ALL OUR YESTERDAYS

 

Juggling In The Pool Parlor

by Karl-Heinz Ziethen (From "4,000 Years of Juggling")

 

The billiard game was introduced to the stage by the juggler A. W. Asra in 1905. He appeared in a billiard room and worked at the green table in a truly masterly fashion with ivory balls and cue.

 

Asra, by birth Waldemar Paetzold, was born on Sept. 2, 1873, in Berlin. His father ran a transport business and owned a dairy farm. Through his father the little Waldemar came into contact with the old director Ernst Renz. Waldemar decided to become a performer after he started watching the versatile performers in the Renz Circus in the Karlsstrasse, which is now called the Variety Friedrichstadt Palast

 

At first he worked with his brother Paul in an act known as "The Three Westons." Paul later became famous as a funny acrobatic cyclist, but Waldemar's real passion was juggling. He practiced this every free minute he had, with whatever objects came to hand: plates, cups, balls, hats and billiard cues.

 

He made his fame with the billiard act because of a chance meeting. It happened in the old Cafe Bauer, Unter den Linden. A famous billiard player practiced there each afternoon and Asra was one of his constant admirers. One day the master hit a ball that jumped off the table and landed right in the middle of Waldemar's cup of coffee. The coffee splashed onto his clean suit and people laughed. But Waldemar was quite happy because suddenly he had an idea which was to pave the way to his future artistic career.

 

The billiard ball which landed in the coffee was a so-called "jumper" and Waldemar envisioned a variety act built around these jumpers. For this purpose he took small wire pockets and attached them to his wife, Grete, and himself: to the head, arms, shoulders, waist and back to enable him to catch the balls artistically.

 

This is how the billiard game came to the stage. Waldemar took the stage name Asra and he and Grete first performed it in the Wintergarden of Berlin in 1905.

 

The most sensational trick came when he cued the ball to hit the opposite cushion, causing it to fly back through the air and hit the trigger of a specially constructed revolver. The revolver fired a second ivory ball into the air, which Grete caught with her forehead and nodded into the pocket on Asra's back. He then removed the balls quickly from the pockets and reloaded the revolver, which Grete now held. While Asra played billards, Grete rode a unicycle around the table shooting billard balls with the revolver for Asra to catch in the wire pockets.

 

The spectators were absolutely amazed by the juggling acts and artistic shots. Despite their difficulty, the tricks were almost always perfectly executed.