Come on then Kev. Tell us about this:
https://www.jugglingedge.com/userfiles/Topper/PaulCinquavalliCannonBall.jpg
Little Paul - - Parent #
Ooh! Yes! Do tell :)
I know part of the story, but it's not mind to tell...
I have been lent this Ciquavalli cannon ball by Jon Anton who got it from his uncle Joe Marsh. Jon thinks Joe Marsh was given it by Cinquavalli but I think he died in 1918. I don't know when Joe Marsh was born, I am trying to find out.
Is anyone interested in me bringing it to Crawley?
You are going to give me a heart attack! A Cinquevalli prop exists! I've talked to Jon about my museum in the past and he never mentioned owning possibly the only existing prop of the first juggling star! I know a certain juggling museum that would really, really, really love to get a hold of that!
David Cain
www.historicaljugglingprops.com
Little Paul - - Parent #
Yes please!!! Book a workshop for it? I want to bask in it's glow in the hope that some of the latent talent stored in it will rub off on me...
How old do you think Joe looks in this (from 1959):
http://juggling.tv/11822
I'd have said possibly early 50s? Depending on how young he was when he met Cinquavalli it could be possible.
I don't have any biographical info about Joe Marsh (I'd love some if anyone finds any) so I don't even know if he was born into a performing family or what. All I know is about the golf trick, and that he used to write for Jugglers' Bulletin (the IJA publication)
He's on my list of jugglers to look up when I eventually get around to visiting the Bristol University Theater Collection archives (specifically the Mander & Mitchenson Collection, and the Kathleen Barker collection)
Oh, and if you're bringing things to Crawley, did you ever get that DVD of Jon's act?
Jon has put some of his acts on dvd but not all. He has had a bit of a health hiccup recently. He is very interested in getting them on line. I was working with him over the weekend so we had a chat about it.
Cannon ball will be at Crawley. It is not a normal cannon ball it was made for Cinquavalli.
Little Paul - - Parent #
Sorry to hear about the health hiccup (I hope he's on the mend!) I'm still very much interested in helping get that video online.
I'm super looking forward to Crawley now!
Good idea for the workshop. So while we are arguing over authenticity are we going to have a play with it? (Yes)
Tricks that I've read about:
Hand to hand roll across the chest.
An assistant threw the cannon ball to Cinquevalli who caught it on the edge of a plate.
Transfer from a mouth stick to a forehead stick.
Catching it on his neck from various reported heights ranging from 6ft above the stage (I assume they mean above his head) to 40ft.
Juggling 3 or 4 of: the cannon ball, a glass bottle, an egg, a billiard ball, a screwed up bit of paper in various combinations. Including a juggling the cannon ball, bottle & 'paper pellet' & finishing by catching the bottle in one hand, paper in his mouth the cannon ball on his neck.
Flicking the cannon ball up from between his heels to catch on a helmet.
Anything else?
Also worth mentioning that it is commonly reported as weighing 48lb. Which strikes me as quite heavy.
I've not read anything about anyone actually weighing it, but it was used to "smash a table to matchwood" before Cinquevalli caught it from a great height on his neck & reportedly made a very loud & solid sounding thud if it hit the stage.
Cedric Lackpot - - Parent #
No idea who it was but Moscow State Circus (I think) had a strongman juggling act ten or fifteen years ago, employing convincingly heavy props (not sure how heavy, but if it's >= "enough to kill" then that counts IMO) which he did all sorts of really quite sickening neck catches with, including from a height of several feet.
Little Paul - - Parent #
There are some nice videos here http://juggling.tv/search/strongman
Some of the props you can see aren't as heavy as the performer makes them look, but none of them look "light"
I know for sure that Oleg's are plenty heavy, having been his stage hand on ocassion.
mike.armstrong - - Parent #
I saw that show and Luke Burrage "volunteered" to be the mug who proved that they were heavy. They were.
I'd like to see it. Does it have documented proof of provenance? If it's an actual cannon-ball then there must be many identical. Sorry, I'm always the skeptic.