Who are you anyway?
I guess I should get this out the way, so here goes....
So my name is James, I am 26 and I'm an alcoholic, NO NO NO I am a juggler (however being an alcoholic might just be cheaper)! I was brought up in a tiny lil place in the outskirts of Lincoln in the UK (Don't worry if you are not from the UK and don't know this place, most people in the UK don't either). My childhood was incredibly standard, and by that I really mean that I, like most kids, just spent all my time running about, falling over and kicking and throwing stuff. I wasn't great at the kicking part, I really was no football player as all the kids would tell during ruthless team picking practices kids employ.
But I was good at catching! I loved throwing a ball outside. My dad would throw it up as high as possible and my brother and I would attempt to hurl ourselves around the garden to try and catch the thing as it came back from near orbit. Unlike some places in the world, being good at catching is a completely useless skill in the UK, there is cricket but none of my friends cared much for that, so I had learnt my first useless skill, the first in a long line that would go on to shape my life.
When I was around 7 years old something unheard of happened. A circus club started in my village. What? This was a place which basically consisted of a hand full of houses, a couple of pubs (right next to each other, makes no sense) and a good old days lethal play park (broke my arm and loved it). I attended with my brother for the few weeks that the club ran, I didn't know it then, but those few weeks completely changed my life. I am very sure I would be totally unrecognisable today without this, and I am eternally grateful to the chap who ran it (I think his name was Dave Glover, however I'm not sure).
So the club stopped but I didn't, I carried on, learnt 3 balls then 4 and then stopped? I don't have much of a clue why but it was probably because I had only ever seen people juggle 4 before, besides I only had 4 balls. It wasn't until I was 16 when I got my first job that I decided to buy the company Firetoys one prop at a time, a quest I have since spread to Oddballs also :D
I am not a professional street performer, I am nowhere near good enough for such a title, no, I have another day job. I currently work at The Creative Assembly as a programmer, and just spend every other hour I'm not there buried in my circus world! I Now live in London and am loving the crazy amounts of live entertainment here. I am finding myself spoilt for choice for a juggling club to join and am currently sampling them all (blog posts will be coming).
Playing With Fire from Dave Hoe on Vimeo.
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