NO CORPORATE GIANTS manufacture juggling props. In fact, it's a very small, personal business. The success of the dozen or so companies actively marketing their wares to jugglers in the United States and abroad all reflect the personality of the single individual who has sunk his or her heart and soul into the enterprise. The heart and soul behind the largest manufacturer is Dave Finnigan, a.k.a. Professor Confidence, of Edmonds, Washington.

 

Seven years ago at age 34 Finnigan stood reluctantly poised on the edge of a successful career in the field of public health and family planning. Although he had enjoyed a decade of experience working for agencies in Southeast Asia, his son's health required medical care available only in the United States.

 

His predicament came clearly into focus when, after three years of writing, a board of examiners at the University of Washington told him that his Ph.D. thesis still needed about six months more work. As he recalls now, Finnigan told them, "Frankly gentlemen, I'd rather be juggling," and left that room and career behind in one sentence.

 

Now he's doing what he loves, managing Juggle Bug (manufacturing) and The Juggling Institute (teaching), as well as arranging for IJA convention workshops in his capacity as IJA education director.

 

Finnigan explains that Juggle Bug and the Juggling Institute were conceived simultaneously as he mused over his mid-life career crisis. Looking for a way to relax from the pressures of his dissertation, he took a weekend and The Juggling Book by Carlo into the woods surrounding Seattle to learn to juggle. "When I came out, I was totally inspired," he remembers.

 

While still working on his dissertation, he began teaching others, but immediately recognized a shortage of equipment and instruction in the marketplace. He also recognized an opportunity to fulfill the dream of career satisfaction by becoming his own boss in a profession he was fast learning to love. He conceived of Juggle Bug and the Juggling Institute as vehicles to teach people to juggle and provide them with equipment.

 

"I took all my money out of the bank, mortgaged everything I had and borrowed everything I could," he recalls. During a trip to Taiwan to do doctoral research, he arranged with a firm to produce his equipment. But once the first shipment arrived in Seattle, he realized the real difficulty would not be manufacturing equipment, but marketing it.

 

The next step was two arduous cross-country automobile trips. He found sporting goods stores weren't interested in juggling equipment, but that magic store proprietors were eager to sell his clubs, rings, ribbed and smooth rubber balls and book, The Joy of Juggling.

 

According to its manufacturer, that original Juggle Bug beginner club has outsold every other model in the world, and today Juggle Bug equipment is available in stores in all 50 states. The vast majority of sales are through these retail stores, Finnigan said. The marketing network is even growing overseas with new distributor­ships in 11 countries. "Some people call us the Exxon of juggling," Finnigan joked, "but I'm just trying to make a good product, keep the price down and get it out there where people can get their hands on it."

 

As graduates of the Juggling Institute's school programs, thousands of schoolchildren in the northwest states may agree with the Exxon analogy. The Juggling Institute presents 50-70 times school programs annually. Following a 40-minute general presen­tation at a general school assembly, Finnigan and assistants instruct indiyiduals in their phys ed classes in juggling, mime and balance.

 

The stage name "Professor Confidence" was derived to combat the biggest problem Finnigan encounters while doing school programs. "It's not that kids aren't capable of juggling, it's just that they don't think they're capable of it," he said. "By. teaching them juggling, I hope we're also teaching them that they are capable of doing many other things they may not have felt were possible, to give them self-confidence.

 

Finnigan and his partners will "warm up" the city of Las Vegas for this summer's IJA convention May 5-13. During that time, the Juggling Institute will present programs at 10 of the city's 14 junior high schools, and operate open workshops during the evenings.

 

Finnigan says he enjoys teaching and performing most of all. "I really don't feel like a businessman," he said.

 

"I'm really just a juggler who started a business that started to go crazy, so I had to hire some people to take care of it so I'd still have time to juggle!" His own bag of tricks contains five and six ball juggling and formidable skill at the art of rolling up to nine bumper pool balls between his palms.

 

Juggle Bug's seeming pervasiveness takes on proper perspective with the revelation that the operation employs a full-time staff of only five. There are no sales people on the road, and the entire operation is housed in a home and back-yard shed on a quiet cul-de­sac in a residential suburb of Seattle.

 

The marketing strategy now leans heavily toward slow growth, quality, and production of equipment for jugglers of all abilities. Expansion of the product line is expensive, Finnigan explained, citing a cost of $1,000 to $10,000 for each new mold.

 

Without business sense, Finnigan never would have made it to the top of the still molehill-sized juggling industry. However, listening to him talk about his company and success gives the impression that the businessman climbed the peak only to find a better perch from which to speak philosophically.

 

"I want to see a resurrection of the variety arts in this country, with a variety theatre or club in every major city," he said. "I want to see people getting involved rather than sitting around watching the tube. We need to teach people to balance their time between passive receptivity of information and active involvement in juggling and other rewarding pastimes."