By David Cain
As many in the juggling community know, I am both a juggler (obviously) and a musician. I play piano, guitar, ukulele, dulcimer, melodica, and a few other instruments. I also compose music and perform occasionally as a singer / songwriter. The very first juggling history article I ever wrote was about musical juggling combination tricks, where juggling tricks were combined with playing musical instruments or creating music through the juggling. So, I’m always interested in any act that combines music and juggling.
The subject of this article is juggling acts that combine singing with juggling. Historically, there were many singing jugglers in the past. Juggling researcher Tom Kellett searched on the British Newspaper Archive and found the following examples of singing jugglers.
Western Mail in April 1908:
“Sidney Dolf – the Singing Juggler.”
Gloucestershire Echo in September 1910:
“Comedy juggling act. Introducing Little Edie, the singing novelty juggler.”
The Era in November 1910:
“Dolf Escourt – novelty as a singing juggler and mimic.”
Fleetwood Chronicle in February 1920:
“Gerano (also spelled, Gurano) – the Singing Juggler.”
Various British newspapers in 1920:
“James Edison – the Singing Juggler.”
Shrewsbury Chronicle in November 1923:
“Grace Cunard – the singing dancing juggler.”
Wishaw Press in December 1925:
“Edie Le Brun – the singing lady juggler.”
Surrey Mirror in August 1928:
“The Dainty Queen of Clubs – Grace Cunard in a novel Vocal and Juggling Act.”
Sunderland Echo in March 1932:
“Billy Rey made his stage debut in Barcelona at the age of eight. He has been acting ever since and he told me that he is the only singing and dancing juggler to have ever appeared at the State Opera House in Paris.”
The idea for this article came from seeing a video of famed juggler and magician Topper Martyn’s juggling act, which included Topper accompanying his act with singing. Unfortunately, the video was soon taken down and is not longer available to view. So, let’s take a look at some examples that are still online.
One of the most famous examples of a singing juggling act was performed by Hillary Carlip when she won the Gong Show.
A current juggler who combines juggling and singing is David DiMuzio, as you can see in the following video. David was the 2001 IJA Juniors gold medalist. He works as both a juggler and professional singer / musician.
Jeremy L’Artiste is a juggler and musical comedian who includes a trick of singing while doing a mouth stick balance and playing the ukulele at the same time.
You can see Andrew Potter and Wheeler Cole sing, juggle, and play the mandolin all at the same time at the 31:16 mark of the documentary Juggling, by Strider Productions.
Well-known juggler Barnaby (Dan Jeffrey) would juggle, sing, and play guitar at the same time.
I (David Cain) regularly perform a similar feat using a ukulele instead of a guitar. I consider it one of my signature tricks. Here is the first video of this trick that I ever made.
And here it is in performance.
The next video shows Zoe Bounce Back performing her juggling song.
Brian Klimowski is a talented singer, juggler, and yo-yo performer. Here he is performing his version of I’ve Got the World on a String.
John Grimaldi juggles while singing in Gàidhlig (Scottish Gaelic) in the video below.
Robert Dahlström sings, balances a pole with a spinning wheel at the top, and plays the banjolele at the same time.
Alex Zerbe raps and juggles at the same time in a tightly choreographed number, as you can see below.
The next video shows Shannon Harvey singing while juggling knives on a rola bola.
Those are the examples I was able to find of singing and juggling performances. Here are some other examples of random folks combining the two skills.
If you know of other singing jugglers, feel free to let me know about them.
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).