Bravo Juggling presents: Stick Heroes / 2013. 03.

Fabien Forestier is a master of balancing.



Name: Fabien Forestier
Age: 35
Nationality: French
Place of living: Nantes

Your juggling achievements (prize / performance / trick that you are proud of / etc.):
I've never participated in any kind of contest or competition of devilstick. I play for fun and skills to produce shows. What can make me proud is, for example the impression of being skillful, or succeed to play a full show in different places, for different styles of people, festivals...

How many years have you been juggling with devilsticks?
I started juggling with balls when I was 11 and a year later with devilstick.

How many devilsticks do you have?
I play with only one type of devilstick: conical. I break them regularly so I have a lot in advance.

Are you member of any team/group/club/association?
I am a member of a street theater company and we produce shows together.

Please write some sentences of yourself in general:
I love devilsticks, juggling, maths and precision exercises in general. But what kept me doing this is that I could create numbers, work with music, especially with hip-hop and electro, and could interpret any characters too...
With the associations Bankal and Sweatlodge we work on projects that bring the circus and the soundsystem culture closer to eachother through performances and also by organizing parties, festivals and other events.
This is what I do and I like it among others such as partying, reading or traveling in the wilderness. However, I do not like Coca-Cola and hamburgers, Nike shoes, love stories, GM foods, the history of the United States, right-wing politicians...

Why did you choose this juggling tool?
I love the magic of this mechanism. Furthermore, there are 3 or 4 objects (batons and handsticks) which allows that the classic club techniques can also be used.

Where did you first meet with devilsticks?
In the street, on holiday with friends.

Which trick did you find the most difficult to learn?
One of the difficulties of devilstick is that you need to find your own rhythm, I believe.

What are you practicing at the moments?
I train less and less purely technical stuff, but still a bit. I rather try to break out of my habits and spend more time with movements, dance, stretches, relaxation or chi kung.

Do you have tricks that you invented?
I believe that we don't invent tricks, we find them and appropriate them. I am self-taught and thus I figure out stuff.

What are your favorite tricks?
It often changes.

What are the most difficult tricks you can do?
I don't know...

What is the most difficult trick that you would like to learn?
?

In what style do you play?
I try to break the classic picture of devilstickers, I try to integrate different concepts of stick play: club juggling, balancing, contact moves, body twisting... The aesthetic of hiphop (but not bling!) has also influenced me.

What other styles do you like?
I love cool shows!

Do you play with firesticks as well?
It's been a long time ago!

What do you do on a normal day, how many hours do you practice?
I still train almost every day, sometimes 3 or 4 hours in total, usually 1 or 2 hours. But my average practice time used to be 5 to 6 hours a day for ten years!

How and where do you practice?
The place where I live was designed for exercising and training as well...

Do you perform with devilsticks?
Oh yes. I performed on galas of some conventions but mostly we perform on street with Bankal. There are also some ongoing projects.

Do you teach juggling?
I have taught several times.

What type of devilstick do you prefer to use?
A conical one with white, specific grip and black marks at the ends and the center.

Do you play with other juggling equipments?
Yes, I play with bounce balls (in a show (cirkurbain) we juggle 13 with a friend) and also juggle clubs a bit.

How is juggling life in France? Are devilsticks popular?
Juggling is getting more popular but the devilstick is by far one of the less popular equipments.

Tell a funny story related with devilsticks.
I explained the mechanics and friction forces to a child who believed that there were magnets in my devilstick. When his mother came she told him that I took him for a fool and there must have been magnets in my devilstick! Oh my, parents sometimes...

What is your goal related with devilsticks? What is a challenge for you?
I'm searching for new ideas for presenting devilsticking in an original way. I continue doing shows and working on alternative cultural exchanges.

Who do you recommend devilsticks for?
I recommend it to everyone at least to try.

What do you advice to beginner/advanced devilstick players?
Do not forget club moves, following the rhythm, training with your left hand and do not bend your body above the devilstick. If you play devilstick a lot, than you should practice yoga, chi kung or any other technique that helps developing your flexibility and balancing. But above all, enjoy yourselves