Adding the Michael Chirrick / Lottie Brunn Collection to the Museum of Juggling History

By David Cain

In April of 2025, the juggling world lost one of its brightest stars, Michael Chirrick. You can read the obituary I wrote for him by clicking here. In the months that followed, I chatted frequently with his wife, Diana Chirrick. She made the decision to donate Michael’s props and juggling memorabilia to the Museum of Juggling History, along with donating the props and books that belonged to Michael’s mother, juggling icon Lottie Brunn. This was done in order to help maintain the memories of Michael and Lottie in a way that would honor them the best. In late October, I had three days open in my schedule to travel from Middletown, OH, where the museum is located, to Diana’s home in Branson, Missouri, retrieve these treasures from juggling’s most famous family, and drive home. The first day consisted of driving ten hours through the rain, passing by dozens of interesting tourist destinations, both well-known and obscure. These included the St. Louis Arch, Six Flags Amusement Park, the world’s largest gift shop, the world’s largest rocking chair, and numerous caves and caverns opened to the public. When I arrived in Branson, I recognized various theaters and other venues in this famous entertainment town. The last time I visited Branson was around 16 years ago. I had seen Michael perform twice during that visit and had lunch with him. Diana had reserved a suite at the resort where she works and was there to greet me when I arrived. She got me checked in and we made arrangements for the following day.

The next morning, I arrived at Diana and Michael’s condo fairly early and we began going through Michael’s office, which he called his “cave.” Michael had shown me photos of this room several times.

A wall in Michael’s Chirrick’s “Cave”

Another wall of the Cave

The walls were covered in photos, props, posters, and memorabilia from his career, along with the careers of his mother and uncles, Francis Brunn and Ernest Montego. Diana informed me that the condo was previously the home of Lottie and her husband, Ted Chirrick. We began by going through props. Lottie’s suitcase full of her props was first. I had seen photos of this many times and it was exactly as I had seen it.

The museum already had a few of Lottie’s props from various sources, but this was more or less her complete set of props for a performance. It contained her famous cage-head clubs, spinning balls, toss juggling balls of various sizes, mouth stick, head pedestal, and many rings of various sizes and colors. Here are photos of the Lottie props now on display in the museum.

Lottie Brunn’s IJA Historical Achievement Award, her spinning ball, and various rings, including her complete set of color change rings

More rings, Lottie’s cage-head clubs, and her 3-ball routine balls and 5-ball routine balls

Lottie’s head pedestal, mouth stick, and other spinning or pedestal balls

Lottie’s arm and leg rings

The complete Lottie Brunn display

Here are some photos of Lottie using some of these iconic props. Most of these photos come from Lottie’s personal scrapbooks and photo albums. Future articles will share the contents of these.

Then we went through an enormous number of props that belonged to Michael. These included two gigantic duffle bags of props and various loose items in his closet. Here are just a portion of Michael’s props that I brought back.

The above props include his various spinning balls, large toss juggling balls, torches, nunchaku, mouth sticks, rings of various sizes and types, pedestals, bottles, flower vase, and fake bowling balls. The bottom photo also shows Michael’s shoes, vests, and hats. Not shown are his golf clubs for the famous golf club balance and his tennis racket devil stick.

Here are the props of Michael’s that I was able to fit into the museum exhibit.

Some of Michael’s balls, mouth sticks, torch, pedestal, nunchaku, and golf balls

Michael Chirrick’s tennis racket devil stick and hand sticks, flower vase, spinning ball, pedestal, and various rings, along with his IJA Award of Excellence

Michael’s golf clubs for the famous golf club balance trick

Here are some photos of Michael using some of these props.

Unfortunately, most of Michael’s spinning balls wouldn’t fit in the display cabinet. Nevertheless, Lottie and Michael now have more display space devoted to them than any of the other hundreds of jugglers honored in the Museum of Juggling History.

Included in Michael’s possessions were two Francis Brunn props; a pedestal and a cage-head club. You can see them on display and in use below.

Props, shoes, and hat from Francis Brunn, along with the Circus Ring of Fame Plaque for Francis and Lottie

Circus Ring of Fame Award

We were also given a Nathalie Enterline hat, Bobby May ball, numerous framed photos, and many juggling books owned by Michael or Lottie, including Lottie’s personal copies of two of Karl-Heinz Ziethen’s books. Also donated were a large, framed poster of Michael and a wonderful painting of Lottie, which are both now on display in the museum.

Also donated were the juggling beanbags that Lottie juggled in her retirement, a juggling sweatshirt of Lottie’s, and a personalized fringed blanket or throw, all of which you can see below.

Much thanks to Diana Chirrick for trusting me and the museum with these treasures. As with all the jugglers included in the Museum of Juggling History, we aim to honor and celebrate those who have contributed so much to our art form.

David Cain and Diana Chirrick, holding a poster of Michael Chirrick

By lunch time, my SUV was packed full. Diana then took me to lunch at Michael’s favorite restaurant and then treated me to two of Branson’s hundreds of shows. We went to the Grand Shanghai Circus and Anthems of Rock. A review of the Grand Shanghai Circus show will be coming out soon, as it was filled with tons of juggling acts.

On day three, I drove home, this time in beautiful weather. After a few days of shows, I was able to unpack and display these new treasures in a new display case obtained specifically for this collection. If you want to see props from Michael Chirrick, his mother Lottie Brunn, and his uncles Francis Brunn and Ernest Montego, come to the museum or come see the exhibit on the Brunn Family that the museum will be presenting at next year’s IJA Festival in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

Lottie Brunn’s and Michael Chirrick’s props on display in the Museum of Juggling History in Middletown, Ohio