In the past two months, the Historical Juggling Props Museum has received props from two of the most famous and talented French juggling acts of all time. While I’ve written about both of these acts before, new videos have been put online showcasing these amazing jugglers. I’ve also received new photos and / or information about these jugglers that I want to share with eJuggle readers.
Italo Medini
Italo Medini (1924-2015) was a wonderful French – Italian juggler who was famed for working in the style of Rastelli. His first two influences were Trixie (click here to read Scott Cain’s wonderful article about Trixie’s career), whom he saw at the beginning of her career, and Enrico Rastelli, whom he saw and received a few lessons from just prior to Rastelli’s death. You can read more about Italo’s life and career in the obituary I wrote for him last year by clicking here. Below is a new photo of Medini that I received along with the props that were sent to me by his son, Richard, as well as another photo of Italo that I just received.
The props that were sent to me were two wooden rings wrapped with tape and a wonderful large ball used in Italo’s act. The rings are quite sturdy and heavy, making the tricks that Italo Medini performed all the more impressive.
Below is a new video of Italo Medini that was recently put online. It is from the late 1950s.
For two other videos of Italo Medini, click here and here.
The Reverhos Brothers
The Reverhos Brothers (and later Reverhos Trio) were jugglers from the French town of Bressuire. Andre specialized in juggling while balancing upside down on his head. His brother Gustave was famed for his balancing and juggling work on a slack wire. Eventually Gustave’s wife Madeleine joined to make the act a trio. Since I’ve already written a fairly exhaustive article about the Reverhos, which you can read by clicking here, I won’t go into much detail about their career. However, I do want to tell you about the props of theirs that I received and about a video of the brothers that has surfaced since I originally wrote my article about them. First, here are some photos of the Reverhos Trio I’ve received since the above article was published.
Here is a video of the Reverhos Brothers that was put online after the article was published as well as another video of their earlier work, in case you missed it earlier.
Prior to writing that article, I was aware of the Reverhos Brothers, but didn’t know a huge amount about them. Then I was contacted by Denis Jean-Marie, a resident of Bressuire, the Reverhos’ home town. He informed me that the Reverhos Trio were the only famous people to ever come from this small town. He inquired if I would be willing to research and write about them so that the town could have a professionally compiled history on them. I agreed and Denis shared with me the photos and information that he had. He also eventually put me in contact with a daughter of Gustave and Madeleine. Through these resources and much research on my part, I was able to write the article linked above. After the article was published, Denis contacted me and told me that he had located a nephew of the Reverhos Brothers who had been trained by them and still had some of their props. His name is Jean Texier, but was known under the stage name of Texieros. He began to train under his uncles starting at the age of 5. Here are some photos of Jean from throughout his life and a video of him using some of the Reverhos’ props.
After to writing to Jean Texier, he agreed to send me some props. He originally indicated that he would send the four props shown below.
However, when the box arrived, I found that he had included one extra prop, about which I was very excited. Here are the props he sent.
Here is a wonderful juggling plate used by the Reverhos Brothers. It is very similar to what Enrico Rastelli used. It is painted fabric wrapped around what is most likely a wooden frame. It’s an amazing prop in amazing condition.
This is a very unique looking skeleton club used by Andre Reverho. It is painted fabric over the skeleton frame.
Here is Gustave Reverho’s plate spinning mouth stick used when he did a hand stand on the slack wire. You can see it used in one of the photos above.
Here is a foot spinning umbrella used by Gustave Reverho. The center is bowl-shaped. It is the only foot juggling prop in Historical Juggling Prop Museum.
This is a hoop used by both of the Reverhos Brothers.
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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).