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Edward Jackman 

 

Performers who sweat over writing comedy wonder how to get what Ed Jackman has got. Because Jackman seems to have found a no-sweat way to be funny and entertain a crowd. People also recognize that Jackman was lucky enough to have had it at birth.

 

For 16 years, he was just another ham without props, constantly seeking attention from friends and family with jokes and silliness. Then he found that the grapefruits littering his back yard were a great way to attract attention when properly manipulated. Picture a gleeful, enthusiastic, rubber-faced, braggadocios teenager - to whom everything in the world is funny anyway - teaching himself how to juggle. It was undoubtedly a riotous and rich moment. It was also the kind of important moment that marks new directions in life.

 

Jackman picked up juggling with a fervor, and his confidence grew immediately. "I became the best juggler I ever knew after just one day," he said.

 

He began practicing six to eight hours a day, learning huge quantities of tricks. "I never practiced a single trick for more than a couple of minutes," he said, "and I never practiced because I felt I had to. It was always because I wanted to. That's probably why I couldn't possibly demonstrate all the tricks I know one right after another inside an hour."

 

The effect on his desire to be the center of attention reinforced the new skill. Jackman recalled, "I was great! People flocked to me!"

 

In 1976, he and 11 year old Daniel Rosen heard about the IJA convention in Los Angeles , and decided to go. The activity he found was all the further push he needed. Right away he wanted to be part of the professional juggling world, and began introducing himself to the people there whose juggling he most admired.

 

"It was important that everyone know who I was; Barren Felker, Steve Mills and the rest. So I started working on a routine that day, and ended up winning second place in the Juniors competition. "

 

Second place has been familiar to him ever since, much to his chagrin. Though Jackman won the Seniors competition in Amherst (the first year it was conducted in its present format), he has placed no higher than second in any IJA competition entered since.

 

But he won't stop laughing to cry about it. Remember. .. everything - including one's own foibles - is funny to a natural-born comedian.

 

In that light, it's easy to understand how, after missing a new club trick five times in front of the U.S. Nationals competition audience in Santa Barbara , Jackman did not come unglued.

 

He was able to save the day by turning to the crowd and saying, "How would you know it was me if I didn't choke?!"

 

IJA competition is the only time he gets nervous on stage, he confided.  Jackman has built his reputation on comedy, but his juggling skill is also superb. Among the most difficult and intriguing moves he has learned in the past eight years are: balancing a club on his foot dropped out of a cascade, eight rings with a finishing pull-down over his head, seven ball cascade, five club cascade and shower, and a good devil stick routine.

 

Jackman is known also for his pirouettes ­ quick, flamboyant flashes that support the confidence he expresses on stage. He claims to be the first person to master a three club, double spin pirouette, and this year introduced a new pirouette start to fellow jugglers. He tosses all three in the air simultaneously, pirouettes to catch the first two falling, then pirouettes again before catching the third.

 

He works on numbers juggling, and hopes to juggle nine rings some day. "Every good juggler I know practices numbers,"  Jackman said. "These people who say you're wasting time working on numbers just don't understand what numbers is all about. You could say the same thing about every trick we do; we could learn accounting instead of 'wasting our time' on juggling at all.  But numbers can't hurt you.  When you work on juggling seven balls, even if you don't get it solidly, boy! Will you ever be able to do five well!"