Will Stafford, juggler, will be strolling throughout the festival from 1 to 4 p.m. on Saturday, June 20.
Will Stafford started juggling when he was 12. Now, 34 years later, he’s a part-time professional juggler. The Ohio native and current Vestal resident will be one of the many performers featured at this year’s Strawberry Festival, and will be strolling throughout the festival from 1 to 4 p.m. on Saturday, June 20.
Stafford explained that juggling is easier than it looks: “Almost anybody can learn to juggle, it’s actually not that hard to learn how to do three balls once you get over the mental block. There’s a mental block because it looks like juggling is circular, but how you learn is a cascade, alternating.”
In middle school, Stafford had the good fortune to know someone who could teach him the basics. He said, “I learned from my best friend whose older brother was a gym teacher. He said, ‘Hey Will, I learned to juggle and I want to teach you.’ In about 20 minutes I learned to do three balls.” After that, he started going to local juggling clubs and learning how to juggle more balls at one time. Then, he added unicycle to his skill set and expanded into juggling other items as well.
“By 16 I could do five pins or seven balls,” he said. In college, he began adding comedy into his act and now, he said, “I’m more about entertaining.”
Stafford explained why he thinks juggling is popular, saying, “It has a magical appearance because you have three balls but only two hands. I don’t know a single magic trick but people always call me a magician. There is something magical about juggling but there really isn’t any magic to it. It looks like you’re defying gravity.”
That magic-like appearance is popular, so locals may already be familiar with Stafford from some of the other area performances he’s put on over the years. He’s been at the Newark Valley Historical Society, the Vestal Public Library, Tioga County Kids’ Day, and a number of local church bazaars. Also, he’s been at Strawberry Festival a number of times in the past. He said, “I did it way back in the early years a few time and then I had a long hiatus and then this is the fourth year in a row I’m doing it.”
These days, his act includes everything from pins to rings to balls to rubber chickens. For one trick, he juggles apples and a machete, then throws an apple in the air and chops it with the machete. He also juggles fire, which is a perennial crowd-pleaser. He said, “Of course everybody loves the fire juggling.”
When he’s not juggling, Stafford is busy raising his five kids – including two sets of twins – and working as a Spanish teacher in Chenango Valley.
