45th Annual RIT Juggle-In Review

By JoAnn Ireland

The Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) and RIT Juggling Club hosted…

(drumroll please)

…The 45th RIT Juggle-In that was open to the public with free admission and commenced on Friday, April 4th at 5:00 PM, welcoming jugglers to the Clark gym on the RIT campus. The RIT Juggling Club’s mission is to provide a place for members to come together and practice all types of object manipulation and to share their skills and learn new ones. There was plenty of seating in the Clark gym for a casual group photo on the bleachers on Friday evening, prop storage, just taking a break, or socializing with other RIT Juggle-In attendees throughout the event.

There was a funky disco theme to the RIT Juggle-In this year that tied to the imagery on the RIT Juggle-In t-shirt which included a juggler with three clubs and a performer with a diabolo, both wearing 70’s attire while standing on top of a record with a disco ball and musical notes in the background. The theme nicely connected to the music played in the gym to keep the energy going throughout the weekend. There were also light-up projection disco balls located throughout the gym. Incredibly, the 45th RIT Juggle-In t-shirts were prominently displayed in the gym, which collectively had beautifully unique artistry to admire in itself.

The RIT Juggle-In was free to attend but funded on t-shirt ($20) and sticker ($3) sales, as well as Saturday evening show ticket sales ($18 for adults), and raffle ticket sales. There were plenty of great raffle prize options, including five sets of flower sticks, four sets of three clubs, and multiple ball and beanbag sets among many other great props for jugglers. There was one prop vendor in attendance, Pass the Props—run by Brad and Bonnie Wyman—who offered an assortment of juggling props available for purchase.

The RIT Juggling Club also had a large box of tennis balls for borrowing that I saw being put to good use by a few younger future jugglers who clearly wanted to learn, but who didn’t yet have props of their own. Yeah, as jugglers we all know tennis balls bounce and roll and aren’t the most ideal for learning, but in a pinch, they are definitely better than nothing; and it’s great that the club had them available.

On Friday evening there was an open-stage show where juggling acts were welcome to perform by simply reaching out to Jeff Peden, who started off the show by introducing the RIT Juggling Club Vice President, Kyra Gallo—majoring in Communications and Psychology (while also minoring in Film Studies and Creative Writing)—and President Rocco Menna—majoring in Communications. Jeff and Rocco then proceeded to pass six clubs around Kyra, who was seated between them while juggling three balls.

Next up was Silas, an 8 year-old member of the Mid-Hudson Juggling Club in New York who effortless juggled three, four, and then five balls with multiple pirouettes to the Offspring’s “Come Out and Play.” Incredibly, Silas only recently started juggling in August 2024 (making this his 9th month of juggling), learning from Philadelphia-based juggler Jasper Murphy and continuing to learn by watching Taylor Glenn’s instructional YouTube videos. Audience members truly thought his skills were incredible. Silas was also seen in the gym throughout the festival working on seven balls!

Elliot Kaplan, who has performed with the Bindlestiff Family Cirkus, was next, performing a cane balancing routine to Talking Heads’ “Once in a Lifetime,” and tying his necktie while balancing the cane on the bridge of his nose before performing a series of seal rolls. In the later portion of his act, he let loose by removing his white button-down shirt and necktie, for a more artistic, black t-shirt as he continued his performance.

Ted Baumhauer started his act with two boomerangs, before moving onto a combination trick attempt by juggling three clubs, spinning a ball, and spinning rings. He concluded his act with one of his favorite vaudeville pieces: performing hoop tricks with a water glass while using centrifugal force to keep the water-filled glass inside the hoop, with some humorous spillage that he politely cleaned up for the next act.

Josiah Smith was up next, with a great technical three ball routine filled with lots of slams—an inspiration to watch with many unique and challenging patterns.

There was a brief pause in the show to honor and remember juggler and comedian Joe Murray, the late husband of Susan Kirby. Joe and Susan both met at the RIT Juggle-In in 1982. Joe studied photographic sciences at RIT. To earn physical education credit, he signed up for a juggling class taught by Greg Moss who is the founder of the RIT Juggling Club and retired Senior Director of RIT Recreational Sports. While Joe wasn’t a member of the RIT Juggling Club, he was a generous supporter of the club whenever they needed a little extra assistance.

The next act was Kevin Hogan, who performed unique footbag moves while incorporating juggling with three, and then five footbags. Tricks included solid stalls on the side of his head and, of course, his feet.

The final juggling act of the evening was Archie (AKA Diabolo Archie), who walked out dressed in a white lab coat then performed his beautifully technical scientist-transitioning-to-artist diabolo routine with one diabolo—a yellow and orange “dragon tail” streamer attached for a stunning visual effect—followed by a one LED diabolo piece, before he transitioned to an artistic two LED diabolo routine (I’ve had the opportunity to see his diabolo routine earlier this year at the Pocono Juggle and Circus Arts Festival, and if you have an opportunity to see his act in person or on video you will no doubt be entertained and amazed). Archie won third place in the 2024 USA National Diabolo Competition for individuals 18 years of age and older.

The Friday night informal show was a great way to allow jugglers and performers to show off and continue to refine their routines in front of a supportive audience and gain performance experience, while also providing entertainment and inspiration for the audience members.

Juggling continued Saturday morning in the Clark Gym. There were many workshops throughout the day. One was by Ted Baumhauer, who provided an informative workshop on how to make your own boomerang; he provided all of the supplies by offering approximately 15 attendees pre-traced three wing boomerangs on the back of a large cardboard cereal box piece. Attendees used scissors to cut out the boomerangs, and then attentively listened to Ted as he provided further instructions. He explained how to shape the leading edge of each wing’s profile by adjusting both the pitch for a longer or shorter flight, and the dihedral—the bending the wings of the boomerang up or down from the center of the boomerang in a straight or neutral position—which impacts the overall trajectory of the flight.

Ted also talked about how adding weights to the boomerang (e.g., pennies) can impact the flight and gave instructions on how to grip the boomerang (i.e., not to choke up like you are holding a club but to hold it more like a pen). He even provided instructions on how to throw a boomerang by holding it no more than 45 degrees from vertical and—with 12 o’clock straight ahead—to step into your throw like you are throwing a ball and to throw towards 2 o’clock (if you are right-handed) for it to return at 10 o’clock. Conversely, if you are left-handed, throw it towards 10 o’clock for it to return at 2 o’clock.

Figure 1: Video of Mike Moore Demonstrating Dots with Four

There were also workshops, for example, by Jasper Murphy on balancing props while juggling, Kathryn Carr offering a Q&A session on juggling and manipulating hats, Greg Phillips getting together a lot of jugglers to pass clubs, and Mike Moore giving a workshop on how to do dots patterns. Further instructions on dots patterns can be found in this IJA ball juggling tutorial.

Joe Showers hosted and coordinated the games for jugglers to watch or participate in and has done so for many years. The games included the balance competition, three-ball Simon Says, five-ball endurance, seven-ball endurance, blind three-ball juggling, quarter juggling, and the best trick competition for juniors and adults with the winner chosen based on audience applause.

The Clark gym closed at 5:00 PM on Saturday, allowing attendees plenty of time to get something to eat before the public show started at 7:30 PM. The food options at that hour were limited in the adjacent Student Alumni Union building; however, there were a few options for dining at the Global Village on campus that was only a ten-minute walk from the Clark gym. The Saturday evening public show was in the beautiful Ingle Auditorium with approximately 500 seats and was also conveniently located within the Student Alumni Union building.

The first half of the Saturday evening show was emceed by comedy juggler Mike Rosman. And what does that mean? Well, in his words, jugglers think he’s not a great juggler, but really funny, and comedians don’t think he’s very funny, but a really good juggler. Mike started by balancing on a rola bola that was on top of an end table while juggling three knives. He comically stopped to tie his untied shoes while still on the rola bola before he started juggling the three knives. He added that he recently worked in Hawaii, and his goal has been to work in all 50 states and Hawaii was his 49th, his 50th state being Arkansas, and so he might just stop at 49—which got a huge laugh from the audience.

Mike then proceeded to remove the cylinder from the rola bola and got out a bowling ball. He then went into the audience to find three assistants: two men to help him get on the rola bola board that he had on top of the bowling ball instead of the cylinder, and one woman to stand behind him to catch the bowling ball, in case things went wrong. Mike then juggled three knives on the bowling ball rola bola, much to the audience’s amazement and enjoyment.

The first act was Alex Rozanov, an RIT alumus and Rochester native having attended the RIT Juggle-In since 2011 and is known for his creative ball juggling skills. He performed numerous slams and a headroll with three balls, more slams with four balls, and a stall on his head; before he continued with five balls. He handled any occasional drops so well by kicking up into very technical patterns; it appeared as if he was creating a new and even more impressive trick out of a drop.

Mike Rosman came back on stage and performed a three-cigar box routine while standing on a table—including under the leg moves—and comically played to both sides of the audience, showing one side a few tricks, and then turning to the other side of the audience to simply and playfully move the cigar boxes around in the air.

Andie Mars performed with hula hoops, starting by performing body rolls and balances with one hoop, then juggling and spinning three hoops with plenty of body rolls, adding additional balances with a fourth hoop. She juggled four and then five hoops, concluding her performance by spinning six hoops on her arms and legs while balancing on one leg.

Mike Rosman came back to the stage to briefly perform with a spinning plate; then he performed his diabolo routine that included the whip and over the leg throws, telling the audience that the best way to learn is to practice the way you perform. When his string got tangled, he comically explained, “It’s okay if you mess up” and that, “The important thing is that you start over.” He then started his routine from the beginning. He humorously messed up again and then reminded the audience to clap if they didn’t clap before. This repetition of starting his routine over again went on a couple of times, much to the audience’s enjoyment, and Mike continued to progress through his routine, adding more diabolo tricks every time.

Kathryn Carr was next; she won a silver medal in the IJA Individuals competition in 2022, and she loves manipulating new props and adding them to a theme. And the theme during this performance was: “Spring.” Kat was dressed in a green dress with colorful butterfly wings and performed balances with a hat and rose, arm rolls with the hat while balancing the rose on her nose, and kickups with said hat and rose.

Jasper Murphy provided the closing performance of the first half of the show; he performed a high energy routine by juggling three clubs to an instrumental cover version of “Funkytown” by Lipps Inc. He also juggled his four clubs with a fifth balanced on his forehead before he moved on to five clubs with lots of solid movement on stage, ending with a forward roll. He concluded his act by getting on an unsupported ladder and juggling five clubs, much to the audience’s amazement.

Kathryn Carr took on the role of emcee for the second half of the show; she opened the second half by requesting younger volunteers Kate, Cameron, Devon, and Silas. She described that she was going to bounce a ball on her forehead, and that every time the ball bounces, she wanted the kids on stage to bounce with it, and that when the ball stops bouncing, they also stop jumping. The kids and the audience both enjoyed this fun participation.

Mike Rosman came back onstage and brought a giraffe unicycle that was comically locked to a parking meter. He humorously worked together with audience members to unlock the unicycle from the parking meter. Then he used a really great assistive device to get on the giraffe unicycle, he referred to it as a gift from the ladies in the ER: a walker with four crutches—with one crutch attached to each leg of the walker—and humorously added that this portion of the show was sponsored by Advil, caffeine, and the Orthopedics Associates of Maryland. He then proceeded to juggle three knives while on the giraffe.

Kathryn Carr came back to the stage to energetically jump rope while bouncing a ball on her forehead to hip hop group House of Pain’s “Jump Around.”

Jill Calvert (AKA Jillery Hoops), based in Rochester, NY, was up next. She performed manipulation with one, two, and then three hula hoops. Jasper Murphy then returned to the stage to perform a one-man band piece with the Latin-inspired surf instrumental song “Tequila”—which also included an audience volunteer.

The closing act for the show was Spencer Androli, who was recently on Juggling Interviews; a three-time World Juggling Federation (WJF) champion, ranked #1 in the 2023 list of Top 40 jugglers, and was a performer with the Flynn Creek Circus, Hideaway Circus, and Teatro Zinzanni Seattle, to only name a few. Spencer started out by doing tricks with five, six balls, then seven balls with a five-up pirouette. Moving on to rings, he juggled and performed numerous tricks with four, then five rings, varying the orientation of his throws before continuing with six-through-eight rings, and ending with an eight-ring pull down.

Clubs were his final prop of choice, starting with four and including multiple forehead balances. His skill level with five clubs was impressive, including many multiplexes; having a comfort level with clubs as if they were balls, performing five-club backcrosses, and balancing a sixth club on the bridge of his nose while juggling five clubs. He proceeded to juggle six clubs and then concluded his act by amazingly juggling seven clubs for a really long time. One audience member summed up Spencer’s performance, saying he was “like a machine!”

Juggling continued in the Clark Gym after the Saturday evening show until 11:00 PM and then briefly moved into the Student Alumni Union until midnight. Juggling also continued in the Clark Gym on Sunday as well through the afternoon.

You might not be aware that RIT has over 21,000 students enrolled at the main and global campus, with over 14,300 undergraduates and 2,800 graduate students at the main campus, all in numerous areas of study. Some areas of study that they excel at are art, design and architecture, computing and information science, engineering and engineering technology, game design and development, photography, film, and animation. The current estimated total cost of attendance is approximately $82,000 / year for full-time undergraduate or graduate students. RIT is also home to the National Technical Institute for the Deaf (NTID)—the first and largest technological college in the world and serving more than 1,100 deaf and hard-of-hearing students with an estimated total cost of attendance of approximately $43,000 to $47,000 year for full-time domestic undergraduate or graduate students, respectively.

That same weekend, RIT coincidentally hosted an accepted student open house. During the information sessions, they let the students and parents know about the RIT Juggle-In that was taking place on campus, so it was definitely an active weekend to visit the campus; and performing arts is an interest for many enrolled students. Impressively, there are also other performance spaces being built on campus: a 750-seat theater (the first phase), then a 1500-seat orchestra hall (the second phase), with the first phase of construction, expected to be completed in 2026 and RIT notes that it could be attractive for non-RIT events. Also if you listened to the latest Juggling Interviews Episode 13 with Jared Athias, you’ll hear more about the influence of RIT and the RIT Juggling Club.

Furthermore, Greg Moss’ experience at RIT and with juggling particularly has been extensive. Greg was the International Jugglers’ Association (IJA) Championships Director from 1981 – 1984 and, while talking to him at this year’s RIT Juggle-In, he briefly reflected on some of the challenges at that time, especially the ongoing debate at that time whether to provide a greater weight to technique or presentation in the championships. Greg told me a bit more about how he initially reached out to some of the athletic coaches at RIT to inquire if they would like him to teach their athletes juggling to help with their overall athletic performance. The RIT baseball coach was interested because that coach had briefly worked with juggling with the Los Angeles Dodgers. This then resulted in Greg getting a job at RIT—which started his career there—and led to his development of the RIT Juggling Club that also included teaching juggling classes.

As Greg’s job at RIT became more involved, Jeff Peden became more active with teaching Greg’s juggling classes. Jeff assumed the role of coordinating the Juggle-In with the RIT Juggling Club and has produced the Saturday evening show for over 25 years. Over the years both Jeff and Greg have worked together as advisors for the RIT Juggling Club. Greg gives great credit to Jeff for his enthusiasm and juggling networking which has been a main reason for the continued success of both the RIT Juggling Club and the Juggle-In. Jeff also notes that many jugglers have gotten their start at the RIT Juggle-In, including Wes Peden and Matan Presberg (both Rochester natives); and Warren Hammond (an RIT alum), to name only a few.

If you’ve read my recent juggling festival recaps, you know that I like to provide a bit of additional information about the area where the festival is located; and this recap is no exception. Geographically, Rochester is on Lake Ontario and is a reasonable car, train, or bus ride away for those on the East Coast of the United States or Canada. Amtrak currently collectively offers eight trains daily, serving the Louise M. Slaughter Rochester Station (ROC) with the following destinations (with numerous stops between): Boston/New York City – Chicago, Niagara Falls – New York City, and Toronto – New York City. The Frederick Douglass Greater Rochester International Airport (ROC) currently offers numerous nonstop flights from the East Coast, as well as from Detroit, Chicago, and Las Vegas.

If you are at a juggling festival, you’ve got to eat while you are there, and Rochester, New York is the location of the main office and distribution manufacturing headquarters of the East Coast grocery / supermarket store Wegmans. What we today know as “Wegmans” actually started in 1916 as the Rochester Fruit & Vegetable Company and currently has over 110 stores, with eight states with locations from New York to North Carolina and the District of Columbia (soon to be expanding into Connecticut). Wegmans has numerous choices of prepared cuisine options and self-service food bars to fit all food preferences or dietary needs, with plenty of comfortable seating and tables available in the store for you to enjoy their extensive culinary options.

If you’re looking for a convenient place to eat or get some food and snacks to fuel your juggling while in Rochester, there are many Wegmans locations in the immediate area to choose from. I’ve always been impressed with their extensive produce selection, bakery department, cheese selection, prepared foods and sushi selection, and beautiful floral department, just to name a few of the departments within each store. It’s no doubt my favorite grocery store to visit, so if you have never been to one before, I’d recommend checking one out while in the area.

Rochester is also home to the Strong National Museum of Play, which is a highly interactive, collection-based museum devoted to the history and exploration of play. Currently the full price admission is $25 and there are admission add-on options for either the butterfly garden (+$6), skyline climb (+$8), or both (+$12). There is also a Friday evening half-price ticket option ($12.50), as well as a two-day ticket option ($37.50). The museum has numerous permanent exhibits on video games, board games, a play lab, the toy hall of fame, a Wegmans super kids market, a reading adventure land, a pinball arcade area, a dance lab, a carousel and train, a 1700-gallon aquarium, areas dedicated to American comic book heroes, the Berenstain Bears, and Sesame Street, as well as numerous short-term exhibits. There are also many options to dine at the museum as well as a large museum store. Considering how much juggling has roots in the act of play, this museum is definitely worth checking out if you have the opportunity, and anyone of any age, or the whole family, can find something to appreciate while visiting.

Of course huge props go out to RIT for working together with the RIT Juggling Club to host the RIT Juggle-In event and its members, including Kyra and Rocco, and especially Greg Moss, Jeff Peden, and Joe Showers for all of their effort that they, and many others, each put into organizing the 45th RIT Juggle-In for all of its attendees! Also, during the Saturday evening show, Jay Ko recorded the acts for the performers, and in addition there were also two photographers in attendance who were able to provide professional photos for the performers. The RIT Juggle-In is always welcoming more attendees and has typically been in April, so be on the lookout to attend this incredible event next year!

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.