Page 14                                                 October - November 1977

LENNY MAZEL, Junior Champion

 

At Thanksgiving, 1915, my sister, Carolyn, turned me onto juggling by showing me some tricks she learned from a clowning class.

 

I went right out and bought some lacrosse balls and Carlo's book and practiced whenever I could. I moved to Colorado Springs in January, 1916, and didn't meet another juggler until August. When I did meet another juggler, he turned out to be Phil Kavanaugh, my present partner. This was a momentous meeting for me. We worked together a lot and cane up with many variations, combination tricks, and partner routines. We learned to pass with each other. We did our first show last October and have done about forty since then (the usual parties, Boy Scout

meetings, concert warm-ups, etc.) including an appearance on "Romper Room" on TV. We found out about the IJA from a juggler in Denver who gave us the name of the only IJA member in Colorado Springs, Lane Blumenthal. I visited Lane in the Union Printer's Home. He was very nice to me and lent me some back issues of the Newsletter and gave me a membership form. Months later, following his death, I found out just how important he was in the world of juggling. I owe him much.

 

Right now I plan to focus my attention on juggling. I worked at a pre-schol for the past year and so could only juggle in my spare time. Now that I am happily unemployed, I will have a lot of time to devote to practicing and hopefully performing with my balls, clubs, hoops, cigar boxes, and unicycle. Winning the Junior Championship was a real boost to me. I've only been juggling twenty months, and this was my first convention.

 

I learned a lot and was also proud to have apparently brought a few tricks and variations that haven't been seen by many (if any) jugglers before. Winning was a big- thrill.

 

I don't know if and when I can make a living juggling, but I'd sure love to try. Juggling is a beautiful experience to me, something that is fun to do alone and fUn to share, either juggling with others, teaching, or performing. I couldn't ask for any more than to be able to make my living doing something I enjoy so much.

 

LAZY MAN'S THREE-CLUB PIROUETTE

 

The people I saw at the convention trying to do a three-club pirouette simply flashed the three clubs out of.a regular single-spin cascade pattern into a quick series of high triples: throw-throw­throw~pirouette-catch-catch-catch. That's fine, if you can throw with great accuracy and pirouette like a gyroscope.

Here is an easier way. From a regular singles cascade, throw a nice leisurely double (figure 1). With this extra time, put the clubs in both hands up into simultaneous and reasonably high triples (figure 2). As the double comes down, immediately toss it up between these first two triples as another triple (figures 3 and 4) and pirouette. You will find that this two-at-once-throw-single-throw takes less time than the regular throw-throw­throw mentioned above. As you come around, just catch the two descending triples and go into a regular cascade as the third one comes down. Not only does this look better (a split second with three clubs in a straight line in the air with your back to the audience) than the other way, but with some practice you cando it under a ten-foot ceiling!

David Low, Providence, RI  

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