“So here is the deal,” first-year student Jeff Civillico (CAS ‘05) said. “I learned to juggle when I was seven.”
At age seven, while visiting colleges for his oldest brother Gene, Civillico was intrigued by the street performers in Harvard Square in Cambridge, Mass. A juggler named Peter Panic became his inspiration, and Civillico became immediately interested in learning to juggle.
When Civillico was 11 he joined the Philadelphia Jugglers club, which practiced every Monday night on the Philadelphia Art Museum steps.
The summer after eighth grade, Civillico traveled to Pittsburgh to the International Jugglers Association Convention. The convention is held every summer, with one night of the convention devoted to competition. There are no school, city or state competitions for juggling; the International Jugglers Association Convention is the only worldwide competition. “Jeff the Juggler,” as he was known to his friends and family placed 14 of 21 under-18 jugglers at his first competition.
As a result, he spent hours a day practicing his five-minute act, especially in the summer. “I am a ridiculously motivated person,” Civillico said.
“I was like, I’m going to do this perfectly and that’s that,” he said.
At age 15, Civillico returned to the International Jugglers Association Convention in Las Vegas. Angry that he had lost the year before, Civillico was determined to win at least one of the three medals. After the preliminary competition?where only the top five advance?Civillico was seeded fourth. Since he was fourth, he did not think that he was in medal contention, but he surprised himself. “The routine went flawlessly, and I got the gold medal,” he said. “I lost, I worked my ass off, and I came back and won,” Civillico said.
After the win, his whole juggling career took off. An agent offered to represent him, but he declined because he did not want to leave school to perform in Las Vegas, as the agent wanted.
“My parents always said juggling comes second to school, and God bless them,” he said. Civillico was not allowed to perform on school nights, unlike many other jugglers his age who left school to pursue their careers in juggling.
The next summer, Civillico juggled as a street performer at the Inner Harbor at Baltimore, which taught him a lot about discipline and strategy. “[The experience] was huge, amazing. If you just throw yourself out there, you learn what to do. It’s like baptism by fire,” Civillico said.
The following year, Civillico, then 17, worked at Busch Gardens performing his act six times a day, six days a week. He continued for two summers, and the next year he was able to perform in a theater at Busch Gardens before a crowd of 900.
Civillico never has been formally coached. He says, “You don’t need coaches if you are smart and you are motivated, because after every show you just ask yourself what worked and what didn’t.”
Civillico was the founder of a juggling club at his high school, St. Joseph’s Preparatory in Philadelphia, Pa. He has also founded a juggling club here, at Georgetown, along with sophomore Sean McKelvey and graduate student Micah Bump. They’re called the Georgetown Props, and will be performing on campus in March.
His act, which he will take on cruise ships this summer, includes juggling clubs, bowling balls, fire and knives. He also rides a six-foot unicycle and has learned to walk on stilts. Civillico said about his upcoming career on cruise ships, “This is where the magic happens.”
