A contortionist, a 14-year-old, a one-armed man and other jugglers will be performing on campus this Saturday for the St. Louis Juggling Festival, or Jugglefest.

Washington University’s National Prestigious Society of Collegiate Jugglers (NPSCJ) will be hosting the event for the first time after the St. Louis Juggling Club’s relocation from the city.

“St. Louis used to have a really big festival every year thrown by the St. Louis Juggling Club, which has moved to St. Charles because they lost their old meeting space,” explained Thom Wall, president of NPSCJ. “There really hasn’t been a juggling fest in St. Louis for two to three years, so this is the first major juggling fest in St. Louis for some time.”

In 1991, the University hosted the International Jugglers’ Association (IJA) Festival on campus. The IJA Festival is the largest juggling event worldwide.

This weekend’s event, said Wall, will see a number of jugglers from across the country, some of them quite renowned.

“We’ve got a very large public show on Saturday,” he said. “We’ve got jugglers from Atlanta, Texas, Arkansas, from all over the place just to see the show.”

Some of the larger names performing at the public show include Book Kennison, a St. Charles juggler and contortionist who can pass his six-foot-tall body through the frame of a tennis racket, and Tony Pezzo, a 14-year-old ring juggler who won the silver medal at the 2005 IJA Festival.

Eighteen-year-old Cameron Ritter, a three-time IJA competition finalist, will be performing at the public show as well.

“I’m looking forward to it,” said Ritter. “The last couple of years, there has been a low turnout. I’m looking forward to meeting new jugglers [at the University] because you see old ones every year.”

Casey Boehmer, a three-time IJA medalist who won the gold medal in 1996, may well attract the most attention at Jugglefest. Boehmer was born without his left forearm.

“Our headliner is Casey Boehmer, who is the only one-armed juggler in the world, and he’s working on juggling five clubs in one hand,” said Wall. “He’s a really amazing human being.”

Boehmer, 25, who began juggling in 1989, started performing with his family and has juggled for audiences worldwide, including at Washington University during the 1991 IJA Festival.

“St. Louis has always got a good convention, where we kicked it in high gear with our family act at [Washington University],” said Bohemer. “It’s always a real good time, with people showing up. I’m looking forward to it; I haven’t been there since the club used to meet in Eliot Hall in the nineties. I’m looking forward to it. It should be full-throttle this year, with a full stage and a good ceiling height.”

Although Boehmer will perform by himself, he expects to pull off a solid performance-provided the Brown Hall ceiling is high enough for juggling five clubs with one hand.

“Four clubs in one hand is extremely technical, even with two hands,” he said. “If the ceilings are high enough, I’ll more than likely do five clubs-jugglers are pretty impressed with that and it’s hard as hell to do. I’ve done up to seven rings, and you get that maybe one out of ten times. Normally I end the routine with rings-with six rings, maybe seven rings.”

Student jugglers will also perform at the public show. Wall himself and Jim Hendricks, a University alumnus, will juggle together as the most technically proficient passing team in St. Louis.

Wall and Hendricks began preparation for Jugglefest during the spring of this year.

“It’s been [Hendricks] and me planning this thing since around May of this year and since it’s just the two of us we’re doing a lot of work,” said Wall. “It looks to be really cool.”

With Jugglefest, Wall hopes that Student Union (SU) will increase funding for NPSCJ. As a recreational club, the organization does not receive any SU funding. With Jugglefest, however, it is possible that NPSCJ will be moved up to a category 2 group, receiving a budget and being recognized as a student group that represents the University.

“There are a lot of other schools’ ambassadors coming-it’s good for the Juggling Club, and as a part of the University, we’re being ambassadors to the juggling world,” said Wall with a chuckle.

The public show will take place on Saturday, Oct. 6 at 8 p.m. in Brown 100. The festival will be held from Friday to Sunday in the Women’s Building. Tickets are $5 and can be purchased at www.wujuggling.com.

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