When you think of standard juggling props, large flags probably don’t come to mind. However, The tossing of flags goes back to medieval times. During battles, flag bearers were among the most important members of each army. If a flag was lost to the enemy, communication would break down, causing confusion within the ranks and eventual defeat. Therefore, if the flag bearer was about to be captured, he would toss it to another soldier who would then take on the role of flag bearer. The ability to toss a flag far and accurately was a valuable skill. Eventually this skill gave way to ceremonial and performance based flag throwing that is still practiced today. The tossing and catching of a single flag is quite common, as anyone who has seen a marching band or flag corps knows.
Let’s take a look at a few well-known jugglers who have included flag juggling in their acts.
Rosani
The earliest known juggler to juggle three flags is Joseph Rosani. Rosani (Joseph Stadtmuller, 1868-1944) was a juggler who played the American Lyceum and Chautauqua circuits, performing up to a two-hour show for 40 years. He was born in Brooklyn, NY (USA) and called the New York City area his home his entire life. As a boy, he would spin a school book or slate on his finger. Rosani said that he could not recall a time when he could not do feats of juggling. He saw billboards advertising a juggling act, which he had never seen before, and ran away from his family to see it. His devoutly religious parents “considered jugglery one of the black arts,” so he knew they wouldn’t approve. Joseph saw the show and thought it was wonderful, but was “in no way over-awed by the skill of the juggler.” Rosani went home and started spinning plates on his finger. He also copied other tricks he had seen the juggler perform. His juggling skill soon brought invitations to do amateur shows and before long “professional engagements came, unsolicited.”
Joseph Rosani
Rosani possessed a wide variety of juggling skills, allowing him to hold an audience’s attention for such a long stretch of time. Rosani performed with whips, pipes, plates, balls, sticks, hats, lamps, cigar boxes, bowls, glasses, swords, tops, flags, pool cue sticks, hoops, bottles, fans, and other items. He was renowned as being the first person to juggle three large flags, which he did at least as early as 1900. He also balanced a stack of flags on his chin.
Joseph Rosani
While we don’t have any photos of Rosani toss juggling flags, we do have reports of him doing so in 1900. You can click here to learn more about Joseph Rosani.
Kris Kremo
Iconic Swiss juggler Kris Kremo is famed with his work with cigar boxes and top hats, but is skilled at flag juggling, as you can see in the following photo.
Kris Kremo
Jack Bremlov
Jack Bremlov (born Jack Kura in 1948) is a Czechoslovakian juggler best known for being one of the first jugglers to juggle 7 clubs. One lesser known part of his act is the juggling of three large flags, which you can see pictured below.
Jack Bremlov
Jack Bremlov
You can click here to learn more about Jack Bremlov and his family.
Artem Khomanko
2006 IJA Individuals Champion Arten Khomanko of Ukraine juggles large flags in his act. You can see a clip of this at the 7:50 mark of the video below.
Andrea Baraldi
As was stated at the beginning of this article, ceremonial flag tossing developed from military uses of the skill. In various parts of Europe, this tradition continues. Andrea Baraldi is from Ferrara, Italy and is a seven-time national flag-bearing champion of Italy. You can see his amazing work with up to five flags below.
There are many other examples of videos of unnamed flag manipulators on Youtube. Below you can find some of these.
This type of flag juggling has made it’s way into a circus act, as can be seen in the following video.
Flag juggling is certainly visual and not a normal part of most juggers’ repertoires. It would be interesting to see what today’s top jugglers could do with flags.
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).