- Published on
About a wizard
- Authors
- Name
- Florian Vallen
- @florianvallen
About a wizard
Once upon a time, in November 2012, a young traveler found himself in a most magnificant land. He was a wizard, but he did not know it yet. After long travels up the east coasting of Oz, aka Australia, he hath found himself at the most benevolent festival, the eclipse festival in Far North Queensland. The whole world was gathered here, witnessing the forthcoming of a complete solar eclipse. All kinds of creative visionary artists, renowned djs and deco artists, wild dancers and circus artists and the whole world of the psychedelic scene came here to celebrate music and psychedelic culture. At this very place the young traveler was enchanted and became a wizard.
One evening he saw the performance of the tribal ninjas, a japanese fire spinning group. Fire was spun and spat everywhere around the stage and at one heart-stopping moment, a ninja master came on stage with nothing but a clear acrylic ball. He put all the flames into his shadow and mesmerized the audience with his clear sphere. This master was known as Okotanpe and he was one of the most famous and best contact jugglers in the entire realm.
"What is this magical sphere?" the young traveler thought. "How can it be so simple and yet so complex? How can it be so mysterious and yet so clear? How can it be so magical and yet so real?"
Determined to learn more about this sphere, the young traveler went to the next juggling shop at the festival, bought a clear acrylic ball, went back to the master and proudly showed him the newly purchased sphere. "Thank you very much for inspiring me" the young traveler said, "but I have to ask you, how do you master this art of juggling?" The master was very kind and did not hesitate to teach the young traveler a few things and told him also about the countless possibilities of the modern age by using youtube and the internet. He told him to go home and search for videos of the great contact jugglers and to practice every day. "There you shall find your inspiration and your path to master the sphere will be laid out before thee. Arigatou!" The ninja bowed and gave his blessings to the traveler's ball. It was then when the young traveler began to become a wizard and would later be known as the flow wizard.
Ever since the eclipse festival his love for the contact juggle magic grew and grew. He practiced every day and learned more and more about the sphere. After a while of practicing, he started to explore the world of street performances. He was fascinated by the idea of entertaining people with his art and earn a little bit of pocket money every day. Street performances allowed him to travel and work wherever he pleased. Street performacnes were a lot of fun to the wizard. It was a fun and great way to meet new people and to share the art of the sphere with the world.
The wizard continued his travels towards Asia where he traveled to the circus school of Battambang, Cambodia, called Phare Ponleu Selpak. Phare is a Cambodian non-profit art and circus school that provides education and training to children. Upon the wizard's arrival, there were more than 1000 children at this school. There was a kindergarden, a unicef child protection unit, a primary school, a high school, a theater, music and a circus school. The wizard was given the opportunity to teach the children the art of the sphere and to perform for them for two weeks. Every day he would give two workshops to 7 to 15 year old children. Here is a video about this time.
In late 2014, the wizard returned to the land of Oz and hung out with fellow artists who were juggling fire. The wizard tried out many alot of these firy arts, but honestly, he was never very intrigued by pois, or staffs, or any of these fire toys that his peers were generally using. He was more interested in the contact juggle. More specifically, he thought, could it be done with fire 🔥?
It was then, in February 2014 in Melbourne, when the wizard met Noah at the annual arts, acrobatics and spinning convention: Spinfest in Victoria, Australia. Spinfest showcased the best of the best in the world within the world of circus arts. The fellow wizard Noah was yet another very talented contact juggler that the wizard learned from. By the time he met Noah, the wizard had already been pretty good at contact juggling but he was still new to fire contact juggling. In his life the wizard has met very few people that were doing fire contact juggling. Now may it be by mere coincidence or by the will of the universe, the wizard has learned from Noah how to do fire contact juggling and how to build his own fire contact balls.
After learning more props and diving deeper into the world of circus and flow arts. The wizard finally became a master of the sphere and was now called the flow wizard. He was now ready to share his knowledge with the world and teach others how to become a wizard themselves. Similar to the way he was inspired by the ninja master Okotanpe when the wizard was a young traveler.
Nowadays (2022) the flow wizard teaches at conventions like phoenix fire conventions, sells his fire balls to fellow contact juggling wizards and from time to time enchants trippers on the dancefloor.
To view pictures and videos please visit his facebook page. He also uses instagram from time to time.
With Flow and Fire, The Flow Wizard.