Jugglers host festival, shows in Asheville

Common parlance tends to cast juggling as a stressful activity: Juggling work, sleep, family, cats and dogs (or chinchillas and chickens, this being Asheville), mowing the lawn, stocking the fridge and pursuing your many hobbies (chicken raising and chinchilla training among them, of course).

But it turns out actual juggling - with balls and pins - is one of the most relaxing things you can do.

"There's this instant language that happens between jugglers," said Walter Beals, a member of Asheville's four-man juggling troupe, Forty Fingers and a Missing Tooth. "It's a lot like music. Musicians can get together who don't even know each other and jam with each other."

Beals and his cohorts will share that language on Sept. 25-26 as part of the Asheville Juggling Festival. Now in its fifth year, the two days of performances, games, lessons and workshops attracted more than 100 people last year, many of them jugglers traveling from all over the East Coast (but as far away as Germany) to practice their routines with their fellow enthusiasts.

On the heels of the festival, juggling duo The Passing Zone comes to Diana Wortham Theatre for an evening of daring feats on Oct. 3. The pair juggles knives and chainsaws while making jokes and executing general comedic shenanigans.

Both groups admit: This convergence of two unrelated juggling events is unusual. So maybe its time to take up juggling?

It all starts with three balls

The Asheville Juggling Festival isn't just for seasoned pin tossers. The free gatherings are designed to welcome both spectators and juggling aspirants. No experience is required to step into The Construction Zone (the beginning jugglers' area) and get an informal lesson from a juggling expert.

"It's all about getting bitten by the juggling bug," Beals said. "There's just this little thrill rush that goes through you every time you learn something new."

The Stephens-Lee Center will offer abundant inspiration. All around, seasoned jugglers will take workshops to teach each other new tricks and play games.

Beals favors a game in which jugglers endeavor to catch as many pins as possible. Some players amass as many as 60 of the long plastic pieces.

"It looks ridiculous," Beals said. "One person stands on one end, and people start throwing them clubs, and they have to try to catch them and kind of stack them around their body."

The jugglers will also pass pins, as they call the practice that's part social gathering, part practice session. In some instances, complete strangers walk up to each other and begin throwing.

The ease with which jugglers connect with one another is part of the appeal of the practice, explained Ingrid Johnson, a member of Forty Fingers who also co-owns Toy Boat Community Art Space near Biltmore Village.

"I think for me what really stands out is this culture," she said. "There's always this kind of wanting to share, wanting to grow that may not be so much in other things."

The festival gives jugglers a chance to share the brightest — and bawdiest components of that culture. On Sept. 25, The Renegade Show, a long-time juggling festival tradition, provides an open-stage environment in which jugglers can perform new routines. The evening is open to non-juggling performances and dirty jokes too. (It's an 18 and older event.)

The following night, a more polished performance serves as the festival's grand finale. Renowned juggler Paolo Garbonzo headlines the event in which he'll collaborate with Forty Fingers and emcee Professor Whizzpop, Asheville balloon twister and birthday party favorite. This show, as its host suggest, is definitely kid and adult friendly.

Chainsaws and charisma

Just like the juggling festival's finale, The Passing Zone's show offers a unique combination of antics for kids and adults.

Jon Wee, one half of the duo, said a true all ages show is tough to come by, at least in the theater world. A lot of times, performances billed as kid friendly mean adults sacrifice some thoughtful content for whimsy and merriment.

Not so with The Passing Zone.

"All of the jokes and everything are geared to a smart adult comedy kinds of audience," he said. "It's not really a kids show. But at the same time, it's very clean, and you can of course bring your kids or bring your grandparents."

What kid doesn't want to watch stunts with chainsaws, rat traps, stun guns, flames, knives and "all kinds of precarious and dangerous thing," as Wee calls the material?

The Passing Zone's shows offer more than zany tricks; there's story, too.

"The show is loosely based around the plot that Pluto has left its orbit and is heading directly to earth," Wee said. "It's out to destroy the earth, so there's very little time, and we have to either figure our a way in which our knowledge of gravity and our teamwork and our expertness at manipulating objects might help the situation. Or at the very least, we'll have a great time."

The storyline won't win a Tony Award, the jugglers caution, but it gives them a framework for their jokes and tricks that's more cohesive than a hodgepodge of tricks.

As a result, the master showmen have appeared at The White House and on TV programs such as "The Tonight Show," "America's Got Talent" and the "Today Show."

Impossible, you say?

Despite the prominence of these two events, audiences still have the tendency to think of juggling as a side attraction, not as a main event, Beals admits.

"All too often, people think of juggling as this silly thing that clowns do," he said. "But juggling is both an art form and a sport and a form of entertainment."

Still, juggling offers lots of benefits as an end in itself, Paolo Garbonzo, the juggling festival headliner explained.

"I've talked to jugglers all over the world about this, and there definitely is a juggler mindset that does happen," he said. "It actually does create these pathways between your left brain and your right brain that only exist in people who do these both-sided body actions."

Several studies confirm Garbonzo's claim. For example, a 2009 study in "Nature" showed a 5 percent increase in a particular area of white matter, which relays information between different parts of the brain, in people who juggled for 30 minutes a day for six weeks.

Wee of The Passing Zone said juggling has benefits in the workplace as well. Years ago, he began performing with partner Owen Morse at business benefits as the entertainment. Over time, the pair evolved into unconventional corporate consultants for those companies.

"There's lots of things that we're doing that require communication and trust and cooperation and really do resonate with corporate audiences," Morse said. "With our juggling, it's just a nice metaphor and a good example of those things."

Over the years, juggling for corporations has become a multi-million-dollar business for The Passing Zone. In 2012, they reported $1.2 million in revenue.

Perhaps their success has to do with the way juggling challenges what's possible and encourages people to see the world in a new way. For Garbonzo, that's the appeal.

"A cabbage, a stuffed owl, a giant porcelain pig, a pink flamingo," he said. "When you see them in the air, your brain is like, 'That can't be happening. That is happening.' To defy reality, to defy expectation: I guess that's why we do it."

IF YOU GO: Asheville Juggling Festival

Lessons, workshops and games, Sept. 25 from 6-9 p.m. and Sept. 26 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at Stephens-Lee Community Center, 30 George Washington Carver Ave. All activities are free.

The Renegade Show, Sept. 25 at 10 p.m. at Toyboat Community Art Space, 101 Fairview Road (ages 18 and up). Free.

Evening Variety Extravaganza with Professor Whizzpop and Paolo Garbonzo, Sept. 26 at Toyboat Community Art Space. $10 donation suggested. An '80s dance and juggling party follows the show.

IF YOU GO: The Passing Zone Saves the World at Diana Wortham Theatre

Oct. 3 at 8 p.m. at the Diana Wortham Theatre in downtown Asheville. Tickets cost $38 for general admission, $33 for students and $20 for children

Forty Fingers and a Missing Tooth's tips for beginning jugglers

Body and posture: Relax. Keep your shoulders dropped and relaxed. Tight high shoulders will make you tire quicker. Stand with your legs shoulder width apart, knees slightly bent. Keep your eyes relaxed. Don't focus on a single point, but keep a general view of what's in front of you.

Throwing and catching: Take your time. It's slower than you think. Count your throws out loud. It helps you keep your tempo and keeps track of your progress. If your throws start to get away from you, stand in front of a wall. Throw from the center of your body, and catch on the outside of your body. Put all your focus into the throw. A good throw makes an easy catch.

Mind: If you start getting worse, your brain just needs a break. Watch lots of videos online (If they only had YouTube when we were learning!) Don't get frustrated. It's meant to be fun.