What I am saying now is what I have at long last learned. Unfortunately I have not always followed this advice. The main point is - forget yourself and fellow jugglers when routining an act - only the audience actually matters. If you're not sure of a trick, then leave it out. One trick will not make a whole act - it's better to leave a "chance" trick out completely than to muff it two or three times in a show. Believe me, the "sure" tricks give you enough trouble. Remember, the audience remembers your complete performance and thus, any obvious goof (such as catching your pants on fire with the torches) is also remembered. 

So my second point is: Try for perfection - that is, the best and cleanest job you can do. Absolute perfection is never reached - Brunn and Cardenas miss - it's only human. But if we don't aim for perfection we'll always be content with second best... 

When you are doing a routine that you are sure of, you can then concentrate more on "selling" your work to the audience, whether it's flashy tricks or comedy. Remember we are trying to entertain the audience and not just juggling for our own exercise. I hope the above will at least start some of the newcomers towards framing a good act. Tommy Curtin (IJA Newsletter, October 1963)

Tricks: The Feed-Or Teacher With One Juggler Showering
Clubs To Both Of Two Other Jugglers

This formation requires that two of the three jugglers be able to shower clubs left handedly (i.e., the club is passed from the left hand when throwing, and caught in the right hand when catching). One juggler (we'll call "Teacher") faces two other jugglers (we'll call "Lefty" and "Righty") who stand side by side. Each juggler has three clubs and they all start juggling to themselves at the same time keeping all their left handed and right handed throws in unison. On some given throw the passing begins. From that moment on:  

1. Every club that lands in Teacher's right hand is passed, right handedly, to Righty's left hand. 

2. Every club that lands in Teacher's left hand is passed, left handedly, to Lefty's right hand.

3. Every club that lands in Righty's left hand is thrown to his right hand and then passed, right handedly, to Teacher's left hand.

4. Every club that lands in Lefty's right hand is thrown to his left hand and then passed, left handedly, to Teacher's right hand.

In other words Lefty showers clubs to Teacher left handedly while Righty showers clubs to Teacher right handedly. Teacher showers both of them, left handedly to Lefty and right handedly to Righty.  Teacher's own right and left handed passes must cross between his own two hands once called a "threading the needle" formation. Teacher makes no throws between his own two hands once the passing begins. 

This formation may seem too unconventional and difficult to be worthwhile. I feel, however, that left handed passing, in combination with right handed passing, has vast possibilities which right handed passing, by itself, could never achieve.  Hovey Burgess (IJA Newsletter, November 1963)

I have been busy doing shows almost every night now. We went to Westchester penitentiary to present a show. It was my first prison show. I never saw such an enthusiastic group before. (No, Dave was not an inmate, so they did give him a number.) I took an audition for the USO overseas shows, but they couldn't use me. I am ravin' to go to the Wheeling Convention. Letter from Dave Madden (IJA Newsletter, January 1964)

TOP 10 'PROPER' TERMS FOR GROUPS AT A FESTIVAL

by Jerry Martin

In his delightful "An Exaltation of Larks" (2nd Edition, 1977), James Lipton reports and annotates several old collections of names for groups of animals. There are familiar terms, such as a school of fish, a herd of elephants, and a pride of lions, is well a many less common (but proper) terms as a murder of crow a kindle of kittens, and a crash of rhinoceros. One particular early work,  "The Book of St. Albans" (by Dame Julian Barnes, published in 1480), took the extra step of suggesting names for groups of people. Lipton quotes Dame Juliana (his commentary is italicized): 

"A MELODY OF HARPISTS, A POVERTY OF PIPERS.  In the 15th century it was wiser, it seems, to take up the harp than the pipes. A NEVERTHRIVING OF JUGGLERS. Obviously they had it no better than pipers."

Thus, in proper English, two or more jugglers constitute a "neverthriving".  (The Twin Cities IJA Affiliate calls itself "Minnesota Never thriving" - now you know where they got the name! Since a lot has happened in juggling in the last 500 years, though, it seems to me that more specialized language may be long overdue. Thus, in the spirit of history and the interest of linguistic advancement, we present the following Top 10 Proper Terms for Groups At A Festival:

10. A gathering of number jugglers.
9. A wobble of plate spinners.
8. A band of hat jugglers.
7. A tremor of shaker cuppers.
6. A pod of foot  jugglers.
5. A sequence of siteswappers.
4. A gaggle of comedy jugglers.
3. A stable of equilibrists.
2. A bash of combat jugglers.
1. A propagation of vendors.

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