How I learned to Juggle....

How I learned to Juggle....

My older brother could juggle two things, I thought that was pretty cool and tried and tried and learned to copy him.

I thought I was pretty cool.

When I was 11, I was in summer camp. I was in a skit and was dressed as a girl with a bikini top and oranges stuffed in my breast top. (hey, once a clown, always...)

I was goofing around and showed one of the councilors my ability with two, thinking I was pretty good. He said, “three is actually easier” and showed me the classic juggling pattern, I picked it up pretty quickly...

That summer, I juggled everything in site. Oranges, peaches, tangerines. I moved onto tennis balls.

I have always juggled but I didn’t really realize there was a world for jugglers till I went to Clown College.

Now at Clown College, there were really good jugglers. My friend Randy (Bless his soul, he was one of the very first people I knew that succumbed to AIDS so long ago, I miss him). Randy used to constantly practice 5 club back crosses.

So, I worked on it.

When I was in the circus, I had a roommate that worked and worked and worked with me. Thanks Rich Potter. He said once to me, you know you will be a professional juggler within the next 6 months.

And I was.

I worked a lot on passing juggling clubs with Rich.

Then I was home. I had two friends from Clown College, Woody and Brady, we created Kloons on Ice! A comedy, skit, improvisational, clowning, juggling troupe.

Woody was a very good juggler in his own right, prior to Clown College, I know he juggled a lot. If you knew Woody, you would know his focus made him a very good juggler. Focus has allowed Woody to become a very fine clown, a great juggler, a writer of history. Plus he turned into my brother in law by marrying my sister in law Nancy (rowr, a Kloon joke).

While we were hanging out, practicing, writing material, deciding on our crazy future, we used to meet in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, every day and juggle.

We were a good team of club passers. I didn’t know at the time but it was pretty impressive what we did. Always focused on the silly but still very skilled.

From copying my brother to standing in front of 5000 people juggling...it’s quite a journey.