have was pulled at the last minute and we improvised by finding another space to perform and entertain passers by.
• In the Saturday Parade, the stopping and starting of the dance troupe in front of us made parading for the unicyclists quite challenging, but they worked around it and kept on smiling and chatting with the crowd.
  
• Biggest highlight for most of us was Robert's reverse striptease on his unicycle on the Friday evening. It was well practised and stopped passers by who wanted to see how it progressed. He got a large round of applause.
  

Things we can improve on:-

• Communication with the organisers of events to make sure they know about how much height and floor space we need to perform and so we know exactly what they are expecting from us. To that aim we need someone to go along and see the space and do a risk assessment on the space, to be sure we are safe, and so are the audiences.
  
• We need to create & practice routines and stage acts, so that we have ready made performances to pull out of the bag when we are invited to these kinds of events, as sometimes the notice we get between being asked to join in and actually performing is short. To this aim we decided that we would have more regular renegade nights/ time at the end of each meeting for people to show the rest of the group their performances and get feedback on what they are doing.
• We need to encourage as many members of the group as possible to work on MCing skills. The more we have willing to stand up and guide the audiences through the shows we give the better, so it means there will always be at lease one at every event we do, because, as you all know, we have a rolling number of members and not all show up to any one event.
• If the venue of where we are going to perform is changed we need to take our audience with us by announcing the change and parading loudly to the new venue, hopefully taking the crowd with us and gaining more people as we go along.
• If we are to be part of a parade, ask in advance to be at the very back of the parade so we can have enough space to perform in and not end up sandwiched in a space that shrinks when people in front of us stop and people behind us shuffle forwards.
• Send out an email/text to all members to confirm all details of meeting up and performance times, so everyone is sure where we need to be.
• Appoint a person that writes a running order of stage shows, collates all the music needed and makes sure everyone knows that running order.

If you have any more suggestions for improvements please to pass them on at club meetings.

This weeks Club meeting is the last of the month, so the first hour 7-8pm is Unicycle hour, when the hall space will all be handed over to the unicyclists to use as they will. The rest of us can either turn up at 7 pm and use other areas of the building or arrive at 8pm to use the main hall.

Hope to see you there!