Schell said he was pleased with the reward for his performance. "I didn't have a chance to win the gold because I didn't show such hard tricks. But my act is something created for the public and not for jugglers. Jugglers want to see that, but as a professional it's the act and not the tricks that sells."

 

The Teams winner was Blink, the relatively new collaboration of Jay Gilligan, Fritz Grobe and Morty Hansen. The trio, who only began rehearsals at the end of June, presented an austere, slow moving club act that included synchronized movement and innovative passing tricks. They are headquartered out of the Celebration Barn Theatre in Maine, and have put together a 90­minute show to tour for the next year.

 

The silver medal team was the oddly, but appropriately named "Cousin Brothers." Dan (17) and Joey (15) Cousin of Tampa, Fla., presented dozens of variations of over-the-top takeaways and putbacks of five and seven ball cascades, as well as a little side-by­side work. Dan, an accomplished jazz pianist, has been teaching music to Joey and Joey has been teaching juggling to Dan. Dan said his musical skill helped in developing the patterns of their work, because it's all about timing in both disciplines. The two were hoping just to make the preliminaries, so were very excited about their finish. Joey has competed previously in IJA individual competitions, but it was Dan's first time on the IJA stage.

 

Third place went to the German performers, Trio One Over Par, who presented the only comedy talking routine of the night. Thomas Hinte, Daniel Megnet and Dirk Meyer translated their act recently and did it in English for only the second time ever on the IJA stage. It included takeaways and club passing, and ended with passing to a two-person high stack.

 

The Juniors Championship was highlighted by its final performer, 11-year-old Vladik Miagkostoupov, who won the gold for a flashy professional act that worked up to five clubs, seven balls and five balls on an unsupported ladder. (See accompanying story.)

 

Second place went to Casey Boehmer of Jerseyville, Ill., who showed vast improvement over his bronze medal routine last year in Burlington. Boehmer did innovative bounce tricks with three balls, some interesting bounce multiplex tricks off his knee with beanbags, four balls in one hand, four clubs in one hand and five rings with a pulldown.

 

The bronze medal junior competitor was Kevin Bylund, a member of the Dropalotus Jugglers of Nebraska. He joined the troupe about four years ago and performs in many of its 100 shows a year under the direction of founder Tom Gellaty. Bylund prides himself on being the only full-time resident of Nebraska who can juggle seven balls, and he showed that in the competition along with five clubs and six rings.

 

Other entrants in the Individual Championships were Amelio Diaz, Marc Daniel, Scott Sorenson and John Gilkey. The other Teams entrant was Tripp &: Fall (Dextre Tripp &: Reid Belstock). Other Juniors competitors were Luke Jay and Cam Fleming.

 

Jugglers in the audience were content overall with the championship judges' decisions, except for the fact that John Gilkey didn't medal in the Individual Championships. But he was rewarded eventually with both the Founders Award and the People's Choice Award. (See  accompanying story.)