Paul had so much fun developing a performance around the Make A Splash theme that combined storytelling, juggling, magic, and of course comedy. We also helped teens Make Waves by teaching them new juggling, skill toy, and balloon twisting skills.

Sit back, relax, and enjoy the video capturing the fun we had!

For more information about Flow Circus performances, teen workshops, and staff trainings, visit www.FlowCircus.com

Greetings from Flow Circus: Back to School! This time of year brings a variety of emotions…..kids (and teachers!) want summer to last a little longer, but many parents are ready for school to start.

As the summer wraps up, we are taking a little down time to reflect on the summer and gear up for a fun and exciting school year. Take a look at the Summer Reading Program video we made which is our answer to the age-old question “What did you do this summer vacation?”

Playfully yours,

Paul & Dawn

New Video: Make A Splash – 2010 SRP Highlights: Another wonderful summer of encouraging families to visit their libraries and READ! Thank you to the many libraries that invited Flow Circus to share our love of laughter and play.

Click here to watch a 7 minute video with highlights from Make A Splash performances from throughout the summer. Many of the over 80 libraries we visited this summer are represented. Feel free to share it with patrons, colleagues, and funders that support your library. If you have had Flow Circus in past years, see how we adapted the performance for this summer’s theme.

Sit back, relax, and enjoy a few more laughs before the summer officially ends.

Fundama Feedback Needed – Did You Fundama This Summer? We loved creating Play Fundama & hope it has been a valuable resource as you planned programs for tweens and teens this summer. We’ve had over 800 people visit the Play Fundama website this summer and we have gotten good feedback so far:

The programs I did with your free web tutorials were easy and fun for me and our teens. I’ve even had a few adults who happened to be in my office and they couldn’t resist giving the cup and ball a try!

We’d love to hear more. If you have visited the site, run a fundama program, or made some of the toys yourself, we want your feedback. How did the programs go? Did the participants enjoy making and designing the fundama? What challenges did you face?

We are going to be adding videos and instructions for skill toys this fall. If you have any suggestions or requests, let us know. We already had a librarian in Pennsylvania suggest Game of Graces which will make a fabulous addition. We want to make the site a valuable resource for you – so tell us how we can help.

Tween/Teen Library Programs Growing: In addition to performances this summer, Flow Circus helped tweens and teens Make Waves by learning new skills. Juggling, balloon twisting, and skill toy workshops engaged and entertained YA groups in many states.

Each program looked a little different depending on the community and we were happy to adapt. In some cases, our workshop followed Paul’s general performance for all ages. The tweens/teens had the exclusive opportunity to stay after the show to try their hands at some of the skills they saw Paul perform. In other communities, the librarians knew the teens wouldn’t come to the “kid’s performance” and had a special teen event featuring our workshop. Apparently the way to a teen’s heart is through food because these usually had pizza, ice cream, or some other fun treat!

What does juggling and skill toys have to do with the library and reading? As librarians know, it is often difficult to design programs for this age group that will attract both boys and girls. Our experience shows that juggling is gender neutral! Then once we teach the basic skills, we encourage participants to continue learning through books and on-line resources. Learning research skills is a lot easier when the topic is something they see as fun. True story…….Paul actually learned to juggle from a book, and we continue to learn about new tricks and skill toys through books and on-line research.

We are in the process of developing a Flow Circus program guide with instructional videos to help librarians create juggling/skill toy clubs at their library. It should be ready in the next few months – look for updates in future newsletters.

In the meantime, you can find more information about our teen workshops on Library Page.

Performing Off-Broadway: During our August tour in New York, Paul had the opportunity to perform Off-Broadway at the Times Square Arts Center for 2 nights.  He opened for LMAO-Off Broadway presented by Eight Is Never Enough – an interactive improve and musical comedy show.  We met members of the cast at the Arts Council of Fairfax County CAPS Showcase last year and they invited Paul to bring his improvisational comedy to their stage.  Fun performances space and playful audiences in the heart of Manhattan’s theater district….can’t beat it!

For more information about Paul’s clean comedy juggling shows for adult audiences, visit JustPaul.com.

2010-11 School & Library Tour Schedule: We currently have the following tours planned for the 2010-11 school year and still have openings available. Book during one of these tours and we will waive your travel costs. We are continually adding new tours to this schedule so feel free to contact us about setting up a tour in your area.

• September 21-24: South Carolina Tour
• Mid-October (dates TBD): Fairfax County, VA
• November 1-5: Northeast Tour (NY, NJ, PA)
• February 21-26: Northeast Tour (NY, NJ, PA)
• March 9-11: South Carolina Tour

If we visited your library this summer, we hope you too are having fun with the kendama. Feel free to post updates about your kendama (photos of your kids using it, the records for your library, etc) to our Facebook page. For further inspiration, watch this video which has a wide range of competition tricks and their names. Maybe your library could have a kendama “trick of the week.” Whether you have a kendama or not, remember you that can find make-your-own kendama instructions at playfundama.com.

We have a few more weeks of library shows left this month, so be sure to check back next month to see our end-of-summer highlights video. In the meantime, you can find photos from our AL, NY, PA, & NJ 2010 tours in our photo gallery.

We can’t wait to use skill toys from around the world like the kendama to develop programs for next summer’s theme, One World, Many Stories.

To book a Flow Circus performance/workshop or schedule a tour in your region, contact Dawn at dawn@flowcircus.com or (919) 604-3462.

His grandmother is about to leave on a trip to Asia and makes a deal with him……learn to do something that will make people smile and she will bring him a gift from her travels. Paul spends the summer learning to juggle, perform magic, and discovers other toys that require practice. He and his friends put on circus shows in his front yard and he realizes that he likes the applause! When his grandmother finally comes home, she brings him a new skill toy for him to learn – the Japanese kendama. Paul can’t wait to see what new tricks he can learn and perform for more applause!

If you have been at one of the 90+ Flow Circus library shows this summer, feel free to comment here. To see more photos visit our Photo Gallery.

Visit our photo gallery to see images of campers sculpting giant palm trees, mastering a variety of skill toys, and performing magic tricks like the cup and ball routine!

We look forward to returning to Summer Quest again next summer.

If  your child was a camper, we would love to hear what you enjoyed most about the camp. Feel free to post your comments here.

Pepsi Refresh Project Update: During the month of June, Flow Circus and the State Library of North Carolina entered a proposal to the Pepsi Refresh Project to bring juggling and skill toys to libraries across the state.Although we didn’t end up winning the grant, we did win overwhelming support from many of you and we are grateful for all of your voting. Whether you voted once or every day, all of your votes were invaluable to us.

We have learned many lessons from this process and hope to submit again in the future. We are always looking for grants and other creative funding options in order to spread the juggling arts to organizations serving tweens and teens. Contact us with your project idea and we will work with you to make it happen.

Play Fundama Posted to Instructables.com: Last month, we introduced our new website PlayFundama.com featuring videos and instructions providing hours of fun programming using just masking tape, string, paper cups & dowels. We were excited to find that our fundama made it on to Instructables.com – the nexus for all super-cool DIY stuff. The best part is that we weren’t even the ones to post it!

If you haven’t had a chance to check it out yet, go to PlayFundama.com and see what the buzz is about.

Fall Programming for Schools: You may not be ready to start thinking about the fall, but we are! Kick-off the school year in a memorable way with one of the following:

To book these or other Flow Circus programs, contact Dawn at dawn@flowcircus.com or (919) 604-3462

Flow Circus on Facebook: Stay up to date on Flow Circus happenings by becoming a Facebook fan. Join today and tell a friend! http://www.facebook.com/flowcircus

As a kid, performer Paul Miller was always getting in trouble. Then one summer all that changed with the gift a Japanese kendama. That popular toy and a trip to the library led him to discover juggling and other skill toys from around the world. Instead of getting grounded, he started to get applause.

As the performance took shape, we realized that we wanted to provide librarians with the opportunity to provide the same discovery of  new toys and skills for their patrons. We know that budgets are limited, so we sat down with string, masking tape, sticks, paper cups & PlayFundama.com was born!

PlayFundama.com provides instructional videos on how to make and play with the different versions of fundama that we have created. You can also find photos of similar toys from around the world and suggested activity ideas for how fundama might be incorporated into your Summer Reading Program.

We hope to inspire kids to be creative and playful with whatever materials they might have laying around!

The following are recent quotes from parents of past campers and adults participating in recent workshops:

I haven’t had this much fun in a LONG time.
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Thanks forever for your inspiration to young people – What a great job to have!
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You two are very fortunate to have found such interesting and meaningful careers. What could be better than teaching people skills and confidence – and making kids and adults laugh along the way.
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We are fortunate and appreciate all of the opportunities that we have had not only to teach, but also to learn from the children and adults in our workshops. During a recent workshop, we had students from Burma share with us games from their culture. To see pictures visit of Paul playing chinlone and rope games with the students visit the Photo Gallery.

Hope you are having a wonderful spring season.

Playfully Yours,
Paul & Dawn

Make Waves/Make Money – Winners Announced: We were thrilled with the response that we had to our Twist & Earn! Giveaway and the exciting projects that librarians are trying to provide for their teens. Because of the number and clear need for additional resources, we decided to increase our donation to 3 programs per region (we wish it could be more!). Without further adieu, the winners are………

Northeast Region
Chrissie Morrison, East Greenbush Community Library in East Greenbush, NY
Fundraising for Water Aid America
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David Hrivnak, Peoples Library in New Kensington, PA
Graphic Novels for the teen section
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Joan Rose, Mahopac Public Library in Mahopac, NY
Comfortable, teen-friendly furniture

Southeast Region
Brandon Robbins, Wayne County Public Library in Goldsboro, NC
PA system for live music and other events
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Kati Behrens, Chambers County Public Library in Valley, AL
Teens fundraise in the summer to purchase school supplies for underprivileged kids
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Vanessa Campbell, Mooresville Public Library in Mooresville, NC
Furniture for YA section, Fish tank for teens, glass display case

We look forward to helping these teens reach their fundraising goals this summer. We will keep you posted. For more about the program visit www.twistandearn.com

Summer Reading Program Promotional Materials Available: Paul has finalized the details for his 2010 Summer Reading Program performance to fit with this summer’s theme Make a Splash. If you have booked Paul for this summer, we will be mailing promotional posters to you in the next few weeks. In the meantime, you can find flyers, a press release, and photos on the Promotional Page of our website. Below is a brief description of the show:
As a kid, performer Paul Miller was always getting in trouble. Then one summer all that changed with the gift a Japanese kendama. That popular toy and a trip to the library led him to discover juggling and other skill toys from around the world. Instead of getting grounded, he started to get applause.

Paul’s comedy juggling and magic show was recently showcased on Disney Cruise Lines and he loves to share his passion for play in schools and libraries throughout the East Coast. Come join us as he presents Make A Splash…Without Making a Mess.

If you are still interested in having Paul visit your library this summer, contact Dawn at dawn@flowcircus.com or (919) 604-4356 to check availability.

Skill Toy Workshops Customized for Global Studies Project: A few months ago, we received a call from a librarian in Fairfax County, Virginia. Paul performed at the school last year and she was interested in having hands-on workshops for her 5th grade students to get them excited about the Global Studies Technology Project that all 5th graders must complete. Dawn’s experience as a Social Studies teacher came in handy as we designed a workshop connecting four of the toys that we teach to trade along the Silk Road.

After an introduction to the history of each of the toys (they each traveled different paths), the students rotated between 4 hands-on stations where they played with the toys. The following was written by the teacher after the workshops & we couldn’t agree more:

Flow Circus and their approach to schools and the learning environment is what our students need right now. Learning is not only memorizing or completing bubble sheets; it is about being creative and learning anything and everything.
Lisa Muir, Newington Forest Elementary School

For more information about Skill Toys from Around the World workshops, contact Dawn at dawn@flowcircus.com or (919) 604-3462.

First Friday Chamber Networking Event: As we have mentioned many times, we love conducting workshops for adult audiences. We have been asked to run our interactive team building workshop at the Wake Forest Chamber of Commerce First Friday Networking this month. Member Relations Director, Mary Yount, thought Flow Circus would set the perfect tone for an upcoming speed networking event.

Our balloon twisting exercises create a playful, yet competitive atmosphere that participants never forget. It breaks the ice, makes people comfortable, and creates a bond that they will be able to continue to build on in months to come. We are looking forward to it!

For more information on our adult programs, visit FlowCircus.com/professional

Start Your Fall Planning: The weather is just starting to warm up so you probably don’t want to think about the fall season yet! We do know, however, that many of you like to plan early. Contact us if you are interested in one of the following:

• Read Yourself Silly performance for a Back to School Family Night, Literacy Night, or Book Fair
• A unique and playful Staff Development to kick off the school year
• Skill Toys from Around the World workshops for World History classes
• Hands-on team building workshops for your teen advisory group

To book these or other Flow Circus programs, contact Dawn at dawn@flowcircus.com or (919) 604-3462

Flow Circus on Facebook: Stay up to date on Flow Circus happenings by becoming a Facebook fan. Join today and tell a friend! http://www.facebook.com/flowcircus

Thank you.