By David Cain
It is with a heavy heart that we announce that Joe Pegnato, better known to the juggling and entertainment world as Bobby Jule, has passed away on May 31st, 2026. Bobby was the last surviving charter member of the IJA and was the headliner at the first IJA Convention in 1948.
Joe Pegnato was born in 1924 in New Castle, Pennsylvania (USA). He was one of the breakout juggling stars from the USA in the 1940s and enjoyed a forty-year performing career. A trick that he invented in 1943, the gag of tossing up a ping pong ball and catching it balanced on the tip of the nose with the aid of rubber cement, is still performed by jugglers, magicians, and comedians today. Bobby Jule was a versatile and successful juggler who traveled around the world entertaining audiences.
Early Life
His parents immigrated from Italy in 1907 and raised a family of ten children. Joe was the youngest of seven boys. When he was two years old, the family moved to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, so that his oldest brother could attend college. The relocation also proved beneficial for the entire family. From an early age, Joe’s family was deeply involved in gymnastics, and all of his brothers competed in gymnastic meets. Their coach was a Russian gymnast, and under his guidance their school won the city championships for twenty-one consecutive years. Two of his brothers earned gold medals in competition.
He also achieved success in gymnastics, particularly in club swinging. While many people today are unaware that club swinging was once an Olympic event, he excelled in the discipline, winning a gold medal every year in city competition and earning a silver medal at the state level. He believed that he may have lost a state championship because of his innovative approach to the event. Rather than using the standard one-pound wooden clubs during the traditional two-minute routine, he performed with decorated Harry Lind clubs and incorporated a club toss into his act. In his view, the judges did not appreciate the showmanship he brought to the routine and may have marked him down for departing from convention.
Learning To Juggle and Perform
He began juggling at the age of thirteen using wooden clubs from the gymnasium and billiard balls he found around the house. He was a self-taught juggler. One of the first professional jugglers he met was Art Jennings, founder of the International Jugglers’ Association (IJA). Jennings was encouraging and supportive during his early years and became an important influence and mentor. A skilled industrial pattern maker as well as a talented juggler, Jennings crafted several of the props that Bobby used early in his career. Another pro juggler who helped Bobby was Pryde Shannon, who helped him get his first booking agent. Bobby Jule made his professional debut in 1942. Initially, his act consisted of only ten minutes of juggling with balls, clubs, and tambourines.
That same year, he began receiving bookings throughout Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia. During this period, he met veteran booking agent Sid Marke, who quickly recognized his potential and offered to manage him. What began as a three-year management contract eventually evolved into a professional relationship that lasted four decades.
Freed from the business side of his career, he devoted himself to improving his skills. Bobby studied the work of many accomplished jugglers, including Boy Foy, Bob Du Pont, Bobby May, the Three Swifts, the Christiani Family, Chester Dolphin, Ben Beri, Trixie, Serge Flash, and the legendary Truzzi. Bobby May became his greatest inspiration.
An IJA Charter Member
In 1947, he attended the 1947 IBM Convention that ultimately led to the formation of the International Jugglers’ Association. At the juggling get together there, Bobby pulled a practical joke on the other jugglers in attendance. He introduced the world-class Chiesa Brothers as neighborhood boys who were just learning to juggle. After casually handing Sergio Chiesa additional rings during a demonstration, the brothers suddenly launched into an astonishing display of 8 and 9 ring juggling. The audience erupted in excitement, and the prank became a legendary story among early IJA members. That same week, Bobby became a charter member of the IJA.
National Success
Bobby’s agent Sid Marke believed that theaters provided the best training ground for an entertainer, particularly one incorporating comedy into an act. Under Marke’s guidance, Bobby joined Joe Karston’s “Cavalcade of Stars,” a traveling vaudeville-style production that toured extensively throughout the eastern United States. For three seasons, he performed up to five shows a day, learning valuable lessons from veteran performers. Throughout the 1940s and 1950s, he worked in theaters, nightclubs, hotels, amusement parks, fairs, circuses, USO shows, and countless private engagements. Along the way, he met and befriended many leading performers of the era.
As his reputation grew, he appeared in many of North America’s leading theaters and nightclubs. His engagements included the Chicago Theatre with Louis Armstrong, the Downtown Theatre in Detroit with Guy Lombardo and his Orchestra, and appearances alongside such bandleaders as Tony Pastor, Ted Lewis, Buddy DeFranco, Charlie Spivak, Buddy Morrow, and Ray McKinley’s Glenn Miller Orchestra.
One of the highlights of his career was performing at New York City’s legendary Palace Theatre, long regarded as the pinnacle of vaudeville success. He also appeared at the Strand Theatre, the Apollo Theater in Harlem, and on national television programs including The Ed Sullivan Show and the Paul Winchell and Jerry Mahoney Show, where he may have become one of the first performers to juggle five clubs on television.
Developing A Unique Style
Over time, he shifted his focus from pure technical juggling to comedy and audience engagement. Bobby developed routines that combined legitimate juggling skill with visual gags, mechanical devices, trick props, and theatrical surprises.
One signature routine involved shooting an errant juggling ball with a blank pistol, causing a surrender flag to pop out. Other routines humorously “revealed” balancing feats through magnets, fake blindfolds, Velcro, and other comedic devices. Some critics suggested that he was as much magician as juggler, a characterization he happily embraced.
His musical arrangements were also innovative, using specific cues to highlight individual tricks rather than simply providing background music.
International Career
In 1958, he began the first of many European tours. His engagements took him to Monte Carlo, Cannes, Nice, Venice, San Remo, and Campione before appearing at the prestigious Olympia Theatre in Paris alongside Edith Piaf.
He later performed extensively throughout Spain, Scandinavia, Germany, and Great Britain. London became a second home, with appearances at the Savoy Hotel, the London Palladium, Victoria Palace Theatre, Piccadilly Theatre Restaurant, and the famed Talk of the Town.
During his travels he renewed friendships with both Bobby May and Francis Brunn. He also discovered that audiences in Scandinavia were among the warmest and most appreciative he had ever encountered.
Among his favorite engagements were Copenhagen’s Tivoli Gardens and Berlin’s 1966 Deutsche Schlagerfestspiele television special, where he was the only variety act appearing alongside eighteen of Europe’s leading singers. The production featured a forty-piece orchestra performing specially arranged music for his act and represented one of the high points of his international career.
Education and Retirement
As the entertainment industry changed during the 1960s and 1970s, many of the theaters and nightclubs that had sustained variety performers began to disappear. Anticipating these changes, he enrolled at Carnegie Mellon University and earned a degree from the College of Fine Arts. He later completed a Master’s degree in Education at the University of Pittsburgh.
For more than two decades, he taught Art History, Graphic Arts, and Calligraphy at both the high school and college levels while continuing to perform during summers and vacations. Ironically, limiting his availability often resulted in some of the best engagements of his career, including return appearances throughout Europe and performances in Turkey, Greece, Japan, Taiwan, and Hong Kong.
His final professional engagement came in 1982 at the famous Crazy Horse Saloon in Paris. Difficult stage conditions convinced him that it was time to leave the profession, bringing to a close a forty-year career in show business. He retired from teaching ten years later after twenty-one years as an educator.
Personal Life
Away from the stage, Bobby enjoyed a fulfilling family life. He and his wife Maria shared more than six decades of marriage, and he credited her as the guiding force behind his success. Together they raised two sons, Kevin and Bob, both of whom established successful careers of their own.
In retirement, he devoted his time to his home, gardens, workshop, and a lifelong passion for filmmaking. He maintained an extensive collection of films and recordings documenting both his travels and his remarkable career in show business. He stayed connected to the juggling world through active friendships with many current jugglers, including Niels Duinker, Scott Cain, Kathy Doutt, David Cain, Dan Holzman, Jack Kalvan, and many others. He still attended the Not-Quite-Pittsburgh Juggling Festival and Fluggleburgh Juggling Festival when he could. In 2015, Jule attended the IJA Festival in Quebec City, Canada and received the IJA’s Historical Achievement Award.
In his retirement, Jule wrote his autobiography, “My Life as A Juggler”.
Juggling At 100
On July 27th, 2024, Bobby Jule turned 100 years old. He was still able to demonstrate a 3 ball cascade, as you can see in the video below. This made him the only known centenarian juggler.
Below are some videos of Bobby Jule, including a never before published video of his complete act.
And here is a video of Bobby’s act from near the end of his performing career.
Bobby Jule was beloved by many in the juggling community. Our condolences go out to all of his family, friends, and fans.
David Cain
David Cain is a professional juggler, juggling historian, and the owner of the world's only juggling museum, the Museum of Juggling History. He is a Guinness world record holder and 16 time IJA gold medalist. In addition to his juggling pursuits, David is a successful composer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and singer as well as the author of twenty-six books. He and his children live in Middletown, OH (USA).