Dave in a mud volcano.
Angelo Romeo with his family.
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First of all, what defines a juggler? There are a number of people who can juggle, but at what point does one go from being someone who juggles to being "a juggler"? I personally think the defining
moment comes when you learn five balls. Three and four balls are simple enough that someone can learn them with minimal effort, but when you talk about five balls, you're talking about months
of dedicated practice. If you've put in the time and effort to juggle five balls, I would definitely call you "a juggler". The following people are definite jugglers and all of them have moved into
the realm where they can be referred to as "five-club jugglers", a point at which you start to talk about years of dedicated practice, not just months.
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Dave in a mud volcano. |
The three most influential and inspiring jugglers that I knew when I first started juggling would have to be David Kha, Angelo Romeo, and Blake Goode. David and Angelo had an amazing style and watching them pass created a sense of awe and desire to do what they were doing. It took many years of dedicated practice to attain that skill level and I thank them immensely for what they taught me. |
Angelo Romeo with his family. |
Adam and me in San Cristobol, Mexico. |
These two guys deserve a book each and they both fit into just about every sub-category in my People Page. Adam Smith, here to the left, taught me to pass clubs my first week in college, we lived three doors down from each other for a few years in Tucson, spent a winter in Winterpark, Colorado, and shared a flat in San Francisco for three years. He's now living in Bogota, Colombia, teaching at a bilingual school. Michael Karlovich, on the right, is my partner in crime for almost all my activities. We were set up as juggling partners by the "Juggling Dating Service" (Adam's and Eduardo's joke) right after Adam taught me to pass. We spent many an hour together honing our juggling skills during college. Now we spend hours on end juggling, mountain biking, rock climbing, ice climbing, or snowboarding. The three of us formed the Three of Clubs sometime in college and traveled through Europe together in the summer of 1998, giving street performing a shot. We're also, as far as I know, the first and only team to perform a thirteen-club standard feed and placed third in the numbers passing competition at the IJA festival in Pittsburgh in July 1997.
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Mike at Teakettle Junction in Death Valley. |
Will Murray with his girlfriend, Rhonda. |
This is Will Murray with his girlriend, Rhonda. Will is probably the best juggler I know. His three-club work includes some very technical moves and is nicely varied while his five clubs is
some of the steadiest I've seen. But I think I enjoy him most for his passing. There are only a few people in the juggling community that I truly enjoy passing with and he definitely makes the
cut. Whether it's six-club four or two-count jazz, eight-club one-count, or nine and ten-club two-count, he can sure hold his own. He's still the only juggler with whom I've managed to have an
incredible run of nine clubs plus a series of tricks including a shoulder-throw, quad-quad-quint, multiplex, and a series of behind-the-back passes, without dropping. Will is also the closest thing to my doppelganger as I've found. Many a juggler has referred to me as Will and unless you know the both of us well, you can still mix us up. And I don't know Rhonda very well but I've spent enough time with her to know that she's a spectacular passer as well. Her and Will together hold some extremely difficult patterns together, such as ten-club two-count in a double-double pattern, Long Beach popcorn, and other patterns that I don't think even have names yet. |
| These two guys are Coco and Nené. I met them in 2003 at an international circus festival in Bogota, Colombia. Since then I've come across them at various other latin festivals and become good friends. Not only are they both excellent jugglers, but they also have great style and creativity. I have a feeling that they're going to be making a name for themselves in the juggling community soon, so keep an eye out for them. | 
Nené and Coco |
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