Downtown Minneapolis Jugglers

Tim & Pat Juggling

It had humble beginnings in May of 1999 when Pat Glesener and Tim Cimbura met at a meeting of the Fellowship of Christian Magicians. They found a common interest in juggling clubs and they both worked in downtown Minneapolis. So began juggling practice sessions 2 or 3 times a week over lunch hours on the top of the Northstar building on 7th and Marquette.

Winter came and they found some of the lesser traveled areas on the Minneapolis skyway system (with high ceilings) to juggle. Even though they avoided chandeliers and such, they also got kicked out of a few building lobbies. It seems there is an unwritten rule against juggling in certain buildings. When summer came again, they moved outside in front of the Accenture Consulting building. This location was more visible to the general public...and allowed other jugglers to join the fun. The summer of 2002 moved practice sessions to the corner of 11th and Marquette across from Orchestra Hall and WCCO TV. When it's too cold or if it's raining, the group met on the skyway at the Hilton Hotel.

Historical moments of the Downtown Jugglers:

8/14/00	Tom Tesarek began juggling with the group
9/14/00	Free Cirque Du Soleil tickets given to the group! $120 value!
11/1/1	Andy Rose stopped by and got hooked on team juggling.
10/19/01	Nathan Dornquast starts juggling with the group.
2/02/02	Scott Purser came for a total of five jugglers!
3/4/02	Performed for the President of the United States bomb-sniffing dog
4/15/02	Interviewed by WCCO radio (juggling on the radio is really exciting) and video taped for KSTP television news. Broke the heat record with 91°! We were warmer than Miami, FL at the time.
5/21/02	Changed location for outside juggling across the street from Orchestra Hall on 11th and Marquette next to the WCCO TV building.
10/1/02	Juggled for Robert Goulet on the way to an interview regarding his starring role in South Pacific.
11/12/02	Chris Pruett joined us for a round of juggling.
11/15/02	Juggled for people from the far away Marshall Islands
11/25/02	First day juggling with Maximiliano, a juggler from Argentina who has performed around the world.
2/5/03	WCCO TV videotapes us for the news at the annual "Fire and Ice" at Peavy Plaza where we juggle flaming torches in the midst of ice, snow, and cold.
2/8/03	Tim & Pat take 6th place (out of 14 teams) in the seven club passing endurance juggling contest at Mondo Juggling Festival
2/27/03	Earliest time juggling OUTSIDE after MN winter. Don Shelby sees us juggling.
7/7/03	Began juggling knives between us...ouch!
5/18/04	Passing 8 clubs consistantly.
6/3/04	Pat and Tim are on WCCO weather news with Christine Clayburg
8/11/04	Coldest day in August at 47 degrees forces us to juggle inside in the summer!
2/4/05	Warmest day in February at 51 degrees breaks records in MN.
8/26/05	We officially lose our inside practice place at the Hilton Minneapolis. We're jugglers without a home. We find a temporary space with high ceilings and not so much traffic next to the Residence Inn on 8th Street S and LaSalle. We finally settled on juggling in the Twin Cities Federal building courtyard. It's got really high ceilings and a huge American flag.
11/11/05	Latest time in year still juggling OUTSIDE in Minnesota. Now we juggle inside at the TCF building.
1/27/06	Earliest time juggling OUTSIDE in Minnesota. It was 50 degrees! We beat our old record by 1 month! We're so happy about global warming. It's doing great things for us up north. In the past we used to juggle fire torches at this time and call it "fire and ice". Now it would just be "fire and nice".
4/19/06	Photographed for a school project by students from the The School of Environmental Studies at the Minnesota Zoo
1/12/07	Tim no longer works downtown...regular lunchtime juggling will be less often

Downtown Jugglers Statistics:

Greatest number of jugglers at one time	6
Number of clubs in the air at one time	18
Highest caught throw	Approximately 30 feet
Approximate number of throws since May of 1999 (low ball estimate...no pun intended)	45 minutes / session x 2 sessions / week x 48 weeks / year x 7 years x 60 throws / minute x 2 jugglers = 3.6 million
Number of black eyes from juggling club hitting head	1
Chance black eye will happen in 3.6 million throws	.000000275 %
Number of MetroTransit bus drivers complaining about distractions and calling the police	1
Number of Minneapolis police officers embarrassed to tell us that a bus driver is complaining	1
Number of passer-bys hit with a juggling club	0 (Perfect safety record!)
Number of broken finger nails	5
Number of finger nails torn off completely (this is dangerous)	1

So now there are between 2 and 5 jugglers that meet during the day to relieve stress and throw things at each other. If you're ever in the area and see us juggling, feel free to stop by, watch, and make silly comments. Contrary to popular belief, jugglers do not bite...but remember....

Do Not Feed the Jugglers

If you're a juggler, just bring 3 juggling clubs (or more) and feel free to join in!

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