How to Juggle
Three Balls

A Brief History of Juggling.

770 - 476 BC – China
Various jugglers are mentioned in histories, usually warriors who would display their skill to their enemies, sometimes managing to end a conflict before they began. Some jugglers are named, including: Lan Zi, from the state of song, credited with juggling seven swords. Yi Liao of Shinan juggled balls to settle the conflict between two houses was eliminated. Xiong Yiliao, in a battle between the states of Chu and Song, juggled nine balls at the same time.

400 - 200 BC – Greece
Juggling recorded in Greek writings. There is also terra cotta statue of a man with balls balanced on different parts of his body, from the time of Ptolomaer of ancient Thebes.



50 - 400 AD – Roman Empire
Juggling recorded in Rome. Tagatus Ursus, a Roman, claimed on his grave inscription to have been the first to juggle with glass balls, and Sidonius Apollinaris, an officer in a Roman legion, entertained his troops by performing juggling tricks with balls.

500 - 1500 AD – Europe
Juggling was an acceptable diversion until the decline of the Roman Empire, after which it fell into disgrace. Throughout the Middle Ages, most histories were written by religious clerics who frowned upon the ‘Gleemen’, accusing them of base morals or even practicing witchcraft. Jugglers in this era would only perform in market places, streets, fairs or drinking houses. Some king’s and noblemen’s bards, fools, or jesters would have been to juggle or perform acrobatics, though their main skills would have been oral (poetry, music, comedy and story telling).

1066 – England
Taillefer, the warrior-bard of William of Normandy, juggles before the enemy lines and makes the first kill at the Battle of Hastings.

1528 – America
Christoph Weiditz draws Native Mexicans toss juggling and foot juggling/antipodism, which is also often found in Aztec art.



1700s – France
The earliest known representation of juggling as a single arc of props over widely separated hands, from an 18th century French woodcut. Before this time, all images of jugglers show the hands close together with their props in columns above each hand.

1768 – England
Philip Astley opens the first modern circus. From then until the modern day, jugglers have found work and have commonly been associated with circuses.

1793 – North America
John Bill Ricketts presents America’s first circus. In the opening show, watched by George Washington, Ricketts juggled on horseback.



1800s – Europe and North America
Variety and music hall theatres become more popular, and jugglers are in demand to fill time between music acts, performing in front of the curtain while sets are changed. Performers start specializing in juggling, separating it from other kinds of performance such as sword swallowing and magic.

1883 – North America
In Boston a new style of variety show is born. The format is a continuous show, the same 8-10 acts repeated over and over, the audience coming and going when they had seen all the acts. This was later known as Vaudeville.

1885 – England
Paul Cinquevalli (1859 – 1918) made his debut at a circus in Covent Garden, London. Cinquevalli was the first juggling super-star, and was referred to by the British press as the world’s greatest juggler.



Late 1800s – Early 1900s – North America
In the USA, the popularity of variety shows and vaudeville shows created great demand for professional jugglers. To distinguish them from other entertainers, jugglers were constantly developing new tricks, props, styles and characters, many of which survive to this day.

Here are some juggling “firsts” from America:

- Jim Harrigan was the first tramp juggler, using cigar boxes and balls. He was also one of the first talking comedy jugglers, putting jokes into his routine.

- DeWitt Cook was the first to perform with “juggling clubs”. Previously jugglers had only used sticks, torches or knives. Instead, Cook juggled three Indian Clubs, normally used for arm-swinging exercises. Indian Clubs were made from wood, were very heavy and were shaped like a modern bowling pin. This design is still recognizable in today’s specially manufactured, light, plastic juggling clubs.



- Charles Hoey was the first to juggle four clubs, though he could not stop juggling without dropping. When performing on stage the curtain had to be closed while he was still juggling so the audience wouldn’t see him drop.

- Ben Mowatt was the first to juggle five clubs.

- Pat McBann was the first to juggle six clubs. He did four in one hand and two in the other, but died before he had it ready to perform in public.

- John Breen juggled seven clubs for 35 right-handed throws. Breen also managed other very technical tricks such as a 5-club shower, as well as 5-club cascade with a head balance. He performed six clubs on stage. He died in 1912 (age 21).

- The first record of two-person club passing is in 1885 by the juggling team “The Murdock Bros”. They passed four clubs side-by-side them while standing on pedestals.

- The Devine Bros perform six club passing, facing each other, for the first time.

- The Three Mowatts were the first three-person club passing act, first performing in 1895. John Whitfield left the Mowatts to set up his own troupe called the Juggling Johnsons and created the first four and five person juggling.

- Jack Greene and Joe Piche were the first to pass eight clubs.

1912 – North America
Glow-props are invented. Adolf Behrend, the German Gentleman, builds a set of clubs with electric lights inside which changed colors as he juggles them.

1930 - 1950 – Europe and North America
Variety and Vaudeville shows start to decline in popularity due to competition from motion picture theatres, radio and television.

1947 – North America
The International Jugglers’ Association is formed







The Artist.

Rhys Thomas has performed his unique blend of hilarity and dexterity in such diverse venues as The Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. (as Artist in Residence); the World Cup Street Performer Competition in Shizuoka, Japan (twice); a live world-wide television broadcast teaching the mathematics of juggling with a Nobel Laureate; The European Juggling Convention in Svendborg, Denmark; and at theaters, festivals, and corporate banquet shows on three continents.

Rhys was Juggling columnist for America 's premiere family entertainers’ magazine, "LaughMakers". He is the author of "Meteors,” a juggling manual published internationally in both English and Japanese. Highly respected in the juggling world, Rhys is a recipient of the Ben Linder Memorial Award for Inspiration and has twice been profiled in “Juggle” magazine.



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