Would love to find video of Bobby Sandler's performance on "Magic Man."
"Magic Man" was a magic show (special) hosted by Bill Bixby which aired on Thanksgiving
Day, Nov 22, 1973.

Please PM me if you can help.

Stan

Finally found video of Bobby Sandler. It was posted to YouTube by Bobby Sandler himself.
Not the "Magic Man" appearance I had been seeking, but an appearance on Flip Wilson from the same year.
Mr. Sandler certainly wasn't the first juggler I saw on TV. I grew up seeing many juggling acts on the Ed Sullivan Show.
But it was Sandler's act that gave me the juggling "bug." By the end of that Thanksgiving weekend of 1973, I had "mastered" the 3 ball cascade.
I wonder how many others also caught the bug after seeing Bobby Sandler's act. And I wonder how many of the infected have also been searching for video of Bobby.
Thank you, Bobby Sandler, for inspiring so many of us! And thank you for sharing the video on YouTube!


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XuMISAd5N1Y

That was really great, I've been juggling since 1983 and I don't think I've heard of Bobby Sandler. Thanks!

Hey stanalger,

Thanks for tracking down the video of Juggler Bobby Sandler!

I have a great story to share about my juggling experience after watching that 1973 television show. Yikes! That was 46 years ago.

I taught myself to juggle the 3-ball cascade after watching a female juggler on the Flip Wilson show in 1970. (I was 16 at the time.) After displaying her hard tricks she did a side-by-side 3-ball cascade with Flip as her partner. She was the left hand, Flip was the right hand. Doing the side-by-side thing with Flip made the trick easy to understand so I borrowed three of my dad's golf balls and taught myself the cascade within a few hours of practice.

Three years later, in 1973, I was stationed at Lajes Field Air Force Base in the Azores, Portugal. I was again watching the Flip Wilson Show and on came Bobby Sandler with his comedy juggling routine. I paid attention to every trick he did and went and bought three baseballs. I then proceeded to learn every trick he performed. Learning a bunch of juggling tricks from a television show was no easy task in 1973 considering I didn't have the luxury of rewinding and rewatching Bobby perform his tricks over and over again as we now can with YouTube videos.

Anyway, over the next few months, I learned about eight juggling tricks. I wasn't great at them yet, but good enough to do them. Come Christmas time I was invited to juggle for all the military family kids at the big Christmas party. Why I agreed to perform a juggling show being such a raw juggler I'll never know. I reluctantly agreed and showed up at the party with my three baseballs and a fleet of butterflies churning my stomach into a nervous mess.

Jangled nerves and poorly learned juggling tricks do not a good show make.

There were around a hundred kids of all ages in the party room plus all the moms and dads. The kids were seated on the floor crowded uncomfortably close to me. I was given the green light to do my thing and away I went.

WORST JUGGLING SHOW EVER!

I had NEVER entertained anybody in my life, much less a large audience. Their expectations were high, the juggling results were low. The moment I started juggling I started dropping. I was unaware at the time that drop lines had been created to help jugglers recover from drops. It wouldn't have mattered much. A thousand drop lines wouldn't have saved the day.

Two minutes into my show a little boy in the back of the room shouted, "GET ANOTHER JUGGLER!" I wanted to die. I regretted learning how to juggle. I was never more embarrassed in all my life.

But here's the kicker.

If I had been paying attention during the show I could have learned a ton about entertaining kids.

Every time I dropped the kids laughed. Every time I failed they thought it was funny. I didn't get it at the time but part of my show was actually entertaining. The dropping that I cringed at was funny. The failing that I feared was funny. The kids, by their laughter, were transmitting to me that parts of the show were hysterical. I thought those parts were horrible.

It wasn't until I read David Kaye's book "Seriously Silly" that I put two and two together to understand that kids love to watch adults fail.

David talks about how kids find the magician in trouble concept funny. I was the juggler in trouble and the kids were laughing. Same idea, same result. I was too young and naive at the time to understand and take advantage of it.

End of story.

I didn't give up juggling. And I didn't stop performing. Over the past six years, I have performed hundreds of comedy juggling shows for tens of thousands of kids in schools and libraries. My show is loaded with scripted drops and failures. The kids laugh at every one of them. Their laughing at my bumbling and flubbing is music to my ears. No more regrets. No more embarrassment.

Thanks a million for finding the Bobby Sandler video. I've had a blast rewatching it. I owe my juggling skills to Bobby. Thanks too, to David Kaye for teaching me that failing is one way to entertain kids. And in my case, the best way!

This post has been a little long. I hope other performers benefit from my experience.

Regards,
Mark Hanson

I’m not a juggler but I can understand how seeing Bobby Sandler perform could be so inspiring. That was so skillful and entertaining! Great post Mark. I think magician in trouble type routines can be very entertaining for adults too!

Bobby Sanders interview 2021

I meant Sandler