ROB WILLIAMS:A grey-haired Canadian, whom the festival directors first found sitting on top of a picnic table, making sandwiches with his feet, and feeding them to a member of his audience. Standing at about five foot four inches, Williams is small and remarkably agile, and tends to find the biggest, sturdiest member of the audience, then clamber over his back, around his sides and under his arms, "scurrying around him like a squirrel." It's very funny.
THAT MAN:Originally a bar manager from Norfolk, the Belfast-based street performer also known as Grant Goldie stands apart from the noise of his fellow buskers precisely because he makes none. Performing mime, magic and physical comedy without ever uttering a word, he communicates with an audience on another level, effortlessly commanding the unforgiving attention spans of the passer-by.
USA BREAKDANCERS:To be a good breaker, you really need to be exceptional. Coming from New York and festooned with awards, this crew promise to make "Michael Flatley look like Brian Cowen at the Dáil Christmas Party" an image so troubling you will need to see the act to erase it from your imagination.
JACK WISE:Irish acts are never hugely well represented at the Street Performance World Championship, so it falls to Jack Wise, the Dublin magician, to fly the flag. Expect stunning tricks, sleight of hand, the careful explanation of how the trick is actually performed and then the immediate replication of the trick that still leaves you pleasantly bewildered. Some say he's a real pro. Others suspect sorcery.
MIKE WOOD:When his day job sounds so fulfilling – he is a contract mining engineer – why should the CanadianMike Wood choose tohaul a huge, self-made catapult from festival to festival from which he shoots a cabbage onto a helmet decked with nine-inch steel spikes. The catapult causes him more headaches in airport security than the spikes. Hugely funny and endlessly likeable, Wood explains all with actions that speak louder than words.
The Street Performance World Championship takes place tomorrow and Sunday from noon to 8pm in Fitzgerald Park, Cork and in Merrion Square, Dublin from Thursday June 18th - 21st. www.spwc.ie
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