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| The Buffalo Juggling Club was founded in the late 1970's, and was originally known as the Buffalo Juggling and Unicycle Club. |
| It was started by Rich Chamberlin, who has performed as a juggler, a magician, and clown since 1970; he is also one of the founders of the Buffalo Clown Alley, and a member of the International Brotherhood of Magicians, the Clowns of America, and the International Jugglers' Association. |
| From 1978 to 1991, Rich was very active (Chairman, Director, Secretary, and Treasurer) in the International Jugglers' Association; he has also authored a book (1981) on Comedy Juggling. |
| Ginny Rose, another member of the Buffalo group, was also very involved with the IJA, serving at various times as Director, Treasurer, and Convention Coordinator. |
| The IJA reached an all time high of over 3,000 members during their leadership. |
| (left to right) - Rich circa 1981, the cover of his "Comedy Juggling" book, and an illustration of Rich within the book |
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| T I M E L I N E | |
| 1977 - in the fall of 1977 (following the IJA Newark, Delaware Convention) a group of jugglers meet on Monday nights at the Rose Garden in Delaware Park, organized by Rich Chamberlin and Paul Kois. |  |
| 1978 - from the October/November 1978 IJA Newsletter |
| Buffalo, N.Y. On the second Sunday of each month the Buffalo Juggling Club meets from 1pm until 3pm at the Church of the Good Shepherd, 96 Jewett Parkway, Buffalo. Phone Rich Chamberlain for further info. |  |
| Dues (25 cents) were collected at each monthly meeting; attendance averaged approximately twenty people, and the meetings attracted jugglers from as far away as Erie, Pennsylvania. |
| January 1978 article in the Buffalo Rocket newspaper |
| The Bird Cage Story - longtime and current members Jim Neff and Jack Pericak found out about the club through Jack's brother-in-law; they noticed a newspaper article (which at the time was lining the bottom of Jack's brother-in-law's cockatiel cage) about a meeting of the Buffalo Juggling and Unicycle Club and decided to attend. |
| Also in 1978, the first permanent IJA headquarters is established in Kenmore, New York. |
| 1980 - Club members present juggling and unicycle workshops at the Carnegie Cultural Center in North Tonawanda. |  |
| 1980something - Buffalo Jugglers group photo |  |
| 1980 - December IJA Newsletter with a photo of Buffalo Jugglers Ginny Rose, Matt Bissonette and Rich Chamberlin |  |
| 1980something - Buffalo Jugglers group photo at an RIT festival |  |
| 1981 - from the May 1981 IJA Newsletter |
| Buffalo, N.Y. The Buffalo Juggling Club meets on a racquetball court, where high ceilings, good lighting, hardwood floors and freedom from obstacles make juggling ideal. Call Rich Chamberlin. |
| Rich Chamberlin and Ginny Rose in full jester regalia |  |
| 1980something - Jim Neff performing |  |
| 1980something - Alan Howard (current publisher of Juggle Magazine) performing at Darien Lake |  |
| 1987 - "Five members of the Buffalo Juggling Club attend a performance of the Moscow Circus in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. They were ecstatic when Sergei Ignatov's name appeared in the program...." |  |
| The Buffalo Magazine of the Buffalo News publishes "Three Ball Circus" (PDF file, 953 KB) featuring quotes from Rich Chamberlin, along with photos of Rich and Jim Neff. |  |
| Coincidentally, at the end of the above article, there is a cartoon by Tom Stratton, who did the illustrations for Rich's "Comedy Juggling" book. |
| 1991 - UB Jugglers meet every Monday and Thursday at 8:00 in the main gym of Alumni Arena from juggling.org This is the earliest reference to a relationship with the University at Buffalo, which continued to 2004. |
| Also, "The Link", a publication from the University at Buffalo, mentions that the UB Juggling club "reformed" in 1991 with Nels Cremean and Andy Pratt. |  |
| Eventually, (early to mid 1990's) a new incarnation of the UB Juggling Club was born, with the "core" group being: - Bret Goldstein - Tim Allen - Ram Prasad - Nels Cremean - Jerry House Since there were more "core" members of the UB Jugglers than there were of the Buffalo Jugglers, at this point the UB Juggling Club WAS the Buffalo Juggling club. They met at UB during the winter, and in Delaware Park during the summer. |
| 1992 - the Calvin/chainsaw t-shirt |  |
| 1993 - Juggling at our original (and present) summer home, in front of the Lincoln Statue at Delaware Park, behind the Albright Knox Art Gallery. |  |
| 1994 - University at Buffalo Juggling Convention April, 1994 in the UB Alumni Arena Gymnastics Gym, with feature performer Bob Nickerson |
| Also in 1994, juggling in Delaware Park led several jugglers to a weekly gig on Friday nights at Pilot Field (which is now Dunn Tire Park) before the start of Buffalo Bisons games. |
| 1995 - University at Buffalo Juggling Convention April 8, 1995 in the UB Alumni Arena Gymnastics Gym, Charles Peachock was the feature performer |  |
| Coverage of the 1995 convention by the UB Spectrum newspaper: |
| The UB Juggling Club hosted a convention last week in the Gymnastics Gym of Alumni Arena. Members demonstrated techniques using a variety of juggling paraphenalia. Students interested in the club's events can contact the Student Association at 645-2950. - April 17, 1995 |
| "The Joy of Juggling: Jerry House, a member of the Jugglers Club at the University at Buffalo, works on balancing a different kind of yo-yo during a juggling convention Saturday on the North Campus in Amherst" - Sunday April 9, 1995 |
| 1996 - some other "regulars" at Delaware Park included: - Robert Phillips - Andrew Gianni - Sebastian Ortiz - Jim Neff - Doug Woychecowski (could do 5 clubs easily) - Jack Perichak - Mark Kellam - Sean Howard (noted for riding his giraffe unicycle across the Rainbow Bridge, and who once thought that all of his juggling equipment had been stolen, and went so far as filing a police report before checking the trunk of his car to discover that he had left it all there) |
| 1997 - Richard Chamberlin receives the IJA Extraordinary Service Award, given to jugglers who show outstanding service to the field of juggling. It is primarily intended for those who have shown consistent commitment to the promotion of juggling. |
| 1999 - IJA Festival is held in Niagara Falls, New York. |
| Ginny Rose receives the IJA Extraordinary Service Award. |
| 2004 - the relationship with the University at Buffalo ends; we had been practicing in the Student Union building on the North Campus for several years, and were asked not to return. |
| Also in 2004, Paul Antonio (Clumsy the Clown) provided us with indoor warehouse space to juggle in, which we used for the next two winters. |
| July 2004 - IJA Festival is held in Buffalo, New York. Buffalo's own Nels Cremean performs in the opening night "Welcome Show". |  |
| The Flying (hey...this is EASYYYYYY!!!!!!!) Delmontes are formed......well, two thirds of them at least as pictured here (Tom and Steve). |  |
| The Yahoo Discussion Group and Buffalo Jugglers web site are both online. |  |
| 2006 - A visit from Dave Finnegan, author of "The Complete Juggler" and "The Joy of Juggling". |  |
| September 2006 - Indoor juggling meetings at the Buffalo Christian Center on Saturday mornings (through Nels Cremean) and at Kenmore United Methodist Church on Thursday nights (through Carol Palaszewski). |
| November 2006 - Buffalo Jugglers Dave Fultz, Jerry House, Tom and Steve Delmonte perform with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra. |  |
| 2007 - Spencer and Garrison Whitt develop the Juggle Central Search Engine, a central place to find juggling videos, tricks, props and online juggling/discussion forums. |  |
| May 2007 - The Buffalo Jugglers become members of the Dube Affiliate Program. A commission of 4% is earned based on Dube sales made through the link on our home page ($10 for every $250 in total sales). |
| July 2007 - A performance at the "Gusto at the Gallery" for the Albright-Knox Art Gallery. |  |
| November/December 2007 - Dave Fultz, Jerry House, Steve and Tom Delmonte once again juggle with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra. |  |
| 2008 - The 2007 Buffalo Jugglers Year in Review by Jerry House |
| "Q U O T E S" |
| "Hey....this is easyyyyyy!" - Steve Delmonte |
| "Well, the only problem with that is...." - Jerry (the eternal optimist) House |
| "That's imposs......oh wow!" - the rest of us (watching Jim Neff) |
| "Juggling works both sides of the brain; the cognitive side, and the... umm, err... other side too" - Dave Fultz |