When he’s not twirling fire or rocking out around campus with the Boogie Club, “Barefoot Albert” spends his time giving science teachers online seminars on the history of the moon and working toward a more eco-friendly campus. Luckily, he found the time to sit down with us and chat about the personal growth he’s experienced at Wesleyan and some of the ways the school could be made a better place. Aww.
Justin: How’s Prometheus going this year?
Albert: It’s going really well. At the activities fair, we ended up with, like, 100 people on the e-mail list. So this year we didn’t do an orientation show and people found out through word of mouth and stumbling on our practices.
Janie: Have you ever burned yourself?
Albert: A little. Most of your burns are not bad at all. It hurts for five minutes and it’s red for fifteen minutes. And I’ve lost some beard.
Justin: What’s one of the hardest things to do when you’re spinning fire?
Albert: One hard thing is performing in front of an audience, but you’re concentrating really hard, so you make your concentration face, which usually is not smiling. So, for some people it’s pretty hilarious. Also, the fire is pretty loud so it’s really hard to hear anything. And as soon as you’re on fire, your mind blanks and remembering how to do moves and remembering which moves you know is really hard. You’re in a trance. So when you hit your pants and your spotter’s yelling at you, it’s really hard to think. We had four spotters at our last show, as opposed to the usual two or three. A lot of new people get burned. We like to have at least one spotter for every two people.
Justin: How often do you practice with lit. Is that how you say it? Lit?
Albert: Yeah. Lit. Not that often. Mostly we practice unlit because you can’t learn new moves when you’re on fire. It’s pretty different. Especially the noise, as I was saying. Other than that, you don’t want to do moves you’ve just learned.
Justin: What about blowing or spitting fire?
Albert: We don’t do that anymore. An alum did that at the last show, but it’s really dangerous. One of the first things we do in the beginning of the semester, is a fire safety session and 15 minute interview with one of the best fire spinners in the world, who had a really bad fire-breathing accident. We scare you at the beginning and then we’re like, “It’s really not that bad! But don’t breathe fire and be careful.”
Justin: What are you actually spitting?
Albert: It varies. We used to use grain alcohol, and then we used grain alcohol and oil because the oil would coat your mouth so the grain alcohol wouldn’t burn your mouth. I wasn’t doing it. But the professionals use kerosene. And clearly, that’s really dangerous.
Justin: Are you an officer in Boogie Club?
Albert: I’m a leader. It’s been raining for the past few Saturdays, but we’re going.
Janie: How do you decide the music?
Albert: We have some historic mixes, but it changes.
Janie: What if someone wanted Britney Spears?
Albert: Basically, the music is a tool for boogying, but you can’t rely on it. We did this thing a few years back where Owen [Albin ’07] made a fifteen-minute tape of music he thought would be hardest to boogie to, like there was classical, 20th century classical, “Fitter, Happier” by Radiohead…so we had a training session. Also, there’s the library boogie at the end of the semester that’s silent. The music has to be a tool, not a crutch.
Janie: Do you have a move? Are there specific moves?
Albert: Anything goes. My moves tend to be moving toward the pop/locking without being good at it. But I played a game once with Owen where we imitated people’s boogies and tried to name them. We could do it for a good number of people.
Justin: I’ve heard that your nickname is “Barefoot Albert” and right now you are not wearing shoes.
Albert: That’s true. I wear shoes when it gets colder. It’s pretty nice out now. Also, you have to wear shoes to eating places. So when I’m not wearing shoes, I’ll often have them in a bag, especially when I’m going to get food.
Janie: It doesn’t bother you when it’s wet out?
Albert: If it was colder, it would bother me.
Justin: Have your feet gotten coarse?
Albert: Yeah. They build up calluses. They’re not so much now because I’ve been wearing shoes for the past few weeks. It’s been cold and I was getting sick.
Justin: You’re a music and math major. Are those things related?
Albert: Yeah. Most people are like, “Oh, that’s a great combination.” I’m interested to hear why people think there’s a good relation. I mean, music is mathematical, metrically and with intervals, acoustically, it’s all about the physics of it. I’m actually TAing a course called “Music, Math, and Language.” So there are places where it’s similar, but there are also places where they’re not the same.
Janie: What would you change about Wesleyan?
Albert: There’s a lot of environmental stuff I’m aware of and would change…There’s now composting in Summerfields, so that’s great. All the green building stuff going on and motion-sensor lights in the Butts…I wish there was more environmental education during Orientation…I also think that BILEGATA should be expanded. Not necessarily during Orientation, but it should continue. Here’s one thing that I think would be great: if one day, they cancelled all classes, and everyone got into groups and discussed important things, like race and class and the environment. Anything.
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