By David Cain
I have a confession to make. I hate strolling juggling gigs. I mean, I really, really hate them. This wasn’t always the case. I performed at Kings Island Amusement Park for 7 years during my high school and college years. For some of that time, I performed in an ice skating show or opened for that show. However, for the majority of the time, my brother and I did strolling juggling combined with street shows. Doing this for six days a week for four months a year for seven years gave me plenty of strolling juggling experience. After those years, though, I mostly put strolling work behind me. Nevertheless, I would still do a few strolling gigs each year. The older (and fatter) I got, the more I grew to dislike these bookings. Part of this was due to my torn Achilles tendon and arthritic knees, but it was much, much more than that. I had worked for decades to develop hours of wonderful stage material, so when a client asked me to do strolling / atmosphere work, it seemed to exclude the artistry that I had developed for my stage shows. I know that many jugglers love strolling work and make it their primary work. Whether you love these gigs or not, I hope to be able to share some ideas to make them more enjoyable and tolerable.
String Shooters
If you’re like me, you can get very tired of strolling with the same stuff all the time. Also, my 56-year-old arms get tired. A few years ago, I was gifted a prop that has revolutionized the few strolling gigs that I do. It was a string shooter. There are many brands of this toy / prop, with ZipString and Loop Lasso being the two best known.
There are many less expensive versions available on Amazon and other retailers, but they tend to not work quite as well as the two above brands. Loop Lasso and many of the cheaper brands have one advantage over the Zip String – you don’t have to continuously press down on a button to make it operate. It may seem like a small difference, but over the course of several of hours, it can be a pain to have to hold down the button with your thumb. How do audiences react to it? Well, I can honestly say that I probably get a better reaction out of it than anything else I do while strolling. It’s something that most people haven’t seen before, and it appears to defy gravity. And it takes no skill to do. If you’re doing strolling gigs, it’s a no brainer to get a string shooter. Prices range from $10 to $40. All of them are rechargeable, with the cheaper brands lasting for a couple of hours on a charge and the better ones lasting longer.
Head Hoop
One key, at least for me, to successful strolling juggling work is to get those people you see to interact with you. One potential way of doing that is to occasionally go around wearing a “head hoop”. This is a plastic miniature basketball hoop that you wear on your head. You can juggle mini foam basketballs (or any other balls) and toss them out to audience members so they can try to make a hoop. Of course, you can also catch them in the hoop out of a juggle as well even when you’re not including anyone else. They are available online and in stores, usually for between $15 and $20.
Head Hoop
Toothbrush Spinning
Carrying around a couple of toothbrushes and a silicone straw-covered stick is a great way of doing something that most people haven’t seen and then letting someone try it. Click here to read my article on it or just watch the video below.
Knot Throwing
Similarly, just keeping a piece of rope in your pocket gives you another option as well as something that you can let other people try. Click here to read my tutorial article on knot throwing.
Close Up Magic Tricks
If the client allows it, carrying a few close-up magic tricks in your pocket is another way of varying what you can offer those you encounter. Many of these require little or no special skill. Some are what is known as “self-working”. If you have one card trick (I recommend B’Wave), one rope trick (perhaps Professor’s Nightmare), and one mentalism trick (Crazy Cube?), you can give your arms a break for a bit while still entertaining those you see.
Keeping Cool
It seems that most strolling gigs take place outdoors in the summer. For someone like myself, who struggles with getting overheated, staying cool is very important. It’s important to drink a lot of water to stay hydrated and to take frequent breaks. However, there is a fairly recent innovation that can really help. What I’m talking about are rechargeable, personal fans that can be fixed to your clothing to provide cooling under your costume. These can be great for any outdoor gigs in the heat, not just strolling ones. They are available for as cheap as $15 on Amazon and other retailers. The videos below show a few examples.
Depending on what you’re doing and your costume, another option might be a neck fan. You can see an amazingly detailed description below, which compares many different versions. The ChillGo neck fan came out on top and costs only $27 on Amazon.
I hope these ideas help you make strolling gigs more enjoyable for both yourself and those you encounter.
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).