So, a President and a Juggler Walk Into Ford’s Theater…

Many, that is pure cornball stuff. It’s the kind of show you avoid like the plague if you read a description of it, because you’re too cool for school, yo. But if you’re dragged to it, you end up laughing like a hyena. One wonders just how much dragging it takes to get a president back into Ford’s Theater.

It’s vaudeville and the circus, but edgy. It’s staggering to think of how much practice it took to make the juggling look like an offhand detail in the act.

If you’ve never tried it, juggling is really quite interesting. There was a bit of a fad for it back in the 80s. Davis makes a joke out of the primary practice for juggling at the beginning of the act. He throws one ball back and forth. That’s the muscle memory portion of the necessary practice. You have to be able to toss the balls in the same parabolic arc, over and over, without thinking about it. Then you perform 2/3 of a full cycle by starting with a ball in each hand, throwing one ball in the air, and “exchanging” the balls when the first ball is about halfway to the opposite hand. Then you graduate to a full exchange starting with two balls in one hand and one in the other. That’s where it gets interesting, and counter-intuitive. You can’t look at the balls. If you look at any one of the balls, you’ll miss the other two. You have to look out into the middle distance, and let the balls pass in front of you, and learn to simply let your hands find the balls without concentrating on any individual ball.

That’s how you juggle. Learn it, and maybe you can perform for a president or speaker of the house or a senator or two. You’ll need some jokes, though. Sorry, I can’t help you there. I don’t know how to tell jokes.