One of the most unique juggling acts of all time was performed by juggler and musician Frank Bamber “Franco” Piper. Piper was born in 1877 in Redbourn, Hertfordshire, England, but moved to South Africa in his late teens and lived there for many years. He was a child prodigy at playing the banjo, but wasn’t content to simply play the …
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Mikhail Rudenko, Inventor of Russian Balls
Article by Stanislav Vysotskyi. Mikhail (Michael) Kuzmich Rudenko (rus.: Михаил Кузмич Руденко) is the Ukrainian juggler who invented the semi-filled juggling stage balls that became known as Russian balls. He is a great juggler, who when he was young, practiced very hard with no mercy on himself. He has been an inspiration to many other jugglers, but has never been …
The Rudenko Brothers
The Rudenko Brothers were one of the top juggling duos of the middle of the twentieth century. Their career started in the 1930s and ended in the 1970s. Igor and George Rudenko started out as a silent act doing tempo / flash / technical juggling in the style of Rastelli, but transitioned over time to a talking comedy act with …
EJC 2016 HLGCBS as organiser
This is my HLGCBS from the EJC 2016, from an organisers point of view. EJC of course stands for the European Juggling Convention, which was held for this summer from the 30th of July until the 7th of August in Almere, the Netherlands! HLGCBS stands for High, Low, Goal, Crush, Bane, Surprise, a structure commonly used to review juggling conventions. …
Juggling Rings: Their History, Development, and Innovation – Part 2
In Part 1 of this series, I discussed the history and development of juggling rings. In this second half of the discussion, we’ll focus on various innovative, functional, and novelty rings. Innovative and Functional Rings Ernest Montego was the first juggler I’m aware of to put “edge bumpers” on his rings to make them easier on the hands. Jay Green …
Scott Cain – Updates on Previous eJuggle Articles
For this month’s article, I thought I would do some follow-ups on my previous twenty articles. I’ve been writing for eJuggle for just over a year and a half now. I (usually) enjoy hearing from readers on my articles, some of which ask specifically for feedback, ideas, or assistance. In some cases, I actually go back into articles and make …
Juggling Rings: Their History, Development, and Innovation – Part 1
In 2014, I wrote a five part series on the history and development of the juggling club. As readers of that series found, there are a myriad of ways that clubs have been made over the past 150 years. There are hundreds of variations of types of clubs. While this type of wide variation doesn’t exist with rings, there are …
Kurios – a review
“Kurios – Cabinet of Curiosities,” a new Cirque du Soleil production written and directed by Michel Laprise premiered in Montreal on April 24th 2014. It is currently playing in New York City (on Randell’s Island), and will proceed on November 27th to Miami, Dallas, Houston, Winnipeg, Portland, and Vancouver; then on to Central and South America, followed by Europe and Asia. …
Chinko – The Clever Boy Juggler
Chinko was born Thomas Cromwell–Knox in England in 1880. His entire family was involved in show business. He started out performing a juggling act called The Cromwells with his brother, Teddy, who went on to become a famous comedian. When Thomas started as a solo act, he took on the stage name Chinko as a tribute to his idol, Paul …