What was it like to emerge a legend before the wave of pros many of us were mentored by? I talked with Larry Vee, one of the greats of the New Vaudeville era, about his career. Having written about his act for Suspended Animation, a comedy magazine, I thought it time to revisit Vee’s juggling and his work with the public. We caught up at recent IJA Festivals and had some fun (and funny) interviews.
I first met Larry (Vacksman) Vee at the Philadelphia Jugglers’ Club and later at many of the same juggling events and competitions. Larry Vee is one of those jugglers who doesn’t resemble anyone else with his routines on stilts, pogo sticks, hula hoops, rola bolas and ball spinning. His acts with music and comedy are sure to impresses the audience. He described some of his tricks. “I used to juggle 4 clubs while balancing on the board and spinning a hula hoop. On the balancing board, hula hoop, spinning a basketball and balancing a pool cue on my head.” His biggest variations include a combination of fire tricks at once.
“It wasn’t too terribly hard to juggle while spinning a hula hoop, but it was on a balancing board.” Like a conductor he propels an orchestra of objects and brings coordinated chaos into logical, magical flight patterns. This is key to the juggler’s art and Vee finds a way to revolve space and time costumed like an athlete-turned-superhero.
To start he learned how to juggle 4 balls on a board while spinning a hula hoop. “The way I chose to do it was juggling 4 balls while spinning the hula hoop on the ground and then it was hard to juggle 3 balls while spinning the hula hoop on the board.”
Vacksman explained that his Theory of Relativity states, “For every difficult juggling trick there is a relatively less difficult juggling trick that will enable you to learn the original difficult juggling trick. For example if you want to do 5 balls the tricks that I recommend are doing a 3-ball shower from right to left and also do a left-handed shower that is a reverse. Then you can do a chase that is like juggling 5 with 2 balls missing.
“Juggling language is not very universal,” he says. “For 5 balls you might need to do a 3-ball flash. It’s possible to flash 3, juggle 3 up in the air and flash again (continuously). It’s possible to do 3 throws, you’re empty handed” and clap. It’s good to be able to do a flash before you do 5 balls. Any time you want to juggle while doing something else one thing you might do is do that trick while juggling one, two, three. Find another trick to build up to it.
“If you want to learn how to juggle on a unicycle learn how to ride with your hands folded across your chest. If you’re trying to juggle while idling, idling is really exhausting. If you’re a 5-ball juggler and you can do 20 cycles of idling you’ll be able to do it a whole lot better than you were doing it before. That way you won’t be using your arms to balance. And if it’s hard to ride with arms folded tightly you can do it with your arms held loosely. Then you can do it with your arms tightly. This might work on a balancing board or on a tight or slack rope.”
To balance an object “I recommend focusing on the top of the object and throwing the objects into the line of vision without moving your eyes. You must keep your eyes focused on the top of that object. My way is to throw the objects into the line of vision. If you can’t do that then you need to learn how to juggle objects while balancing.” Of Philadelphia Larry Vee says, “I was performing in 1980. There was no jugglers’ club.” Recently, while attending the IJA, I entered a contest for inventive tricks. Larry Vee won for his combination juggling on rola bola. On another occasion in 1989 we were “Cinderella” medalists at the IJA’s Lucas Cup. Vee also won a Bronze medal the next year for a lively routine that got the audience participating along with the music. In Baltimore he won a Silver. Included here is his 1989 performance. I always thought of Vee as a juggler who had an effect outside the field.
It surprised me when he said that he was really known only among jugglers. “The Amazing Larry Vee” reaches the public such as at the Philadelphia Art Museum while inspiring jugglers with his original combination tricks and comedy. In juggling there isn’t really an opponent. Vee is like a rock climber on his own with gravity, balancing above the crowds on pogo stick, unicycle or rola bola. Jugglers often have a larger following than we ourselves expect given the popular appeal of our skills.
Vee got his start in school talent shows and is still friends with his 9th grade show organizer. Like many in juggling and new vaudeville it wasn’t long before he was doing professional shows. “One of my first professional jobs was on the Michael Douglas Show,” he recalls. They had the noted basketball coach, and I did a routine with 3 basketballs. It wasn’t my best stuff but I got to say I was on the Mike Douglas Show.” He also mentioned his appearance on the David Letterman show’s “Is This Anything” segment. “There was the day I got on the Letterman Show but all I did on that was the four tricks at once, idling on the giraffe unicycle, hula hoop, ring- around-the-wrist while juggling three balls.
“Recently, I did a job that was really good. A band, “The Yarn,” hired me in Virginia and it was one of the best shows I’ve ever done.” He continues, “One Halloween Weekend was one of the best. The event was “The Yarnival.” Everyone was really with me the most I ever had the whole way through. It was one of the best comedy shows I’ve ever done. It wasn’t one of the most technical. The audience was with me the whole time.”
He has become a Philadelphia hero to many kids and adults locally and to TV audiences who have enjoyed the thrills and comedy of The Amazing Larry Vee. “I performed in Barcelona, Spain in the Spring, That was fun. I did two TV shows in Spain.” Vee said they were among his best shows and helped with his knowledge of foreign language.
“I recently saw my video of the 1989 show,” He reminisced. “You were great!” I said to him having also caught the act on video being in the dark at the time. “Thanks! I wasn’t 100 percent confident either!” he replied, “I would dance but I was not smiling. Later I smiled more. The bronze medal was (a following year). Funny dancing.” The music with Vacksman’s energy scored with the audience. Once again., his variety of tricks impressed.
Of competing he said, “There were all those IJA competitions. I really worked hard to put together all the tricks in the right order and to get music for them. I came in second twice in ‘79 and ‘89. In 1981, ‘82, and ‘83 he won Phil Awards (three times) for Most Incredible at the Groundhog Day Juggling Festival in Atlanta the same years as Anthony Gatto, Benji Hill and Robert Peck.
“I was on a TV show in 1989 and my pogo stick broke the night before the show. I had to go down to the basement to fix it. It’s many times easier than a unicycle. I just juggle on it. I don’t spin a hula hoop on it. So that was a six-foot pogo stick and the pole bent. It was a local TV show, I think it was called ‘The Morning Show.’ This was the Philadelphia show.”
We talked about the balance in juggling of women and minorities. “There are a lot of very very good female jugglers, I’m looking at one right now!… it’s because women are not as interested in sports as men are. Definitely when you try to teach people they can’t learn as easily because they can’t catch a ball. And sometimes I’ve recommended to people that they find a kid and play catch and then they can juggle.” “As to why there are not as many minority jugglers, when you think of the great Black and Hispanic entertainers you would think that there would be… it could be that it just hasn’t caught on with them. It has been noted that there used to be many fewer Black tennis players like Venus and Serena and now there are more.”
Vacksman noticed his knowledge of Spanish helps open the pursuit to minorities. As we know from the IRC there is a juggling scene in South America and many places worldwide. “I am the assistant benevolent director of the Philadelphia Jugglers’ Club. We were happy to have any minorities, black or Hispanic, and remember I speak Spanish! There’s Gabrielle Estrada. He was living in Philadelphia couple of years ago. He’s become a legend in Las Vegas.”
To follow the Vee’s accomplishments and career visit Dan Holzman’s podcast. You can also attend the Philadelphia Juggling Club in Vee’s town of Collingsdale, PA and often find him running his impressive skills there and encouraging others. The recent Philadelphia School of the Circus Arts accreditation, begun by Greg & Shana Kennedy, increases the popularity and accessibility of juggling.
Contact Larry at Larryvee7@gmail.com or 215-833-9482 to find out more about the Philadelphia Juggling Club, the Philly juggling fest in June, and his other projects.
Cindy Marvell
Cindy Marvell began making her mark on New York ceilings at age twelve and has been juggling professionally since graduating from Oberlin College in 1988. The following year she became the first woman ever to win the International Jugglers' Association Championships. She has toured as a cast member with the Off Broadway show Lazer Vaudeville since 1994 including shows in Singapore, England, Saudi Arabia, Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Alaska, and North America. Her solo work has taken her to Europe, Japan, and ex-Soviet Georgia. In the early 90s she joined San Francisco's Pickle Family Circus with director Larry Pisoni, performing at the Palace of Fine Arts, the Guthrie Theater, and Cincinnati Playhouse-in-the-Park. She studied dance at the Limon Institute and the Isadora Duncan Foundation, performing with Howard Fireheart's dance theater company in the East Village. New York shows include Bouncing Back at the Dance Theater Workshop, Ladyfingers at Lincoln Center Out-of-Doors, Young People's Concerts at Avery Fisher Hall, Sesame Street and the N.Y. Renaissance Festival. She has won two Groundhog Awards (the first solo woman) and a team silver medal at the IJA with the trio Darn, Good and Funny. She is co-founder of the Boulder Circus Center and has also taught at the Big Apple Circus School. DVDs include A Juggling Journey (I & II), Trailblazers: Women Who Juggle, Lazer Vaudeville Off Broadway, and Juggling for Japan (available on amazon.com to benefit earthquake response). She has written a young adult novel, "Shadow Princess: An Indonesian Story" with co-author and puppeteer Tamara Fielding. The book, a performance adventure story, is available on amazon.com and the Barnes & Noble website. Last August, she performed at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in Scotland with Freedom Family Circus and was featured in David Michelak's Slow Dance. She has a son, Theo, with hoop juggler Carter Brown.