The Meeting of the Secret Jugglers' Society

by Ernie Pyle

Every year on the third Saturday in April, in a little pool room/bar & grill in downtown Columbia, Missouri, a most remarkable thing takes place. It is one of those seemingly serendipitous events, that is actually a combination of happenstance, coincidence, whimsy, and madness. It is the annual meeting of the Secret Jugglers' Society. A gathering of some of the most colorful characters anywhere anytime. Comedians, magicians, clowns, new vaudevillians, yo-yo experts, artists, top spinners, trick ropers, snake-oil salesmen, actors, storytellers, fire- eaters, musicians, stilt-walkers, buskers, mimes, and maniacs. A soiree sure to make the Mad Hatter's tea party seem like a church social. 

Here is how it came about. 

Columbia, Missouri's University "Y", hosts Jugglefest, a regional juggling festival every April. It started in 1982 and continues to draw a great group of jugglers from a vast geographical area. Jugglefest is known and loved for its parties (Friday night at Julie's whoopee!) and total social atmosphere. Well, they used to have a parade through downtown Columbia on Saturday afternoon. Cops, permits, barricades, puzzled citizenry - the real deal. 

In 1986 Jek Kelly and Zeemo the Magnificent set off before the parade, hoping to find a cheeseburger and perhaps an ounce or two of beer. They went to the block where the parade officially starts, and ducked into a conveniently located beer joint with a window overlooking the parade route. Well, the good news, cold beer. The bad news, no burgers. Jek and Zeemo settled for the beer. As the parade passed, they emptied their glasses and joined the parade. Jek, as always roller skating and devil sticking, and Zeemo bedeviling the populace with his yo-yo mastery. 

On the asphalt their hunger grew. Both jugglers were thinking... "Cheeseburger!" Approximately two thirds through the parade route, Jek spots juggler John Gunser on the sidewalk in front of a bar. Jek skates over and asks John if they serve burgers inside. John says they have great cheese-burgers inside. 

The burgers... let me tell you about the burgers! According to a USA Today story on the wall, they are among the top 10 burgers in the country. I find I cannot disagree. They are small, and they are greasy, and cooked on a metal short-order grill that looks and smells like it's been there since the Great Depression. They come with American cheese, pickle, and onion (grilled if you ask) placed between a white enriched flour bun, they are served on a small square of waxed paper, a serviette. No plate, no silverware. We call 'em sliders. Order two. 

The original concept of the Secret Juggler's Society came about two years later at the IJA festival in Denver. Pete Nicolaus, Rick Prevett and Jek Kelly, while under the effects of altitude, cooked up the idea of a special gathering and took it with them to the next Jugglefest in April of 1989. All involved returned to the same bar during the parade. After several hours, numerous beers, and a fair amount of bovine, the end result was the birth of the thing we now know as the S.J.S.. 

Each subsequent year more and more jugglers have peeled off the parade at this bar. It was quite a sight! All of a sudden in mid-parade, umpteen jugglers took an immediate left turn right into a bar. 

The parade was dropped a few years ago. Apparently those at the end of the route felt it was too scanty. But the annual meeting of the S.J.S. has continued. Indeed, it has prospered! 

The bar became aware of the annual meeting, and began welcoming jugglers with spatula, tap handle, and open cash register. It has become an eccentric, much anticipated event for the bar, as well as the jugglers. 

Over the years many have attended, though not all are members of the S.J.S., and some are even unaware of its existence. But all are welcome. In addition to the founders, the guest list has included such performers as Sandy Brown, Cindy Marvel, Robert York, Darn Good and Funny, Nancy Darst, Bryan Wendling, Larry Olson, Mike Tomasan, Capt. Mike, Michael Bruneau, and many others. From all over they come each April to this bar at this time. 

Surely they come to drink and eat, but mostly they come to commune, to share, to love - to attend the annual meeting of the Secret Jugglers Society!

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School Juggling Club Ministers to Others

Ministry means fun at the Ossippee Valley Christian School in Cornish, Maine. The school's 62 students all involved in some form of ministry, and 17 of them in grades five through eight spread the gospel through juggling and clowning. T

he VMG Vaudeville Show performs about once a month, according to club president Sarah Malmude. She said teacher and group adviser Richard Hagerstrom emcees as the group juggles its way through several stories from the Bible, including Jonah and the whale, Adam and / Eve (apple eating, of course), and the story of Jesus. Sarah said the most raucous routine is the "Famous Machete Medley," "Where we put on loud music and have 14 kids juggling  machetes!" 

Club secretary Josh Davis, one of the group's original members when it was formed two years ago, said members meet for an hour a week during school hours. Half of the hour is discussion of club business, new routines and upcoming shows, and half is set aside for juggling practice. 

They perform for people they feel need entertainment and God's word to lift their spirits - for aging senior citizens, institutionalized unwed mothers and young people in detention center. 

Treasurer Dawn Stackhouse said most of their performances are for free, but donations have lift- ed the group's cash balance to about $300. The treasury helps finance an annual mission trip, which will take them this year to New Jersey to work with an African American church in an urban area. 

Club public relations chief  Meredith Spiller said the group pays careful attention to costuming. They dress nicely for evening shows, and have clown suits for parades and children's shows. 

Of all the ministry opportunities the school offers, Stackhouse said the juggling group has suited her best. "I got involved because it  seemed like so much fun," she said. She's learned now to juggle  machetes, and is working on juggling on the balance board. But she said the best thing about it has been finding a way to tell people about God.