JW-vol49no2-p88

JOHNNY LUX

Looks at the Early and Modern IJA

(Ed. note - This interview with longtime vaudeville performer Johnny Lux, who died in February 1996, first appeared in "Juggling" magazine. It is reprinted with permission of the interviewers, Sue Kirby and Joe Munay. Lux, whose real name was Johnny Loska, attended the 1947 IBM convention at which the IJA was formed, but missed the founding luncheon. He joined immediately thereafter, and was a loyal lifetime member of the IJA, even serving as president in 1962. He performed his first magic trick at age eight, learned to juggle at 16, and entertained audiences in the Cleveland, Ohio, area for a half-century.)

Sue - If I was somehow transported back in time to the first convention that you went to, what would I find most surprising?

Johnny - The first convention that I went to was the second convention in Jamestown in 1949. and I think one of the first things you would be surprised with would be the small size. You had like 30 or 40 people in the lobby of a hotel. And it wasn't young people, but primarily it was middle aged and old people. There were a lot of retired jugglers. We had open juggling, juggling in some park, a public show, and the laying would always be a banquet. It was just a thoroughly enjoyable event because you more or less knew everyone and they knew you.

Sue - What were your duties as president of the IJA and how did you manage to get elected?

Johnny - I don't know. It was like a lot clubs where they have trouble getting somebody. If you showed any sign of interest, they would just grab onto you. So, I was the vice president first, and then, I think in 1962 I was the president. Somebody had made a gavel... I wonder if it's still around. It was made out of a very exotic wood. It was a gavel, except for the part that you rap on the table, which was a little Indian club. It was beautiful, but it was strictly symbolic, I mean you wouldn't want to bang it. It was liable to fall apart. Each president would hand it down to the next.

Sue - They just kind of stopped you in a corner and handed you this thing?

Johnny - No, what happened was, well... they stopped me in a corner and handed me this thing! There was not much really to do. I got a couple of books in the mail to read and give a review on, and I got the presidential stationery.

Sue - Were you known at the conventions for your balancing trick?

Johnny - I was the only one doing that type of balancing trick. It started out with just three glasses and one tray, and three more glasses on top of that and another tray, and three egg cups and three eggs. I'd pull out the top tray and the eggs dropped down into the cups, and then I'd pull out the other tray and those cups dropped down. What a trick that was! I've never heard of anyone else doing it. It's a balancing trick, it's not a really tough trick, it's very exacting, you have to do it very methodically.

Sue - Were there any Larry Vacksmans or Bob Nickersons back at those early conventions?

Johnny - I don't think so really. It was more of a conventional type juggling, I guess you would call it. More sane. Like I say, there was only about maybe 50 of us. And so out of a crowd of 50, you probably don't get too many oddballs, but we had specialty type things, like the Banfields. They did just ball bouncing, period. They carried their own floor with them because they couldn't depend on the floors in the theatres. And they bounced, I think 9 or 11 balls back and forth between them. Two bounces. It was like, boom, boom. They were excellent at bouncing, and they had very few misses. But if you handed them three balls and told them to juggle, it looked like you just handed them to some kid that just learned juggling about a week ago. They really didn't know how to juggle three balls in the air. Of course, they didn't have to, I guess.

Sue - In your opinion, in what areas do today's performers need improvement?

Johnny - I think the only thing that could be emphasized today is more of a show, or presentation. I think you have a lot of jugglers that are good jugglers, but they are more like gymnasium jugglers. They look terrific practicing, but they don't have an act that, as Art Jennings would say, has a beginning, and a middle, and an end.

Sue - Why do you think juggling is so popular?

Johnny - It's got to be because of the competitions. You know young people like to get into something that they can compete in, like a sport. Just juggling and performing, it doesn't seem that appealing. That seems to be the whole principle of the IJA really. You never had any kind of competition before. There was no conception of competing with somebody else as to how long you can juggle five balls, or how many you can juggle. Of course that wasn't the idea, the idea was you did an act.

Sue - When did you notice this phenomenon?

Johnny - I came to the Youngstown convention in 1975, and I walked in the gym and I was amazed. There were 125 people, but they never had 125 people at a juggling convention before. And this was the big gym, and everyone was juggling, and a lot of young people. It was almost unrecognizable. It was that much of a change. It was great. And they had contests, and there were people that I knew. But it really had changed at that point. Maybe that was the turning point.