Juggling And Judaism

Flying Karamazovs have thrown their heart and
soul into their work — but never tossed their tallit.

BILL CARROLL

Special to the Jewish News

T

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Technology's Media Lab (basically a
think tank) to devise various on-stage
tricks through high-tech wizardry.
These include a music-making web
of pendulums, a giant floor board
equipped with sonar transducers, the
use of accelerometers that signal to a
computer the jugglers' movement on
the stage, a six-octave musical key-
board, juggling pins with light-emit-
ting diodes, plenty of computer-gener-
ated images and intricate juggling to
choreographed music.
The brothers, who give themselves
Russian first names in keeping with
the Karamazov theme, also portray

he Flying Karamazov
Brothers don't fly, their names
actually aren't Karamazov and
they really aren't even broth-
ers. But two of the four really are Jews —
who once davened by themselves in the
woods rather than attend a strange syna-
gogue they didn't like.
The quartet of master jugglers will
bring their act to Detroit's Music Hall
for eight performances Tuesday-Sunday,
April 24-29. Called L'Universe (as in
"looney-verse"), the show is a mixture of
juggling, science, history,
music and zany comedy, and
even gets into the realm of
virtual juggling of both balls
and planets.
For 27 years, the
Karamazovs, founded by
Jewish entertainers Howard
Jay Patterson and Paul
Magid, have juggled their
way from the streets of San
Francisco to the Big Apple
and prestigious theaters in
London, Scotland and
Singapore. They've appeared
in movies, on television and
in juggling venues in every
state in the Union. Along the
way, they've won awards (an
The Flying Karamazov Brothers: Master jugglers.
OBIE and Emmy among
them) and shared stages with
some of the top stars in
historic figures throughout the show,
America.
such as Aristotle, Galileo, Albert
"The only things that fly in our act
Einstein and Sir Isaac Newton.
are the juggling clubs and our jokes,"
"This helps us trace the history of
said Patterson, explaining the Flying
the universe in a way that's under-
Karamazov Brothers' name. He was
standable to the audience," said
interviewed at a friend's home in New
Patterson. "We present a mixture of
Jersey where he was on hiatus between
science, history, philosophy and shtick
engagements.
... a lot of shtick."
"We selected it because it sounds like
When one of the brothers suggests
a good circus name. At the time we
to another that he "plunge ahead," the
started our career, I happened to be
other takes a plunger and presses it
reading Dostoyevsky's The Brothers
against his head.
Karamazov. It seemed like a natural fit.
Critics have hailed their feat of play-
We thought of some other names —
ing
musical instruments while simulta-
like Muck and Mire, or Mudder and
neously
juggling as worth the price of
Fadder — but they were too goofy."
admission
alone. There also are circu-
Not content with just juggling the
lar video screens everywhere and even
traditional clubs and balls, which,
some audience participation.
incidentally, appear to change colors in
"We've been doing this stuff for a
midair, the Karamazovs enlisted the
aid of the Massachusetts Institute of
on page 78

JUGGLING

