As the character of Dmitri Karamazov, Paul Magid has juggled and joked his way through 50 years of performances with The Flying Karamazov Brothers — a troupe he co-founded with Howard Jay Patterson in 1973 while they were both attending the University of California Santa Cruz.
On Saturday, Feb. 25, the 68-year-old juggler, musician, comedian, playwright and world-class storyteller will join his younger “brothers” and a number of other acts at the Bellingham Circus Guild’s Cirque Lab fundraiser for The New Old Time Chautaqua, “HA! HA! WHOOP! WHOOP! OMG! A Night of Vaudeville & Music.”
The rowdy one-night event will raise money for Chautaqua’s summer tour to Montana, Idaho, and Alberta, Canada, where the longtime collective of creatives will collaborate with rural communities and the Blackfoot Confederacy to bring live entertainment and educational workshops to underserved areas.
“At the benefit, we’ll be doing the Terror Trick,” Magid said. “It involves juggling a cube of dry ice, a torch, a meat cleaver, a fish, a bottle of champagne and a raw egg. Oh, and a ukulele. We juggle them all and, at the end, it turns into a wonderful meal with musical accompaniment.”
For those unfamiliar with The Flying Karamazov Brothers — named after Fyodor Dostoevsky’s novel “The Brothers Karamazov” — Magid said the jaw-dropping trick will offer up a reminder of the group’s history, as will another perennially popular act dubbed Jazz, which is focused on improvisational juggling.
As the only remaining original member of the troupe, Magid is also its resident keeper of tales. Spend a few minutes talking to him, and you may hear about the time he accidentally backed the brothers’ bus into musician Jerry Garcia’s brand-new BMW while touring with The Grateful Dead; his friendship with novelist and counterculture icon Ken Kesey, whom he first met at the Oregon Country Fair when Kesey offered Magid snake oil to heal scythe-induced cuts from a dangerous juggling act (Magid also lived and rehearsed in Kesey’s barn at various times, but that’s another story); or when the group first met Dolly Parton.
“We hired on to do a tour with her and Kenny Rogers,” Magid said. “She came down to greet us and before we could do anything, she gestured with her hands to her chest and said, ‘Bet you can’t juggle these!’ We couldn’t speak.”
Although they were initially struck dumb by Parton, Magid said they soon came to realize the world-famous singer, songwriter and philanthropist was the “sweetest, realest, most amazing person.” Plus, she was cool with them juggling burning torches onstage.
The list of people Magid remembers working with over the decades is long, but one reason he may be able to recall so much of what’s happened over the last half-century could be linked to his continuous pursuit of the art of juggling. He said a report published by Oxford University in 2009 found juggling — even if you couldn’t do it all that well — helped fire brain cells and push your brain to try and learn, possibly counteracting dementia-related diseases such as Alzheimer’s.
Magid said the study makes sense, as those who learn to juggle have to be ambidextrous and their minds need to deal with both left and right neurons firing at all times. Plus, he said, juggling is rhythmic, producing “visual music” which is both primal and stimulating.
“Juggling is an incredibly beautiful art form that is endless, especially when you’re working with people like The Flying Karamazov Brothers,” Magid said. “What makes us unique is that we’re an ensemble musical juggling troupe. None of us are the best single jugglers in the world. What we’re the best at is working as an ensemble.”
Also sharing space onstage Feb. 25 will be acts that at one time or another have been part of The New Old Time Chautauqua, which Magid co-founded in 1981. Expect to see Artis the Spoonman, Justin Therrien, Bellingham Circus Guild co-founder Richard Hartnell, The Great Noodlini, The Juggling Jollies, Vanessa Vort4ex and Revolva, New Old Time Hoopers, Geoffrey Daniels, Manny Moore, and The Fighting Instruments of Karma Marching Chamber Band/Orchestra.
Magid is looking forward to reuniting with fellow “Chautauquans” and seeing what everybody’s been up to in the months before they take the show on the road. He’s also taking stock of what The Flying Karamazov Brothers have accomplished — including performing on Broadway numerous times, winning an Obie Award, being on “Seinfeld,” joining orchestras across the country and collaborating with performers such as Robin Williams and Frank Sinatra.
“I’ll be 69 in May,” Magid said. “I may be the second-oldest professional juggler in the world. I can still do it on really high levels, but every time I do a show I’m like, ‘Is this going to be the last time?’”
Attend “HA! HA! WHOOP! WHOOP! OMG! A Night of Vaudeville & Music” at 7 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 25 at the Cirque Lab, 1401 6th St., #102. Tickets are $10 for kids, $20 for adults (nobody will be turned away for lack of funds). Info: bellinghamcircusguild.com or chautauqua.org.
