I was recently asked what my real name was by a magician. I told him David Cain was my real name, although I admitted that in day to day life away from the juggling world, I generally go by Dave. Nevertheless, he was surprised that I had been born with such a “stage-ready name,” as he called it. His real name was very hard to pronounce and spell, so he went by a stage name, as is quite common in the world of show business. Many of the most famous acting and music stars are not known by the name on their birth certificates. The same is true, to a lesser extent, in the world of juggling. This was especially the case in earlier times. The magician’s question got me thinking about jugglers’ stage names and I decided it might be fun to put together a quick little game for the juggling community to play. Below I will list the real names of well-known jugglers. If the performer only changed their last name, I’ll put “Mr.” or ” Ms.” instead of their first name. You can send answers to me at davidcainjuggler@hotmail.com and the juggler with the most correct answers or the first to have them all correct will win a year’s membership to the IJA and the praise of their peers. I’d encourage you to see how many you can get without doing an internet search first. Then you can turn to Google. You have until one month from the publishing of this article to submit answers. I hope you learn about some jugglers you’re not aware of in doing this quiz. The results and answers will be published next month. Let’s get started.
1. Mr. Commarota
2. Ms. Freidberg
3. Mr. Krakow
4. Mr. Kuhn
5. Dan Jeffery
6. Karl Karrer
7. Cinthia Buitron
8. Mr. Spah
9. Mr. Francis
10. Zsilak Gyorgy
11. Francisco Tebar Saez
12. Gerald Greenberg
13. Harold Hart
14. Bjorn Gammals
15. Jens Thorwachter
16. Joe Pegnato
17. Michael Steiner
18. Mr. Kiktev
19. Mr. Moreira
20. Mr. Loksa
21. Ludwig Mayer
22. Leon Svendsen
23. Mr. Neisser
24. Giulia Stutzbarth Perez
25. Adolph Behrend
26. Ms. Kleinbarth
27. Mr. Fifield
28. Paul Burke
29. Didier Dupin
30. Mr. Emil Otto Braun
31. Martha Firschke
32. Thomas Cromwell–Knox
33. William Claude Dukenfield
34. Arthur Kaulfuss
35. Paul Pickelmann
36. Gerhard Scholz
37. Waldemar Pätzold
38. Mr. Renner (the son)
39. Mr. Fomitcheff
40. Paul Wingrave
41. Dora Forster
42. Peter Elliott
43. Mr. Hanus
44. Victor Kopelky
45. Alfred Wolf
46. Heinrich Goldschmidt
47. Peter Mark Nielsen
48. Thomas Horton
49. Joseph Henry Stephens
50. Joseph Stadtmuller
51. Jesse C. Goodhue
52. Bert Elliot
53. Antole Dedessus le Moutier
54. Albert Stevens
Good luck!!
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).