by Dave LaHeist and Pat & Tim Mousaw, edited by Jason Quinn.
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There is a big difference between being able to juggle and knowing how to perform. While there are many resources about juggling on the Internet, there are far fewer focused on the performance aspect. If you are thinking about giving performing a try, it will help you immensely to learn as much as you can from the experiences of others before you hit the streets or the stage that first time.
Let us introduce ourselves. We are the founding officers of the Notre Dame Juggling Club located in South Bend, IN. We have all since graduated and moved elsewhere. David LaHeist has been juggling for many years and currently lives in Japan. See if you can spot him in this photo. Patrick and Tim Mousaw are identical twins and have been juggling for over 15 years each and come from a small town in upstate New York called Queensbury. Currently, Pat is in the Chicago area and Tim is near Boston. We started performing together our sophomore year of college when we juggled before three home football games to raise money for charity. We also did a few shows under the name "Juggle Fever" and won various talent shows.
We knew that if we wanted more gigs that we had to get ourselves noticed. We decided to make our juggling club into an official club at the beginning of our junior year. On top of that, we continued to perform at every home football game. We did many shows our sophomore year, often performing for free. We felt that if we really wanted to improve our performing skills, we had to perform as much as possible and if that meant taking some free gigs, so be it. Eventually we made a small name for ourselves and were asked to do gigs about an average of every two weeks our senior year. Over the years our juggling has definitely improved, but performing is certainly not about who is the best at juggling. It is more about who is the most entertaining. The following pages are a sort of "How To" guide written from our experiences. We hope you find it both entertaining and informative.
[back to top]Know your audience! Unless you are at a juggling festival where a lot of jugglers will be watching you, assume that the audience is not interested in juggling. Most of them know nothing of the subject, and honestly won't "get" most of the tricks. One approach is to think of juggling as a way of obtaining people's attention in order to do comedy. If you insist on highlighting the juggling itself, make sure you do it with style! The presentation is more important than the difficulty. A good show does not need to rely on the juggling very much. Many good shows are largely comedy with an occasional trick to amaze. If you get up in front of people with the thought, "Hey, look at me! Look at what I can do!", this will hold their attention for thirty seconds -- tops! If you focus too much on the juggling skill, you also run the risk of people comparing you to other jugglers. If you focus on the comedy, people will only determine if you are a) funny or b) not funny. They don't stop to think if you are any funnier than the funniest person that they have ever seen; people just don't make that comparison. On the other hand, if you focus on the juggling, people will think, "Well, that's pretty good, but I saw some guy in Boulder juggling seven clubs." You end up competing with the world. On the street, they won't stay with lousy presentation. Worse still, for a stage show, is an audience that wants to leave but cannot! Remember: a performer is an entertainer, not just a juggler.
With this in mind, don't try to fit in all of your tricks. The audience probably will not see a quarter of what you can do in terms of juggling, but then again, assume that they don't care about that. They want to be entertained. Period. The tricks that you do choose to include ought to be interesting to the average person. I have found time and time again that the most impressive tricks to a juggler are different from the ones the average Joe wants to see. You could be doing a head roll while flashing nine, and the audience will respond as much as if you throw a diablo really high in the air. In general, if you want to impress an audience, work on tricks that are big, or moving the clubs very fast, or very smooth. If you want to include a trick that is fairly complex, explain what you are going to be doing before the trick. If you do two behind the backs, two under the legs and throw a bunch of doubles, the audience will be lost in the trick. If you say the parts of the trick in a one breath, it sounds like more, and the audience is always more impressed. The average audience member will be thinking "Wow, that's a lot of things!" and often will not even pay attention to what you were doing, but rather that you did a lot of things in a row. Get it? If you want to see if a trick is visual enough that an audience member will be impressed, simply ask a friend what they think of it. If you can, get a video of yourself juggling. You will find that things look a lot different on the outside. Often the tricks look bad on video, but don't get depressed about that. You'll probably never be the best juggler; your only goal is to entertain your audience. They don't care if you're the best juggler ever, they only care if you are funny and entertaining.
[back to top]Do you need to have a good show to have a big audience? No. But I have found that you need to have a big, or at least vocal, audience to have a good show. People are much more prone to laugh when they are in a big group. That's why they put laugh tracks on T.V. shows. Also, it's a chain reaction that if you have quite a few people to start with, more people will come over to see what the crowd is watching. A large crowd legitimizes you. If people see a large number of people watching you, they automatically assume that you are good. Believe it or not, legitimization is vital to your show going well. One time a buddy of mine and I were doing a stage performance during dinner of a dinner theater performance. We were doing a routine and people just didn't seem to react, there was no energy, and they generally weren't paying attention. I came out on my 6 foot unicycle and did a little club juggling on top (with a couple of jokes) and dismounted. A few moments later my buddy and I started doing the same tricks as we were doing before (not usually recommended) but this time the audience was cheering loudly at everything that we did. You see, once they knew that we were good, they took us seriously and automatically assumed that the rest of the tricks were good, well worth their attention and applause. A big crowd that thinks that you are funny will laugh at almost anything that you do.
Okay, so you're convinced that it's important to have a big audience, so how do you get one? Easy. Go to where people are already standing around and do something very visual. Our biggest shows were done by going next to a large line of people waiting. We got people's attention by juggling fire on top of a 6 foot unicycle, and people came by. People in the line were watching (if for no other reason than they had nothing else to do) so we got the chain-reaction effect to our advantage; in a very short time we collected a substantial audience of our own, independent of the line. The key to getting more audiences (keeping it rolling) is to do something really impressive at the end of your show, and tell people that the next one is starting in 10 minutes. You will be surprised at how many people arrive late and want to see the beginning. Allow 10 minutes for the old audience to give you money (if applicable) and clear out before starting a new show with a good number of people already intrigued.
If you start to lose some audience members, the whole audience should be considered lost. If people see other people leaving, they start to get critical, thinking about whether or not they should really stick around. If you sense people starting to leave, the only advice that I can give is to announce the last trick, do it, and get another audience. The great thing about getting your own audience is that everyone there wants to see juggling and comedy, so you don't have to worry about people not being in the mood to watch you.
You will almost never collect anybody from a moving mass of people unless you already have a crowd. Even if you are doing something really spectacular, people will pass by, look, say "Wow, Jill, that's pretty cool, huh?" and just keep going on their way. You need to find a group of people who are not going anywhere. Some jugglers that I have seen shout "Free Beer," or have people randomly cheer on command, but really your gimmick to get people will be your own.
[back to top]The most important element of a good show is AUDIENCE INVOLVEMENT. I cannot stress that enough. One of the best ways for this with kids is to have them do a drumroll before all of your good tricks. When I am alone, I have an audience member throw me a torch or a machete and I start juggling. This is intriguing because it's dramatic. Probably the most powerful way of getting the audience involved is by pulling people out of it. The larger the audience gets, the better this works. Use any old excuse to include an audience member in your tricks. For passing routines, we have found that breaking a pretzel rod off in an audience member's mouth is one of the most reliable and successful tricks that you can do. We have juggled around 9 kids at the same time. Ask the volunteers questions. Find out what they do, "So, are you a lawyer or something?" Find out what their job is and follow it with an appropriate joke: "So you're not the kind of person that runs around without insurance, are you?" The jokes (or barbs) can go on and on. And now the audience is involved because they are no longer completely anonymous.
When you are picking an audience member, try to pick kids, more specifically pick ones who appear to be somewhat shy. The audience (believe it or not) likes watching someone get embarrassed up there. Don't pick a kid who is a performer, they will only act obnoxious, and the audience doesn't like that. If you do see some kid who is a performer, ask them to sing a song or tell a joke in front of everybody. Everybody gets a kick out of a kid singing a song, and they all know a lot of them. Keep in mind that I'm talking about young kids here. Nobody wants to hear a 13-year old sing (not even their parents). Young children will get applause for even lame jokes, and they know a lot of them off the top of their head. Again, anything to involve the audience is good.
Sometimes, nobody will want to go up there. People will outright refuse sometimes. This is an interesting phenomenon, but we've had it happen several times, so I'll tell you the best and easiest fix. Ask people if anyone wants to volunteer the person next to them. Then you can choose whomever you want. If you choose someone being pointed to, they will go up because of their friend, or you can choose someone pointing to "teach them a lesson not to try and volunteer their friends." This works every time. You just need to loosen them up a bit.
Keep the pace of the show pretty slow. If you feel rushed, the audience will get confused about what is going on. I've seen people try to fit in everything all at once, and as a result they have no flow. It's hard to concentrate when everything is happening so fast. A confused audience is a leaving audience. It's better to fit in fewer routines and do them justice than to squeeze everything in. Don't be afraid to draw out routines. Sometimes the trick with knocking the pretzel out of someone's mouth may take more than 5-7 minutes! These are also the funniest ones ever. Put a pretzel in their mouth, and say "Okay, don't move your head, okay? You aren't going to move your head are you?" Almost always they shake their head "No" (because they have a pretzel in their mouth) so you can ask them this three times or so and the audience will continue to die from laughter because the poor kid can't figure it out. That's just one example of how one trick can be less about juggling and more about comedy. Draw it out with the comedy. Take your time with the juggling trick.
Next, keep the show clean. The kind of people who come to watch a juggler are not the kind of people who want dirty jokes. These jokes are often just a cheap laugh anyway. This should be common sense, but I feel that I need to say it. Also, along those lines, make sure that you don't make fun of anybody or anything in a mean manner. You can and should tease, but one step over the line and you're done for the rest of the show. They have to like you all the way. When in doubt, throw it out.
Perform in pairs. It's much easier, there's more tricks you can do, you hold crowds easier, etc. etc. Yeah, if you're out there to get some money you have to split it, but trust me, unless you are very, very good you will never go anywhere by yourself. If you work in a pair or in a group, one person will do most of the talking, and this serves to coordinate the show, and the audience knows were to look. Kind of like a ringmaster. Don't ever argue (duh!) in front of an audience unless the conflict is obviously part of the show. Conflict between, or at least the different "persona" of the various jugglers is important to making the show work.
If a joke bombs, recognize this. Don't ever think that the audience just didn't hear the joke and that's why they're not laughing, the joke was just bad. There's nothing worse than hearing a bad joke twice twice. Just don't say anything twice. Just don't say anything twice. If a joke really bombs, make it funny BECAUSE it was lame. Watch Conan O'Brien. He's the master at this technique. Don't do this every time, wait until three regular jokes bomb or one bombs in a big way to do it.
If a trick doesn't work, no biggie. Don't get mad at yourself or you will only make the audience uncomfortable. Don't get nervous or the audience will notice this too. Just use a drop line. One of my favorite ways of telling the audience that the trick "just ain't gonna happen today" is "Most jugglers wouldn't get up in front of people and try something that they can't do. That's what separates me from the other jugglers. Namely, the good ones." If you feel that a trick is risky, like it might work, just tell the audience that "I get three lives; just like in the video games." Most audiences like the juggler to challenge himself up there, even if it means dropping. Pretty much it shows that the performer is working up there, and the show is not just a canned one.
Audiences like to think that their show is special, and most of them feel betrayed when they see that a show is line-for-line exactly the same as all the rest of the shows. We have found that you need to have a blend of ad-libbing and set routines. In general, know the order that the tricks are going to go in, but don't necessarily know every line in there. Ad-libbing is best done with audience members. If you can remember any occupations in the audience, make reference to them; they get a kick out of that, they feel special. For instance "if we screw this one up, at least we have a fireman in the audience." The point is, don't have every line planned out. You may be initially a little nervous going into a show not knowing exactly what you are going to say, but as you get more confident in your ability to come up with stuff off the top of your head, it will become natural. Don't TRY to be clever, just say what's on the top of your head, and you will find that clever things come out in a show.
Make sure that the audience knows when the last trick is coming. Announce it as the grand finale. If you are going to be passing a hat, this is the time to say, "And after I am done juggling flaming torches on a six foot unicycle with a cat on my head while reciting the periodic table of the elements, I will be passing the hat (not the cat) to ask you to please make a donation. It's a buck to you, but to me it's lunch." You might see people try to leave, so they won't feel guilty about not paying if they don't watch the finale. I advise saying something like "You don't have to go, I think that you want to see this trick. I'll understand if you don't have any singles on you." When you ask for money, make sure that you don't just ask for any change that they have in their pockets, because that's what you'll get. Imply that it's pretty much normal to give one dollar. I've also heard lines like "Remember, this is how I make my living, so please be generous. If you put in a 20, maybe I can go to college and get a real job." It all depends on what your style is. I always feel a little guilty asking for money, so my hat line is pretty much like, "If you want to, put some money in the hat. Now for the trick." The Notre Dame Juggling Club gives its earnings before football games to charity, and we tell them this, so we take in a pretty healthy amount, and we don't feel at all guilty about asking for money, and it gives us an indication of how well we're doing. You should consider this if you are new to performing and you don't think that you deserve cash yet. After the trick, the audience knows it can leave. Resist the temptation to do an encore if you forgot something. It will only ruin everything. I can't say how many times when we were new we had to just stand there and say, "well, that's the end." People need to know when the end is coming.
An important thing to remember is that if you want to improve your show's content you must experiment. Accept that it will take some time before you will get good at it, experiment a little and let a couple of shows bomb. No biggie. Experiment, Experiment, Experiment. Most of the time, it's not what you say, but how you say it that makes something funny; and it's only through experimentation that you will find out how to say things. The only advise that I can give in this department is that you should be yourself at all times. Let your true self shine through and don't act as some character and you will have much more success.
[back to top]One special aspect of stage shows is your time is limited, so you need to get the audience involved and impressed early. In a show in Virginia, we had some space in front of the stage so we dropped a prop down there in front of the audience. We appointed a cute little chubby kid to come up and retrieve the props when they fell off the stage. When he came up, I asked him his name, and he said "Michael," so I said, "Ladies and gentlemen, Wendel!" The audience knew that I had given him the goofy stage name, and I told them to chant Wen-del, Wen-del, Wen-del, whenever he was recovering a prop. After a quick test of the system, I managed to get the whole audience involved instantly and a cute little kid onstage, without any real juggling happening yet. We were all having fun at that point, especially Wendel. First impressions are important in a stage show. You should have a costume so that you look like a professional. Nothing big- just something to set you apart from the average schmoe. It can be as simple as wearing suspenders, or a fedora, or a vest, or whatever.
Don't have any dead space. Plan your show wisely so that if you drop the diablo, you don't have to waste everyone's time getting it going again (unless you have a humorous thing to say during this; this should be a planned joke).
You can make a little more topical humor in a stage show because usually most of the audience has something in common, or you can make references to any other act. Bring out the host as a volunteer for something. Be spontaneous. Don't just get up there and do some tricks. That's lame.
Don't have any expectations for the show. Some of our best shows were ones that really looked like they were going to be terrible, and other ones we thought were going to be good didn't turn out so well. Don't just blow off a gig, thinking that it's going to be no fun at all.
A stage show is a different medium than a street show. Know your audience. They may not be in the mood for juggling, so don't ram it down their throats. Try to figure out what kind of show they want to see.
[back to top]I find that a Model 909 Smith&Wesson 9mm semiautomatic handgun does the trick. Seriously, though, hecklers can be the toughest part to deal with. Sometimes, they are just really annoying and sometimes downright offensive. I find the best thing to do at first is just ignore them. A majority of the time, this will cause the heckler to stop. Most hecklers heckle to see if they can affect your performance and if they see you are not paying any attention to them then they usually give up pretty easily.
If they insist on heckling, then the best thing to do is to try to draw attention to them. Some people may disagree with me on this, but I believe most hecklers just want to be a distraction and not draw attention to themselves. I saw Mark Nizer do this successfully once. A heckler was yelling out the word "house" for some unknown reason. All Mark had to do was say, "House? What the heck does that mean?" and the guy shut up. Of course, if this doesn't work, then you may have to try something else. Sometimes volunteering them for a trick will also shut them up.
If the heckler just won't stop, you may want to try heckling back. I've seen several street performers do this. I caution people against this because usually hecklers can think a lot quicker than you can when you are trying to do a performance. That's not to say they are smarter than you, but you have your next few tricks on your mind, while all the heckler has on his or her mind is annoying you. I wouldn't try this unless you are really quick with insults and, even then, you have to be prepared to be burned (and not because of the torches).
My best advice is to get really good at ignoring hecklers. In reality, most are no threat to your show unless they are overly distracting to the audience. Usually, if the audience sees that you are not paying any attention to hecklers, neither will they and the show can still be a huge success!
Juggling is fun. The more fun you have, the more fun the people watching you will have. Try not to get nervous, just relax, and the folks will enjoy themselves. Some shows will go great and others will bomb. That's just the way life is. Learn from your mistakes in a bad show and relish the rush from a good one while it lasts. That's the way of a performer. Good luck and don't be afraid to try!
last modified May 1, 2003.
