Jeremy the Juggler

We’ve hosted plenty of circus themed events in the past and one of the most popular circus activities is juggling! On July 18, Jeremy the Juggler came to the Children’s Museum in Easton to perform a spectacular juggling show and he was lovely enough to speak to us more about juggling!

Jeremy learned to juggle around the age of nine and began practicing it more seriously when he entered Vassar College in 2003. After college, Jeremy set out with some friends to create a professional performance group saying: ”The knowledge and critical thinking skills we got in school really enabled us to succeed not just as performers but as promoters and businessmen. Without those skills, we never would have been able to pull it off.” From there, Jeremy just never stopped juggling!

Now, he practices with a four person group. “Most of my practice is with a four person group. We get together for several hours every week to practice club passing, fire spinning, and group choreography,” Jeremy expands excitedly, “Earlier this year I got a set of two flaming nunchaku (nunchuks) that I’ve been bretty excited about. For regular circus props, I really enjoy diabolo tricks that involve letting go of one (or two!) of the hand sticks.” [see right]

Jeremy believes that the art of juggling is still relevant today, especially for children. “I think any kind of live performance is a great thing to experience, and I think hands-on circus arts demonstrations are especially great because they let kids see that even though the skills they see on stage aren’t easy, they’re still something that anybody can learn to do. It’s not on TV, it’s happening right in front of you and you get to try it yourself!” Jeremy explains.

He goes on to talk about how children are a great audience for juggling and circus acts: “Kids aren’t afraid to let you know they like something, or to come up and ask you to teach them. Adults and even college students are often afraid of looking silly, and so they miss out on a lot of opportunities. I love teaching kids because kids still have fun learning.”

Socially, Jeremy says, “I think juggling is neat in that it’s something anyone can do that produces something, even if that something is only a few seconds’ worth of entertainment. In the same way that youtube lets anyone put themselves on the internet and say ‘hey, look at me for a second, let me show you something I made,’ juggling lets anyone have a skill that they can use any time, any place. I’ve had dozens of conversations with strangers just because I was standing around in an airport juggling. It’s a nice alternative to sitting by yourself on your phone.”

As Jeremy reiterated, juggling has many benefits. For children, learning the art can teach self discipline, motor skills, social skills, and much more.

If you want to learn more about juggling, other circus activities, or simply get involved in another circus themed event you’re in luck! The Children’s Museum in Easton is hosting the Vegetable Circus on Thursday August 29! Stop on by between 10am and 3pm for more circus fun!

Ollie and Bianca!

Ollie Luey and Bianca Mase aren’t your typical 17 year olds. After being friends forever, these two decided to take their talents to the streets! For the past four years, Ollie & Bianca have been performing street shows and touring on their talents. We had the pleasure to host one of their shows on July 25!

Though these two are young, they’ve been practicing their talents for years. Ollie has been playing the accordion for 8 years! She is already an award winning accordionist who made her video debut at age seven with The Dresden Dolls. Bianca has been playing the ukulele and juggling for 4 and 5 years respectively and already teaches circus arts. Once Bianca began playing the ukulele, the pair got together and started working.

At an Ollie and Bianca show a lot goes on: music, dress up, and other clowning around activities. Ollie and Bianca say to expect, “entertainment and having a good time!” The two always play music, and make balloon animals for kids; sometimes they even face paint! Children can even interact with the music by playing some percussion instruments.

Aside from dressing up in their Ollie and Bianca clown costumes, the girls’ favorite parts of performing are the interactions with the kids. “[We love seeing them] enjoy the music, and smile for the balloons.” 

Though they love performing for children (they do kids birthday parties, festivals, and local circus events), Ollie and Bianca have performed for all sorts of different audiences. They’ve performed in Cambridge and Boston as street performers and even had a show about them on Cambridge Cable Access television! In Cambridge, the duo has performed at Octoberfest, the River Festival, The Brattle Theater, and Lydell’s Bakery Summer Movie Nights. They have also been the invited buskers at Faneuil Hall in Boston.

Drawing inspiration from Amanda Palmer, the two always hope “to improve ourselves and be different!”

And they really are different! Ollie and Bianca offer a refreshing twist on clown and circus performances. Be on the look out for Ollie and Bianca in and around Boston and check them out on Facebook by searching Ollie & Bianca!

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Ollie-Bianca/178255888888619?fref=ts

The Circus comes to the Museum!!

We had a beautiful summer day for our latest Drop-in-Day, Under the Big Top! Yes, the circus came to visit the Museum! Clowns, jugglers and all kinds of performers came and entertained us! Gonzo the Clown gave a fun talk about what it takes to turn himself from Robb into Gonzo! There sure is a lot to learn about being a clown, from picking the right outfit to face painting and learning to juggle! Gonzo also dazzled us with his magic tricks! He did all kinds of cool things including making an umbrella disappear and making a bunny appear out of a box!

There were also other circus performers who came to visit and they taught us lots of cool stuff about being part of a circus. We got to try our hand at being part of the circus too! There were all kinds of things to juggle including clubs and balls, we got to try spinning plates on sticks and other balancing activities that the performers gladly helped us with! Also there was a balance beam (only a few inches off the ground!) that gave us the feel of what it would be like to walk the high-wire high above an audience!

We also got to try hula-hooping! And there were a lot of hula-hoops and so many sizes! There were smaller hoops and very, very larges ones! One of the performers told us that actually the bigger (and heavier!) ones are the easiest to use!

To hula-hoop with the best of them there are a few steps you should know:

1. Stand with one foot in front of the other.

2. Hold the hoop straight out and touching your back.

3. Give it a big twirl in whatever direction you like.

4. Then just rock back and forth, using your footing as balance.

5. Have fun!!

And if you have trouble at first keep practicing! One circus performer said, “Circus tricks are about going for it and practicing a lot!” So keep at it, and one day you too could hula hoop like a pro!

Make sure you check back for next week's Drop-In-Days! On Thursday August 13th we have the Dog Days of Summer II and on Friday the 14th meet Aexeous Robot! For more information please check out the museum's website.