As part of Homecoming Week festivities, the University Programming Board juggled their resources and brought in Mad Chad, the Chainsaw Juggler, to entertain students with his one-of-a-kind show on Oct. 10.
His hour-long routine consisted of innovative, and often dangerous, juggling tricks with plenty of humor and crowd participation thrown in the mix.
Any and all items were fair game to juggle for Mad Chad, who progressed from tennis balls, to silicon breast implants (with a hilarious story about an ex-girlfriend and tax write-offs), to 100,000 volt stun guns.
At one point later in the show, Mad Chad let the audience choose any item they wanted for him to juggle.
The crowd voted enthusiastically for a folding chair, which was juggled with a ten-pound steel shotput and a raw egg.
Another potentially dangerous trick included juggling knives and an apple while balancing on a unicycle.
Any time the crowd yelled, “Eat it!” Mad Chad would take a bite out of the apple while continuing to juggle the three items.
Though he fell off the unicycle toward the end, Chad managed to finish the juggling successfully.
Despite the wide range of items used in the act, it was no surprise that students like sophomore Mechanical Engineering major Eduardo Juarez came out mainly to watch Mad Chad toss around some chainsaws.
Starting with one chainsaw and two pink rubber balls, Mad Chad gradually added two more chainsaws while taking out the rubber balls until he juggled three running chainsaws.
To prove that the chainsaws were unaltered and very dangerous, Chad took out pieces of wooden two-by-fours and cut chunks out of them with each chainsaw.
At the end of the show, Mad Chad first juggled a chainsaw and the two rubber pink balls blindfolded, and then performed the same trick without the blindfold while balancing on an upside-down skateboard that was on top of a rolling blue cylinder.
For Juarez, the coolest trick executed by Mad Chad was the juggling of the three running chainsaws.
“It was crazy!” Juarez said with satisfaction.
Mad Chad Taylor has been performing his act on stages around the country for more than 20 years.
He was born in Seattle, WA, and moved to Los Angeles when he was young.
His father was a cameraman and wanted to move to L.A. because he knew more job opportunities lay in that area.
Subsequently, that environment helped to build Chad’s future career as a live performer.
“I learned to juggle when I was 13 years old,” Chad said reminiscently.
“I got a book for Christmas called Juggling for Idiots. There were three bean bags and an instructional book on how to juggle.”
Chad said he had so much fun juggling that he entered a high school talent show and, from there, evolved into a performer.
After high school, Chad began performing street shows in Los Angeles and then moved his talents to Venice Beach.
“In Venice Beach, you don’t have to audition. It was first come, first serve,” Chad said.
“You get a spot, and if you’re entertaining enough, then people will watch. It’s a very good thing.”
According to Mad Chad, the people of Venice Beach loved dangerous stunts.
Chad used knives and torches to please the crowds early on; however, the chainsaws that are now the staple of Mad Chad’s routine didn’t appear until the late 1990’s.
“For a beer commercial, of all things, they asked if I could juggle one chainsaw with two balls,” Chad explained.
“I learned the trick for the commercial, and I knew everyone in Venice Beach would want to see it, so I started performing the trick right away.”
Chad said that in the beginning, juggling the chainsaws was very scary.
He pointed out that chainsaws, especially in the 1990’s, were heavy, loud, and hard to grip due to the strong vibrations running through their handles.
Chad started out using one chainsaw for the beer commercial and eventually got comfortable enough to add two more.
Though he has had plenty of time to get comfortable juggling the chainsaws, Chad admits to getting extremely nervous during some of his performances.
“When I’ve been on television shows with super bright lights that blind you, I’d get nervous all over again.”
Currently, Chad performs 80 to 90 days of the year, mostly on college campuses.
He also does shows on cruise ships, comedy tours, corporate parties and sports halftime shows.
The rest of his work is in the L.A. area so he can spend time with his wife and two children.
“I’ve got a website called sixtysecondtv.com,” said Chad. “I go and try to film up-and-coming performers and get their permission to put it on my website.”
He also shot a documentary called Buskers about street performers around the world, which has made its way onto Netflix.
Although Chad enjoys filming other street entertainers performing for crowds, he prefers to be the one on stage entertaining.
“My favorite part about performing is that it’s so fun when you get on the stage,” said Chad. “It’s just you and the audience. It’s nothing but fun.”