As I research juggling history and continue my more than four decade career as a juggler, I come across interesting quotes from jugglers that stick with me. Here are a few of the more interesting ones and the stories behind them.
Rudy Horn
Rudy Horn
German juggling legend Rudy Horn had a personal standard that if you couldn’t do a trick or pattern five times around, it wasn’t worth performing.
“During the difficult tricks, I held out each trick for a certain length of time, because I wanted the audience to know that I had the control. For example, I never did 7 rings for less than 5 times through, or 35 throws, because otherwise it’s nothing. I never liked jugglers who just threw the objects up once through. In 1961, I was working to put 9 balls in the act, but at first I could only do them one and a half times or twice through and this wasn’t enough for me. Soon after, I was booked some place where the ceilings were too low. I could also juggle 8 rings at least 5 times through, but then I was booked at the Lido and again, the ceilings were too low. So I decided just to do what I could do everywhere.”
Alexander Kiss
Alexander Kiss
Soviet juggler Alexander Kiss made a remarkable statement about fellow Russian juggler Jenny Jaeger, first praising her technique, but then classifying her as a “low-level” juggler because she did a great amount of balancing tricks.
“In the twenties, Jenny Jaeger and Tamara Brock-Sidorkina stood out for their outstanding technique. True, they only managed to throw out large quantities of balls. And only Tamara Brock recorded eight balls well. Both were juggling three torches from behind their backs. Both of them should, rather, be classified as low-level jugglers, since they based their performances primarily on balancing various objects.”
Jenny Jaeger
Lottie Brunn
Lottie Brunn
I was fortunate enough to sit with Lottie Brunn during an IJA competition one year in the early 1990s. One of the competitors, Sean Blue, performed an arm curl with a double ball spin stack as part of his act. After the act, I turned to Lottie, one of the most famous ball spinners of all time, and asked her what she thought of that trick. Her hilarious reply is below.
“When the little f***er does it with a fully inflated ball, then I’ll be impressed!”
Here is a video of Sean Blue doing a great ball spinning trick.
Raul Renner (Paul Bramson)
When Paul Renner (Paul Bramson) was training his son Bob (Bob Bramson) in the art of hoop rolling, He had an interesting way of motivating the boy. The greatest hoop roller at the time was the American juggler Howard Nichols. So when young Bob was tired and didn’t want to practice, his father Paul would yell the following “inspirational quote” at his son.
“You’ll never be as good as Howard Nichols!”
Below are videos are Howard Nichols and Bob Bramson, who are considered the two greatest hoop rolling jugglers of all time.
Francis Brunn
Francis Brunn
When juggling icon Francis Brunn was asked his opinion about numbers juggling and juggling competitions, he gave the following response.
“I can understand why a man wants to run the fastest 100 meters, but I don’t believe in juggling competitions. It’s like seeing who could paint the fastest painting!”
In a future installment, I’ll share some more interesting quotes from some well-known jugglers.
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).