Paul Cinquevalli

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Paul Cinquevalli 1859-1918 is remembered as one of the great jugglers of his age. He was born in Lissa in what is now Poland. He was a great self-publicist, so it is sometimes difficult to separate fact from fiction in the accounts he gave of his own life. His birth name is given by the The Cambridge Guide to Theatre as Paul Kestner, but other sources give it as Paul Braun-Lehmann and Emile Otto Lehmann-Braun. His parents moved to Berlin when he was two years old. At the age of fourteen he ran away from home to join an acrobatic troupe led by an Italian, Giuseppe Chiese-Cinquevalli. Initially he performed on high wire and trapeze, but he took up juggling while recovering from a fall. In 1885 performed in England for the first time. He was a great success there, and continued to use London as his base until his death, though he still performed in Europe and America.

Though he performed in a stylized costume consisting of a leotard and tights, he is generally regarded as one of the first gentleman jugglers, because he performed with everyday objects such as bottles, plates, glasses and umbrellas. One of the tricks he originated which is still performed today, was to throw a full bottle in the air, catch the neck of the bottle on the spike of an umbrella, and then open the umbrella as the liquid in the bottle ran out of it. He also incorporated feats of strength in his act. One of his trademark tricks was supporting a chair in his teeth while juggling three balls. On the chair sat an assistant reading a newspaper, and on the assistant's lap was a desk.

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External Links

Cinquevalli page at Juggling Hall of Fame

Description of Cinquevalli's act from The Playgoer October 1901

Description of Cinquevalli's act from The Strand Magazine Vol XIII, Jan-June 1897