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Page 34 Winter 1984-85
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All Our Yesterdays... KARA,
KING OF THE GENTLEMAN JUGGLERS
(The
following report was written by Horace Morton Lorette, "The
Original Dancing Juggler," and printed in the February 1965 edition
of the IJA Newsletter.)
Fifty
years ago I considered the three best jugglers to be Kara, in coat;
Cinquavelli, in tights; and Salerno, in immaculate evening clothes. My
first choice was Kara. To describe his entire routine would require
considerable space, so I will confine my remarks to a few of his best
tricks.
Juggled
egg, plate and egg cup. Caught egg in cup, then threw egg high to
catch on china plate. Threw egg up again, this time assistant gets in
way and egg breaks on his head for a laugh.
Pulled
table cloth from under large amount of crockery and spun cloth on end
of billiard cue. Juggled triangular pool ball rack, chalk, bottle and
cue. Tossed coin to toe of shoe, then kicked it to eye, catching it as
a monocle.
Juggled
table, candlestick and candle. Sat on chair, put glass of wine on
three straws and put to head balance. While balancing this, he spun a
tray on finger of left hand and juggled bottle and plate in right
hand.
Tossed
match, match-box and cigar, lighting match on box. Then took
candlestick and tossed candle in air, lighting candle from match
during the turn. A
knock-out was his juggling four balls in right hand and hat and ball
in the left, catching hat on head and going into five ball shower
without stopping, then catching balls in the hat.
Next
was a clever routine with knife, fork and orange. At finish, he cut
the orange in two pieces with the knife and continued to juggle the
four. (It may have been a turnip or something else colored like an
orange, as it seems it would have been hard to cut an orange that
easily, even with a razor.)
Then
he did five different objects: knife, fork and orange in right hand and
a plate and napkin in the left. This was followed by
some nice plate moves - three
plates with continuous behind the back
throws. Rolled two plates from hand to hand across the body
simultaneously, with one across the chest and the other across the back
of the neck. Then he tossed three plates in right hand, spun bowl on end
of a ladle In tile left hand. Throwing bowl and ladle into
left hand juggle, he continued juggling all five.
Next
Kara balanced an average sized bat rack on his chin and juggled three high
hats. Then he tossed a hat to one prong, a second hat to another
prong and the third went to the top of the rack.
Sometimes
the assistant and Kara did
a head-to-head balance. Kara would juggle
the three hats, tossing one to each of the assistant's
feet and the third to his pratt. With that, Kara would walk off stage
with the assistant still in the head balance.
(For
more information on Kara, the
best source is Herman Sagemuller 's book, . "Michael
Kara, Konig der Jongleure, . Jongleur der Konige. " Pictures
accompanying this article are taken from that
book. Write Sagemuller at: West Germany. An English
translation of the text is available from Roger
Montandon, Bixby, OK.) |
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