Juggling Road Trip

Juggling Road Trip #6 - Rochester, MI

2012-04-19T12:58:00.004-07:00

photo credits: Jill Poché

What's the name of your Juggling Club?
Motor City Juggling Club

In what city and state?
Rochester, MI, USA

How old is your club?
Founded in May 1991.

Website?
www.mcjugglers.org
http://www.youtube.com/user/motorcityjugglers (for videos)

History of the club?
The club was founded as the Mount Clemens Juggling Club by Gerry Carson, who earlier also founded the Midland Juggling Club. When we moved out of Mount Clemens, we chose to keep the same website
(mcjugglers.org), thus we needed a new name consisting of the letters 'M' and 'C'. Since our members are from the metropolitan Detroit area, the name Motor City Juggling Club was an appropriate choice.

Describe what your juggling space is like?
A five-story glass-walled atrium, excellent for diabolo, club passing, and numbers juggling.

How many "regulars" do you have at your club?
It varies greatly, but a typical meeting consists of 4-14 jugglers.

What is the age range of your Juggling Club participants?
9-65

What kind of non-juggling jobs/careers do your jugglers have?
Engineering, computer software, performing, law, student, etc.

Who was the last traveling juggler to stop through?
Steve Mills of Mills Mess fame.

Clubs or balls?
Our most-regular members are interested primarily in club passing, but we also have attendees interested in ball tricks and numbers.

What brand of clubs do people juggle mostly?
Todd Smith "Assassins", Dubé "Europeans", Renegades, Henrys, Play "PX3".

Are you just jugglers or are other circus arts practiced?
Regular members primarily juggle, although other attendees also do diabolo, flower sticks, unicycling, rope tricks, yo-yo, cigar boxes, bullwhip, magic.

What professional jugglers do people at your club admire?
The answer varies greatly from member to member. Responses include:
Jay Gilligan, The Sharpe Brothers, Steven Ragatz, Michael Moschen, Vova and Olga Galchenko, Sean McKinney, Anthony Gatto, Jon Brady, Thomas Dietz, Doug Sayers, Lauge Benjaminsen, Jason Garfield.

What is the mode of transportation for your jugglers to arrive at juggling club?
In the Motor City, we arrive overwhelmingly by automobile, although members have also been known to walk, bicycle, and unicycle.

Is there a club consensus on the World Juggling Federation?
One of our members, Nick Thomas, has competed at WJF.

Does your club organize a festival?
No

Ratio of males to females?
It varies greatly from meeting to meeting. Regular members are mostly male, however, lately a number of female students have been attending. With the school year winding down, the number of females attending likely will drop again.

Recent fun passing patterns you've been working on?
Pink Bunkadoo Feed, Dead Man's Bludgeon, Dead Man's Cousin, Dead Man's Dozen, Scattered Sunshine, Shattered Scattered Sunshine, Quasar, Scrambled V, Train to Nowhere, Roundabout.

What non-circus hobbies do your jugglers have?
Drumming in a Scottish bagpipe band, astronomy, college radio deejay, board games, rowing, martial arts, knitting.

Juggling Road Trip #5 - St. Petersburg, FL

2012-03-17T07:11:00.002-07:00

What's the name of your Juggling Club?
USFSP Juggling Club

In what city and state?
St. Petersburg, FL

How old is your club?
Brand NEW! Only just started up in September 2011

Website?
http://www.facebook.com/groups/188163317956076/

Describe what your juggling space is like?
We love big ceilings and A/C. We meet in the fabulous Old Dali museum every week after classes.

How many "regulars" do you have at your club?
We have about 10 regulars, but new and old additions EVERY week!

What is the age range of your Juggling Club participants?
The majority of our club members are college students (17-22), but we do have some high school students and college graduates or street performers that come by as well.

Who was the last traveling juggler to stop through?
This spring break we had 2 University of Florida Juggling Club members come by, and we are hoping to see some Key West Jugglers very shortly.

Clubs or balls?
Clubs OR Balls? We do it all my friend. Most of our members are perfecting and enhancing their ball tricks, but we typically have a few clubs passing in the meetings.

Are you just jugglers or are other circus arts practiced?
As of now we are only jugglers, but we are trying to get other Circus folks to come on by and practice with us.

Do you have any performers at your club?
We have two regular performers as well as two performers that swing by on occasion.

What is the mode of transportation for your jugglers to arrive at juggling club?
Our members typically skateboard or walk to the meetings, but some do drive.

Does your club organize a festival?
The Club has not organized a festival YET, but there has been some exciting talk about the possibility of one!

Ratio of males to females?
Typically the ratio is only 2:8 females to males, but we have had as many as FOUR show up to a meeting before!!

Style or numbers?
Depends on the person. Dan Brown is all about the numbers, but others members, like myself, love the swag of it all.

Juggling Road Trip #4 - Santa Rosa, California

2012-03-01T20:52:00.002-08:00

What's the name of your Juggling Club?
Santa Rosa Juggling Club

In what city and state?
Santa Rosa, California (about an hour north of San Francisco)

How old is your club?
We've been around since 2005

Website
http://www.northbayjugglers.com
http://www.facebook.com/SantaRosaJugglingClub

History of the club?
We were started in 2005 by Russ Powell. Many of the jugglers who met with us at that time originally came to us from the Flinging Fools juggling club started by Chuck and April Fernald in the North Bay (Rohnert Park, Petaluma, Cotati, Santa Rosa). When Chuck and April moved away, there was no formal group anymore. Russ helped keep the group alive when he moved to Santa Rosa in 2005. We changed the name to Santa Rosa Juggling Club as our primary location for juggling was in Santa Rosa. We used to meet at Santa Rosa Junior College on their front lawn and in 2010 moved to Juilliard Park. We started co-hosting the May Madness JuggleFest w/ Carnival of Chaos (Mark Bunnell) in 2010. We now meet on second Sundays (3p-5p) during the dry months of the year -- April thru October.

Describe what your juggling space is like?
We juggle in Juilliard Park in Santa Rosa. It's a nice, modest-sized city park w/ lots of lawn space and some sidewalks/bike paths good for unicycling and ball bouncing.

How many "regulars" do you have at your club?
We have about seven regulars, but sometimes get as many as 15-20 at our gatherings.

What is the age range of your Juggling Club participants.
Our youngest is about 11 and the oldest, well, hard to say, probably late 50s.

What kind of non-juggling jobs/careers do your jugglers have?
Construction/building, students (elem., HS, college), management consulting, musicians, teachers

Who was the last traveling juggler to stop through?
Mark Growden

Clubs or balls?
Both, really. The older jugglers pass clubs a LOT. The younger jugglers tend to juggle balls.

What brand of clubs do people juggle mostly?
Renegade and Dube

Are you just jugglers or are other circus arts practiced?
We've had magicians, hoopers, clowns, balloon artists, and whip crackers pass through. Among others.

Do you have any performers at your club?
Yes. Mark Bunnell of Carnival of Chaos . Also Lizette Guy and Todd Victor of Jest in Time Circus

Are the non-performers content with not performing or do they aspire to peform?
A little of both. Some would like to perform, but most are just happy building skills.

What professional jugglers to people at your club admire?
Anthony Gatto, Frank Olivier, Victor Kee, Jason Garfield, W. C. Fields, Penn Jillette, Mark Bunnell, The Passing Zone

Does your club organize a festival?
Yes. And our festival this year is on May 26th, 2012. Come join us! http://northbayjugglers.com/May_Madness_JuggleFest_2012.html

Ratio of males to females?
90% male, 10% female

Recent fun passing patterns you've been working on?
Jim's three count

Give a name shout-out to all of your jugglers.
Andrew Morey, Daniel Gianola-Norris, Don Barch, Eric Black, Gordon Smith, Jeff Johnson, Joe Nelson, Josh, Kai Faust, Ken Garr, Kira Fonarow, Lewis Gordon,Lizette Guy, Lupen Grainne, Marc Azevedo, Mark Bunnell, Melinda Hempstead, Michael Kurrels, Pamela Sue Porter (Twizzle the Clown),Russ Powell, Todd Victor, And others

Style or numbers?
A little of both. But more style than numbers.

Juggling Road Trip #3 - Bellingham, Washington

2012-02-27T20:37:00.003-08:00

What's the name of your Juggling Club?
Bellingham Juggling Club (how original, right?

In what city and state?
Bellingham, WA

How old is your club?
Roughly 10 years old

Website?
http://bellinghamcircusguild.com , I guess. It is technically a website for our host Bellingham Circus Guild, but you can find the times, etc. on their calendar.

History of the club?
There was this guy named Ryan who was totally awesome. He thought, "Dang, I sure would like people to juggle with." He was in college at the time, and as everyone knows, college kids don't have anything better to do. But it turns out that it was a high schooler, Lebn, not a slack-about college kid that was the co-founder. They juggled and made merry. At the time the club was associated with Western Washington University. For many years, it continued the association with the college, in the winter meeting in their multi-purpose room and in the summer meeting at a beautiful park on the water. After all the hardcore members of the club graduated college (many many years later), the club spun off as its own deal, continuing to meet in the park during the summer, but in a warehouse of hidden glee in the off months.

Describe what your juggling space is like?
Although technically a warehouse, the Cirque Lab is any jugglers dream. As a home for the Bellingham Circus guild, there's a stage, aerial rigging, and more props/toys than you can shake a stick at. Unicycles, walking globes, mats, rings, clubs, wiffle ball bats, bowling balls, and more are scattered about, just waiting for playful jugglers to send them aloft. The space has moved a couple times but always maintains it's character and verve. (Check the website to find it's current location.)

How many "regulars" do you have at your club?
None, obviously. Isn't "regular juggler" an oxymoron? As for how many people have semi-consistent attendance, it varies. In the summer, having numbers as high as 30 is not uncommon, since Bellingham is a wonderful place for itinerant circus folk to flock during the non-rainy season. In the winter, 20 attendees is a good night.

What is the age range of your Juggling Club participants?
Oh, 11 or so to 55(?). It is rude to ask about people's age, so I can tell you how old Karl is exactly. His beard is grey, I can tell you that much.

What kind of non-juggling jobs/careers do your jugglers have?
Ha! I mean, computer programmer, yoga instructor, waitress, "full-time" performer, housesitter, dog trainer, mechanic, gardener, and yarn-shop attendant, but in general, few of us are full-time 9-5ers and take what comes.

What brand of clubs do people juggle mostly?
Renegade reigned supreme for the first couple years of the club, but slowly, PX3s have infested our ranks now to the point of 80% saturation.

Recent fun passing patterns you've been working on?
We are a club strongly focused on club passing. We work beginning patterns and basic tricks (not forgetting to spend due time on multi-hand passing patterns like 3 count). We also do a lot of numbers passing (8 and 9 club, 7 club ultimates), and higher technical patterns (Y-not, pass-pass-self-pass-pass-zip-self, etc.). But pretty much all passing is fair game!

Are you just jugglers or are other circus arts practiced?
Lots and lots (and lots) of circus arts are practiced. The only thing we have a deficiency of are diaboloists and poi spinners (although I secretly think there are some closet-ed poi spinners who are just too ashamed to reveal themselves).

Do you have any performers at your club?
Yep, lots. Lots and lots, in fact. Jason Quick, Jules ,Strangely, Juggling Jollies, Justin Credible, Chipps, Amiel (occasional member of Flying Karamazov Brothers), Nobody's Fools.

Does your club organize a festival?
There were about 3 or 4 Bellingham Juggling Festivals in the first years of the club. Then, in conjunction with the Lookout Arts Quarry, we helped with the Circus Campout, which was so fun, we're going to have to do it again. (You should really come. It's a blast.)

Ratio of males to females?
65% males 35% female. Ish.

Do you all hang out together outside of juggling club?
Yes. Come hang out with us!

Juggling Road Trip #2 - Green Bay, Wisconsin

2012-02-20T09:09:00.002-08:00

History of the club?

Jake Darrow tried starting a juggling club in 2005 by himself with no luck for many months. That was until he learned that a friend of his sister’s knew a juggler named Joe. Joe had a brother, Ben, who had been juggling (passing) for years as amateurs. The three of them joined & started doing local festivals to try and garner interest in the club which met at a local YMCA center. Through one of these festivals, the group met the mother of Casey who would become a key member of the club. We secured a good time to meet and thanks to the YMCA and the general public, word of our club spread. Also, some local TV remotes promoting our club helped get the word out. The publicity reinforced that our club had some talent to offer and that experienced jugglers could learn some things as well. From there, we met some very good jugglers in the area and we soon learned that the Green Bay area has A LOT of talent. Our problem has always been getting these key people to consistently come on a regular basis.

Describe what your juggling space is like?

We juggle in a multipurpose room at one of the Green Bay YMCA facilities. We use the space for free (even those without memberships) in exchange for teaching Y members who are interested. We also juggle at an annual Y event called “Healthy Kids Day” as part of the trade.

How many "regulars" do you have at your club?

We have about 7 or 8 regulars, depending on the time of year. Plus there are always a few Y kids that show up to juggle or try out the diabolos. They love those things.

What is the age range of your Juggling Club participants?

Most of our regulars are adults, age 21 to 50, while a couple are kids/teens. The kids who attend that are at the Y with their families are typically middle-school age.

Who was the last traveling juggler to stop through?

The last “traveling” juggler was Doug Sayers who stopped by a few years ago when he was working on Cirque du Soleil’s Saltimbanco promotional tour. We promoted that Cirque was going to be at Club and we had almost 100 people show up for our meeting that night, mostly non-jugglers who were curious. Other jugglers who we know from the Green Bay area who don’t normally come to Club also came out of the woodwork for that. Go Doug!

Clubs or balls?

We focus on clubs for the most part.

What brand of clubs do people juggle mostly?

All of the regular attendees use Play’s PX3 Vegas clubs

Are you just jugglers or are other circus arts practiced?

Most attendees stick to juggling, diabolos and a little unicycling. There is interest in other circus arts but no one is trained.

Do you have any performers at your club?

No regular performers attend our club. The regular attendees are pretty much hobbyists. Some of us will do strolling gigs, demos, or workshops on occasion. We’ve found that most of the juggling performers from our area don’t actually come to Club. They know about it but for whatever reason, they don’t show up.

Are the non-performers content with not performing or do they aspire to perform?

Content

What professional jugglers do people at your club admire?

Jake Darrow has always admired “Bobby May”. He was the first ‘advanced’ juggler that Jake saw and it opened up some new possibilities for him to explore with his own juggling. This was before the internet and was actually seen in a video tape checked out from the library. “Bobby May, or he May not”.

What is the mode of transportation for your jugglers to arrive at juggling club?

Most jugglers arrive to Club by car. The rest arrive by car, and then ride their unicycle through the parking lot and into the building.

What's the weirdest thing that has happened during juggling club?

Silver actually threw a decent pass with clubs! :D

Is there a club consensus on the World Juggling Federation?

The two main organizers have very different views on the WJF:

Casey Rentmeester’s view:

Casey has been to several WJF events and has worked for Jason at a few of them. He thinks it is great that the WJF promotes the technical aspect in juggling which is necessary in any form of the skill. By holding competitions and judging juggling as a sport, it creates a whole new perspective on it. The stereotype that “all jugglers are clowns and belong in the circus” is absurd to Casey and he likes that the WJF works to expand people’s perspectives on that belief.

Jake Darrow’s view:

The WJF takes my hobby, my fun stress-relieving hobby, and turns it into a sport with deductions and then adds siteswap to it. I grew up with the IJA which promoted the fun along with the skill of juggling. The performance / showmanship was the focus, not that I have to stand like ‘this,’ and if not, it is a deduction; I have to do this trick this way because that is the rule, etc… The overall goal of the WJF is commendable in trying to teach the difficulty of juggling and the skill involved in the routine but I know that trying to describe juggling to my family & friends who are not jugglers…they simply do not get it. Trying to describe a 3-count passing pattern to my parents gets blank stares of “huh?” Also, the bylaws of the WJF is controlled by one man, Jason Garfield…the profits of the WJF also go to him. I always feel like he is using my passion for juggling to make a buck by selling WJF events to ESPN whereas the IJA is made up of a committee of volunteers to try and promote juggling. The slim profits go back to their organization.

Does your club organize a festival?

No, but we love road-tripping to Madfest every year!

Ratio of males to females?

Mostly male, maybe 90% over the history of the club.

Recent fun passing patterns you've been working on?

We have been working on 2-person 6-club 3-count tricks, plus 2-person 7-club doubles endurance.

Give a name shout-out to all of your jugglers.

Jake Darrow., Matt “Silver” Skarvan, Liz Kierin, Jay Merline, Jane Merline, James Merline, Bryce Jensen, and Casey Rentmeester. We could probably list off another 20+ decent or good jugglers who either use to come on a regular basis or only came once or twice.

Do you all hang out together outside of juggling club?

We used to in the past more than we do now.

Drunk juggling club story?

Jake only has one, from his 21^st birthday (10 plus years ago)---after doing the 21 birthday shots, he tried juggling 5 balls, just to see if he could and did so for 2 minutes without a drop. Other than that we don’t really drink & juggle.

Juggling Road Trip #1 - Pueblo, Colorado

2012-02-03T10:54:00.010-08:00

What's the name of your Juggling Club?
Pueblo Juggling Club

What city and state?
Pueblo, Colorado

How old is your club?
We are relatively new, we formed in the summer of 2011.

Website?
http://pueblojugglingclub.blogspot.com/

History of the club?
It all happened so quickly, we had all been seeking out other jugglers in town for years, and all of the sudden we all met each other. We secured a weekly space, made a website, listed meetings in the paper, and suddenly we were an official club.

Describe what your juggling space is like?
A local church has been nice enough to allow us to juggle in their basement gymnasium in exchange for doing a couple of yearly juggling related events/shows for them. They don't make us pray and we even swear on occasion after a bad throw...we may all go to hell.

How many "regulars" do you have at your club?
Probably about 5-10.

What is the age range of your Juggling Club participants?
From 3 years old (she doesn't really juggle, but sure likes throwing things) to around 40 years old.

What kind of non-juggling jobs/careers do your jugglers have?
Clowns, face painters, dental technician students, welder, hydrologist, high school students, librarians, beatniks and ballerinas.

Who was the last traveling juggler to stop through?
We're still waiting for our first out of town guest juggler, but Ian drives from over an hour away twice a week to attend.

Clubs or balls?
Mostly clubs, but we still love our ball jokes.

What brand of clubs do people juggle mostly?
PX3 and Renegade mostly.

Are you just jugglers or are other circus arts practiced?
We also practice unicycle, walking globes,acro-balance stuff, rola-bola, hat tricks, magic tricks, plate spinning, some slack-line, poi, and some strange stick on a string thing.

What professional jugglers do people at your club admire?
Malte Steinmetz, Michael Karas, Cate Flaherty, Wes Peden

Does your club organize a festival?
Right now, no, but we're hoping to organize Pueblo's first ever juggling festival for this summer 2012.

Ratio of males to females?

Almost 50/50

Recent fun passing patterns you've been working on?

10-club 3 person line drop backs, 10-club 3 person feed incorporating a walk across, attempts at 2 person 8 club passing, some 9-club 3 person 3-count feeding pattern that was too difficult to wrap the brain around.

Give a name shoutout to all of your jugglers.
Stephen Smith, Sarah Runnells, Mike and Abby Cox, Baby Olympia, Ryan Kopp, Emma Thomas, Teelin Lucero, Cacey, Ian Hellman, Ray Noriega, Chaz

Do you all hang out together outside of juggling club?
We had a Juggling Club Christmas party, go for pizza and beer sometimes, and on community bicycle rides.

Claim to fame?
None yet, but on April 6th, 2012, Stephen Smith, one of our juggler's will be attempting to set a World Record by standing on a walking globe for 24 straight hours. THEN, the Pueblo Juggling Club will be famous for sure.

Drunk juggling club story?
Things became fairly "merry" at the Juggling Club Christmas Party and someone tried to eat a hair clip because they thought it was a piece of popcorn. Other than that, nothing too wild..

What non-circus hobbies do your jugglers have?
Rock climbing, bicycling, ballet, disc golf, theater, Burning-man, photography, art, river surfing,