Juggler Jason delights children at the Lincoln Public Library Thursday morning summer reading event

 

[June 30, 2023] 

Juggler Jason Kollum provided the program for the Lincoln Public Library Summer program Thursday, June 29.

Before the program started, Kollum joked with everyone about starting the show in two hours, ten hours, next week or even next year and the kids yelled out “no!”

When the children were asked who wanted to help with the program, many of them raised their hands.

To make sure he had everything he needed to start the show, Kollum said he needed a rubber chicken or toothbrush or fidget spinner.

He acted shocked when he realized he had each item in his hand once he got each one out of his case.

After asking the children how to hold and use a fidget spinner, Kollum got it spinning on his thumb, then finger, then nose.

One thing Kollum told everyone was that jugglers do many things besides juggling.

For the first part of the performance, Kollum spun the frisbee on his finger. That feat was followed by balancing the frisbee on a long stick while the frisbee spun. He then balanced the stick on his nose as the frisbee continued to spin. The whole time, Kollum walked around the front of the room.

Taking five disks and throwing them in the air one by one, Kollum caught each disk around his neck before juggling all five at once.

A baseball hat Kollum had a child toss to him balanced on Kollum’s nose. Kollum said that is something he learned to do when he was a child. He then caught the hat on his head before attempting to throw the hat back on the head of the child he borrowed it from.

Getting out five balls plus a sock and then toilet paper, Kollum purposely dropped a ball a few times before successfully juggling all five balls.

An adult was chosen to help with the next part. Kollum tossed her a ball to toss back to him as he juggled three other balls. He did not catch the ball on the first two tries, but managed to catch it on the third try while he juggled the other balls.

Pulling out a balloon pump, Kollum told the children to tell the top of the pump to stay up, but it kept falling. He handed a balloon to a child to hold, but the balloon deflated and flew to the back of the room because it was not tied.

Kollum next blew up a red and a green balloon and had children hold them then took the balloons and twisted them into a red flower with a long green stem. The flower kept “flopping” so Kollum told him he would not water it past midnight. Once the balloons stayed up, he gave the balloon flower to the adult who had thrown the ball to him earlier.

With two larger balls, Kollum spun one ball on his finger and added the other one on top of it to make them look like a snowman.

For the next parts of the show, Kollum needed volunteers. He said in order to be chosen, the children needed to stay behind the yellow line, sit criss-cross applesauce, be quiet and not make funny faces [like he was making].

One volunteer was asked to hold his finger straight up so a ball would spin on it. The boy had trouble keeping his finger up because he was giggling so hard, but finally Kollum got the ball spinning on the boy’s finger, then head, then nose.

The volunteer for the next part had to hold a long stick in her hand while a plate spun on it. With a finger on her other hand, she spun a ball.

A baby shoe, child’s shoe and adult shoe were used in the next part of the performance. Kollum placed the adult shoe on a board and stepped on the board to launch the shoe from as he juggled the other two. He caught that shoe and juggled all three.

Five children were chosen to help hold items for the next part. One child held two boxes, three children held a juggling club and one child held a plastic goblet. Kollum poured water into the goblet and told the children to stop him when they thought it was full enough. Though the children kept saying stop, Kollum kept pouring water in the goblet until it was nearly full.

After six more boxes were stacked on top on the two boxes the child held, the boxes started to topple. Kollum took all eight boxes and stacked them and had the little girl place the goblet on top of the stack of boxes. The children with the juggling clubs then put each club in his other hand.

With the stack of boxes balanced on his nose, Kollum juggled the clubs. He then purposely dropped the boxes and caught the goblet full of water.

As a child learning to juggle, Kollum said he used simple objects like feathers or tennis rackets and balanced them bottom to top. Kollum took a peacock feather and balanced it in his palm.

Each child was then given a peacock feather to balance on their hand swaying it back and forth to keep the feather in their hand. He asked the children to try to balance the feathers on their palms for 15 seconds.

That was followed by Kollum asking children to try to balance the feathers on the back of their hands, their fingers, their fingernail, their elbows, their shoulders, the top of their heads, their foreheads, their noses and their belly buttons. Kollum jokingly asked the children to balance their feathers on their mustaches.

Finally, Kollum asked the children to try balancing the feathers in other places like their shirts, watches or glasses and show him what they’ve got. Some were able to balance the feathers on their feet or knees. Kollum finished the program by having children toss their feathers in the air and try to catch the feathers. He told the children to give themselves a round of applause.

Once the program was finished, children and adults lined up to ask Kollum questions or have their picture taken with the juggler.

Next Thursday, July 6, Comedy Magician Richard Landry returns to perform his popular act.

[Angela Reiners]