JugglingSubculture.com

Street performing is often misunderstood by the general public.

We were happy to find this article in the World Journalism Institute’s Times Observer that paints a positive picture of busking–giving respect to artists who chose to show their skills on the street.

As the article puts it:

Despite the common perception, many street performers are neither homeless nor uneducated but trained professionals who take their job seriously and survive off of their skill.

Here’s the video that went with the article:

Dubé has recently stepped it up in the internet department . . . and we love it!

A few juggling equipment companies have started a blog or posted some videos, but Dubé has decided to attack the internet on all fronts. Last week the great people at Dubé sent out an email officially introducing the world to their new Facebook page, YouTube channel, blog, and Twitter feed.

Since juggling is such a collaborative art form, it makes sense that juggling and the internet would go together. We’re proud of Dubé for committing to meet jugglers in all of these social media platforms.

Dubé has been supplying jugglers with equipment and training materials since the mid ’70’s and have always seemed to stay at the forefront of innovation, quality, and professionalism. This big step into the Web 2.0 world continues that legacy of leadership we have come to expect from them.

Here’s a video recently posted on the Dubé YouTube channel. It’s an introduction to the world of cigar box manipulation.

Here’s a heartwarming tale of a street performing juggler and a cat. It won the ASIFA Award of Excellence 2009 in the Best Professional Film category.

Enjoy!

Here’s a nice post on the My Cool Job Blog about Steve Thompson, a professional juggler and internet juggling retailer from Stirling, Scotland.

Thompson loves his self employed life as a juggler, which is encouraging for anyone thinking about becoming a professional.

Michael Karas recently wrote this post on his blog, The Karasel of Progress, about his decision to pursue juggling as a professional career. Karas does a good job of articulating the dilemma that comes with making such a decision: should you compromise your artistic integrity to be marketable and make money, or should you stick to your artistic guns and eat Ramen noodles every night while you’re waiting for the rest of the world to get it?

Karas has some entertaining videos on YouTube. He’s obviously a very talented and creative juggler/entertainer. I don’t think he’ll have any problem making this career choice work and keep his artistic integrity in tact at the same time.

Here at JugglingSubculture.com we say: Go get ‘em Michael!

Here’s a video Michael Karas posted from the Montreal Juggling Fest back in May:

Why aren’t there any jugglers headlining in Vegas?

Why don’t average people know the name of any professional jugglers?

Why hasn’t there ever been a feature film about a juggler?

Why hasn’t a juggler ever won America’s Got Talent?

Why are there only a handful of juggling blogs and most of them rarely updated?

Why is a cruise ship job, the highest gig many jugglers aspire to?

The juggling subculture has a ton of talented, entertaining, hard-working, skilled performers; why don’t normal people know who they are?

What are we going to do about it?

When I was going to school in Boston I had the opportunity to meet a ton of talented Boston street performers including Peter Panic, Stitch, Lucky, and Etienne. I think the king of them all was Jim from the Jim show.

Jim has created one of the most professional street performing careers I’ve ever seen. In addition to being an awesome entertainer, he has found a way to bring class and dignity to a sometimes misunderstood occupation.

Some of the things he does so well: He has a great Web site. He doesn’t resort to fire or knives to get people’s attention but uses some simple but hilarious ball and club routines. He let’s people see him try and fail. He builds his own set pieces.

Jim’s got a great, dry humor (one article described it as Koffmanesque) and he delivers a quality show with impeccable professionalism. Don’t miss his show the next time you find yourself in Boston.