As a high school student, Kathy Doutt was searching in the library for a specific book when another one caught her eye.

The book's subject matter — juggling — captured her attention because she recently had seen a juggler on TV.

“I was fascinated,” said Doutt, who checked the book out. “I had to learn how to do that.”

A life-long passion was born.

Doutt, 55, of Ohioville still performs part-time as a solo act and as a team with her college-aged son, Stephen, traveling throughout Western Pennsylvania and surrounding states.

She's a dedicated member of the Leave it to Beaver Valley Jugglers and helped organize last weekend's eighth annual Not Quite Pittsburgh Juggling Festival in Monaca, which she expected would attract at least 150 jugglers from around the country.

“It's a small pocket, but passionate,” Doutt said of juggling. “I don't think it's as big as a lot of other activities and skills, but the people that do it are very passionate about it. I think we instantly like when we find another juggler or see another juggler. There's sort of an instant connection, and you feel like you've known them all your life.”

Juggling might be a small sport, Doutt said, but festivals around the country are common. The International Jugglers' Association holds a yearly festival as well as competitions.

In addition to being what award-winning juggler Michael Karas called “a fun little parlor trick,” juggling improves hand-eye coordination and reflexes.

“It's physical activity, and physical activity is always great,” said Karas, 30, who grew up in Carrick and now lives in Queens, N.Y. “It's a form of exercise, but it's also a mental form of exercise as well. The patterns can be difficult and tricky, especially when you're working with cross-hands and under the legs and around the body. They've done studies on juggling and said it's a right-brain and left-brain activity. It's both physical and mental.”

In addition, juggling is an activity that can be done anywhere and with a variety of objects.

“If you want to play a basketball game, you need a court. If you want to play baseball, you need a couple of friends,” Karas said. “The great thing about juggling is really all you need is three lemons, three limes or three rolled-up socks, and you don't even need anywhere special to practice.”

A regular performer with the Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera and Little Lake Theatre in Peters when he was young, Karas picked up juggling when he was 11 from a fellow cast member in “A Musical Christmas Carol.”

He attended Point Park University for theater.

Today, Karas makes a living as a juggler, performing three to seven shows a week at birthday parties, weddings and corporate events.

Even though it takes time to become proficient at juggling, Doutt and Karas said almost anyone can do it.

“Generally, you don't have to have a lot of coordination to learn how to juggle,” Doutt said.

“I think people overthink it and get in the habit of doing an incorrect thing. A lot of people will take two balls and throw them around in a circle and think they're juggling, and they're really not. They might actually be hindering learning to juggle the correct way. But with someone to show you the steps and break it down, starting with one ball and working your way up, I think you can pick it up.”

Karas, who also teaches juggling, said his biggest advice for new jugglers or people interested in learning is to not be afraid of dropping their objects at the beginning.

Even though he has been juggling for nearly 20 years, Karas said he's still learning. He adds new tricks every year.

“The hard part is the new tricks I'm learning now are much harder than the tricks I was learning 10 years ago, so I can add fewer and fewer tricks per year, especially because I'm doing higher-end events, so I can't afford to drop or mess up much,” he said.

“I still love juggling. I still get a kick out of learning new ways to manipulate objects.”

Doug Gulasy is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. Reach him at dgulasy@tribweb.com or via Twitter @dgulasy_Trib.

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