December and January were good juggling months for me. Living about 20 miles south of Philadelphia these days, I got a chance to see Dave Gillies and Nick Gregory, The Give and Take Jugglers. These guys have done school assembly programs for years, and have it down to an art.

 

As they come on stage, a big old time calliope plays and we see two jugglers with a turn-of-the-century look, dressed in derbies. They each enter balancing a long tube, then blow in the tube to shoot a peacock feather out the other end - a neat transition. They use the feather for balancing, and have a student balance it on the nose. They pass seven rings, and go into club stealing, including a hat. The kids liked that. They knock around a devil stick, and a tennis racket in place of the stick. Then they juggle three rackets. Dave did a routine with three glass balls, then four stage balls and five balls with a neck catch.

 

Dave and Nick have a very large, 12-inch tennis ball and four-foot tennis racket that they used next for juggling and balancing. They passed six clubs around volunteers from the audience (Dave said they have used up to 12 volunteers). Then Nick, who comes on stage with two balls, picks a volunteer so he can juggle two balls and one student by passing the volun­teer from arm to arm while keeping the two balls going. First time I've ever seen that!

 

Carter Brown, whom I have not seen for some time, also came to town recently. After touring with Ringling as a clown for a few years, he put together his own theater variety show, "Lazer Vaudeville," and now tours the country with that troupe of three performers and stage crew. It includes juggling, clowning and magic. I saw the show at the Keswick theatre in Philadelphia, and because it was presented during the Christmas season, it featured holiday themes.

 

In the first half, Carter and another juggler did comedy passing of clubs around a volunteer. In the second half, Carter was introduced as the only juggler in the world performing bicycle hoop juggling.

 

In the 1940s through 1960s, hoop juggling and rolling was popular in vaudeville shows. It originated before bicycles had metal rims, so performers today still use the traditional wooden rims with no spokes. Bob Bramson, who I met in 1978, did amazing tricks with hoop rolling. But Carter says that Bob has retired now, leaving himself as the only performing hoop roller­juggler around. Myself and Paul Bachman also work some with this unusual prop.

 

Carter came on with two flourescent hoops and swung them like clubs. Next, juggling three, he bounced them out in front of him with a back-spin so they rolled back to him. While juggling in a cascade pattern, he rolled three down his back, up his back, up and down his chest and finished that routine doing a shower over his shoulder and down his back - to audience applause. It is hard to explain in writing how good hoop rolling looks!

 

With four hoops Carter did one­high on each side so that they bounced back to a juggle. He juggled the four in sync and did a spread. He finished this routine by showering from his shoulder down his back to be caught by the other hand at his waist and passed to the first. When I saw Bob Bramson do this trick back in 1978 I was totally amazed. Seeing Carter do it was equally astonishing. What a great trick!