Albert Lucas is an American juggler born in 1960 to Albert and Yvonne Moreira. [1] He is notable for juggling while ice skating, setting numbers juggling records, and promoting sport juggling.
With the encouragement of his father, Albert began juggling at age 3 [2] and performing at age 4 in comedy clubs, small circuses and nightclubs. [1] From age 8 to 11 he toured with Liberace and then performed in Las Vegas. [1] From age 12 to 22, he traveled the world performing his juggling act on ice with the Ice Capades. [1] Albert spent several years performing in the Around the World on Ice show at Busch Gardens Theme Park. [3] Albert has performed at both the NBA Finals and the NHL Stanley Cup Finals. [4]
Albert co-founded the International Sport Juggling Federation [5] in order to develop sport juggling, including joggling, with the goal of re-introducing it to the Olympics. [6] He has joggled in 12 marathons, [6] including a marathon with no drops in 1987, which established a Guinness world record. [7]
At the age of 10, Albert won the Numbers Competition with seven rings at the International Jugglers' Association Summer Festival in 1970. [2] He was the U.S. Nationals Champion at the IJA Summer Festival in 1984. [8] He is the first person to have qualified 10 objects in competition, juggling 10 rings for 20 catches at the IJA Summer Festivals in 1996 and 2002. [9] [10] He currently holds the world record for being the only person to flash 13 rings. [11]
Kit Summers named a juggling trick after Albert [12] —an "albert throw"—which is a reverse club throw under the leg, made from front to back without either foot leaving the floor. [13] This trick was performed by many earlier jugglers, [12] originating with Morris Cronin, [14] who specialized in club juggling during the early 1900s. [15]
Juggling is a physical skill, performed by a juggler, involving the manipulation of objects for recreation, entertainment, art or sport. The most recognizable form of juggling is toss juggling. Juggling can be the manipulation of one object or many objects at the same time, most often using one or two hands but other body parts as well, like feet or head. Jugglers often refer to the objects they juggle as props. The most common props are balls, clubs, or rings. Some jugglers use more dramatic objects such as knives, fire torches or chainsaws. The term juggling can also commonly refer to other prop-based manipulation skills, such as diabolo, plate spinning, devil sticks, poi, cigar boxes, contact juggling, hooping, yo-yo, hat manipulation and kick-ups.
Contact juggling is a form of object manipulation that focuses on the movement of objects such as balls in contact with the body. Although often used in conjunction with "toss juggling", it differs in that it involves the rolling of one or more objects without releasing them into the air.
Thomas Dietz is a professional juggler from Regensburg, Germany. He is recognized as one of the greatest technical jugglers in the world. He holds various unofficial juggling records and also the five club juggling world record of 53 minutes and 21 seconds. However, he gained most of his popularity through several juggling videos featuring his highly technical tricks including siteswap variations, pirouettes, and long runs of numbers with clubs, balls, and sometimes rings.
Toss juggling is the form of juggling which is most recognisable as 'juggling'. Toss juggling can be used as: a performing art, a sport, a form of exercise, as meditation, a recreational pursuit or hobby.
Vladimir, known as Vova, and Olga Galchenko were a brother and sister juggling team originally from Russia, active from approximately 2001 to 2009. They specialized in club juggling, particularly technical solo juggling, technical club passing and numbers club passing.
Juggling practice has developed a wide range of patterns and forms which involve different types of manipulation, different props, numbers of props, and numbers of jugglers. The forms of juggling shown here are practiced by amateur, non-performing, hobby jugglers as well as by professional jugglers. The variations of juggling shown here are extensive but not exhaustive as juggling practice develops and creates new patterns on a regular basis. Jugglers do not consciously isolate their juggling into one of the categories shown; instead most jugglers will practice two or more forms, combining the varieties of juggling practice. Some forms are commonly mixed, for example: numbers and patterns with balls; while others are rarely mixed, for example: contact numbers passing. Many Western jugglers also practice other forms of object manipulation, such as diabolo, devil sticks, cigar box manipulation, fire-spinning, contact juggling, hat manipulation, poi, staff-spinning, balancing tricks, bar flair and general circus skills.
Plate spinning is a circus manipulation art where a person spins plates, bowls and other flat objects on poles, without them falling off. Plate spinning relies on the gyroscopic effect, in the same way a top stays upright while spinning. Spinning plates are sometimes gimmicked, to help keep the plates on the poles.
Many countries, cities or juggling clubs hold their own annual juggling convention or juggling festivals. These are the backbone of the juggling scene, the events that regularly bring jugglers from a wide area together to socialize. The attendance of a convention can be anything from a few dozen to a few thousand people.
Since the late 1980s, a large juggling culture has developed, revolving around local clubs and organizations, special events, shows, magazines, video sharing websites, Internet forums, juggling competitions and juggling conventions. Populating the scene are many juggling celebrities who are notable for being good or creative jugglers, entertaining performers, convention organizers, experts in their field, having a strong presence online or just for having an interesting personality, character or style.
When you pulled out three balls in 1973, what was going through people's minds was, 'I saw a deformed midget do that once.' But when you pulled out three balls in the '80s, it was, 'a guy in my dorm room used to do that.'
The European Juggling Convention (EJC), is the largest juggling convention in the world, regularly attracting several thousand participants. It is held every year in a different European country. It is organised by changing local organisation committees which are supported by the European Juggling Association (EJA), a non-profit association founded in 1987 in Saintes, France. Like most juggling conventions, it features a mix of workshops for jugglers, a "renegade" performance performed for participants, games, performances and a public show, usually spread out over a period of a week in the European summer. Accommodation is usually in the form of tents provided by participants.
Joggling is a competitive sport that combines juggling with jogging. People who joggle are called jogglers.
Jason Garfield is a juggler and entertainer from Norfolk, Connecticut, United States. He is the founder and president of the World Juggling Federation (WJF).
The International Jugglers' Association or IJA is the world's oldest and largest nonprofit circus organization, and is open to members worldwide. It was founded in the United States in 1947, with the goal of providing, "an organization for jugglers that would provide meetings at regular intervals in an atmosphere of mutual friendship." Although its focus lies on juggling, its programs also support other circus disciplines.
Juggling rings, or simply "rings", are a popular prop used by jugglers, usually in sets of three or more, or in combination with other props such as balls or clubs. The rings used by jugglers are typically about 30 centimetres (12 in) in diameter and 3 millimetres (0.12 in) thick.
Bruce Sarafian is an American juggler and unicyclist from Florida. He performs in venues such as theme parks, festivals, fairs and also for corporate clients. He began juggling at the age of 10. In 2007 he started and now operates a custom used classic jeep dealership in Central Florida, which has become one of the nation's largest, called EZJeeps.com In 2018 his jeep dealership was renamed EZCustom4x4.com
Dan Bennett is an American comedian and juggler who has been on numerous TV shows as well as in TV commercials in the U.S. He currently resides in Arizona and performs Corporate Entertainment for clients such as McDonald's, Coca-Cola, Novell, Quaker Oats, and Nu Skin. He specializes in a focused mix of physical comedy that is applied to the business terms and problems of his corporate clients. Dan Bennett has a doctorate in Mathematics and was a calculus instructor for a time.
Steve Mills was an American juggler and unicyclist from Morristown, New Jersey. He was the inventor of the "Mills' Mess" juggling pattern. Mills was taught to juggle by Ron Graham, a juggler and mathematician.
Niels Duinker born 9 August 1985 in Rotterdam) is a professional comedy juggler from the Netherlands. Niels holds 3 Guinness World Records and got awarded "Variety Act of the Year" by the IMS. Niels started juggling at the age of 12 in Rotterdam. Between the age of 13 and 17 he has been a member of the youth circus "Circus Rotjeknor" in Rotterdam.
Thom Wall is an American juggler and variety entertainer from Saint Louis, Missouri, USA. NPR has called him "one of the world's most notable jugglers."
I named this trick after Albert Lucas, who was the first person that I saw doing the trick, even though others, such as Fudi, Ron Hennon, and Rudy Horn, did it earlier.
The finishing routine is three torches, culminating with continuous throws of the torches through his legs from front to back. I mentioned to him that these between-the-leg tosses have become known to many jugglers as "Albert throws" and asked him what he called them. He was flattered (noting he certainly wasn't the first person to perform the trick), and said he had no name for the move although he used to call them "a pain in the neck!"
Tom Breen pens, '...Wonder if some one would write a description of Morris Cronin's Act... Cronin was first man to Juggle three clubs and shoot club through legs while both feet are on the floor. He was also the first to throw a club back thru legs and catch it while juggling three.'
Morris Cronin, who was formerly acknowledged to be the best single club juggler in every way, is getting away from that kind of work...