BY MADELYN DINNERSTEIN

 

In September, the world saw that Cleveland rocks when the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame opened. In October, the world saw that Cleveland juggles when 130 jugglers gathered for the "SIR­CUS."

 

The St. Ignatius Rubber City Ultimate Symposium kicked off Oct. 13 with a pre-festival festival in nearby Canton. That event featured open juggling in an elementary school gym and a pizza party at Scott Slesnick's house. Two televisions were available - one for people who wanted to watch juggling videos and one for people who wanted to watch the American League Championship Series with the Cleveland Indians.

 

The juggling moved into Cleveland the next day at St. Ignatius High School's spacious Murphy Fieldhouse. Besides the ever-popular open juggling, jugglers from as far away as Wisconsin participated in workshops and games and watched or performed in a show. Scott Slesnick ran a devil stick workshop and Charlie Peachock ran a club workshop.

 

Michael Ferguson won the five-ball endurance competition with a run of 8:55. Clint Frysinger won the club-gathering competition with 22 clubs. Simon Says was a popular game. Mike Sackett, Mark Peachock and Nathan Zahorchak won rounds of the three­ball variety. Rob Vancko and Charlie Peachock won rounds of the club-balance variety.

 

Many performers had a chance to show off during the show. Scott Sorensen included an eight-ring pull-down and a nine-ring flash in his act. Mark Peachock went from a five-ball bounce to a five-ball cascade in the air. Scott "Can Man" Slesnick did a tennis ball and ball can routine. Mike Sackett did a pirouette with four cigar boxes. The Royal Jokers from Columbus - Clint Frysinger, Nathan, Madelyn Zahorchak and Jeff Heindrichs - did a bullwhip act and two- and three-person club passing pat­terns. One pattern was a stacked feed with one of the three standing on another's shoulders.

Mark and Charlie Peachock passed seven clubs back-to-back and also passed nine clubs. Charlie Peachock performed with up to seven balls. John Flower juggled five balls while maintaining an entertaining patter about science. Josh Casey, a finalist in the 1995 World Footbag Championships, wowed the crowd with his footbag skills.

 

The festival, hosted by the St. Ignatius Circus Club of Cleveland and the Rubber City Jugglers of Akron, ended with a pizza party. It was, perhaps, the first juggling festival to ever have a fly-over by the Goodyear Blimp. Well, maybe the blimp was heading to Jacobs Field for the American League Championship Series. But it had to fly over the juggling festival to get there!