Reviews

 

Michael Kara. By Hermann Sagemuller. 110 pages, German and English. Second edition 1996. 30 DM air mail delivery from Sagemuller at Nordlingen-Baldingen; Germany.

 

Sagemuller has done the English-speaking Juggling world a big favor by reissuing his 1973 German book on Kara as a two-language work.

 

The small format, elegantly printed volume is divided into a German section and English section, but both present the most detailed look of any juggling book at what life was like for a top vaudeville act in vaudeville's heyday.

 

And what a life it was! Kara, "King of Jugglers and Juggler to Kings," was in demand at the finest nightclubs in the world, as well as private parties in castles and aboard royal yachts. As a child Michael Steiner loved circuses, and pursued juggling with a determination matched only by his increasing skill. Though he began his career imitating other styles, he originated the gentleman juggler style and gained increasing fame worldwide by developing more and more fantastic tricks with ordinary objects while dressed in elegant evening wear.

 

Sagemuller mines an extremely rich record of biographical information on Kara,  

presenting a very readable 30-page English language account of his life. There are detailed descriptions of dozens of his tricks, as well as interesting accounts of turn of the century high society life. About 35 publicity photos are reproduced, visually interpreting tricks such as: "He sat on a chair balancing a full wine glass on three straws on his forehead, at the same time spinning a tray with the index finger of his left hand and juggling a plate and bottle with his right hand."

 

Kara's first performance was in 1883, and his last was in 1927 at the world famous Scala in Berlin. He died in 1939, and after World War II juggling took a new direction away from gentleman juggling and toward flash juggling.

 

Sagemuller claims that "Kara was most certainly the greatest juggler not only of his day but of all time." Whether you concur with that claim or not, most readers will agree that Sagemuller gives one of the most interesting accounts of all time of one of the art's great heroes.

- by Bill Giduz

 

The Court Jesters. By Avigdor Dagan.

 

What caught my eye was the name... and the picture on the cover of a man juggling a sun, a moon, a star and a ball. That, and the $1 cover price in the discount bin! Little did I know that this tale was not your typical juggler's story.

 

The first hint was a closer examination of the cover. The gaunt figure is clad in the

striped uniform of a concentration camp. The star in his shower pattern is the Star of David. "The Court Jesters" is the tale of four men: a dwarf, a juggler, an astrologer and a judge (who tells the story). They survive the Holocaust as entertainment for a sadistic group of SS Nazis. To live, they must amuse the same men who are sending their friends and families to the gas chambers.

 

In the book's most moving scene, the juggler is forced to keep seven balls aloft while the camp officers try to distract him into a drop. He focuses on nothing but the balls and his will to live while his wife is stripped, taunted and finally shot in front of him.

 

The story follows the survivors as they deal with the horrors each carries inside. The dwarf is senselessly killed just after liberation, the juggler travels the world seeking revenge, and the astrologer and judge meet again in the newly forming state of Israel and try to discover the answers to the timeless questions of life and death.

 

I recommend this book as a refreshing change to stories in which the juggler is no more than a happy-go-lucky fool. It's good to be reminded of how lucky we are that we juggle for fun, and not as a matter of life and death. It's also good to remember world history and real1ze that jugglers were always there as witnesses and participants. Finally, it's good to be challenged in our philosophical and religious views. And besides, at 169 pages in paperback, it's an easy read. Have fun!

- by Bill Fry