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By Amelia Tarallo
Hometown Weekly Staff
With the school year at an end and homework dwindling, most parents now have to find a way to entertain their kids during the early summer months. On Thursday, June 6, parents and their children flocked outside to the Dover town green next to Town Hall. They brought folding beach chairs, blankets, and Ziploc bags filled with snacks. Some bought pieces or even boxes of pizza. All of this was so that parents and kids could enjoy their new-found free time watching Jenny the Juggler. Jenny had been invited to town by the Dover Mothers’ Association as part of its annual Magician on the Town Green event.
“Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, puppies and bears,” the juggler began, “does anyone know who I am?”
“Jenny!” yelled a girl in the audience.
“That’s right!” Jenny began her act with a fun song game with a memory element. As the kids munched on some real pizza, they were asked to think of ingredients for a pretend pizza. Some offered up items before the song even began, like mushrooms and sausages. Then, Jenny challenged the kids to think of some more unconventional pizza toppings, “so silly, they would never go on a pizza!” she exclaimed. The kids and Jenny would get three mistakes before they would have to end the song. Equipped with a trusted ukulele, Jenny began the song, “I like cheese on my pizza. What’s going next?”
“Bricks!” One child shouted.
“Put the brick on the cheese,” she said quickly as she strummed along on her ukulele. “What else?”
“Frosting!”
“Put the frosting on the brick, put the brick on the cheese, put the cheese on the pizza,” sang everyone. The song continued, with ingredients being added to the pizza. “Put rainbow shoes on the olives on the sparkles on the pancakes on the gummy bears on the frosting on the brick on the cheese on the pizza,” sang everyone. The audience eventually added ingredients like guacamole, cookies, and porcupine for what was sure to be an interesting pizza if it existed.
With help from Leila, Jenny the Juggler successfully juggled her pins.
Perhaps the most exciting moment for the kids came when Jenny took out her two rabbits from their carrying case. “Would you like to meet my friends over here?” Jenny asked the audience. Jenny introduced the brown rabbit as Nutter and the white rabbit as Fluff, together Fluff and Nutter. As it turned out, Fluff and Nutter could both do tricks. If being held a certain way, Fluff appeared to be sitting on a motorcycle. Hiding behind the rabbit, Jenny made the perfect sound effect of an engine revving up, making all of the children giggle.
Nutter, when resting in Jenny’s arms, would flip like a pancake. “On the count of three, Nutter will flip upside down,” explained Jenny. Sure enough, the rabbit did just that. Then came the final trick: the rabbit could jump through a hoop. Decorated with fake cloth flames, Jenny asked the audience to help her motivate the rabbits. “Can I get an ‘ohhhh’?” she asked. The audience gave an echoing “ohhhh.”
“Can I get an ‘ahhhhh’ … can I get a drum roll?”
The audience reacted accordingly, with one rabbit jumping through the hoop. The second rabbit needed a little more encouragement from Jenny, though she managed to make it through the ring of “fire.”
The final segment of the show consisted of Jenny’s different juggling skills. As she showed the kids her different colored pins, Jenny struggled to juggle. Just as she would get one in the hand she would drop another one. She asked her audience for some help, inviting Leila to the front of the stage. With two pins in the air, Jenny asked Leila to throw the third pin in, continuing to juggle, earning claps from the audience. For one of her last tricks, Jenny showed her audience three different colored disks. “I’m going to change their color as I juggle.” In a blink of the eye while airborne, the disks changed colors, mesmerizing all of the kids watching. Parents clapped, themselves impressed by the magic of the show. "Remember, kids,” Jenny added, “thank your moms. They juggle taking care of you all the time."
Whether they were most impressed by the fire-jumping skills of rabbits, the magic color-changing disks, or the juggling itself, the kids and their parents agreed that Jenny the Juggler’s show was a great way to spend the afternoon.
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