There is no prop more closely associated with juggling than the club. Balls are common objects and rings are not easily recognized by the general public as a juggling prop. Despite the club appearing after the use of balls (by thousands of years) and rings (by four or five decades, at least), it is the most iconic prop. It has also had the most variation during its 150 year history. I’ve written a great deal about the history and development of clubs in the past, but today I want to shine some light on ten more of the most unique juggling clubs. They will be in no particular order.
However, I will state that I’m not going to go over every type and permutation of juggling clubs. I’ve already written about hollow wooden clubs, fiberglass clubs, wicker clubs, skeleton clubs, ball end clubs, cork clubs, foam clubs, multi-piece clubs, and many others. Here we’ll examine more oddball or rare examples.
Joe Cook’s Giant Basket Club
Joe Cook
This is one of vaudeville superstar Joe Cook’s giant basket clubs made by Harry Lind.
Metal-Bodied Club
This is a 1950s club with a metal body and wooden handle.
Goliath Clubs
These are Goliath clubs, the largest usable juggling clubs ever made. They are 34 inches long and 7 inches in diameter.
Tony Fercos Elastic Club
This is Tony Fercos’ Elastic Rebound Club. He would toss it out toward the audience and pull it back to great effect. You can see him use it in this fashion around the 45 second mark of the following video.
Dew Drop Jugglers’ Claw Club
This is a functioning robotic claw club featured in the Dew Drop Jugglers’ gold medal winning act spy-themed act from 1996.
Team Rootberry Mustache Club
This is one of Team Rootberry’s mustache clubs. It’s another laser-cut club made by Jo Kamm.
Pocket Clubs
Pocket Clubs (patent pending) are the world’s only collapsible juggling club. Each has the weight and balance of a normal juggling club, but telescopes shut to fit in your pocket. Less than 6″ long collapsed, they extend to 20″ long.
Passe Passe Modular Clubs
French juggling manufacturer Passe Passe released their Modular Juggling System in 2000. The props featured club handles that can be attached to club, torch, or knife bodies. They are quite rare and were only sold for a brief time.
Jenny Jaeger Metal Clubs
These are metal clubs used by Jenny Jaeger during her career. They are quite unique in their design and appearance.
Jenny Jaeger
Eva Vida’s Upholstered Clubs
This is one of Eva Vida’s iconic upholstered clubs. They are squeezable, bejeweled, and have mother of pearl handles.
Eva Vida
As you can see, there are many clubs designed with out-of-the-box thinking.
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).