Opinion

When Mark Hayward got a yo-yo in his stocking one Christmas in high school, and a friend got a juggling book as a gift, he found his future joint career.

The Madison, Wis., native learned how to do yo-yo tricks, which he performed last year on the "Late Show With David Letterman," and how to juggle like a pro. Today, the Highland Park resident is a full-time, professional, award-winning juggler and yo-yo performer, and he will bring his quirky act this weekend to the Not Quite Pittsburgh Juggling Festival in Sewickley.

Hayward's routine includes yo-yo tricks, like the "Rock the Baby" maneuver, juggling and a stunt where he sets up a mousetrap with a marshmallow on it, shoots at it with a blowgun and catches the flying marshmallow in his mouth. His activities require mental and physical skills, he says, and the audience will have fun watching him.

"I try to make people laugh and have a good time," says Hayward, 36. He and his "MadFive" juggling group won the world juggling championship in 1999 in Niagara Falls.

The audience "will see different things happening that, hopefully, will be mesmerizing in ... a fantastic way," he says. "Some of the tricks look impossible."

The Not Quite Pittsburgh Juggling Festival -- sponsored by the Leave it to Beaver Valley Jugglers and the Quaker Valley Middle School Juggling Club, and named for its suburban location -- features local and out-of-state performers coming in from places like Washington, D.C., and New Jersey.

Saturday night's show is the festival's main public attraction, but people also can come to the daytime activities Friday and Saturday to watch jugglers practice and learn new techniques, attend workshops, and even get some juggling lessons. Anyone who is wearing a star sticker is willing to teach an aspiring juggler, says Kathy Doutt, one of the festival's promoters. The items juggled include the classic pins and balls, along with unconventional objects like cigar boxes.

"It's interesting just to walk through the gym and see all these jugglers and so many things going on at one time, and the different things that people juggle," says Doutt, 48, of Ohioville, Beaver County. She is a member of the Leave it to Beaver Valley Jugglers.

The purpose of the festival is to bring jugglers from the area together, and to introduce the public to juggling, she says. Hopefully, many festival attendees will develop an interest in the hobby.

"This is what jugglers do," Doutt says. She will perform a robot-themed juggling routine at the festival. "Juggling can be very social. We get together at festivals all the time."

Juggling is a lot of fun and challenging, she says.

"It's something you're never done learning," Doutt says. Her son, Stephen, 13, also will juggle at the show.

"There's always something new to learn, and new tricks to try to learn from someone," she says. "It's so rewarding, too, when you're trying to learn something and you've worked so hard at something, and then you get it."

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