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Michael Davis Presents '6,000 Years of Juggling' In Just Two Hours On Stage

by Russ Kaufman

When Dick Smothers, the wacky comedian of Smothers Brothers fame, describes Michael Davis as "brilliant and a little bit weird, " you know you're dealing with someone out of the ordinary. Both Michael Davis and his new show, "6,000 Years of Juggling," which premiered in Baltimore this summer, are extraordinary.

Jugglers and non-jugglers know Davis from his stint with the Broadway show "Sugar Babies," and his many television appearances over the past few years. He has been on The Tonight Show, Late Night with David Letterman, Saturday Night Live and others. He performed topical juggling essays as a star in the NBC series, The News Is The News. He was also in a recent television special that celebrated Ringling Brothers Clown College 's 20th anniversary.

His new two-hour show was unveiled on Baltimore 's Center Stage in June. It featured himself, puppeteer Bob Hartman and a local champion baton twirler. The show opened with a blare of trumpets and regal music as background for a short black and white slide show of famous and not-so-famous jugglers through the ages. Occasional comic photos were included, such as one of a dog balancing cups and saucers on its head.

After this presentation, Davis got on stage for some three ball work, and then went to five, finishing with a neck catch from a five ball cascade.

There was also a hilarious "abstract impression" of a juggler on a motorcycle. He juggled an axe, machete and cleaver, three bowling balls, and ping-pong balls from the mouth. He did some hat manipulation and cigar box work, balanced a large, assembled tent on his chin, and juggled water out of a bowl. Then he juggled one egg - the yolk and the two halves of the shell. He also juggled three helium-filled balloons at the end of the show.

Davis selected a volunteer juggler from the audience for one of his last bits. He said he wanted to help the volunteer choreograph an act that would be called "the basic food group juggle." He asked the victim/volunteer to do everything he did. First he smashed a loaf of bread on his head, put it on stage and did a head stand on it. He shaped what was left into a ball and bounced it off his head. His protege followed every move.

The second prop Davis took out of the refrigerator on stage were two whole plucked chickens. After tossing the raw chickens around a bit, they both bounced the chickens off their heads and caught them without too much mess.

For the third prop, Davis produced two three-pound containers of margarine. They both scooped the blob out of the container, shaped it into a ball and juggled the three objects. But for some reason, the new juggler refused to finish the cascade the way Davis did - by tossing the margarine up and catching it in a splatter on his forehead.

After the show, Davis told how he came up with the title. "I read in the book, '4,000 Years of Juggling,' that man had been juggling for 6,000 years. I don't know how the book got the wrong name, but I made the correction by using it as the title of my show."

He said he hopes people realize his show is a comedy show rather than a juggling show, and said he really didn't consider himself a juggler. "I decided a long time ago that juggling was like the taste of anchovies on a pizza... even though there's just a little bit there, it dominates the entire act."

He does less juggling in his act now, but people remember it because he uses unusual objects. He said that tendency may have come from his early days in juggling in the early 1970's. Jugglers didn't use a lot of manufactured props then, so necessity was the mother of invention. "People were juggling all kinds of weird stuff," he said. "Everyone now has the same type of props. There's probably not as much originality now as when I started."

Davis said he's not concerned with people copying parts of his act, partially because of its uniqueness and partial1y because of the warning he issues to wouldbe thieves: "If anybody does my lines in their act and I see anything in their act I like, I'm going to do it. And I'll probably get on television, use it, and be known for it before they are."

One of his lines in the show was, "A comedian says things funny... that's why I'm a juggler!" But it is obvious that Davis does much more than just juggle. His comic delivery and timing are superb in various impressions and dialogues. He even sang some original country and western songs as he strummed the guitar.

Davis promised in advertising for the show that it would take the audience into "the world of the unusual, where the commonplace is considered ordinary." There's no question that he achieves his goal in 6,000 Years of Juggling.