Nate the Great, pictured, balances fire. (Provided Photo)
Nate Marshall is one part juggler, one part musician, and one part fun. Although he has a number of different shows in his repertoire, at the Strawberry Festival he’ll be performing his Nate the Great juggling routine.
Marshall, who grew up near Poughkeepsie, has been juggling nearly 25 years, “since I was six or seven.”
He said, “My dad taught me. He was an actor and comedian and in his standup act he did some comedy juggling at the end.”
Marshall went to college in Binghamton and majored in music and poetry. “It was the closest thing I could get to songwriting,” he said, adding, “I should have majored in juggling.”
Despite his interest in juggling, it wasn’t until within the past five or six years that Marshall started doing juggling shows. Before that, he supported himself with a variety of different jobs – a landscaper, a mover – but also through his self-produced music albums, guitar lessons and music performances. One summer he worked as a street performer in Venice Beach. After he and Kate did a three-month tour together, they settled in Ithaca. Now they do around 150 shows per year.
Marshall explained, “We offer four different shows – my solo blues and folk, the juggling show, the kids’ show, and our duo cafe show.” With that sort of variety, Marshall said, “We can do bars or preschools or nursing homes or college.”
Some of the shows – like the kids’ show – combine music and juggling. Marshall said, “We even do a routine where we play instruments and juggle at the same time. Kate plays cello and juggles with one hand and I juggle with both hands and play harmonica. I’d like to work out more stuff like that – that’s really a fun one and it’s original.”
He said, “I’m trying to put more music into the show. I would like to have more of a variety act, a vaudeville act – part juggling, part comedy.”
In addition to his work performing, Marshall teaches juggling and guitar. He offered some wise words of advice for young would-be jugglers. First, he said, “Practice makes perfect. Well, practice makes for more practice. Mostly it’s about putting in the time. I used to practice thirty hours a week with juggling throughout most of my twenties.”
He added, “It should be fun – that’s the most important thing, I think.”
Second, he said, “What I found for teaching in juggling workshops is to set small goals, really small reasonable goals that you can get to. Like get a hundred catches in such and such pattern with rings or balls. Set reasonable goals so that you’re always pushing yourself a little further and then you’re getting lots of little successes.”
To check out Marshall in Owego, visit the Strawberry Festival between 7:30 and 9:30 p.m. on Friday, June 19. He’ll be strolling around juggling and pulling in willing audience members to be part of the show.
