By JoAnn Ireland
Madfest is organized by the Madison Area Jugglers, and is a donation-run, free admission juggling festival taking place in January (1/17 to 1/19 this year) at the Madison Circus Space and the nearby Georgia O’Keeffe Middle School, all located in the vibrant state capital of Madison, Wisconsin.
All skill levels are welcome at the juggling festival, and there was also space for unicycling. The juggling festivities kicked off on Friday evening at the Madison Circus Space.
There was a unique workshop by Michelle Hackett, who makes Wisconsin her home, on how to blow large soap film bubbles. To a crowd of twenty children and adults, Michelle demonstrated how to blow bubbles through a closed-loop forefinger and thumb as well as other hand configurations without additional tools like wands.
She also demonstrated how to merge bubbles together and visually tell when a bubble was starting to look like it was getting old and much more likely to pop (its color changes from a rainbow sheen to a grayish black).
Utilizing three five-gallon industrial buckets with a foamy blue soap solution – and a large tarp to protect the wood flooring at the circus space – Michelle allowed many individuals to successfully create large soap bubbles by the end of the workshop. Everyone had a good time playing and creating bubbles, but many of the adults’ attention spans outlasted those of the younger kids in attendance.
- Michelle Hackett of Wisconsin demonstrating how to create multiple large soap bubbles.
- Juggling at the Madison Circus Space on Friday evening.
Saturday afternoon had a gym packed with jugglers and unicyclists at the Georgia O’Keeffe Middle School. Two prop vendors were in attendance and the Madison Area Jugglers were selling current and past festival t-shirts.
There was unicycle hockey in a separate upstairs gym and a workshop by Taylor Glenn about how to do frostbite, a six-count three-ball pattern with elements of the siteswap 441 as well as under-arm throws. A few other workshops – for example, one on club stacking – took place throughout the weekend. The gym closed at 5 p.m. for jugglers to take a break and get some dinner in the neighborhood before the evening show.
- Juggling at the O’Keeffe Middle School Saturday afternoon.
- Peter juggling three clubs, spinning a ball on a mouthstick, spinning a ring on his right foot, while balancing on a portable slackline.
- Taylor Glenn teaching the three ball pattern frostbite to workshop attendees.
- Juggling at the O’Keeffe Middle School Saturday afternoon.
Taylor Glenn demonstrating the three-ball pattern frostbite.
The Saturday evening show was in the packed Barrymore Theatre, which holds almost 1,000 people and is conveniently located near O’Keeffe Middle School and the Madison Circus Space.
As people entered the theater, they had the pleasure of being entertained by the very enthusiastic, 30-piece Forward Marching Band from Madison. If you’ve been to a juggling show before, you know you are in for a unique time – often including balloons in the theater before the show — and this was no exception.
The audience members were thoroughly enjoying the balloon shenanigans before the show; however, the guy running the soundboard was not having any of that, and could be seen with an assistant nearby popping any balloons that entered his airspace. My sincere apologies go out to this gentleman, but the collective audience was no doubt relishing the fun from the flying balloons.
- Forward Marching Band of Madison, Wisconsin.
- Soundboard operator at the Barrymore Theatre.
The show was emceed by Madison’s Mark Hayward, well-known for his yo-yo skills and novelty tricks.
The show got off to a great start with Jack Denger from Indianapolis, Indiana, who has been juggling for twenty years and has been on the Top 40 Jugglers list five times. Jack started with numerous impressive tricks with three, five, and then seven balls, making great use of the stage. He continued his act with three clubs with multiple pirouettes, five club backcrosses, a razor-thin 97531 through the narrow curtains, and concluded with an astounding seven club flash.
Sophie Shapeless was next, balancing on a rolling globe while hula hooping, and later completing a seal roll on the floor with a hoop atop her head. She concluded her act by spinning up to four hoops on her arms while on a rolling globe.
Alex Devaux and Becky Krueger were next. They are circus educators with the Novel Motion Circus and also teach youth classes at the Madison Circus Space. Alex and Becky selected a non-juggler from the audience, challenging themselves to teach him to juggle in 30 seconds. Through the trickery of replacing one, then both, of their volunteer’s hands with their own, they successfully achieved this goal. They continued their act with some two person balancing while juggling and also passed balls within a German wheel, Alex hanging upside-down by his feet and Becky balanced on top.
Kaylin Meyers was the next act. Based on her introduction, the audience learned that she started juggling after breaking her arm, then sharing her journey online of learning to juggle as physical rehabilitation. Kaylin did a three-ball piece with the theme of a student preparing for a test who takes a break to juggle and let loose. Her slams and mess patterns were accompanied by an enthusiastic stage presence.
Christian Kloc was the last act of the first half, and also happens to be a two-time IJA Battle Night champion. He started with a club balance and ring manipulation piece, then did a highly technical act with three clubs, four clubs while balancing one, and finished with five clubs, all to a soundtrack of two versions of the song ‘Dreamlover.’
The Mad Jugglers – local heroes of club passing who were dressed in clothing from the 1960s and 1970s – were the first act of the second half of the show. The 14-member group did many impressive and complex passing patterns with LED clubs and a large iridescent exercise “disco” ball while also breaking into smaller groups on stage.
- The Mad Jugglers demonstrating their passing skills.
- The Mad Jugglers tossing LED clubs high in the air.
Up next was Iman Lizarazu whose performing life started in juggling and then morphed into clowning – she once studied with Marcel Marceau – and whose achievements include a PhD in Astrophysics.
During her act, the stage was set with a table, a Champagne bottle, and a chair. Iman proceeded to open her own birthday present and pulled out a stuffed clown that was dressed in a white outfit just like her own. She then found a tall volunteer to comedically reach a clown nose affixed to the upstage curtain.
Eventually she launched the stuffed clown into a captain’s seat and used the inverted table and champagne bottle as a balance board, going on an adventurous aerial journey with the miniature clown along for the ride. On the Monday after the festival, Iman taught a workshop on eccentric clowning at the Madison Circus Space.
Cate Great closed out the evening, first balancing on one rola-bola atop a red and white circus pedestal, then atop two rola-bolas. She had her impromptu stagehand (Christian from the first act) hand her three machetes that she then juggled while balancing on two rola-bolas, joking that in this juggling festival audience, “Who couldn’t juggle three knives on a rola-bola?” Cate concluded her act by balancing atop a total of five cylinders to the audience’s amazement.
After the Saturday evening show, jugglers gathered at the Madison Circus Space to watch a more informal Renegade show.
It was an honor to have Iman Lizarazu present. Iman was one of the founders of the Renegade show concept, which first took place at the 1986 IJA festival in San Jose, California, because some of the jugglers didn’t like all of the rules of the IJA shows and wanted an alternative stage on which to perform.
Renegade acts at Madfest included an individual on a slack line that was held by ten volunteers; two pairs of jugglers in two-highs who passed six clubs across the top and six balls across the bottom; another balancing/juggling act where the individual on top juggled three dusters; a two-person club spinning act; a beautiful three beanbag/spoken word piece where snaps were received all around; a piece with a large kendama known as a harudama (available for purchase at this link); and finally the patented ‘red/blue’ three-stick routine using the template of the legendary Luke Wilson, who performed this piece at Madfest in 2007 (see video of Luke’s performance here).
There was a glow prop jam after the Renegade show.
On Sunday, juggling continued at the O’Keeffe Middle School, where unicycle hockey continued and juggling games commenced. Passing is a big deal with the Madison Area Jugglers, so much so that they have a passing pattern book, a collection of patterns for intermediate to advanced passers. On Sunday, they had a “Big Pattern” with over 30 attendees participating.
- Juggling at O’Keeffe Middle School Sunday afternoon.
- Individuals participating in the Big Pattern at O’Keeffe Middle School.
- Unicycle hockey at O’Keeffe Middle School.
- Unicycle hockey at O’Keeffe Middle School.
Madison isn’t known for the most pleasant weather in January, nor is its weather necessarily the most predictable, so you might need to make some last-minute changes or cancellations. That did happen to me last year, but I’m so glad that I was able to go to Madison this time around.
The weather was in the high 40s in Madison on Friday and by Sunday afternoon it was in the single digits; however, there was very little snow on the ground all weekend, which made getting around the city very easy. Mark Hayward appropriately reminded attendees during the Saturday evening show that MONDO is coming up at the end of February in St. Paul, Minnesota, where it would be colder than Madison.
In Madison, the large lakes (Lake Mendota and Lake Monona) were frozen. It was fun to see people walking and skating on the lakes. Additionally, the city was the location for the 54th IJA Festival in 2001 and is home to the beautiful University of Wisconsin. Madison is also known for the architecture of Frank Llyod Wright, who called Madison home. There are numerous great affordable restaurants and lots of fun, unique shops in the area.
The University of Wisconsin at Madison also has the incredible Chazen Museum of Art (half of which is currently under renovation), which included numerous pieces such as the Typewriter Eraser by the American sculptor Claes Oldenburg and unique supporting notebook drawings; an Andy Warhol red, yellow, and green serigraph of Marilyn Monroe; and the Under the Wave off Kanagawa more commonly known as The Great Wave, by Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai.
For fans of the comedy genius Rodney Dangerfield and his 1986 movie, “Back to School,” some scenes were shot on the University of Wisconsin – Madison campus, although it was called Grand Lakes University in the movie.
So if you visit Madfest, consider bringing a spouse (bonus points if it’s your own, that’s your call if you want to bring somebody else’s spouse), significant other, another family member, or friend who might not necessarily be interested in juggling, but who would be interested in visiting a city that has so much more to offer even in blustery January. Next year’s Madfest is currently planned for the weekend of January 16-18, 2026.
Leave your comments below to help make sure the Barrymore Theatre soundboard guy (and the kind folks there who clean up after all of our popped balloons) want the jugglers to come back next year.
Written and photographed by JoAnn Ireland.