11th Cleveland Circus and Juggling Festival 2025

By JoAnn Ireland

During the weekend of Friday, October 3 through Sunday, October 5, 2025 the Case Western Reserve University (Case or CWRU) Juggling Club (https://community.case.edu/juggling/home/) hosted the 11th Annual Cleveland Circus and Juggling Festival. During the festival weekend there was open juggling, games, workshops, vendors, a raffle, and a Saturday evening public show. The CWRU Juggling Club is a community to teach, practice, and perform juggling and other circus arts. This includes, but is not limited to, balls, clubs, rings, diabolo, unicycle, poi, contortion, cardistry (manipulating playing cards), freeline skates, devil sticks, and cigar boxes. During the academic year, the juggling club normally meets on Mondays and Wednesdays from 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. on the lawn outside of CWRU Leutner Commons, or inside at the Fireplace Lounge when the weather is not permitting. Members of the Club also perform at local events within the Cleveland area, as these performances helps to fund activities like this festival.

On Friday evening, members of the CWRU Juggling Club along with jugglers from Maryland, New York, Ohio, and Pennsylvania participated in open juggling, informal juggling instruction, club passing, and some unicycling on or near the CWRU Van Horn Field, which is adjacent to the Veale Recreation Center that could also be used if the weather did not permit outdoor juggling. The CWRU Juggling Club had a huge variety of props available during the entire festival for individuals to borrow, including a unicycle.

On Saturday open jugging took place in the Adelbert Gym, which is located within the Armory building on the CWRU campus. Workshops were casual and included hula hoop spinning and manipulation by Julie Wallace, silks (aerial fabric) courtesy of the CWRU Aerial Arts Club (https://community.case.edu/aerial/home/), yo-yo by Abby Brodsky, and CWRU juggling club members were also available to provide instruction on kendama and diabolo.

The CWRU Aerial Arts Club setup for attendees to try silks was quite impressive, two long silks (with a small mat underneath) were hanging from the rigging on a horizontal bar about 15 feet high that was supported by four sloping metal rods, and the setup also appeared to be easily portable considering it was used by the club members during the Saturday evening show – more on that later. The CWRU Aerial Arts Club aims to provide the environment and instruction for students to explore acrobatics, body strength, and the power of spatial awareness, all while in the air.

Lunch was generously provided for those in attendance courtesy of the CWRU Juggling Club and it was from Rascal House, which included Sicilian style pizza, vegetarian hoagies, and salad. There’s no guarantee that will happen every year, but it was much appreciated by the festival attendees, allowing more time to practice  and for socializing. The CWRU Juggling Club had t-shirts for sale ($20) and past festival shirts were available at the bargain price of $3. There were also a raffle that included a set of new-to-you green Todd Smith clubs, two sets of flower sticks from Jolly Lama, a kendama, an impressive set of collapsible clubs from PocketClubsJuggling (https://www.etsy.com/shop/PocketClubsJuggling), a flow star / spinning cloth, and two Mozi spinning toys. In addition, Jesse Schell from Pittsburgh, kindly brought his extensive juggling book and magazine collection for browsing. There was also a festival poster for attendees to sign. One vendor, the Jolly Lama (https://www.jollylama.com), also had flower sticks for sale.

Juggling games included the three ball blind endurance, five ball endurance – initially with the cascade followed by the request to change the pattern, club balance endurance – with the addition of the request to also dance to the “Macarena” (with music provided) when the number of contenders was down to two individuals, and long distance club passing. There was a final game where everyone could participate – where everyone could grab one club and toss it toward a distant line on the gym floor and the individual whose club was closest to the line without touching it or going over the line won. This took place for a few qualifying rounds and then the final round was for the winners of the previous rounds. This game did have its challenge during judging considering that the final round of play resulted in a club that was on both sides of the line, therefore part of the club was before and also over the line, but due to its shape was also not touching the line; it was determined that the club toss crossing the line was the winner.

There was also the best trick competition that included: use of both hands and feet to juggle while lying down (Jesse Schell – first place), club and hat passing while one juggler was idling on a unicycle, musical instrument (a recorder) playing while riding a unicycle with multiple clubs and rings interlaced to form a cool headpiece, an impressive four ball pattern (Josiah Smith – third place), a four ball box pattern, a yo-yo / juggling combination trick, juggling three recorder instruments while also playing one of the three recorders held in a balance, and multiple impressive aerial silks tricks by members of the CWRU Aerial Arts Club (second place).

While chatting with some of the attendees, I learned from one individual who attended the 1981 IJA convention in Cleveland that it took place at CWRU with most activities taking place in Adelbert Gym. He shared his memories of watching an 8 year old Anthony Gatto juggling in the gym, who then won the juniors that year. Standing within that same gym space totally blew my mind! I had to go back in time and looked further into IJA Newsletters learning that:

• At that time, IJA convention site proposals for the following year were presented during the IJA convention board meeting, then members could vote on the site that they wanted. Those site proposals should have ideally considered housing; feeding of members; facilities for juggling, the public show, parade, and competitions; transportation around the convention site; security; and cost. Terry Butler made that presentation in 1980, Cleveland was selected, and Terry was the 1981 IJA convention Chairman. There were 678 jugglers registered for the 1981 IJA convention.
• Adelbert Gym had 14,000 square foot with a 200-seat balcony, with a 1,500 square foot mini-gym and use of the gym would be free for the IJA, which was a huge cost savings.
• There were 27 competitors in the U.S. Nationals – Tommy Curtin won, 9 competitors in Teams – Gravity’s Last Stand won with Carvill, Fry, and Gagnepain, and 15 competitors in the Juniors – Anthony Gatto won. The IJA Championships were at the Thwing Center Ballroom at CWRU. and Greg Moss was the Championships Director.
• The IJA public show was at the downtown Cleveland Music Hall with seating for 3,000.
• There were 17 people in the seven object event, with the winner, Rande Aronson, achieving a new IJA record with a time of 7.66 seconds and there were six individuals in the five club event that was won by Daniel Rosen with a time of 1:05:57.
• Joggling had 20 entrants in the 100-meter race where Paul Williams won with 14.5 seconds, there were 19 entrants in the 1,500-meters where Michel Lauziere won with 5:03.75, and there were 9 entrants in the 5,000-meters where the winner was also Paul Williams with a time of 20:11.32.
• Workshops included topics such as: basic juggling, numbers juggling and multiplex, club juggling, how you can help the IJA – it had 150 attendees, prop potpourri, cigar boxes and devil sticks, balance, comedy and street performing, getting work, and a performance workshops where individuals could try out their act and receive suggestions from audience members.
• Ten four-floor dormitories on campus could accommodate 1,100 jugglers – there were 20 rooms per floor with a central shower. Two meals per day were provided in Leutner Dining Hall and diners could take unlimited helpings with vegetarian meals arranged with advanced notification.
• An IJA convention package plan (registration, room, and board) cost $125 (double occupancy) and $135 (single occupancy) for those who preregistered. For those who couldn’t stay for the entire week, a dorm room was $13.50 per person per night (double occupancy) or $15.50 per person per night (single occupancy). Alternatively, there was a nearby hotel with each room having two double beds, color TV, and air conditioning for $25 per night (single), $31 (double), and $6 per additional person, with a pool and free parking.
• An IJA convention t-shirt was $6, a public show ticket was $4, booth space to sell props was $25 per day or $100 for the entire convention.
• There was a benefit show at the nearby Rainbow Children’s Hospital for 50 children.
• Because of an IJA proposal, the Cleveland Indians baseball team (now the Guardians) welcomed jugglers to participate in pregame festivities against the Chicago White Sox and offered jugglers complimentary tickets to stay to watch the game. Jugglers could participate in the parade around the perimeter of the field – in the end though, due to a baseball strike, this activity was canceled.
• On television, NBC aired a 4-minute segment on the Today Show and ABC aired a 4-minute segment on the Sunday World News Tonight covering the IJA convention.

So if you want to experience some IJA convention history and regional festival history in the making all at the same time, this is the festival to attend in 2026 and beyond.

Back to the present, the Cleveland Circus and Juggling Festival Saturday evening show tickets were available for sale within Eldred Hall and available to the public for $15 per person (and a bargain for jugglers considering the festival is currently free to attend), and was free for CWRU students, with some classes offering extra credit for attendance. The Eldred Auditorium has a 1600 square foot stage with 152 seats, so it was a great opportunity to watch live and close-up juggling and circus performances. I heard from quite a few individuals who have attended the Cleveland Circus and Juggling Festival in the past that the CWRU Juggling Club has quite the history of getting great performers and this year was no exception.

The first act was the Case Western Reserve University Juggling Club, four of its members, all wearing matching dark blue t-shirts with a timelessly classic logo. Each member rotated as the performer in the foreground, juggling three machetes, three clubs, performing three ball tricks, performing with one diabolo or passing two diabolos, doing some challenging tricks with a kendama, and performing six club passing. It was a great way to get all individuals involved while keeping each performance activity in rotation.

Josiah Smith from rural western New York was next with his always impressive ball juggling performance, with three balls his tricks featured plenty of fast arm movement, in both the horizontal and vertical directions, crossed arms, as well as head stalls. He continued his performance with more amazing tricks with four balls using similar arm movements, and concluded with multiple five ball patterns.

Julie Wallace was up next from Ohio and is a graduate of the Coney Island Clown Skool in both sideshow and clowning, she performed very smooth manipulation and spinning of one and two LED hoops, and proceeded to juggle three and concluded her act by spinning four hoops.

Jasper Murphy (a.k.a. Jasper Champ) (https://www.jasperjuggles.com), who was half of the IJA 2025 gold medalist team GOBSMACK (with Matt Walmsley) was next to perform starting with three balls with plenty of movement, including going from standing to lying down while juggling over his head, or under both legs while sitting on the stage. He also caught one ball on the top of his head, turned around with his back to the audience, and then blindly dropped it to juggle three balls completely behind his back. He proceeded to juggle four with multiple patterns with a long duration of Mills Mess, and five balls with many patterns. He concluded his performance with juggling seven balls.

After a brief intermission and the raffle drawing, Abby Brodsky was next to perform yo-yo skills very appropriately to, “I’ve got the world on a string.” Throughout her act, Abby skillfully executed multiple yo-yo tricks that included intricate string wraps using two hands. During the second half of her routine, she also incorporated a juggling ring with her yo‑yo skills – even including body rolls with the ring.

The Case Western Reserve University Aerial Arts Club, founded in 2024 was next with five members performing who have backgrounds in aerial arts, acrobatics, gymnastics, and dance. During their stage performance they used the same portable silks setup from the gym to artfully and gracefully display numerous poses and balances either individually or together with a partner, demonstrating great strength and skills using silks high in the air. Their transitions from one silk skill to the next also flowed well.

Emily Ann, owner of Sky Circus Cleveland (https://www.skycircuscleveland.com) performed an impressive duo chair balancing act along with Ben, a Cleveland based amateur contortionist. Their performance included numerous strength based poses on multiple stacked chairs, it was truly spectacular to watch.

Jasper Murphy closed out the show by juggling three LED clubs (sticking mainly with the pink, rainbow, and white settings throughout the performance), again with lots of stage movement and head balances. He juggled four clubs next in various columns patterns along with much more complex patterns, moving on to balance one club on his forehead while juggling four clubs, pausing his juggling and then lowered the balanced club into a five club pattern. closing out his performance and the show with multiple impressive runs with five clubs.

The Adelbert gym was open for more juggling, circus skills, and socializing after the Saturday evening show, wrapping up before 11:00 p.m. and open juggling / circus skills continued on Sunday through noon.

Case Western Reserve University (www.case.edu) is known for its academics; however, I am biased having taken a few courses there, albeit over twenty years ago – wow, time flies, but I digress and no, the courses were not in juggling journalism. What is now known as Case Western Reserve University was founded in 1826. At that time it was known for embracing innovation and the sciences and was known as Western Reserve College, located in Hudson, OH, about 30 miles southeast of Cleveland. With additional funding Western Reserve College relocated in 1882 to Cleveland becoming Western Reserve University. Around that same time, in 1880, the Case School of Applied Sciences trained students in engineering, sciences, mining, metallurgy, etc, and later adopted the name Case Institute of Technology in 1947 becoming a leading school of science and engineering. The two institutions realized the benefits of becoming a single institution and in 1967 became Case Western Reserve University. CWRU will be celebrating 200 years in 2026 (next year!) and has over 6000 undergraduates and over 6000 graduate / professional students that includes Schools of Medicine, Dental Medicine, Law, Business, and Engineering. Tuition is $68,660 for 2025-2026 undergraduate students, with housing and a meal plan costing an additional $19,514.

It’s quite easy to get to CWRU, the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority (RTA) (https://www.riderta.com) red line (currently $2.50 per trip) runs from Cleveland Hopkins International Airport (CLE) (https://www.clevelandairport.com), where you can travel to either Cedar-University or Little Italy-University Circle (both are also conveniently on the RTA red line), both of those stops are each well within a half-mile or one-mile walk from the Adelbert Gym. The Cleveland Amtrak station (CLE) is also about a one-mile walk to the downtown Tower City Center (also on the RTA red line). Currently Amtrak trains arrive / depart from Cleveland during the very early morning hours (midnight to 7:30 a.m.), so if your circumstances do not allow you to stay overnight, it is possible to make the most of one day of this festival, plus it can be easier to take more props when traveling by train. Currently the Amtrak “Floridian” train provides service that connects Chicago and Miami and the “Lake Shore Limited” train connects Chicago and New York City/Boston, with each stopping in Cleveland.

There’s plenty to see near CWRU and in downtown Cleveland. Near CWRU there’s the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland Museum of Natural History, Cleveland Botanical Gardens, and Crawford Auto Aviation Museum; however, from my experience, I cannot recommend the Museum of Contemporary Art, but there is unique outdoor large metal hand sculpture “Judy’s Hand” by Tony Tasset, which jugglers might find to be interesting outside of that museum. Cleveland’s “Little Italy” is also definitely worth visiting, located mainly along Murray Hill Road and Mayfield Road. Mama Santa’s Restaurant & Pizzeria especially offers the most affordable Italian menu options.

Heading a few blocks farther east along Mayfield Road, you’ll reach Lake View Cemetery where you can see the James A. Garfield Memorial and burial place of the United States 20th President to learn more about his life, work, and untimely death. James A. Garfield was born into poverty in a log cabin, was a preacher, studied law, became an attorney, was a major general in the Civil War, and was elected to the United States Congress. Interestingly, his aptitude for mathematics led to him developing a trapezoid-based proof of the Pythagorean theorem.

If you are looking for a non-juggling related souvenir, a almost two miles but still a pleasant walk from CWRU is the independent bookstore, Loganberry Books with over 100,000 volumes of new, used, and rare books, as well as an assortment of gifts. Downtown Cleveland also has much to offer including the aforementioned Cleveland Guardians baseball team, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, the “Free Stamp” by Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen, and the Playhouse Square theater district, which is the largest performing arts center in the United States outside of New York City.

At the Cleveland Circus and Juggling Festival, there was also prominent advertising for the upcoming festival – the FluggleBurgh (Flow Arts Juggle Pittsburgh) 2025 Pittsburgh Circus Arts Festival (https://www.andrew.cmu.edu/user/juggle/festival/) that is taking place Friday, November 7th through Sunday, November 9th where there is planned to be juggling, acrobatics, flow arts, a practice gym, workshops, a gala show, and a fire jam. FluggleBurgh is $10 for a single day or $20 for the weekend, and $10 for the Saturday gala show. Note that the Amtrak “Floridian” train mentioned above going from Chicago to Miami also stops in Pittsburgh.

Huge thanks go out to the Case Western Reserve University Juggling Club members for organizing the festival, especially Duncan Cayenne-McCall who is the current CWRU Juggling Club President and Jasper Jacobs (Treasurer), CWRU alum and former CWRU Juggling Club President Noah Hertzman for traveling from New York City to support the festival, the CWRU Aerial Arts Club members for sharing their amazing skills and silks setup, and all of the aforementioned Saturday evening show performers and workshop instructors. Be sure to check out next year’s Cleveland Circus and Juggling Festival during CWRU’s 200 in 2026!

Written and photographed by JoAnn Ireland.

JoAnn Ireland is a longtime hobbyist juggler who especially prefers juggling beanbags, joggles (running and juggling), and occasionally rides a unicycle. She is grateful for the opportunity to have been able to attend many IJA and regional juggling festivals.